FORMAL, SYSTEMATIC, AND METASYSTEMATIC OPERATIONS WITH A BALANCE-BEAMTASK SERIES - A REPLY TO KALLIOS CLAIM OF NO DISTINCT SYSTEMATIC STAGE

This reply discusses the measurement of formal, systematic, and metasy stematic stages. Recent multidomain studies have shown disparate resul ts and we suggest that these results could be attributed not to actual variations in adult development or the existence or non-existence of stage, but instead may reflect differences in methodology regarding ta sk, domain, and scoring. Our study indicates that when tested in only one domain-balance beams and extensions of those tasks-participants wh o performed at the higher stage were also able to perform at the lower stages. These results also coincide with similar studies conducted.