The purpose of this article was to synthesize the available research regarding the development of complex schemata in individuals with autism across its entire developmental process beginning with prototype formation, followed by categorization, and finally the development of schema. Specific research questions addressed the quality of research…

Research Findings: A total of 72 Head Start children (M age = 53.26 months, SD = 5.07) were randomly assigned to 4 conditions. Some were taught the oddity principle (choosing the object that differs from others in a group) and seriation (ordering objects on a dimension and inserting new objects into such orders), which are forms of thinking that…

The period from adolescence through young adulthood is one of great promise and vulnerability. As teenagers approach maturity, they must develop and apply the skills and habits necessary to navigate adulthood and compete in an ever more technological and globalized world. But as parents and researchers have long known, there is a crucial dichotomy…

The developmental psychology of mathematical thinking and the clinical interview method can make major contributions to education by transforming the process of formative assessment--the attempt to use information concerning student performance, knowledge, learning potential, and motivation to inform instruction. The clinical interview is a…

This paper is a refinement of a model of conceptual learning and development presented initially as the Presidential Address to Division 15, Educational Psychology, of the American Psychological Association in September 1971 at Washington, D.C. Thus it supersedes the initial formulation in explicitness and detail. This paper explains the nature of…

Three systems for defining cognitive abilities, proposed by Guilford, Guttman, and the Thurstones, are examined as bases for specifying reference tests for cognitive abilities. The authors propose the cognition of concepts system as a fourth alternative. Tests constructed and/or adapted on the basis of this examination are described. (Author)

A schema based view of addition development is compared with Siegler's latest strategy-choice model, which includes an addition goal sketch (a basic understanding of "the goals and causal relations" of addition; Siegler & Crowley, 1994, p. 196). This metacognitive component in the latter model is presumed to develop as a child practices a basic…

Concepts important to cognitive development in children can be classified according to several levels. At level 1, concepts are equivalent in structural complexity to binary relations and univariate functions. At level 2, concepts are equivalent to compositions of binary relations, binary operations, and bivariate functions. At level 3, concepts…

Study supported by grant number 00870-05 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Two experiments investigate the effects of mode of presentation and number of categories on 4-year-olds' proportion estimates. Experiment I compares simultaneous and successive presentations of proportion problems using two categories of elements. The subjects were 40 children chosen randomly and tested individually. Four problems were presented…

Research supported in part by OEO Headstart Subcontract No. 1410 with Michigan State University Headstart Evaluation and Research Center.

American thought has contained a strong metaphysical bias favoring a realist interpretation of the world, and this has led to the assumption that facts possess ontological status, however, facts are segments of human experience and students must acquire conceptual tools for extracting factual data from experience. (JD)

An analysis of critical thinking is discussed in terms of conceptual interpretations and through determining the logic of linguistic expressions. (Author/RK)

Examines the development of infants' ability to begin recognizing novel referents of common object names. In particular, the present experiment investigated the development of 12- to 20-month-old infants' ability to infer that an unfamiliar but categorically related object can be designated by a newly learned name for the object class. (Author/RH)