Pascual-Leone's neo-Piagetian theory of development is used to predict the pre- and postinstruction distributions of scores on a subject-controlled digit placement task as a function of three parameters dealing with mental strategy and capacity. (Author/ED)

Four- to 11-year-olds made duration, distance, and speed judgments on Piagetian tasks where cars ran on parallel tracks. Among younger children, duration and distance judgments had approximately the same difficulty. Among older children, distance judgments were easier than duration judgments, and symmetry of effects of temporal and spatial…

Empirically describes the relative development of perceptual and conceptual understanding of left-right, back-front, up-down projective relationships between objects and provides a heuristic model of the cognitive processes involved in coordination of perspectives tasks. (Author/ED)

Skill theory attempts to provide tools for the prediction of developmental sequences in any domain at any point in development. The theory suggests a common framework for integrating developmental analyses of cognitive, social, perceptual/motor skills, and behavioral changes in learning and problem solving. (Author/GK)

Notes that the Piagetian perspective admits the existence of interindividual differences but interprets them as noise masking the universal logical succession of structures, whereas the differential perspective views development as consisting of "vicarious processes." Asserts that the main aim of the "procedural studies"…

A total of 100 children from divorced and separated families were compared with 100 children from intact families in this investigation of ways in which children handle the concepts of family membership and relationships. Children were given two social and two physical tasks: a family identity task; Piaget's interview for determining the…

The use of rules on nonverbal balance scale problems was studied among 5- to 19-year-olds. Latent class analyses indicated that children used rules, that different rules were used by children of different ages, and that both consistent and inconsistent rule use occurred. A model for the development of reasoning about the balance scale task was…

This paper questions evidence for the thesis that causal reasoning of older children is more logical than that of younger ones, and describes two experiments which attempted to determine (1) whether there are true developmental differences in causal reasoning, and (2) what explanations for developmental differences can be supported. In the first…

Used multiple baseline design with four 6-year-old Latino children to train in class inclusion through counting, feedback, and verbal reinforcers, and in English language skills (of benefit in their own right), over 5 months. Found that post-intervention gains in the two domains were significant and were stable over at least 4.5 months. (KB)

Studied the ability of 8- and 11-year olds, and college-age subjects, to allocate attention rapidly. Older subjects were better able to reallocate attention. The developmental change in the reallocation of attention appears to be continuous and quantitative. Improvement is linked to the ability to use active attentional strategies. (Author/GH)

Two experiments used a formal model of developmental discontinuity derived from catastrophe theory to test whether the transition from Rule I to Rule II on the balance scale task proceeds discontinuously from ages 6 to 10, focusing on five catastrophe flags. Found that bimodality, inaccessible region, hysteresis, and sudden jump were clearly…

This study investigated the linguistic components of Piaget's class-inclusion task. First, hierarchical classification is examined from both Piagetian and linguistic theory points of view. Then, two general characteristics of child thinking that relate to the different interpretations of the responses to classification questions are discussed: (1)…

Three samples of 8- to 16-year olds were assessed three times at yearly intervals on eight water-level items. Within-child change over age was viewed as stochastic process of the child changing or remaining in one of three latent strategy states. Although there was improvement in task performance over age, the general finding was that strategy…

Examined validity of use of human figure drawing to evaluate cognitive development status using Piagetian tasks with 7- to 11-year-olds. Found that scores for children's drawings of a man and a woman correlated significantly with mental imaging, conservation of mass, and conservation of length, suggesting the possibility of finding patterns to…

A total of 270 children from 3 ethnic groups were tested for understanding of concepts of heating and cooling. A strong horizontal decalage effect was seen, with children of all ethnic groups using more sophisticated explanations at earlier ages for heating than cooling. Implications for developmental theory are discussed. (SLD)