To obtain reliable information, it is important to identify and effectively question knowledgeable informants. Two experiments examined how age and the ease of distinguishing between reliable and unreliable sources influence children's ability to effectively question those sources to solve problems. A sample of 3- to 5-year-olds was introduced to…

Results of two experiments with five-year-olds indicated that: (1) conservation can be quickly taught with lasting results; (2) training on a limited range of exemplars will produce generalized correct responses to other, untrained classes of conservation problems; and (3) children's explanations of their judgments change as a result of exposure…

Presented preschoolers and first graders with 3-term inversion problems such as 3 + 2 - 2 and similar standard problems to examine whether children used the inversion principle and if use was based on qualitative identity, length, or quantity. Found that both age groups showed evidence of using inversion in a fully quantitative manner, indicating…

Information obtained in this study involving 72 girls (6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds) documents the facilitating effect of forced verbalization at three age levels. (Author/WY)

To clarify the roles of IQ and mental age (MA) in hypotheses behavior, MA-matched subjects at three levels of IQ and three levels of MA received blank trial discrimination learning problems using procedures designed to discourage position-oriented responding. (Author/BD)

Assessed J. F. Wohlwill's notion of way-stations in development by investigating developmental interdependencies among children's solutions to three proportionality tasks: a balance beam task, a probability judgment, and a juice-mixing task. (SKC)

This microgenetic experimental study examined children's spontaneous application of analogical problem solving from story problems to physical tasks. Results indicated that 4-year-olds did, with varying success, spontaneously apply analogical solutions to physical problems across sessions. A few children even gave an analogical strategy-related…

Three studies investigated 5- to 8-year-olds' ability to solve partitive division problems when presented with a concrete model of a problem. Children found it easier to solve problems in Grouping-by-Divisor condition than in Grouping-by-Quotient condition, although there was evidence of developmental improvement in tasks. Findings suggest that…

The discriminative learning and transfer of compound and component problems were assessed in retarded subjects at two levels of intelligence. (Author/SB)

Examines children's understanding of what variables and relations are important in problem structures, and their use of these variables and relations in problem solving. (HOD)

Studied 100 adolescents' approaches to problem-solving proofs and reasoning competence tasks. Found that a formal level of reasoning competence is associated with a deductive approach. Results support the notion of a cognitive development progression from an inductive approach to a deductive approach. (ETB)

This study explored relationship between working memory (WM) and mathematical problem solving, comparing children with learning disabilities (LD) to chronologically age-matched and younger achievement-matched children on measures of WM, phonological processing, problem-solving, and word problem-solving accuracy. Found support for notion that…

The current research explored children's ability to recognize and explain different concepts both with and without reference to physical objects so as to provide insight into the development of children's addition and subtraction understanding. In Study 1, 72 7- to 9-year-olds judged and explained a puppet's activities involving three conceptual…

In a reviewed series of spontaneous and learning-set studies of adults and children, adults solved problems even if they attended to four dimensions; young children failed when attending so broadly, but solved when attending to a single dimension. (Author/HS)

Examined preschoolers' strategic behavior on a task in which they must decide whether two arrays are the same. Results indicated that the course of strategy development is complex, there is much diversity within a child and among children in both strategy production and strategy utilization, and that children act in ways that are counter to…