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M.A. / Cognitive development has been an important area of research among many theorists in the past. The study of cognitive development includes the study of the development of cognitive functions, processes and abilities (Demetrious, Doise, & Van Lieshout, 1998). Wick-Nelson and Israel (2000) assert that cognitive development remains an important area of research in the field of contemporary psychology. Piaget formulated a stage theory of cognitive development, and although one can draw certain assumptions from this regarding moral development, it does not address it directly. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, on the other hand, addresses moral development directly, which, indirectly, builds on Piaget’s theories of cognitive development. This implies a theoretical relationship between these two theories, even though Kohlberg’s theory goes beyond Piaget’s initial formulations (Flavell, 1982). In this study, this theoretical relationship is investigated. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between formal operational thought and post-conventional moral reasoning, specifically. In order to investigate this relationship, a correlational research design was used. The two main variables, i.e. formal operational thought and moral reasoning, were measured by means of Kohlberg’s Moral Judgement Interview (MJI) and the Similarities sub-test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – third edition (WAIS-III). A biographical questionnaire was also included in order to gain information that could be used as independent variables (e.g. age, race, gender, etc.). This was used to categorize the data for the purposes of the statistical analysis. The assessments were done on 150 undergraduate psychology students. The demographic characteristics of the sample were as follows: - Age group: 17-35 years of age - Gender: 36 male and 114 female - Race: 83 Black, 41 White, 16 Indian, 9 Coloured and 1 Asian. Although the sample size was adequate to perform parametric statistical analyses, the level of measurement, which was ordinal, only allowed for non-parametric analyses. Given the fact that the sample was not representative of the general population, only tentative conclusion could be drawn from the results. To this effect, the study was able to show that there are indications that a significant relationship exists between the level of cognitive development and the level of moral development. This finding warrants the further investigation between these two constructs. A significant relationship between maternal education levels and moral development was also found, which is contrary to the findings of other, similar studies. This finding seems to suggest that there might be certain unique factors in the South African population that may affect moral development in different ways than in other, western populations. It is strongly recommended that these differences be addressed in future research.

This study investigates learning difficulties involving volumes of solids of revolution (VSOR) at two FET colleges in Gauteng province, in South Africa. The research question for this study was: Why do students have difficulty when learning about volumes of solids of revolution? In order to answer the research question five skill factors were identified as the conceptual framework, subdivided into 11 elements. The five skill factors are: I. Graphing skills and translating between visual graphs and algebraic equations/expressions, II. Three-dimensional thinking, III. Moving between discrete and continuous representations, IV. General manipulation skills and V. Consolidation and general level of cognitive development. Before collecting the main data for this study, a preliminary study and a pilot study were conducted. The data for the main study were then collected in six different investigations. The investigations consisted of two runs of a questionnaire, classroom observations, examination analysis; detailed examination responses and an interview with one student. The results from the questionnaire runs as well as the pilot study reveal that students performed poorly in tasks involving three-dimensional thinking (Skill factor II), moving between discrete and continuous representations (Skill factor III), and consolidation and general level of cognitive development (Skill factor V). Students' performance was satisfactory in tasks involving graphing skills and translating between visual graphs and algebraic equations/expressions (Skill factor I) and general manipulation skills (Skill factor IV). Students were also more competent in solving problems that involved procedural skills than those that required conceptual skills. The challenges that students were faced with in class, evident from the classroom observations allude to the fact that the topic of VSOR is difficult to teach and to learn. It is recommended that VSOR be taught and assessed more conceptually in line with the five skill factors; that curriculum developers must communicate with other stakeholders like industries and other institutions of higher learning and that the Department of Education must provide adequate training for these teachers and liaise with industry in this regard. It is also recommended that the suitability of this topic for the particular cohort of students be reconsidered as it appears to be of too high cognitive demand. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mathematics and Applied Mathematics / unrestricted

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第23126号 / 人健博第88号 / 新制||人健||6(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 稲富 宏之, 教授 若村 智子, 教授 髙橋 良輔 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

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The social c lass differences in experiences which lead to cognitive development of children were investigated. A sample of 20 middle-class mothers with children enrolled in the Child Development Laboratory school and 18 lower-class mothers with children enrolled in the Head Start program in the Ogden City School District was chosen by placing the children's names in an age-ranked order. Two mothers who met the qualifications of being lower- class, but not having children enrolled in Head Start, were also included in this study. An interview outline was devised to attempt to standardize the interviews. It was concerned with five areas: (1) activities outside the home, (2) activities in the home, (3) reading, (4) toys and play, and (5) imaginative or dramatic play. The questioning was concerned with two problems: (1) are there differences between the responses of lower- and middle-class mothers in the reading and verbal interaction or conversation in which they participate with their children; and ( 2) are there differences in their responses concerning toys, play, and experience as a means of promoting cognitive growth . Differences were found to the middle-class child's advantages in the following area s : (1) activities outside the home, (2) reading, and (3) shared activi ties in the home . Differences were found also to the middle-class child 's advantage in the areas of toys and dramatic play, but not as strongly evidenced as in the three previously mentioned areas. The data suggest the following tentative conclusions which, because of the exploratory nature of the study, are stated as hypotheses to be tested: 1. Knowing the social c lass position of a family does not necessarily indicate the nature of the child-rearing practices which will be found to prevail in that home. 2 . Variations exist within each social class group, but, the middle-class home does provide important advantages in learning opportunities which are not available to children in lower - - class homes. With in the lower-class homes, however, parent education programs such as are provided in Head Start, do operate to reduce the deficits encountered by the lower-class child. Increased efforts in parent education may further reduce this deficiency.

Previous research in infant cognitive development has helped psychologists better understand visual looking patterns in infants exposed to various facial expressions and emotions. There has been significantly less research, however, on gaze sequences in relation to emotional body expressions. The aim of this study was to address this gap in the literature by using eye-tracking software to analyze infants’ gaze patterns of different areas of interest (AOIs) on emotional body expressions. Forty 6.5-month-old infants (Mean age in days = 193.9; SD = 8.00; 18 males) were shown four emotional body expressions (happy, sad, angry, fearful) with either a blurred face condition or a present face condition. Each expression was viewed twice by each infant for a total of 8-8 second trials. To examine whether infants’ first fixation location differed across emotion and area of interest (AOI), a mixed analysis of variance was conducted on the number of first fixations to each AOI across emotion with emotion (anger, fear, happy, sad) and AOI (upper body, face/head, legs, arms/hands) as a within-subjects factor and condition (face present, blurred) as a between-participant factor. There was a significant main effect of AOI, F(3, 342) = 36.40, p < .001, h2 = .49. However, this main effect is “explained” by a significant interaction between AOI and emotion, F(9, 342) = 2.07, p = .031, h2 = .05. There was no evidence of difference in performance across conditions, therefore subsequent analyses were collapsed across this variable. Follow-up analyses probing the interaction between AOI and emotion indicate that the number of first looks to the legs and arms/hands AOIs varies across emotion. For example, infants’ first fixation was more often directed towards the arms/hands AOI when the emotion of the body expression was sad. Additionally, infants’ first fixation location was more often directed toward the legs AOI when the body expression was happy. In contrast, there was insufficient evidence to suggest differences across emotion nor AOI when analyzing the time it took infants to make their first fixation or with the duration of the first fixation. In summary, the location of infants’ first fixation on static images of emotional body expressions varied as a function of emotion. Moreover, infants’ performance was not affected by the presence/absence of facial emotional information. These findings suggest that socially relevant features within bodies are differentially attended to by at least 6.5 months of age. This kind of systematic scanning may lay the groundwork for mature knowledge of emotions and appropriate behavioral responses to other people’s emotion later in life.

Providing students with service opportunities as an instructional tool has recently gained the attention of educators and legislative policy-makers. Participation in service activity has been positively correlated with attitudinal outcomes and the development of a responsible citizenry. While many philosophical and political proposals have been offered for why service-learning initiatives are important to higher education, this study attempted to gain insight into how service-learning impacts college students, specifically, students' cognitive development. The cognitive development of students participating in four service-learning sociology courses at a large, southeastern research university was measured using Erwin's (198J.) Scale of Intellectual Development- IV (SID). The SID-IV measures cognitive growth using Perry's (1968) scheme of cognitive development. The research design was a 2 (servicel non-service) X 2 (pre-testlpost-test) fa~torial design. In addition, analyses were conducted using course type, course instructor, and participant academic level to further elucidate group differences in cognitive growth. As a measure of the salience of the SL experience to the learning of course material, participants were asked to write a short answer to the question, "What activities in this class helped you learn the course materials best?" Responses 'were analyzed by SLINSL, length of response, and rank order of activities mentioned. The null hypothesis that there are no differences in the degree of Perry level thinking among service-learning participants (SL) and non-service-leaming (NSL) participants on pre- and post-test measures was supported empirically. Significant differences among participants were found by course type, instructor, and academic classification. Results of the short answer question provided anecdotal evidence that students perceived service as a meaningful method of learning in the class. / Master of Arts

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