Meaningfulness values, assessed via the production method, were obtained on 40 trigrams for 120 children, 40 each in second and sixth grade. These norms were subsequently used in a free-recall learning study. (MS)

Examination of the way in which children conceive the development of animals shows that there are parallels among concepts of development with those of the periods of concrete operations and formal operations. The conception of development seems to advance further in the subsequent period of dialectical thought. (MS)

Two studies examined children's first references to the mental states of perception, desire, and belief in themselves and others. In Study 1, children interacted with their mothers in a laboratory setting at 14, 20, and 32 months of age (n=52); in Study 2, children were observed in their homes at 3-month intervals from 18 to 42 months (n=32).…

A reanalysis of Stephens' intercorrelations of Wechsler subtests, achievement tests, and Piagetian tasks was conducted. (EJ 055 112) Piagetian tasks contributed almost equally to the definition of the general factor in intelligence along with the Wechsler subtests and the achievement tests. Communality outweighed differences between intelligence…

Using information contained in nine photographs, young children constructed a wooden pyramid. Control children were given the same task but no pictorial information. Children's performances were significantly better when pictorial information was available. Sex and age differences were noted regarding strategies used to complete the task.…

Eighty children between the ages of 6 and 13 were asked to indicate and compare the needs and earnings of doctors, bus drivers, waiters, and shopkeepers. Youngest children did not perceive that unmet needs existed. Older children recognized the needs but sharply disagreed about inequalities. (Author/DB)

The mental and psychomotor development of 35 severely malnourished infants in Chile were examined during nutritional and psychological treatment. There was a significant difference between younger and older infants in their response to the treatment. (Author/DLS)

Faced with a problem in which the probability of obtaining the correct answer was 70 percent, 2 of 23 kindergartners and 18 of 19 second graders generated an appropriate strategy. When the probability of a chance correct response was reduced to .45, 23 of 35 kindergartners generated an appropriate strategy. (Author/GDC)

The confluence model of cognitive development was tested on 7,060 children. Family size, sibling order within family sizes, and hypothesized age-dependent effects were tested. Findings indicated an inverse relationship between family size and the cognitive measures; age-dependent effects and other confluence variables were found to be…

Reports the results of a series of experimental studies and a sociodemographic survey designed to determine the relative influence of age and educational experience in the development of cognitive skills as manifested in formal, psychological experiments. (CM)

Reports on the findings of a comparative study of mental abilities of Mexican and American children. Discusses age, sex, social class, and urban-rural differences, as well as cultural differences. (SS)

Report of a study, using 7 13 year-old boys and girls, which sought to determine if the growth of underlying spatial abilities are enhanced more if technical drawing activities requiring multiview spatial ability are presented before surface development activities, or vice versa. Includes implications for teaching technical drawing. (TA)

Compared coupling characteristics of clapping simultaneous with walking or galloping, consistency across trials, and phasing variability among 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds. Found that for walk/clap tasks, children adopted adult-like coupling patterns by age 8 and with the same consistency by age 10. Across age, children became less variable in…

Two experiments investigated kindergarten through fourth-graders' and adults' ability to evaluate the certainty of deductive inferences, inductive inferences, and guesses, and explain the origins of inferential knowledge. Findings indicated that children rated their own deductions as more certain than guesses, but when judging another person's…

This study investigated whether the process of representational change undergoes developmental change or different processes occupy different niches in the course of knowledge acquisition. Subjects--college, third-, and sixth-grade students--solved gear system problems over two sessions. Findings indicated that for all grades, discovery of the…