Although a growing number of studies indicate that simple strategies, intuitions, or cognitive shortcuts called heuristics can persistently interfere with scientific reasoning in physics and chemistry, the persistence of heuristics related to learning biology is less known. In this study, we investigate the persistence of the "moving things…

The object of this paper is to learn what little children know about the inside of their bodies before they have studied these particular aspects at school. The data for our project were collected by means of drawings made by 342 Spanish children aged four to seven. They were required to depict where the food, drink, and air which enter their…

This study investigated the effectiveness of assessing young children's meta-cognition in different contexts (i.e., individual learning (IL), peer assisted learning (PAL) and self-reports). Additionally, the contributions of declarative and procedural meta-cognition in IL and PAL, TOM and language ability on children's cognitive performance…

A large proportion of the UK adult population has very poor literacy and/or numeracy skills (see the 1999 Moser Report, the 2003 "Skills for Life" Survey and the 2006 Leitch report). In 1999, the Moser report found that approximately 20% of adults in England had severe literacy difficulties, whilst around 40% had some numeracy problems.…

Witkin's concepts of field dependence-independence and restructing are discussed with reference to studies in Russia and in the Netherlands. These concepts are related to differences in style of perception and to success on both cognitive tasks and social tasks. It is suggested that restructing abilities may be trained and restructing ability may…

This study examined 6- to 8-year-old Slovenian children's acquisition of matrix completion proficiency and compared microgenetic and age-related changes on the task. Microgenetic analyses indicated that: variability of children's errors increased before they discovered the correct strategy, the correct strategy became dominant shortly after…

Described the development and evaluation of a measure of cognitive belief systems and thinking styles. Reliability and validity results were poor for junior college students. For university and nonstudent populations, cognition scores discriminated social anxiety. The Cognition Scale of Assertiveness is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive…

Age-related changes in mental flexibility, in the form of task switching, were assessed in 292 children (58-156 months old). Task switching was examined with a new task for young children, the Switch Task for Children (STC). The STC consists of two easy, comparable games and does not require reading skills, which makes it suitable for children…

Children completed three types of equivalent cardination tasks which assessed the influence of different stimulus configurations (linear, linear-nonlinear, and nonlinear), and density of object spacing. Prior results reported by Siegel, Brainerd, and Gelman and Gallistel were not replicated. Implications for understanding cardination concept…

Raven's Progressive Matrices test items were analyzed for M demand (Pascual-Leone's developmental construct). Data on second- and third-grade subjects were analyzed for extent of absolute agreement of Raven and Figural Intersection Test (FIT) scores. Raw scores on the Raven could be deduced on the basis of FIT performance. (Author/RD)

Previous research by Maratsos found that 3-year-olds were more accurate than four and 5-year-olds in selecting 'big' rectangles or animals when choosing between pairs of stimuli. A study then investigated the nature of the previous experiments themselves, particularly the procedures the researcher followed and the possible inferences which he drew…

Describes a cross-cultural comparative study of recall memory among children from two Guatemalan towns and one American city. (CM)

Change in cognitive functioning is an important aspect of human aging and a key outcome in many medical conditions. However, cognitive change can rarely be measured directly, since prior cognitive data do not exist for most people. We examined the criterion validity and one-year stability of the difference between National Adult Reading Test…

Investigates (1) the relationships between cognitive performance and cognitive styles and predictive possibilities and (2) performance differences by sex, school, grade, and income in 92 Indian adolescents. Assessment measures included Liquid Conservation, Islands, Goat-Lion, Hanoi-Tower, Rabbits (Piagetian); Block Design (WISC-R); Paper Cutting…

The authors examined aspects of reliability and validity of the Goode-nough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test (DAP; D. B. Harris, 1963). The participants were 115 seven- to nine-year-old students attending regular or special education schools. Three judges, with a modest degree of training similar to that found among practicing clinicians, rated the…