Dual-process theories have been proposed to explain normative and heuristic responses to reasoning and decision-making problems. Standard unitary and dual-process theories predict that normative responses should increase with age. However, research has focused recently on exceptions to this standard pattern, including developmental increases in…

Skin temperature biofeedback performance was studied in 38 6- to 10-year-old children and 38 of their parents across two sessions of audio biofeedback segments in which participants alternately attempted hand-warming and hand-cooling. Children were superior to adults in controlling skin temperature in the presence of biofeedback. (Author/DB)

Pursues three goals: (1) to study developmental trends of cognitive functions across different age groups of Finnish students; (2) to identify distinct cognitive subgroups and profiles among students; and (3) to compare cognitive styles of normal and language-impaired (dysphasic) students. Reports and interprets findings in terms of the PASS…

Chicano mothers were observed teaching their own five-year-old children. Field-independent mothers used inquiry and praise; field-dependent mothers used modeling. Trends suggest that the teaching strategies to which the child is exposed may influence which cognitive style the child develops. (Author/CP)

Animistic responding was generally unrelated to logical classification ability or to analytic cognitive style. Results which found high levels of animistic thinking beyond adolescence do not support Piagetian theory. Adults may respond animistically because of emotional attachments which they have formed to certain meaningful physical objects.…

Investigated patterns of Bannatyne's recategorized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) scores of Tlingit Indian Children (N=146) and investigated the proportions that exhibited a typically "Indian" pattern: Spatial > Sequential > Conceptual and Acquired Knowledge. Older children displayed an Indian pattern, but the…

Examined differences between five-, seven-, and nine-year-olds' ability to estimate their counting accuracy for large set sizes on tasks of three levels of counting difficulty. With increasing age, children's estimates of their counting accuracy increasingly corresponded to their actual counting accuracy. (Author/DB)

The study with noninstitutionalized organic and familial mentally retarded and borderline mentally retarded children (N=79) at 2 chronological age levels (mean ages 7 and 10) found no age differences in imitation behaviors in the organic low IQ group and more absolute imitation and recall behaviors in familial low IQ children. (Author/DB)

Previous research in classification preference has focused on only a few selected age groups. To investigate the classification preferences of individuals from early childhood through old age in the same study, 144 individuals between the ages of 4 and 70 completed a revised version of the Conceptual Styles Test. Analysis of results showed that…

Deductive reasoning problems were presented to 72 public elementary school students, half of whom were identified as gifted (mean age of 9.6 years) and half of whom were regular education students (mean age of 9.3 years). They were used to test an hypothesis that gifted children who score significantly higher than average on standardized…

A group of 16 infants (ages 6 to 24 months) with Down's Syndrome (DS) were exposed to two operant learning tasks varying in control of reinforcement. Comparison with chronological and developmental age matched controls found DS subjects characterized by increasing adoption of counterproductive learning behaviors with increasing age. (Author/DB)

This experimental study investigated (1) the effects of cognitive dissonance on the acquisition of conservation by field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) elementary school students, and (2) the relationship between cognitive style and cognitive development. In the first phase of the experiment 248 students from kindergarten through third…

Does not support the hypothesis that cognitive regression takes place as a part of normal aging. (RL)

Preschool children were asked to choose the figure most resembling a real man from three figures drawn according to formulas used by children to depict humans. Results suggest development of drawing systems influences children's conceptions about objects or events. (Author/DB)

The purpose of this study was to compare performances by Japanese and American children on the Matching Familiar Figures Test, the primary measure of cognitive tempo. Data on more than 3400 Japanese and American children (approximately half male, half female) were used. Factorial analyses of variance revealed significant age x nationality…