This paper describes a series of longitudinal experiments which dealt with the development of object awareness in infants, ages 6-18 months. The experiments were designed to document and evaluate Piaget's account of this development. The studies focused on two types of phenomena: (1) when infants first find an object hidden in one place, they will…

Presents a theory of the development of algebraic abstraction that extends Sfard's and Mason's ideas on learners' progress from operational or process-oriented thinking to the abstract or structural perspective. Analyzes secondary school students' approaches to classifying a set of complex equations. (Author/MKR)

The cognitive learning of children is explored in four studies: (1) Alphabet Reading, (2) Learning Reading Units and Classical Concept Formation, (3) Counting Learning and Counting Learning Mediated by Verbal-Response Chains, and (4) Writing Learning, Imitation, and the Cognitive-Learning Acceleration. (NH)

Students tested on their ability to apply the ratio concept in a simple problem of measurement were retested two years later; one-third showed no change in category. The data were grouped in analogy to the three developmental stages of Piaget. Additional data from a group of eighth graders did not clarify further how students arrive at…

Written by a methodological behaviorist, this treatise critiques neo-Hullian, Freudian, Eriksonian, and Piagetian theories and presents an ethological perspective on behavior and personality development. The critique is extended to cover social learning, cognitive-developmental, neo-Freudian, and Skinnerian theories, as well as the ideas of…

A two-phase study was designed to investigate the relationship between cognitive skills hypothesized (by Piaget) to underlie number competence, and performance on tasks requiring logical reasoning with number-related concepts. During the first phase, a battery of tasks was administered to 60 kindergarten and 60 third-grade students. These tasks…

As an integral step in a comprehensive, four year longitudinal analysis of concept development, a series of logical concept tasks based upon Piagetian theory, and suitable for administration to individuals five years of age or older, are described. The developmental focus was the logical groupements associated with the concrete operations period…

Describes a study designed to provide profiles of intellectual abilities actually practiced by elementary and secondary education pupils in science lessons and to investigate changes in these profiles as a function of pupil age. Study results are discussed in terms of teaching method and the resultant intellectual abilities. (MBR)

TWO STUDIES DEAL WITH THE THOUGHT PROCESSES CHILDREN DISPLAY WHEN FACED WITH PROBLEMS INVOLVING THE CONCEPTS OF QUANTITY AND NUMBER. INVOLVING CHILDREN IN KINDERGARTEN, FIRST GRADE AND SECOND GRADE, THE STUDIES USE PIAGET'S THEORIES IN BOTH A CROSS-SECTIONAL AND A LONGITUDINAL APPROACH TO STUDY CHILDREN'S THINKING IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING. TO…

This study used 152 grade eight students ranging in age from 12 to 14 years from a suburban middle school in central New Jersey. The investigations gave particular attention to the identification of variables that represent understanding of fundamental mathematical structures. The first year of the research took place during the 1978-1979 school…

A four-year longitudinal study of concept attainment and uses of concepts, as specified by the Conceptual Learning and Development Model, is described. Data collected during the first two years were based upon the assessment of the concept, equilateral triangle. The assessment battery was administered to 351 children (grades K, 3, 6, and 9) in…

This investigation was undertaken to compare males and females on their performance on standardized mathematics achievement tests during primary grades. The achievement of more than 3,000 children in grades one through three was measured in the five school districts in which the University of Georgia Follow-Through Program was implemented. The…

The fourth-year update of a longitudinal study examined the progress of the 31 remaining members of 2 classes in the first cohort of a Spanish immersion program and their standard-program monolingual comparison group of 15 students. Achievement gains were measured on standardized tests of mathematics and language skills. Results provided new…

Piaget's model of children's conceptual learning and development was compared with Klausmeier's Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) model in a longitudinal study. The CLD model suggests four successive levels of concept learning: (1) concrete--recognizing an object which has been encountered previously; (2) identity--recognizing a known…

The first volume of the 29th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education contains plenary lecture and research forum papers as listed below. Short oral communications papers, poster presentations, brief summaries of discussion groups, and working sessions are also included in the volume. The plenary…