This publication consists of a critique of research related to the work of Piaget. Contents are arranged under five headings: Introduction, Common Misconceptions and Mususes, Common Research Errors: Possible Causes and Cures, Evaluation of Piaget-related Research, and Extension. Eighteen references conclude the report. (PEB)

This study compares modes of cognitive functioning revealed in student selection of a college major. Students were interviewed in-depth concerning reasons for their choice of majors. Protocol data suggested two distinct modes of thinking were evident on an analytic-intuitive dimension. For operational purposes analytic thinking was defined by…

Little empirical research has been done on the subject of argumentation, especially in the area of refutation, or "disproof," even though some research on debate indicates that refutation constitutes a significant predictor of a team's success. A recent study investigated the effects of eight forms of refutation against five major categories of…

The 30 sixth and 30 ninth grade students, all of whom attended one rural school district in central Illinois, not only displayed a wider variety of behaviors than reported in the Inhelder and Piaget study (1958) investigating the development of logical thinking in children, but the behavioral components served to fill significant gaps in the…

There is considerable disagreement concerning the age of onset and universality of attainment of Piaget's stage of formal operations. This study examines developmental differences in response to brief prompts in the use of a formal operational approach to the solution of two tasks. The subjects were 10 males and 10 females from each of Grades 5,…

Nonsensical statements about the inferiority of non-standard English should be revealed as nonsense by linguistic analysis--there being no point in marshalling empirical evidence to refute meaningless propositions.

Human infants are predisposed to organize their experience in terms of certain concepts (natural) and not others (unnatural). Three formal, necessary conditions on the naturalness of concepts are offered. The conditions attempt to link the problem of naturalness to principled distinctions between sense vs nonsense, simplicity vs complexity, and…

Comments on a recent article by DeLuca on electronic "measurement of logical thinking" questioning four aspects of the article. DeLuca responds to the criticism on those four aspects in question. (GA)

Investigated was whether reading achievement could be increased by exposure to logical and perceptual tasks as found in science process activities. (MP)

A BASIC program is given for a game that encourages the use of logical reasoning in solving number puzzles. (MP)

Describes steps involved in the construction of a 15-item test to measure formal reasoning in junior and senior high school students. From analysis, the author concludes that the test has face, convergent, and factorial validities. (CP)

This is the third in a sequence of three papers describing an investigation of fifth graders' ability to learn to distinguish between valid and fallacious inferences from simple conditional premises. This paper presents the research design and results. (MN)

Intelligence test scores were found to predict achievement in high school chemistry more accurately than the Piaget-derived Longeot Test Scores. However, the construct measured by the Longeot is more clearly defined than the construct measured by the intelligence test. In this respect, the Longeot measure may be preferable to the intelligence…

A description is given of a lesson on two digit multiplication with nine-year olds that utilizes trial and error and partitioning of the problem in a discovery type approach. (MN)

The development of children's comprehension of cause and effect relationships was studied in 68 kindergarten, first grade, and second grade children. (BRT)