Margaret Donaldson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3657772 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Margaret Donaldson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Margaret |
| FAMILY NAME | Donaldson |
| SIGNATURE | DONALDSON M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1959 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
‘The Cultivation of the Heart and the Moulding of the Will …’ The Missionary Contribution of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East
The cultivation of the heart and the moulding of the will...’—these words symbolize the work of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East. This society existed from 1834 to 1899. It was run entirely by women, for educating and evangelizing girls and women in distant lands
The Voluntary Principle in the Colonial Situation
When the London Missionary Society (LMS) came into being in 1795 two principles formed the twin pillars of its existence: the Fundamental Principle, which declared that the Society existed to preach the gospel to the heathen and not to promote any particular form of church polity: and the voluntary principle, which declared that financial responsibility for a church devolved upon its members, and not upon the government or, in the long term, upon…
Conservation
Success in a conservation task entails understanding that the transformation is irrelevant to the question. Much depends, however, on whether the question is treated as a set of disembedded words, in which case it is still ‘the same question’ when asked a second time, or as a unity of words‐and‐context, in which case it is not. There is now much evidence that young children tend to the latter mode of interpretation and, in effect, often fail to c…
On a method of eliciting true/false judgments from young children
This note describes a method of getting pre-school children to judge whether statements are true or false. The method is based on the argument that young children are likely to make these judgments more readily, and in a way that more fully reflects their opinions, if the statements to be judged are ostensibly made not by an adult but by someone whom the child regards as being less able and less knowledgeable than himself. For this purpose, a ‘ta…
Constraints on Classificatory Skills in Young Children
On three occasions over a one‐year period 23 children aged 3–4 were asked to match target objects with other objects which were similar to the target in shape or in colour but not in both. A sequence of matches to each target was asked for. The structure of these sequences is examined for evidence of classificatory abilities. Many subjects appear to be attempting (not always successfully) to follow a strategy of ‘holding fast’ to their original c…
Some clues to the nature of semantic development
Studies of comprehension of the quantifiers all and more are reported. The subjects were children between the ages of three and five. There were two main conditions. In one of these the objects to which the quantifiers related were enclosed in containers which either were or were not filled by the objects. In the other no containers were present. These conditions yielded substantially different response patterns. The relation of the findings to t…
Less Is More
A task devised to study comprehension of the words 'more' and 'less' was given to a group of 15 children aged between 3:5 yr. and 4:1 yr. Another task, designed to assess comprehension of 'less' without reference to 'more', was given to the same group approximately 6 months later. The main finding (which holds for both occasions) is that only one subject gave consistently correct responses to 'less'. For the others it seemed that 'less' remained …
Positive and Negative Information in Matching Problems
Two tasks are used, for the successful performance of which it is necessary to prefer negative information to its formally equivalent positive counterpart. The subjects are 19 children aged 14 years to 14 years 6 months, who are observed individually, and 90 students in a Scottish teachers' training college who are tested as a group. Results confirm previous findings that formal equivalence of positive and negative information does not ensure psy…
Less Is More
A task devised to study comprehension of the words 'more' and 'less' was given to a group of 15 children aged between 3:5 yr. and 4:1 yr. Another task, designed to assess comprehension of 'less' without reference to 'more', was given to the same group approximately 6 months later. The main finding (which holds for both occasions) is that only one subject gave consistently correct responses to 'less'. For the others it seemed that 'less' remained …
Positive and Negative Information in Matching Problems
Two tasks are used, for the successful performance of which it is necessary to prefer negative information to its formally equivalent positive counterpart. The subjects are 19 children aged 14 years to 14 years 6 months, who are observed individually, and 90 students in a Scottish teachers' training college who are tested as a group. Results confirm previous findings that formal equivalence of positive and negative information does not ensure psy…
Conservation
Success in a conservation task entails understanding that the transformation is irrelevant to the question. Much depends, however, on whether the question is treated as a set of disembedded words, in which case it is still ‘the same question’ when asked a second time, or as a unity of words‐and‐context, in which case it is not. There is now much evidence that young children tend to the latter mode of interpretation and, in effect, often fail to c…
Positive and Negative Information in Matching Problems
Two tasks are used, for the successful performance of which it is necessary to prefer negative information to its formally equivalent positive counterpart. The subjects are 19 children aged 14 years to 14 years 6 months, who are observed individually, and 90 students in a Scottish teachers' training college who are tested as a group. Results confirm previous findings that formal equivalence of positive and negative information does not ensure psy…
Less Is More
A task devised to study comprehension of the words 'more' and 'less' was given to a group of 15 children aged between 3:5 yr. and 4:1 yr. Another task, designed to assess comprehension of 'less' without reference to 'more', was given to the same group approximately 6 months later. The main finding (which holds for both occasions) is that only one subject gave consistently correct responses to 'less'. For the others it seemed that 'less' remained …
Some clues to the nature of semantic development
Studies of comprehension of the quantifiers all and more are reported. The subjects were children between the ages of three and five. There were two main conditions. In one of these the objects to which the quantifiers related were enclosed in containers which either were or were not filled by the objects. In the other no containers were present. These conditions yielded substantially different response patterns. The relation of the findings to t…
On a method of eliciting true/false judgments from young children
This note describes a method of getting pre-school children to judge whether statements are true or false. The method is based on the argument that young children are likely to make these judgments more readily, and in a way that more fully reflects their opinions, if the statements to be judged are ostensibly made not by an adult but by someone whom the child regards as being less able and less knowledgeable than himself. For this purpose, a ‘ta…
Constraints on Classificatory Skills in Young Children
On three occasions over a one‐year period 23 children aged 3–4 were asked to match target objects with other objects which were similar to the target in shape or in colour but not in both. A sequence of matches to each target was asked for. The structure of these sequences is examined for evidence of classificatory abilities. Many subjects appear to be attempting (not always successfully) to follow a strategy of ‘holding fast’ to their original c…
Conservation
Success in a conservation task entails understanding that the transformation is irrelevant to the question. Much depends, however, on whether the question is treated as a set of disembedded words, in which case it is still ‘the same question’ when asked a second time, or as a unity of words‐and‐context, in which case it is not. There is now much evidence that young children tend to the latter mode of interpretation and, in effect, often fail to c…
The Voluntary Principle in the Colonial Situation
When the London Missionary Society (LMS) came into being in 1795 two principles formed the twin pillars of its existence: the Fundamental Principle, which declared that the Society existed to preach the gospel to the heathen and not to promote any particular form of church polity: and the voluntary principle, which declared that financial responsibility for a church devolved upon its members, and not upon the government or, in the long term, upon…
‘The Cultivation of the Heart and the Moulding of the Will …’ The Missionary Contribution of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East
The cultivation of the heart and the moulding of the will...’—these words symbolize the work of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East. This society existed from 1834 to 1899. It was run entirely by women, for educating and evangelizing girls and women in distant lands
Psychology (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Social Psychology (4 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (3 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Linguistics (3 works) · Comprehension (2 works) · Engineering (2 works) · Interpretation (philosophy) (2 works)