This research tests the implicit assumption that cognitive development is independent of ethnic background. The testing instrument used was a newly designed spatial reasoning test intended to reflect the sequence of acquisition of skills requisite to map reading and drawing. A sample of 270 black, Chinese, and white subjects (90 each at the 5th,…

In order to gather data bearing on the effects of individual differences of the "invariant stages" assumption of cognitive-developmental theory, 270 black, Chinese, and white subjects from 5th, 7th, and ninth grades were administered a new, 25-item, spatial reasoning task. It was predicted that age, ethnic group, and sex would…

This educational research project is designed to assess an elementary student's quality of reasoning in relation to map skills and to determine spatial concept abilities. 21 activities are designed to test sense of proportion, scale, dimension, accurate relationship, and abstract thinking. The related topographical map, a Map-Study Scoring Key,…

This study investigated several levels of internal and external disequilibrium and their interaction. Subjects were 63 fifth graders assigned to three groups according to their degree of internal disequilibrium. Internal disequilibrium was measured by the amount "level mixture" (a tendency to respond to various events at several…

A map-drawing task was used to test the effects of (1) presenting instruction at a cognitive level higher than that at which most of the students in the study were operating and of (2) presenting instruction to groups of students of differing cognitive levels. Subjects were 63 fifth grade students. (JMB)