This study assessed the influence of age and ability on linear syllogistic reasoning in early adolescence by presenting bright and average 11- and 13-year-olds with 64, 3-term series problems. Results showed a dramatic effect on performance due to ability. Age effect was only marginally significant. (JMB)

Tested the comprehension of 3- and 4-year-old children with probable and improbable sentences in active and passive voice in order to evaluate the importance of semantic support for comprehension of passive sentences. (Author/SDH)

The concept model addressed in this paper is the set of assumptions, data, and inferences used in the instructional design of concept learning. A new way of looking at concepts is presented that takes into account the declarative and metacognitive components of concept learning and use. Implications for instruction are outlined. The paper is…

This study examined the conduct of academic tasks in six secondary classrooms, focusing specifically on assigments requiring some higher level cognitive operations, with attention to how management strategies and classroom conditions associated with these assignments affect their cognitive demands on students. Analysis of tasks in these six…

In the pursuit of the question as to whether there are significant relationships between certain measures of personality and abstract or critical thinking, it was believed that should significant relationships exist, they may prove useful as one of the factors among several used in the selection of teachers. A paucity of literature citations…

Intended for teachers, this booklet shows how spoken language can affect student thinking and presents strategies for teaching critical thinking skills. The first section discusses the theoretical and research bases for promoting critical thinking through speech, defines critical thinking, explores critical thinking as abstract thinking, and tells…

Paper reports research related to mathematics, philosophy, computer science and linguistics. It gives a system of axioms for a relatively simple form of fuzzy set theory, and uses these axioms to consider the accuracy of representing concepts in various ways by fuzzy sets. (Author)

Investigated the relationship between psychometrically defined brightness and cognitive development within Piaget's stage theory. Subjects were fifth- and seventh-grade boys. (SDH)

This study examined children's development of the concept of the reciprocal relationship of question and answer by asking subjects to form questions to fit given answers and to form answers for given questions. A total of 72 children (18 per grades 1, 4, 7, and 10) participated in the study. Each child was tested individually on two tasks (the…

This speech discusses concrete entities and abstract phenomena--focusing especially on the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. The author first explains that, according to Plato and Aristotle, there is a qualitative difference between things classified as concrete and those labeled abstract. She then questions whether there really is a difference…

Forty-four education and 44 dental students were administered a 30-item syllogism test containing five syllogic forms six times repeated in three different content forms--technical dental terms, common dental terms, and content-free (letters). Data were analyzed using a two-factor with repeated measures on one factor design. It was found that…

This study is based on an earlier investigation by Brant and Trabasso, in which it was demonstrated that 4-year-old children could perform transitive inferences when training forced information encoding by involving questions about two comparative dimensions of an object (long and short). The present study was designed to examine the sources of…