When perceiving emotional facial expressions, adults use a template-matching strategy, comparing the perceived face with a stored representation. A rejection of unnaturally exaggerated faces is characteristic of this strategy because the exaggerated expressions do not match the stored template. In contrast, a rule-based perceptual strategy (e.g.,…

Epistemological beliefs can be defined shortly as beliefs about the source, certainty, organization of knowledge, and beliefs on ability and speed of learning. Word association tests (WAT) are practical alternative assessment and evaluation tools that can reveal students' thoughts on different concepts. In this regard, this research aims to…

This research was carried out to determine the effectiveness and functionality of the word association test (WAT), which is a formative assessment tool that is frequently emphasized on today's modern education systems. The study group consisted of 60 students in a public school in Kocaeli in the school year 2018-2019. Participants were identified…

Children learn to recognise animals from their earliest years through actual sightings in their own observations of their world, but also through second-hand representations in various forms of media. Young learners begin with a template specimen to which they refer when they see another animal that resembles it, naming the animal accordingly.…

This article explores turning points and transitions emerging in the life course of children with disabilities and their parents. Through in-depth interviews with parents we found that a change appears in disabled children's social participation and belonging, at approximately eight years of age for children with learning difficulties and at…

Describes four experiments in childhood autism used as research examples in areas of cognition and social skills. An hypothesis which attempts to connect various areas of impairment, nemely, lack of imaginative play, lack of expressive gestures, and inability to predict and understand behavior in others is explored through a specific cognitive…

Spearman's "Law of Diminishing Returns" states that the g saturation of a test is greater for individuals with lower, rather than higher, test scores, and that it decreases with age. A common methodological problem in testing Spearman's "Law of Diminishing Returns" with respect to ability differentiation is how to create the…

This study examined the development of implicit race attitudes in American and Japanese children and adults. Implicit ingroup bias was present early in both populations, and remained stable at each age tested (age 6, 10, and adult). Similarity in magnitude and developmental course across these 2 populations suggests that implicit intergroup bias…

Examined the development of teaching skills in older siblings responsible for teaching their younger siblings to become competent members of their culture among children from a Zinacantec Maya village in Chiapas, Mexico. Found that by age 4, children took responsibility for initiating teaching situations with their younger siblings, and by 8,…

Explicit representation of relations plays some role in virtually all higher cognitive processes, but relational knowledge has seldom been investigated systematically. This paper considers how relational knowledge is involved in some tasks that have been important to cognitive development, including transitivity, the balance scale, classification…

Examines aspects of 10-year-old children's conceptions of understanding. Analyzes to what extent they (1) recognize understanding as a cohesive whole, (2) know when a descriptive understanding versus a causal understanding is expected, and (3) can distinguish between the types of causal understanding in science and history. Includes references and…

The development of cognitive representation is the main theme of three classic theories (Piaget, Bruner, Vygotsky) on how children learn concepts. Piaget considered structural change as a necessary condition for development; Bruner emphasized both internal and external function and the structural changes brought about by function; and Vygotsky…

Describes two studies investigating the development of recursive thinking in 60 Dutch children five, seven, and nine years of age. The first study replicated earlier research employing a verbal production procedure. The second study used verbal comprehension procedures and concluded that development appears two years earlier than indicated by the…

Children's analogical reasoning has traditionally been measured by classical four-term analogy tasks or problem-solving tasks. Current theories of analogical development and the evidence on which they are based are reviewed. It is concluded that structural views of analogical development are wrong, and knowledge-based accounts of what develops are…

Presents a developmental framework for the study of culture and cognition in which cultural practice is a key organizing construct. Argues that systematic analysis of either cultural change or cognitive development requires that they be understood relative to one another in a single integrative treatment. (Author/SD)