The world's population is aging at an increasing rate. Even in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders, healthy aging affects perception and cognition. In the context of cognition, common factors are well established. Much less is known about common factors for vision. Here, we tested 92 healthy older and 104 healthy younger participants in 19…

This study examines progression trends of Chinese students' scientific reasoning skills across grade levels from elementary school to university. A large-scale survey using the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR) was conducted with 2669 Chinese students at 13 grade levels (grades 4-16). The construct validity of the CTSR was first…

Analogous thinking has been commonly discussed as being an inherent and distinguishing characteristic of human cognition (e.g., Gentner, 2010; Goldstone, Day, & Son, 2010; Holyoak, in press; Rittle-Johnson & Star, in press). Gentner (2003) has argued that as part of the human cognitive toolbox, comparison accompanied by the relational language to…

Investigates the asserted differences in reasoning between adults and second, fourth, and sixth graders in a manipulation of variables task using class inclusion and story problems with common everyday situations. Results are discussed in terms of sensible reasoning and problem-solving skills. (CM)

According to Humean framework, relations are judged to be causal to extent that they are characterized by regularity, continuity, and covariation among college students and college-bound 11- and 14-year-olds. Presents subjects with information about one of the following indices: potential causal factor covaried with effect and potential causal…

Ratings of concreteness and picturability and production data for meaningfulness of 310 words were gathered from sixth-grade children and college students. (JMB)

Two experiments compared the cognitive maps (mental representations of the spatial environment) of first graders, fifth graders and college students, and investigated developmental changes in the ability to manipulate cognitive maps mentally. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to move from stationpoint to stationpoint and at each, to…

Examined the development of belief discrepancy reasoning, or how people evaluate disagreeing others, with 44 college and elderly respondents. Results showed the elderly were significantly lower in belief discrepancy reasoning and higher in dogmatism than the college sample. The elderly sample did not evidence intolerance, but rather relativism.…

A 16-item conditional reasoning test was given to 281 students in grades 8, 10, 12, and 14. Developmental patterns of performance were examined. (Author/JMB)

Explored deductive inference processes in concept learning in four age groups. Results confirm findings of age differences in concept problem solving, with likelihood of solving the problem lower in older adults. However, solvers of all ages made the same correct inferences. (Author/JAC)

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)

Previous investigations on Piagetian cognitive levels among college students both within and across academic disciplines have not addressed the issue of possible differences in cognitive levels between traditional undergraduates and older returning students. Piagetian cognitive levels were studied among traditional- and nontraditional-age college…

This study investigated developmental changes in semantic structure, focusing on whether changes could account for differences in the concepts acquired by children and those acquired by adults. Semantic structure was determined at each of four age levels (6, 9, 12 years and college students). Two indications of developmental change were observed…

Presentation of a "natural experiment" problem situation to fourth, sixth, and eighth graders and college students revealed that not until adolescence could subjects isolate alternative or additive causes in a multivariable situation. (JMB)

Third- and seventh-grade and college students were tested to assess developmental differences in improvement following contradiction training and to investigate whether improved performance transfers to other conditional reasoning tasks. Results showed age differences: college students improved and transferred performance, seventh graders…