According to Piaget, a child's intellectual development undergoes a progressive socialization process, by assimilation and accommodation, to reach equilibrium with the adult environment. It is proposed that a disturbance in the process of adaptation to reality may lead to a neurotic response. For related articles, see TM 501 288 and 289. (RC)

This article attempts to provide the reader with a frame of reference for exploring the expanse of literature on Piagetian theory. (HMD)

To study age-related improvements in information processing, a release from proactive interference (PI) procedure was used with 144 children in conjunction with a running memory task. For class of item and acoustic similarity, evidence was found for PI release with age, but there was no evidence of a relationship between short-term memory (STM)…

The study examined brain functions related to information processing in autistic adults using auditory evoked potentials (AEP) and missing stimulus potentials (MSP). Both nonautistic and autistic adults showed normal mature patterns and lateralities in AEP for music stimuli, but nonautistic children did not. Autistic adults showed matured patterns…

Reports two experiments: 1) to determine whether children perform as adults in the simple and successive-reversal concept identification problems and to assess their retention of stimulus-response information; and 2) to determine the associative strength of the pain of response words. (Author/AJ)

Eight-year-olds were able to make inferential judgments based on transitive size relations, while 6-year-olds were not. In addition, more older than younger subjects evidenced serial ordering, presumably a prerequisite for transitive inference. (MH)

Argues that the status of the concept of equilibration is classified by considering Piagetian theory as a research program in the sense elaborated in 1974 by Lakatos. A pilot study was made to examine the precision and testability of equilibration in Piaget's 1977 model.(Author/RH)

Describes three unique characteristics of adult thought: (1) an understanding of the relativistic nature of knowledge, (2) an acceptance of contradiction as a part of reality, and (3) an integrative approach to thinking. Analysis of the philosophical foundations of these characteristics is followed by critical examination of current studies of…

Argues that the simplification strategy of research is useful for understanding the basic cognitive processes that are necessary for mature performance in conservation, transitivity, moral judgment, causal inference, and other Piagetian tasks. (JMB)

Discusses a study that shows that young children were not consistently able to find the main idea in nonverbal material. Suggests that children at grade three might effectively respond to instruction in finding the main idea and that children in grade five should have little difficulty with this task. (TJ)

It is argued that the dialectical model of memory development seems more promising than behavoristic, information processing and contextual models. (MS)

Suggests that, with the waning influence of Piaget and shortcomings of information-processing perspectives of cognitive growth, cognitive developmentalists lack a metatheory to guide their research. Posits developmental biology as metatheory for cognitive development. Introduces basic principles of evolutionary psychology, and examples of…

This commentary on the article by Demetriou et al. in this monograph focuses on three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of (1) developmental domains; (2) reflective abstraction, or metacognition; and (3) representation, which involves considerations of what knowledge consists of, how it emerges, and how it relates to reality.…

Attempts to clarify issues related to three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of developmental domains; reflective abstraction, or hypercognition; and representation, or knowledge. Concerning domains, answers three questions: (1) What is a domain?; (2) How are domains identified?; and (3) What happens to domains as they…

In two experiments, 4- to 6-year-olds made judgments about the knowledge of a protagonist who had only partial information about an object they had full knowledge of. Found surprising discrepancy in performance in the two tasks, which appear superficially to require handling of same properties of the representational mind, indicating that current…