Developmentalists have overlooked the problem of the real impermanence of things. Though the metaphor of impermanence is central to Piagetian and neo-nativist accounts of representation, the development of the understanding of impermanence is unstudied. This article proposes that the development of the concept of impermanence is distinct from the…

Studies the sequence in development of conservation concepts in 19 language-impaired children aged 6-9 years and 20 children of 3-11 years who had no impairment. The two groups showed a similar sequence of development regardless of delay. Conservation of number appeared first, followed by weight, substance, length, area, and volume. (RJC)

Suggests that Greenberg's challenge to the centrality of object permanence in developmental thinking reveals that developmentalists' theories about childhood speak about their own self-images. Notes that developmentalists have been guilty of not only the object permanence fallacy but also the genetic fallacy, or the mistaken belief that describing…

Piaget's concept of "internalization" is analyzed and related to Bruner's representational theories of cognitive development. Cognitive structures are shown to be real exclusively in an actual representation. (Author/SDH)

Conservation of a property is the ability to recognize that the property in question hasn't altered, even though other properties have been varied. It is Piaget's view, confirmed by empirical evidence that children are not able to conserve length until age 7 or 8. Recent concern over confounding variables led to the present study in which the…

Children follow a Piagetian cognitive-developmental sequence in their ability to understand age concepts, as shown by the association between responses on the Concept of Age instrument and level of reasoning on conservation tasks. Education in aging must consider the reasoning patterns of children of various ages. (Author)

To investigate the development of function concepts and their relation to mathematical and logical abilities typically acquired during the age period of five to seven years, children were tested on nonnumerical function tasks, numerical tasks, and aspects of logical reasoning. (PCB)

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

Investigates the development of understanding of quantity in 36 children with Down's Syndrome. Findings confirmed similarities in sequence of development between Down's Syndrome children and nonretarded children. Down's children who received training recognized conservation of continuous and discontinuous quantity. (RJC)

Implications of this study on child-development theory, education, and psychotherapy are discussed. (MB)