Children (N=45), who had failed to attain criterion on three tests of linear order, were trained under one of three conditions: reciprocity, reversibility, and discrimination. Under all three conditions children demonstrated learning during training and significant specific transfer effects; reversibility training led to generalized transfer to…

Preschool and kindergarten nonconservers (N=114) were examined for their use of dimensions relevant to quantity in two conservation-of-substance tasks. The results were interpreted as being counter to Piaget's 4-step equilibration model of the development of compensation and conservation. (ST)

Eight reflective and eight impulsive preschool children were tested in a forced-choice recognition memory task. Reflective children made more correct recognition choices than did impulsive children under all experimental conditions. (ST)

First-grade boys (N=260) were classified according to response style on a continuum of reflectivity-impulsivity using Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test. For all groups, performances were poorest under reward conditions and better under the punishment and reward plus punishment conditions. (ST)

Seven-year olds (N=55) were administered cognitive measures of communicative egocentrism and moral judgment and were provided with two opportunities to display altruistic behavior; (1) to donate candy to poor children, and (2) to help a younger child complete a task. Success on the two cognitive measures was positively correlated with the…

Eight- and 9-year-olds (N=56) were studied to determine the degree to which counterconditioning could alter the positive or negative value acquired by a neutral stimulus in a conditioning situation. Dependent measures used to assess the effects of conditioning were found to have no independent effect on subsequent evaluations of the once-neutral…

Internal-external control (IE) expectancies of disadvantaged Head Start children were compared with those of middle class children in one Montessori and two parent cooperative nursery schools using the Stephens-Delys Reinforcement Contingency Interview IE measure. Middle class groups had significantly higher internal control scores than Head Start…

This study examined a category-induction'' manipulation which focused the attention of 40 preschoolers on categories through discussion and through spatial arrangement of items. This manipulation induced children's use of category questions. (ST)

In a schematic concept formation task, second and fifth graders were required to sort 60 computer-generated, 8-sided polygons into two classes. The results indicated that age differences in schematic concept formation are due more to the efficiency of information use than to differences in strategy or the selection of information to be used. (ST)

Preschool, third-, and sixth-grade classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged or nondisadvantaged were subjects in a voluntary-delay-of-reinforcement paradigm. Results indicated a shift from preference for immediate reinforcement in preschool to deferred selection in sixth grade for both socioeconomic groups. (ST)

A simple referential communication task was administered to 3-5 year-olds. Each subject communicated either to an experimenter who apparently could not see the referents that the subject was referring to or to an experimenter who could see the referents. The subjects communicating to an apparently blind experimenter were far more explicit verbally…