Twenty-four Greek mountain village children were studied to examine the expectation that early, environmentally induced, cognitive retardation may be partially reversible. Children were tested at six and one-half years and again after four and one-half years of schooling. The results do not support such an expectation. (Author/PN)

Although the idea that conservation can occur without compensation was rejected by Piaget, direct and indirect evidence from developmental studies and conservation training research indicates that conservation can and does develop without compensation. Nevertheless, adults' conservation concepts include the compensation principle and influence…

With first-grade and college students, examines barrier effects as a function of the task used to assess subjects' cognitive maps. One group, asked to give rank-ordering judgments, had to keep an entire spatial layout in mind. The second group made direct estimates of the distance between two objects. (RH)

Adaptations of simultaneous and successive processing and language tests were administered to 88 institutionalized moderately mentally retarded adolescents and adults. Results revealed a relationship between language and coding processing and demonstrated the involvement of serial processing in the comprehension of speech flow and language…

Although both environmental and cognitive factors were found to predict language development, cognitive factors appear to be more significant in the early months and environmental factors become more significant later in development. (MP)

The efficacy of reading remediation, which emphasizes phonic decoding, was examined in 61 children (ages 7 through 13 years) with pure reading disorders. Comparisons between pre- and post intervention data clearly support the efficacy of remediation. (MP)

Compared recognition and recall tests of retention in two studies of social memory in preschoolers (N=80). Children were asked to identify pictures of classmates or point to a picture as the experimenter said a child's name. In both experiments, no sex differences were found in the number of correct identifications. (Author/JAC)

Examined age differences in older (N=50) and younger (N=50) adults' comprehension and retention of television programs. Both studies explored content and learner variables. Results suggest that comprehension and retention are related to verbal ability, and that individuals with lower verbal ability may encode less information than their higher…

Describes components contributing to memory development, including: (1) capacity or processing allocation features of the information processing system; (2) strategies or control processes for problem solving; and (3) knowledge or semantic features acquired through experiences. Empirical evidence is reviewed supporting the psychological reality of…

The cognitive-developmental theory of moral development of the handicapped--i.e., a stage-like progress of moral reasoning with age--is only partially confirmed. While there is a development from the less to the more mature forms of moral reasoning, that course of development is not entirely such as the theory assumes. (Author/RM)

Many researchers, wishing to generalize to large numbers, have turned away from Piaget's measurement techniques to group paper-and-pencil tests. The psychometric properties of these tests and their statistical links with other constructs are examined, along with the relationship between the observed products of mental effort and their underlying…

A student development instrument, the Scale of Intellectual Development (SID), designed to measure a model of cognitive development. Validated the instrument with a sample of college freshmen (N=3,321). Results suggest that the SID has promise as a student development instrument; however, additional validation evidence needs to be collected. (RC)

Describes an experiment to see whether the words "front" and "back" introduce the concept of "front-back" or whether the concept preceded the words. Results show that (1) a complex disjunctive concept of "front-back" orientation precedes any knowledge of the words; (2) linguistically, "back" is comprehended before "front"; and (3) children at an…

Describes a study in which children are asked to choose the most probable or permissible of two modal propositions, a technique which assesses the children's appreciation of relative force. Results indicate that the general acquisition rule was: the greater the difference in the strength of the two modal propositions, the earlier the difference…

This discussion is primarily designed to increase teachers' awareness of Piaget's theory of cognitive development and implications for mathematics in the middle school. It is hoped such awareness will compel instructors to adopt strategies that help pupils gain more from mathematical experiences, by providing impetus for innovation and…