We investigated the kinds of biological properties that children aged 3-6 years attribute to animals, plants, and artifacts by administering a property attribution task and eliciting explanations for the resulting property attributions. Findings indicated that, from the age of 3 years, children more frequently attribute properties to animals than…

Category-based induction is a hallmark of mature cognition; however, little is known about its origins. This study evaluated the hypothesis that category-based induction is related to semantic development. Computational studies suggest that early on there is little differentiation among concepts, but learning and development lead to increased…

Existing evidence suggests that children, when they first pass standard theory-of-mind tasks, still fail to understand the essential aspectuality of beliefs and other propositional attitudes: such attitudes refer to objects only under specific aspects. Oedipus, for example, believes Yocaste (his mother) is beautiful, but this does not imply that…

We investigate the hypothesis that our conceptual systems provide two formally distinct ways of representing categories by investigating the manner in which lexical nominals (e.g., "tree," "picnic table") and phrasal nominals (e.g., "black bird," "birds that like rice") are interpreted. Four experiments found that lexical nominals may be mapped…

Is processing of conceptual information as robust as processing of perceptual information early in development? Existing empirical evidence is insufficient to answer this question. To examine this issue, 3- to 5-year-old children were presented with a flexible categorization task, in which target items (e.g., an open red umbrella) shared category…

The current study evaluated the relative roles of conceptual knowledge and executive control on the development of "categorical flexibility," the ability to switch between simultaneously available but conflicting categorical representations of an object. Experiment 1 assessed conceptual knowledge and executive control together; Experiment 2…

There is a change in false belief task performance across the 3-5 year age range, as confirmed in a recent meta-analysis [Wellman, H. M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory mind development: The truth about false-belief. "Child Development," 72, 655-684]. This meta-analysis identified several performance factors influencing…

Compares the Genevan and Cattell-Horn theories of intelligence and describes both similarities and differences. Describes a study investigating the relation of the Piagetian operative level to the child's ability to use crystallized solution procedures (aids) in making elementary numerical comparisons. (HOD)

A review of task analysis procedures beginning with the military training and systems development approach and covering the more recent work of Gagne, Klausmeier, Merrill, Resnick, and others is presented along with a plan for effective instruction based on the review of task analysis. Literature dealing with the use of task analysis in programmed…

Describes the development of cognitive structure in adolescence as establishing isomorphism between subject and environment. Identifies two dimensions of stages in the development of individuals'"work structure," i.e., the network of relations existing between the individual and his work.

While very young children's understanding of objects as symbols for other entities has been the focus of much investigation, very little is known concerning the emergence of comprehension for symbolic relations among actions modeled with toy replicas and their real counterparts. We used videotaped depictions of real actions in a preferential…

Performance of over 200 third and fourth graders on a post test and a two-month follow-up measure showed that groups receiving lessons based on a task analysis instructional design performed significantly better than groups receiving placebo lessons at two levels of advanced mastery for the concepts, "equilateral triangle" and…

An inquiry attempted to build an agenda for research that would result in a cognitive theory of instruction capable of informing educational practice and extending the limits of knowledge about how people learn and develop. What would such a theory look like, how close are we to having one, and what directions must be followed to further its…

A conservation problem of numerical equivalence which 80% of adults reliably fail and 40% of third graders pass was developed, and responses of 188 subjects (Grades 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and college) to it and related number conservation and probability problems indicated that the differences in nonconservation were rooted in subjects' different…

Thirty-six children between four and seven years of age were asked a series of questions to determine their degree of insight (meta-cognitive awareness) regarding the way four common variables influence the ease with which a person can perform the three cognitive tasks of remembering, communicating, and attending. The four variables were the…