How do people whose identities appear so deeply connected to the land they love engage in environmentally harmful activities? This paper explores this question, presenting selected research on children's moral relationships with nature and examining the boundaries of the moral domain to more precisely delineate relations between moral constructs.…

A cross-sectional study of 300 children, ages 4-18 demonstrated that three evaluative dimensions (intent, ability and outcome) are used in forming moral judgments and achievement evaluations. Significant age trends were identified, lending support to a cognitive-developmental view of achievement motivation. (DP)

The relative weakness of sex-role labels as reinforcers, and the disappearance of differential effectiveness of male and female labels at the fourth-grade level would appear to be congruent with Kohlberg's (1966) cognitively based theory of sex-role acquisition. (Authors)

In general, the large number of learners found in this study lends support to the assertion that children below five or six can learn problems requiring mediation. This suggests that their learning will have to be described by more complex models. (Author)

Major purpose of this experiment was to test a notion suggested by Gagne that operations, as described by Piaget, are more dependent on learning than on development. It was concluded that the results supported Gagne's cumulative learning model rather than the notion that operations are primarily dependent upon maturation. (Authors/CB)

Results supported Piaget's viewpoint that mental imagery and general symbolic functioning are dependent on the growth of intelligence with respect to the preadolescent period. (Author)

Proposes children develop an understanding about death in an orderly sequence progressing from total unawareness in early childhood to the point of logical consideration in terms of cause and effect. Discusses implications for parents, teachers, and counselors for helping children deal with death. (RC)

Examines distraction effects in terms of the information processing necessary to discriminate distractors from task-relevant information and with regard to a child's ability to meet those demands. Thirty kindergarteners, 30 second graders, and 27 fourth graders participated in the study. (Author/MP)

Assessed the authenticity of conservation attainment through an observational learning paradigm. First grade children (N=60) were exposed to either a peer or adult model who was either present or absent during a series of tasks. No correlation was found between social influence and observational acquisition of conservation. (Author/JAC)

Administered six cognitive tasks to 115 men aged 50-93. Obtained two factors. The nonverbal performance factor was significantly predicted by age while the verbal factor was significantly predicted by education. The results suggest that verbal and nonverbal abilities may be determined by different antecedents. (Author)

Examined judgments of intolerance given by children, adolescents, and adults toward disagreeing others. The evidence suggested that intolerance may be a lower level of reasoning in a social cognitive developmental progression. (Author/DB)

A dialectical schemata framework was used to interpret, code, and compare 27 interviews on the nature of education with freshmen, seniors and faculty members at a small, highly selective liberal arts college in order to provide a description of the organization of dialectical thinking and its presence in mature thought. (Author/DB)