The purpose of this study is to analyse geometric transformations of children in the early childhood period. The study utilised a case study to design one of the qualitative research methods. Interviews were conducted with 6-, 7- and 8-year-old children, in total 24 children, who were enrolled in a private pre-school and a primary school of the…

Visual preference procedures were used to investigate development of perceptually based subordinate-level categorization in 3- to 7-month-old infants. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that 3- to 4-month-olds did not form category representations for photographic exemplars of subordinate-level classes of cats and dogs (i.e., Siamese vs. Tabby,…

Previous research has shown that 3- to 4-month-old infants form a global categorical representation for cats that includes female lions, whereas 6- to 7-month-old infants differentiate between cats and lions. Three experiments using familiarization-novelty preference procedures attempted to determine whether the differentiation of a global…

The purpose of present experiments with subjects approximately three, five, and seven years of age was to provide additional evidence for the obviousness of the generative transmission principle and to provide initial evidence for the secondary principles of absence and facility. Empirical support was found for each of these selection principles,…

The study explored ways in which congenitally blind children group objects and words, revealing their level of cognitive development. Differences in patterns of response as a function of age and type of tasks are presented, and the implications of these findings for the education of this population are discussed. (Author/CL)

Reports the results of structured interviews with mothers of 29 children three and one-half to 12 years of age, documenting the development of four categories of food rejection based on distaste, danger, disgust, and inappropriateness. Suggests that lack of contamination sensitivity in younger children is due to their belief that chemical…

Maintains that Madole and Oakes' hypotheses are incorrect. Shows that conceptual development frequently goes from the abstract to the concrete and that extensive literature shows that there is more than one kind of categorization. Discusses ways in which perceptual and conceptual categorization differ. (Author/KB)

Children three through six years of age were asked to imitate actions depicted in photographs to determine whether they could interpret information of action in photographs. Twenty children at each of four age levels, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years, were asked to imitate two photos, each showing a young child performing a physical action. Following this…

On the basis of a conservation of substance experiment with 189 blind and partially sighted children, it is inferred that while the best of them are performing on a par with the best of their sighted peers, the age range in which conservation is attained is more extended for the visually handicapped. (Author)

This study attempted to discover the characteristics of the developmental process whereby children follow a sequential pattern in their understanding of social relationships. A questionnaire was administered describing several simple dyadic situations in terms of one person helping or hurting another. The respondents were to indicate whether the…

Responds to Mandler's critique of authors' view of infant categorization. Maintains that their view of infant categorization is not characterized by a shift from one type of category to another but by gradual changes in the kinds of information infants can use in forming categories. Clarifies position regarding a single categorical process using…

This experiment examined developmental changes in the ability of infants to learn conceptual categories regarding the human face. A total of 108 infants, aged 18, 24, and 30 weeks, were habituated to (1) the same face in the same orientation, (2) the same face in differing orientations, or (3) different faces in different orientations. All…

Studied discriminative and investigatory response behavior and effects of response training on children 4-5 to 6-5 years of age. (DR)

Spatial cognition entails the ability to mentally represent spatial relations and to anticipate the course and outcome of transformations applied to those relations. The developmental histories of four tasks used to assess the maturity of spatial cognition in children are described. Significant effects were found for age, gender, task, and for…