To analyze the relationship of logical development and comprehension of syntax, 60 children aged 5-8 years were individually tested. Measures included class inclusion, conservation of substance and weight, a sorting test, and a test of comprehension of active and passive sentences. Class inclusion was not strongly related to syntactical…

Data representing two styples of approach to the logical abilities of young children are analyzed. The result of this analysis is contrary to popular interpretations of Piaget's views concerning the logical abilities of young children. (ST)

Investigates the development of the ability for double seriation in children age 5-8 years and finds that there is a developmental lag between the emergence of the ability for cross-classification and that for double seriation. (WY)

Fuzzy trace theory explains why children do not have to use rules of logic or premise information to infer transitive relationships. Instead, memory of the premises and performance on transitivity tasks is explained by a verbatim ability and a gist ability. Until recently, the processes involved in transitive reasoning and memory of the premises…

Piagetian research provides the focus of this article in which Professor Thomas C. O'Brien interviews Professor Hermina Sinclair. Aspects of children's thinking that prefigure scientific theory construction are described and the influence of schooling in inhibiting or suppressing a theory-building human tendency is briefly discussed. The…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether kindergarten children could perform successfully on Piagetian class inclusion tasks and whether their performance was a function of the types of conditions under which the task was presented. Children were asked to classify items based on a physical attribute not visually perceptible (painted…

Children took a group test of disjunctive reasoning containing 48 inclusive and exclusive items varying in content of the premises, and affirmation or negation of the conclusion. Performance improved until seventh grade. Negative conclusions produced more correct answers. Implications were discussed in relation to cognitive developmental theory…

College students were asked to reason about the relative speeds of horses turning on a merry-go-round platform. Results revealed that, unlike field independent subjects, field dependent subjects failed to reason analytically. They were misled by perceptually salient aspects of the situation. They resisted accomodating to additional information.…

A propositional logic game which is a subtest of the new British intelligence scale was analyzed to determine the extent to which skills proper to a single Piagetian period, formal operations, were hierarchically ordered. Item response patterns from 60 14-year-olds were categorized by means of ordering theory, a boolean algebraic measurement…

Analyzes the relationship between the development of formal operations and the development of the adolescent personality, as hypothesized by Inhelder and Piaget. It is suggested that the concepts of possibility and reflectivity have a variety of meanings, and that once these meanings are examined, the logical foundation for the…

This study assessed the ability of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders and college students to logically include and exclude variables when making inferences about a multivariate "natural experiment" situation. (Author/SB)

Thinking strategies (sequences of steps undertaken to produce a thought product) should be an important goal in gifted education. Suggestions are made for creating a curriculum to promote thinking development. (CL)

Gross comparisons (easiest) were solvable by all; intensive comparisons (medium difficulty) were inversely related to IQ, and extensive comparisons (hardest) were easiest for low IQ, low M.A. and high IQ, high M.A. retardates. (MH)

Investigates logical and perceptual determinants of social-cognitive development by examining children's use of consensus information for causal attribution. Results verify the importance of perceptual processes, demonstrating that children can use consensus for person attribution earlier in development than they can for stimulus attribution.…