Responds to three commentaries about a review paper by Lane and Pearson (Merrill-Palmer Quarterly; v28 n3 p317-37 Jul 1982). Commentaries were authored by John W. Hagen and Kim P. Wilson (v28 n4 p529-32 Oct 1982), Wendell E. Jeffrey (v28 n4 p523-28 Oct 1982), and Richard D. Odom (v28 n3 p339-45 Jul 1982). (RH)

Comments on Lane and Pearson's analysis, pointing out that the majority of developmental accounts of attention and other conceptual processes provide no theoretical basis for establishing criteria about information and its use in assessments of conceptual abilities. Consequences and implications are discussed. (Author/RH)

Comments on Van Kleeck's proposal that a link exists between cognitive development as viewed by Piaget and metalinguistic development (Merrill-Palmer Quarterly; v28 n2 p237-65 Apr 1982). Suggests that information-processing theories of cognitive development provide an attractive alternative to Piaget's theory, particularly in their account of task…

Reviews two books, the first of which explores how children conceive possible ways to solve problems and differentiate among real, possible, and necessary solutions. The second book explains the construction of knowledge as a dialectical tension of the opening of new possibilities constrained by increasingly stronger necessities from which a…

Proposes a theory of the development of conditional reasoning that combines procedures taken from the mental models theory of Johnson-Laird with a Piagetian analysis of the development of reasoning competence. Describes the theory's explanation of empirical data on the development of conditional reasoning. (BC)

Proposes, as an alternative to Sokolovian models, a model of early habituation based on selective adaptation of feature detectors. The model suggests that early habituation is attributable to the organization and immaturity of the young infant's visual system. (RH)

Offers a discussion of contemporary theories of moral development, discussing both cognitive and affective positions and proposing an alternative third position as a resolution of the first two. The proposed alternative is based upon the model of the subject within communicative relations, whose life involves constructing reality through social…

This paper demonstrates methodology for assessing symbolic maturity or mental representation as evidenced in symbolic play. Five female subjects (14 to 19 months at the inception of the study) were observed monthly at home in a free-play situation over one year. (Author/SB)

Two experiments examined 6- to 11-year-olds' cognition about self- presentational behavior. Findings indicated that youngest children had difficulty in identifying self-presentational motives by story characters. Even with children who had mental-state reasoning skills required for understanding others' beliefs about the self, there remained…

Three studies examined 4- to- 7-year-olds' reasoning about consequences of physiological responses with origins in the mind. Results revealed that adults believed only psychological treatments are effective cures for psychogenic reactions. Young children reported that only physical treatments are effective cures for psychogenic reactions,…

Four studies involving 160 children of 4-11 years and 14 adults focused on the development of beliefs about selective attention. Children's beliefs about attention appeared to change greatly during the age range studied. Predictions of successful comprehension of unattended stories declined sharply between ages 4 and 6. (RJC)

The relationships among decentration, decontexturalization, and integration in the same children were investigated to reexamine sequences of actor-object play for the purpose of revising and extending previous models. The results contribute to the understanding of complex play by establishing the variability of component relationships and…

Discusses five- and six-year-old children's conceptions of life and death. Children were questioned about animals, plants, and inanimate objects. The most errors occurred when children judged inanimate objects; the fewest when they judged animals. The order of questions about either life or death significantly influenced children's responses. (NH)

Investigated relationship between young children's ability to predict another observer's interpretation of an ambiguous picture and to identify the source of a misinterpretation after it had occurred. Found that six-year-olds were more likely than four- and five-year-olds to predict that a puppet would misinterpret the target-restricted view and…