Developmental analyses of two formal operational structures: Combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning.

Investigated developmental patterns for combinatorial thinking and conditional reasoning abilities and explored the possibility of an interrelationship between these formal operational structures in preadolescents and adolescents. 10 males and 10 females (IQ > 110) at each of the 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade levels were given (a) 2 verbal and 1 quantitative combinatorial thinking tasks and (b) a 30-item conditional reasoning test (2-wk intertest interval). Analysis of variance for the verbal combinatorial thinking revealed that 7th and 8th graders scored significantly higher than 5th graders, and that male 6th graders scored higher than female 6th graders while female 7th graders scored higher than male 7th graders. Analysis of quantitative thinking scores also revealed a significant (positive) effect for grade level but no sex * grade level interactions. Conditional reasoning scores for 8th graders were also significantly higher than Ss' scores at any other grade level. These overall findings support Piaget's contention that formal operational structures emerge during early adolescence; however, the nonsignificant correlations between Ss' scores on the 2 types of tasks fail to confirm his contention of an integration of formal operational competencies during this period. Methodological problems with the Piagetian clinical approach are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning about certainty and uncertainty in concrete, causal, and propositional contexts.

Examined children's comprehension of certainty and uncertainty within the context of concrete and propositional reasoning tasks. 69 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders were given G. Pieraut-LeBonniec's (1980) box task and a multisufficient causality task to assess reasoning about certainty and uncertainty in concrete contexts. Ss were also given conditional syllogisms to assess this ability in a propositional context. Half of the Ss at each grade were given contramanded syllogism task statements intended to block erroneous conversational inferences made about these conditional statements. Results indicate that there were no developmental differences in reasoning about concrete certainty, but significant improvement occurred with age in reasoning about concrete uncertainty. On syllogisms, only the 5th graders benefited from contramanding and thus demonstrated an understanding of propositional uncertainty. Correlational and error analyses showed that the discrimination between certainty and uncertainty was mastered in concrete contexts prior to the time when this discrimination occurred in propositional contexts. It is concluded that reasoning about concrete certainty and uncertainty requires a different competence than that required for reasoning about propositional certainty and uncertainty. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of cognitive style in a cognitive task: A case favoring the impulsive approach to problem solving.

A task that favored the impulsive approach to problem solving was given to impulsive, reflective, fast/accurate, and slow/inaccurate male 3rd and 4th graders. Ss learned to choose 1 of a pair of multidimensional stimuli based upon a single cue. In 1 condition, the stimuli were composed of many dimensions; in the 2nd condition, the stimuli were composed of few dimensions. Reflective Ss solved the task with few dimensions more quickly than impulsive Ss, whereas impulsive Ss solved the task with many dimensions in fewer trials. Fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate Ss solved problems in an intermediate number of trials but also reversed positions as a function of the number of dimensions. Both speed and accuracy components of cognitive style contributed to performance in the cognitive task. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and secondary reinforcement in 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the 1st author's cognitive theory of secondary reinforcement effects, which predicts that Ss of a preoperational age (i.e., younger than 7 yrs) should not necessarily learn responses followed by a stimulus object previously instrumental in obtaining a reward, while Ss of a postoperational age should do so. Using 24 1st and 24 5th graders in 2 learning tasks, the prediction was confirmed. Furthermore, verbal responses indicated that the logical operations that presumably influenced the behavior of the older children actually did occur. In Exp II, using 28 2nd and 15 6th graders, the training task was simplified in order to try to facilitate logical reasoning, but the behavior of the younger Ss was not affected. It is concluded that secondary reinforcement of a stimulus–response associative type has yet to be demonstrated, and that secondary reinforcement of a cognitive type is heavily dependent on reasoning ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive style effects on sex status in student work groups.

Studied the mediating effect of field independence on sex difference in activity and influence in 27 task groups, each composed of 2 male and 2 female 9th-11th graders. All Ss were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test, portable rod-and-frame test, and Extended Range Vocabulary Test, Form B-3. Ss, matched for verbal ability and field independence within groups, were videotaped discussing a decision-making task. Videotapes were coded for individual verbal activity and influence. A hierarchical analysis of variance design was used, with the effects of cognitive style group, sex, and replication assessed in order. Results indicate Sex * Cognitive Style interaction effects, with males more active and influential than females in field-dependent groups, males more active but not more influential than females in middle-range groups, and males and females equally active and influential in field-independent groups. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of perceptual salience on reflective-impulse performance differences.

Examined the relationship between perceptual salience and cognitive style in 31 1st graders, 37 3rd graders, and 37 5th graders who had been classified as impulsive or reflective based on scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. After determining salience hierarchy scores, Ss were given a modified matching test. This test consisted of 3 trial types on which the S's most salient, least salient, or both most and least salient dimensions were necessary for making a correct match. Impulsives made more errors than reflectives only on trials requiring the use of the least salient dimension. These performance differences decreased with age. Cognitive style did not affect latencies on the modified matching task. It is concluded that (a) perceptual features of the stimulus situation can markedly influence impulsives' performance, (b) cognitive style effects were not attributable to differences in the salience hierarchies of reflective-impulsive Ss, (c) cognitive style differences can occur in the absence of latency differences, and (d) sensitization to perceptual features may be an effective means of improving impulsives' performance. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to interpret conditional sentences: A developmental study.

Evaluated the capacity of 71 3rd, 70 6th, and 64 9th graders to learn 3 interpretations of abstract conditional sentences. With appropriate feedback on responses in the syllogistic, conditional sentence reasoning task, Ss were able to learn conjunctive and biconditional interpretations but not conditional. Indeed, only one-third of the 9th graders mastered the conditional interpretation. The patterns of errors across the 8 forms of the argument varied both developmentally and with the required interpretation. Results indicate significant developmental constraints on reasoning required by formal, inferential tasks using language connectives. Learning the more difficult conditional interpretation requires an understanding of asymmetry between propositions, an ability which most preadolescent children do not seem to have. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Checking it out: Cognitive style, context, and problem type in children's monitoring of text comprehension.

Three experiments investigated the effects of age, context, and reflection–impulsivity (as assessed by the Matching Familiar Figures Test) on children's monitoring of comprehensibility problems in extended passages. In Exp I with 20 kindergartners and 20 2nd graders, reflective listeners were generally more effective detectors of referentially ambiguous terms in brief texts than were their impulsive agemates. Presence of a perceptual context for the messages significantly facilitated Ss' ambiguity detection as well. Exp II replicated the perceptual-context effect for 20 1st graders but failed to find any effects of cognitive style. In Exp III, 72 1st, 3rd, and 6th graders heard stories with several types of coherence problems, including referential confusions or global text-organization problems (missing story themes or resolutions). Half the Ss anticipated retelling the stories, and half did not. No effects of this listener–purpose manipulation were observed. More reflective listeners again detected referential ambiguities more readily overall, but this cognitive style effect did not extend to other types of message problems. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of political attitude to constraint-oriented and prosocial moral reasoning.

Investigated the relationship between prosocial and constraint-oriented moral reasoning and liberal and humanistic political attitudes. 76 White middle-class 7th-12th graders from a Presbyterian church and a Jewish camp completed a 41-item political questionnaire and a written objective test of moral reasoning based on L. Kohlberg's (1969) conceptualizations. Chi-square analyses revealed that older Ss were significantly more liberal and humanitarian than younger Ss, and older Ss exhibited a significantly higher level of moral reasoning. Correlations between political attitude scores and moral indices partially supported the hypothesis that higher levels of moral reasoning are associated with more liberal and humanistic attitudes: Liberalism scores were significantly related to the prosocial, constraint, and combined moral indices; humanitarian scores were significantly related to the prosocial and combined indices, but not the constraint index. Further research is needed to determine whether findings generalize to other social strata. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive style in two modalities: Vision and audition.

Administered the visual Matching Familiar Figures Sequential Presentation Task (MFF-SPT) and the Auditory Impulsivity Task (AIT), 2 match-to-sample tasks designed to measure cognitive style, to 81 4th graders. A moderate negative correlation was found between errors and latencies on the AIT, thus indicating that longer latency did not always result in better performance. A high negative correlation was found on the MFF-SPT. 55% of the Ss maintained their classification as reflective, impulsive, fast–accurate, or slow–inaccurate across the 2 modalities, providing evidence that the 2 tasks were measuring somewhat different abilities. Ss employed the same search strategy in both modalities. It is suggested that auditory cognitive style be investigated for relationships with reading ability. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in organization and recall: Training in the use of organizational techniques.

Used an alternating sort-recall procedure in 3 experiments to train 204 elementary school children in the use of organizational techniques as memory aids. All Ss sorted a group of words into 2–7 categories, and some Ss were required to learn the sorting patterns generated by adults. In Exp I, the semantic sophistication of a S's sorting style predicted recall performance. Further, the tendency to improve memory performance as a result of being constrained to adult sorting patterns varied with age; constrained 5th graders significantly improved their recall, whereas the recall of 3rd and 7th grade Ss was not affected by this training. However, more detailed organizational training in Exp II facilitated the recall of 3rd graders. In Exp II, it was found that the constraining procedure was not necessary for facilitation to be observed. Rather, instructions to group words on the basis of meaning were sufficient to produce improved recall. Further, improvements in sorting style accompanied all significant changes in recall. Findings are discussed in terms of a discrepancy between the information which a child has in permanent memory and that which he uses spontaneously in the context of a memorization task. The importance of input organization as a mediating factor in memory performance and development is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race differences on nonverbal analogy test performance as a function of verbal strategy training.

Hypothesized that the relatively poor performance of Black students on nominally nonverbal reasoning tests (A. R. Jensen's Level II) (see record 1974-24027-001) may be due to their failure to use verbal problem-solving strategies efficiently and spontaneously. 200 4th and 5th graders, both Black and White, showed no race differences on Level I ability (digit-span memory). Half of the Ss of each race were then trained to use a verbal strategy on nonverbal analogies. For Ss who received no special training there were significant race differences on the analogies test (p     

A note on the evaluation of a new answer form.

An answer form with a new item format proved comparable to a standard IBM form in an answer-marking task. A new red answer form with similar new item format was then used with actual tests. Ss were 4th graders, 8th graders, and 12th graders in 4 cities; each took a test form appropriate for his grade level with a new and old answer form. The new answer form was considered acceptable for use in the 8th grade and higher grades. Color change represented by the new red answer form had no significant effect on test performance of persons in the 8th grade or higher. Statistical analyses of the 4th-grade data proved inconclusive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambivalence and defense: Effects of a repressive style on normal adolescents' and young adults' mixed feelings.

Ambivalence has been associated in theoretical works with psychopathology and with defenses against conflict. Ambivalence was operationalized as mixed feelings. 75 9th graders (27 boys and 48 girls), 50 12th graders (19 men and 31 women), and 80 Yale University undergraduates (38 men and 42 women) completed questionnaires assessing ambivalence, psychopathological symptoms, and repressive and nonrepressive styles. Compared with nonrepressive Ss, repressive Ss at all grade levels reported lower levels of mixed feelings and relatively less uncertainty about their feelings. Whereas the absence of felt anxiety was sufficient for lower self-reported psychopathological symptoms, a repressive style was necessary for lower self-reported ambivalence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizing stories: Effects of development and task difficulty on referential cohesion in narrative.

Two experiments examined the effects of age and task difficulty on the referential cohesion of story retellings. In Exp I, analyses of referential error rates showed that 20 4-yr-olds produced more inappropriate introductory phrases than did 20 6-yr-olds, though rates for ambiguities in already-introduced referents did not differ significantly. Other types of referential errors were infrequent. Exp II investigated the impact of task difficulty on referring by systematically varying mode of story presentation (verbal vs video), familiarity/practice (1 vs 3 presentations), and S's cognitive style (reflective vs impulsive) as measured by the Matching Familiar Figures Test. It was hypothesized that increased task difficulty would lead to higher error rates for all S groups: 16 1st graders, 16 3rd graders, and 16 college students. Results indicate a higher incidence of errors with videotape rather than verbal presentation and for Ss with an impulsive style. Practice lowered the rate of introductory problems for young children, as expected, but failed to affect ambiguity rates. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive dimensions of numerical rule induction.

Studied the cognitive determinants of number analogy performance by systematically manipulating the processing demands imposed by the items. To explore sources of developmental differences in analogical reasoning, Ss were included from 2 age levels—36 4th and 5th graders, and 18 undergraduates. To allow the investigation of individual differences in reasoning ability, the 4th and 5th graders were selected to represent 2 general aptitude levels, average and high IQs (as measured by the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test). All Ss were administered the Number Relations subtest of the Analysis of Learning Potential and the WAIS. In each group, a combination of process and content knowledge factors accounted for more than 70% of the variance in item solution difficulty. The most critical processing demand affecting successful performance was the amount of solution-related information to be assembled and managed in working memory. Process and content-knowledge factors differentiated adults from children, whereas only specific, factual knowledge competencies seemed to differentiate between IQ levels in children. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of serial rehearsal training on memory search.

Examined the effects of storage processing on short-term memory search. 32 moderate and 32 high IQ 4th-5th graders were given an S. Sternberg (1966, 1969) recognition memory task. Half of the Ss were trained to use a serial rehearsal strategy during target set storage, and half were given no specific strategy training. The training variable was crossed with rehearsal requirement (overt or covert) so that storage processing could be monitored directly. Dependent measures included S-paced study times, overt rehearsals, and reaction times. Results indicate IQ-related differences in the rate of memory search in the absence of differences in rehearsal during storage. In addition, serial rehearsal training facilitated memory search when rehearsal was covert, particularly for high IQ Ss. The data are discussed with regard to target set storage resulting from a serial rehearsal pattern and to the apparent inverse relationship between IQ and memory-search rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's judgments and attributions in response to the "mentally retarded" label: A developmental approach.

140 3rd graders, 188 6th graders, and 97 9th graders viewed a videotape in which a child failed a puzzle task. All of the Ss had identical information about the child's achievement scores and puzzle ability, but half were told that the child was mentally retarded. Consistent with key person perception and social cognition findings, the traitlike retarded label had little impact on younger Ss but strong effects on older Ss. Like adults in earlier research, 6th and 9th graders saw low effort as a less important cause of failure for the retarded than for the unlabeled child, and they saw less need to urge the retarded child to persist. Correlations showed no evidence of logical linkages among attributions, expectancies, and persistence-urging among 3rd graders, but strong linkages among 6th and 9th graders. Findings suggest that label effects are mediated by cognitive processes dependent on developmental level. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of explicitness, clause order, and reversibility on children's comprehension of causal relationships.

Three experiments investigated possible age- and ability-related differences in the effects of explicitness, reversibility, and clause order on children's comprehension of causal relationships. Ss were 80 3rd graders, 156 5th graders, and 156 8th graders. At each grade level, Ss of all ability levels read passages containing reversible and irreversible relationships in 1 of 4 experimental formats: explicit with normal clause order, explicit with reversed clause order, implicit with normal clause order, and implicit with reversed clause order. Each passage was followed by a set of prompted-recall questions designed to measure comprehension of the causal relationships. Significant effects for reversibility were found at all 3 grade levels. Significant efects for explicitness were found for the 5th- and 8th-grade samples only. Significant effects for clause order were found for the 3rd- and 5th-grade samples only, with comprehension scores being significantly higher for the groups reading the relationships in the reversed clause order. No significant interactions with ability were found. It is concluded that further research should examine the exact compensatory strategies used by readers when connective comprehension is difficult. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Imaginary audience behavior in children and adolescents.

The Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS), consisting of 2 subscales—the Transient Self (TS) and the Abiding Self (AS) scale—was administered to 697 Ss at the 4th-, 6th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade levels. The scale assesses young people's willingness to reveal different facets of themselves to an audience. Some of the Ss were given the test twice to obtain reliability data, and some of the other Ss were also tested on measures of self-esteem and locus of control (e.g., Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children) to obtain validity data. Results show that the IAS has reasonable reliability and construct validity. Results also show that 8th graders were significantly less willing than older or younger Ss to reveal their transient and abiding selves to an audience. Girls tended to be more reluctant than boys to reveal themselves to an audience. Results support the imaginary audience construct and warrant further use of the IAS. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)