Cross-grade studies are valuable for the development of sequential curriculum. However such studies are time and resource intensive and fail to provide a clear representation to integrate different levels of representational complexity. Lin (Lin, 2006; Lin & Chiu, 2006; Lin, Chiu, & Hsu, 2006) proposed a cladistics approach in conceptual…

This study investigated primary school 5th and 8th graders' understanding and mental models related to the shape of the world and gravity, and how these models reflected the fact and what kind of a change there is from 5th to 8th graders. This research is based on a cross-sectional design. The study was conducted in a low socioeconomic level…

This study examined developmental changes in concept formation, rule switching, and perseverative behaviors of children in the WCST by altering visual features of the test and using a new test score--the "zigzag" error score--which shows the number of shifts made between two incorrect concepts or rules. Instead of the original four 3-dimensional…

The study was aimed at characterizing the exact algebraic structure of the love schema in order to trace possible changes in the conceptualization of love throughout the adult life cycle, notably as regards the weight attributed to the three components of love: passion, intimacy, and commitment. The methodological framework was the Functional…

Examines a general developmental hypothesis concerned with children's understanding of perceptual experience, memory, intentions, and emotions. It is hypothesized that young children view the mind as passive in relation to the external world and regard external events as determining subjective experience, whereas older children know many ways that…

Describes a study that investigated probabilistic intuitions held by students (N=98) from grade 7 through college through the use of a questionnaire. Of the misconceptions that were investigated, availability was the only one that was stable across age groups. Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Little is known about very young children's conception of alcoholic beverages and their uses. A study was conducted to determine whether preschool children's ability to correctly access a cognitive network about alcoholic beverages can be related to differences in family exposure to alcohol. Preschoolers (N=57) between the ages of 2.5 and 6 years…

Three different theory of mind tasks were conducted with 4- to 8-year-old Quechua peasant children in the Peruvian Andes. The study investigated the ways in which children in preliterate cultures think and the possibility that they think differently than children in literate cultures. The tasks included: (1) a false-belief task, which tested the…

When in childhood concepts about alcohol and drinking begin to develop has just begun to be investigated. A study was conducted to examine cognitive, maturational, and differential exposure influences on the acquisition of concepts about alcoholic beverages in preschool children. Knowledge about alcoholic beverages and drinking was assessed in 65…

An analysis of children's narrative composition and art revealed concurrent development at both a general structural level and at a fine-grained detail level. A three-part study investigated whether this general cognitive pattern would be maintained across a different range of tasks: literary composition, scientific reasoning, and working memory.…

Instructional implications of cognitive development theory are discussed, and it is proposed that the current theoretical framework offers a view of development that, applied in instructional contexts, leads to a reconceptualization of the traditional notion of developmental curricula. Piaget's theory offered a framework for how children should be…