Investigated the hypothesis that the meaning young children attribute to the word "big" may depend differentially on the object of reference. Children three and five years of age who were shown pairs of buildings and pairs of cars used a height rule for both classes of objects when interpreting big. (NH)

Forty-eight kindergarten children were divided into four groups on the basis of their status (preoperational vs. transitional) and whether or not they received inversion-negation training. Results indicated no differences due to status, but differences due to training. Results do not confirm the contention that acceleration can only occur during…

Explored whether there are changes with age in understanding the specific distinction between natural and human-made phenomena and whether an appreciation of this distinction influences children's beliefs about the possibility of altering or transforming different categories of objects. Found that this distinction, a powerful organizer for adults,…