A good deal of research purports that bilingualism has a positive effect on some aspects of cognitive functioning. However, this effect is not consistent, and little research examines trajectories of cognitive skill development in bilingual children. Moreover, it remains unclear whether different types of bilingualism impact how cognitive…

The present study was a causality study that investigate the effects of conditional factors; if x, y & z are the independent factors (e.g. socio-economic status, Anthropometric status, and home environmental status) on the dependent factors (e.g. memory, social skill, language acquisition, logical reasoning, and problem solving). The present…

Early language development is characterized by predictable changes in the words children produce and the complexity of their utterances. In infants, these changes could reflect increasing linguistic expertise or cognitive maturation and development. To disentangle these factors, we compared the acquisition of English in internationally-adopted…

A study of 240 students in grades 4-10 found that fourth graders performed well on a proverb comprehension task involving contextual information, refuting earlier findings that preadolescents interpret proverbs literally. Performance was found to improve steadily through grade eight and was correlated to performance on a perceptual analogical…

Three experiments with children between 5 and 7 years are described. It is shown that nominal predication of an unknown word by a superordinate term enables young children to make appropriate inferences concerning its attributes. The results are discussed in relation to semantic development and reasoning in the young child. (Author/RM)

Problems in teaching language communication to the congenitally deaf child are discussed in this essay, and then suggestions are offered for providing mental development, development of verbal and associative memory, sensory training, and training in abstract reasoning. (LBH)

A study of the development of abstract noun definitions in children and adolescents had as its subjects 120 students evenly divided into age groups of 10-, 14-, and 18-year-olds, randomly selected from students scoring in the 40th to 88th percentiles on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (for 10-year-olds) and the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency…

Children, aged 4-8 were given 2-term relational problems to test the hypothesis that only older children can process sentences as propositions and realize their logical implications. Results indicated even the youngest children could perform the task. (ST)

Students, ages 12, 15, 18, and 23 (n=60 per group), wrote definitions for 16 abstract nouns. Responses were analyzed for Aristotelian style. There was an increasing tendency for students to mention the appropriate category to which a word belongs, core features of the word, and subtle aspects of meaning. (DB)

Examines relationship between literacy and intellectual development and the belief that literacy leads to higher forms of thought. Describes research findings among the Vai of Liberia, a people who invented a syllabic writing system to represent their own language. Investigates effects of becoming literate separately from effects of attending…

THE MOST DISABLING HANDICAP OF YOUNG CHILDREN FROM DEPRIVED SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS IS THEIR DIFFICULTY IN USING LANGUAGE ABSTRACTLY. IN THIS STUDY, THEREFORE, IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT IF AN EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION PROGRAM WAS LIMITED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ABSTRACT LANGUAGE, THEN NOT ONLY LANGUAGE, BUT MANY OTHER ASPECTS OF THINKING WOULD BE…

These forty conference papers deal with a wide variety of new approaches to the application of developmental theory. The papers represent a cross-section of current research methodology and techniques used to evaluate such traditional Piagetian topics as concrete and formal operations, conservation, classification skills, language development,…

The multiordinal use of terms requires the ability to distinguish essential relationships and attributes from incidental ones. Until the child reaches adolescence, his tendency to confuse incidental and affective factors with those crucial to word meaning hinders his use of terms at all levels of abstraction. Korzybski's theory of multiordinality…

Beilin examines the previous three papers. In explaining cognitive development, social learning theory fails to account for rule invariance in the face of capricious and informationally impoverished experience, does not explain the acquisition of abstract rule systems, and offers less flexibility than Piaget's explanations based on operations and…