The current article discusses the importance of increasing racial-ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in cognitive developmental research. It begins with discussion of the implications of the underrepresentation of ethnic minority children in cognitive developmental research. It goes on to suggest reasons underlying these omissions, such as the…

To examine Fodor's (1992) argument that standard false belief tasks used in developmental research seriously underestimate young children's understanding of false belief, three- and four-year-old children were given three tasks of action prediction and explanation, belief preduction, and knowledge prediction and explanation. The overall pattern of…

The authors offer a detailed and systematic critique of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, examining it in relation to other theories of development. Chapter 1 points out some of the problems in building and evaluating scientific theories and considers contrasting approaches to cognitive development (including those which focus on…

Suggests that, with the waning influence of Piaget and shortcomings of information-processing perspectives of cognitive growth, cognitive developmentalists lack a metatheory to guide their research. Posits developmental biology as metatheory for cognitive development. Introduces basic principles of evolutionary psychology, and examples of…

Maintains author's interpretation of 6-month-olds' behavior is consistent with task requirements in the 2000 study and previous work showing that infants use explanatory inferences to make sense of their world. Asserts that ability to understand that people communicate with persons but act on objects is precursor to infants' understanding at 9 to…

Although Piaget's theory remains the most impressive in its field, there are reasons for caution: its tenuous base in good data, overemphasis on failures or successes of logical structure as explanations of behavior, underemphasis on the possibility that much knowledge is socially constructed and transmitted, and the central but dubious tenet of…

Presents two reasons for abandoning the false belief task as a methodology for theory of mind: (1) passing the false belief task requires ability other than theory of mind; and (2) theory of mind need not entail the ability to reason about false beliefs. Concludes with an alternative conception of the role of the false belief task. (Author)

Following a summary and critique of the research on the use of computers in education to develop higher-order thinking skills, this paper advances eight hypotheses regarding the failure of research to confirm expected positive effects, and makes two major claims. The hypotheses are as follows: (1) a cognitive chain of consequences of programming…

Comments on Damon and Killen's study, pointing out that the methodological difficulties in examining spontaneous moral discussions have led to the appropriation of a dyadic social-cognitive conflict paradigm that focuses on dialogic interaction. (Author/RH)

Interviews with adolescents revealed that they have a complex "divided metaphysics" of subjectivity, based on a dualistic view of reality versus appearance. Certain conceptual methodological issues surrounding research into self identity are discussed. (Author/DB)

Philosophical tendencies in Kohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of moral development such as apriorism, absolutism and formalism are unfavorably contrasted with the dialectical categories of historicism, double interactionism and reflection. In logic and epistemology the cognitive-developmental theory is shown to be based on a subjective…

Proposes an interference explanation of data from dual-task studies of memory development. Dual-task data support the resources hypothesis that memory processes tax a common pool of cognitive energy, which has been variously called attentional, mental effort, and working-memory capacities. Suggests that dual-task deficits are instances of output…