Since the 1950's there has been a tremendous shift in the way language and language behavior is viewed. The shift is characterized as a general movement away from surface observation and analysis to attempts at the description and analysis of underlying linguistic forms. The interest in underlying linguistic forms has, in a rather natural way, led…

To determine to what extent children of preschool age comprehend the meaning of logical connectives, 64 5- and 6-year-olds were told to hand differently colored and shaped wooden blocks to an experimenter. The commands involved various English idioms used for conjunction (e.g. both black and round), disjunction (either black or round), and…

Reported is an Aptitude Treatment Instruction (ATI) Study designed to evaluate the aptitude of verbal comprehension in terms of two unitary complex science diagram types: a single complex block word diagram and a single complex picture word diagram.. ATI theory and research indicate that different effective instructional treatments tend to help…

A functional (as opposed to structural) theory of intellectual development is presented and used to generate specific performance models for Piagetian tasks involving the control of variables (cf. Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). On the basis of these models, it is concluded that intelligent, field independent 7- and 8-year-olds should be able to…

Prior attitude intensity involvement and salience, along with prior source competence, sociability, composure, extroversion, and character can be used as predictors of recall, of perception of the source's attitude, and of perception of the attitude revealed in the message. The relationship of prior attitudes and credibility to comprehension and…

The author examines the effectiveness of the Inquiry Strategy method which he hypothesizes to be useful in developing an analytical cognitive style. Ninety-two subjects from four, large urban high schools were involved. Forty-two were experimental, having received 2-3 years of Inquiry Strategy exposure in their late elementary or early junior high…

The cognitive levels of 60 children from grades one, three, and five were compared with their linguistic performance on selected examples of similes and metaphors. Cognitive level was measured using Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices; a new instrument was developed to assess children's linguistic performance. Results indicated a significant…

When the descriptive interpretations that sixth and eighth graders provided for metaphors selected from fifth-grade readers were examined in a Piagetian framework, the poorest interpretations showed characteristics of concrete and pre-operational thought, while the best interpretations showed characteristics of formal operational thought. (RL)

Addresses the question: If an intellectual change is truly fundamental, how can it be socially comprehensible? Claims that the question is particularly pressing in the case of Darwin's "Origin." Argues that the answer lies in an understanding of how scientific revolutions depend on continuity with an existent cultural grammar. (JD)

Argues that much of current science curricula and instructional strategies do not accommodate the thinking and reasoning capabilities of students. Level of capacity for abstract logical reasoning, whether the capacity can be cultivated/enhanced, consequences of mismatched intellectual levels and instructional modes, and what thinking/reasoning…

Eighty-two children (aged 4 through 6) were administered a Backward Digit Span test to measure M-space (mental capacity) and four conservation tasks: number, substance, continuous quantity and weight. (MS)

An investigation of selected research projects which focus on intellectual development is presented. The treatment begins with a description of psychological-oriented studies and illustrates the many ways in which studying a second language in school settings contributes to the cognitive development of the learner. (Author/RM)

Outlines a conceptual framework, the Reflective Judgement model, which describes predictable differences in the intellectual development of college students. Validation attempts are discussed, and applications leading to sound counseling and educational interventions are suggested. The model is illustrated with an example of a classroom assignment…

Determined if student questioning skills could be taught within framework of an ongoing chemistry course and if acquisition of these skills depends on high school students' (N=108) level of intellectual development. Results indicate that questioning skills can be acquired by students, regardless of their level of Piagetian intellectual…