Reviews two books, the first of which explores how children conceive possible ways to solve problems and differentiate among real, possible, and necessary solutions. The second book explains the construction of knowledge as a dialectical tension of the opening of new possibilities constrained by increasingly stronger necessities from which a…

Examines a general developmental hypothesis concerned with children's understanding of perceptual experience, memory, intentions, and emotions. It is hypothesized that young children view the mind as passive in relation to the external world and regard external events as determining subjective experience, whereas older children know many ways that…

Four experiments examined sources of gender differences routinely found on the water-level spatial test. Undergraduates' errors offered no evidence that less accurate responses by females than males reflected a less developed Piagetian spatial system, and that females' requisite motor skills were poorer than those of males. (MM)

Defends domain theory approach to children's moral development based on limitations of Piaget's original theory. Argues that Fowler's characterization of domain theory research omits important features and studies. Maintains that distinctions between morality and convention cannot be reduced to differences in perceptible harm and punishment; it is…

Compared pairs of five- to seven-year-old children working collectively on spatial perceptive problems to control subjects working individually on the same problems. Although children working in dyads did not do significantly better than children working alone, there were several critical features in the frequency and quality of social interaction…

Ability to represent life-size space in a small scale was examined by asking 4-year-olds to create a small-scale model of a familiar preschool classroom. Study 1 children with high or low restructuring ability completed the model under guided or nonguided format. Guidance given to Study 2 children emphasized a functionally clustered classroom…

Domain theorists' findings in Piaget's work in children's moral development do not contradict Piaget because they are predicted by objective responsibility; research has not established that children distinguish between moral and conventional events. Claims that Piaget underestimated early morality are based on research that neglects children's…

Examined discussions of 25 groups of peers who were in second, fifth, ninth, and twelfth grades, or were young adults. Trends in topicality arguments paralleled trends for other types of talk. With regard to the function of arguments, person-focused function declined in middle childhood but information-focused function increased. However,…

Conducted two experiments on kindergarten to third-grade children in which it was hypothesized that the degree of adult intervention would not make a difference in play treatments and that thematic fantasy play would serve to construct metalinguistic understanding. Hypotheses were confirmed. There was also significant interaction between adult…