An investigation was made of the structure of riddles, riddle content, and the function of riddling among children ages 5 to 14. Interaction data and 1195 items were taped and hand-recorded during riddle sessions with 101 children from kindergarten, second, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades. (MS)

Foreign language study is important not only as a tool or a requisite for a job, but as mental discipline, to shape minds and exercise the intellect for all types of academic and career endeavors. (CHK)

Reviews Piaget's theory of cognitive development and discusses how science concepts can be taught to secondary school students at different cognitive levels. (MLH)

The first part of this report consists of more than 12 studies of various psychological tests results which previous cross-cultural research had shown to vary with educational experience. The second part consists of a demographic survey designed to specify the selective factors operating to determine the amount of education obtained by Yucatan…

Students (N=35) in a graduate rehabilitation counseling curriculum who opted to take a program in altered awareness and subjective states of experience described themselves initially as more tentative, impulsive, and imaginative on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire than another group of students (N=35) who elected not to participate.…

Examined whether prudence and altruism, in situations involving future desires, follow similar developmental courses between ages 3 and 5. Tested children on ability to forego current opportunity in order to gratify their own future desires or those of research assistant. Found that between ages 3 and 4, children develop some common mechanism…

Argues for a developmental account of social information-gathering ability, one that is consistent with the larger body of evidence concerning sociocognitive abilities in infants and young children. Notes that little is known concerning when and how young children acquire this important skill. (MDM)

Three experiments examined preschoolers' and adults' understanding of distinctive semantic functions of adjectives and count nouns. Found that 4-year olds and adults, but not 3-year olds, who heard the adjective version (e.g., "a blue bird") were more likely than those who heard the count noun version ("a bluebird") to choose…

Three studies used illustrated stories to examine preschoolers' understanding of emotional changes when memories of past events were cued by objects in the current environment. Found substantial development between 4 and 6 years in understanding the influence of mental activity on emotions. The strength and consistency of this knowledge was…

Examines the meaning of reaction time (RT) and the possibility that it may predict other cognitive and motor skills in the first year of life. Considers two competing models that specify the information-processing components underlying RT performance. Describes the neural data needed to definitively choose between the models and considers…

Focuses on three main issues emerging from studies of conceptual development: (1) young children's naive theories of the world; (2) how innate constraints in conceptual development work; and (3) how innate and sociocultural constraints are integrated. Maintains that early development of core domains of thought (naive psychology, physics, and…

Investigates the cognitive development of a group of counselor education students (N=43) during their training and also assesses the relationship of cognitive development to actual counseling behavior. Results indicate small incremental gains in counselor cognitive functioning over the course of training. Findings suggest a need to emphasize…

Comparison of elementary grade students with (N=42) or without (N=42) learning disabilities (LD) on their logical-mathematical structures of thought found that, though both groups generated grouping relationships, children with LD tendered to generate solutions showing less coordinated structures of thought. For both groups, scores on the…

Outlines Piaget's late ideas on categories and morphisms and the impact of these ideas on the comprehension of the inclusion relationship and the solution of arithmetic problems. Reports a study in which fourth through sixth graders were given arithmetic problems involving two known quantities associated with changes rather than states. Identified…

The educator's job is, in part, to reorient the student toward the truth and to encourage further cognitive development. Book VII of Plato's "Republic" outlines a curriculum that can orient the student toward truth. The curriculum outlined by Plato still forms the basis of much liberal arts education. (SLD)