Three paper-and-pencil formal operations tests were administered to groups of eighth graders and adults. These measures provided scores that indicated each subject's level of reasoning for three second-order operations: combinations, proportionality, and propositional logic. (JMB)

Indicates that preschool-aged children can and do rely on temporal ordering as a cue in making a causal judgment about a simple, mechanical event. (Author/RH)

Investigates inferential behavior in five- and six-year-old children who made inferences about the spatial locations of models of animals and people in three experiments. Two levels of inference were found. Inferences of most five year olds were consistent with information given; Inferences of most six year olds were logically necessary ones.…

Reports three experiments based on the hypothesis that qualitative changes in verbal reasoning emerge, not from the conclusions children draw, but from what they accept as conclusive evidence. Results show a gradual development across 7-13 age range in ability to distinguish logically certain from only suggested or probabilistic conclusions.…

A series of tests of dimensional understanding showed that there was a hierarchical sequence, with three year olds able to handle less complex tasks than four year olds. (Editor)

Gives an analysis of how Einstein viewed "thinking," and the nature of scientific discovery, using extensive quotations from Einstein's own writings, and especially from his essay "Autobiographical Notes."

Investigated with 15 elementary or secondary grade nonretarded exceptional children was the correlation of spatial problems with difficulty in reading, writing, and spelling. (DB)

To test the hypothesis that meaning of a sentence is represented in an abstract format rather than one mediated by words or images, 96 spoken sentences were immediately followed by a word or drawing probe. It was concluded that sentence or probe meaning is represented in an abstract conceptual format. (CHK)

The study suggests that developing greater facility in linguistic skills may well produce greater cognitive differentiation and enhance the process of objectification. (Author)

Describes the use of chess instruction to develop abstract thinking skills and problem solving among gifted students. Offers suggestions for starting school chess programs, teaching and evaluating chess skills, and measuring the success of both student-players and the program in general. (PB)

Three experiments tested 3- and 4-year-olds' use of abstract principles to classify and label objects by shape or function. Findings indicated that 4-year-olds readily adopted either rule when instructed to match objects by shape or function, but 3-year-olds followed only the shape rule. Without a rule, 4-year-olds tended to match by shape unless…

Explores the effects of Roundhouse diagram construction on a previously low-performing middle school science student's struggles to understand abstract science concepts and principles. Based on a metacognition-based visual learning model, aims to elucidate the process by which Roundhouse diagramming helps learners bootstrap their current…

The paper questions the relationship among reason, imagination, and empathy, and argues that empathy fosters critical and creative thinking and that its enhancement should be adopted as an important educational goal. The paper proposes that critical and creative thinking are much more integrated processes than often supposed. (JDD)

The relationship between memory and reasoning was investigated in three experiments involving children in grades one, four, and seven, and college students. Results indicated that performance was dependent on subjects' abilities to integrate relevant subskills, rather than on deficient reasoning or missing subskills. (RJC)

Reports five experiments that challenge the view that young children's understanding of race is based primarily on superficial differences in appearance. Found that young children's inferences about human racial variation involved domain-specific reasoning that parallelled, but were distinct from, common sense understanding of naive biology. (DR)