INDIVIDUAL AND SITUATIONAL VARIABILITY IN COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENT

The purpose of this article is to argue that individual differences sh ould be taken into consideration when suggesting a model of cognitive development. Hence, a multidimensional perspective should be adopted, in which several underlying, independent processes are considered to c odetermine performance; this leads to the hypothesis that different de velopmental paths can exist for different types of subjects. A brief r eview of how individual differences have been dealt with in developmen tal psychology is first provided. Then, a three-phase longitudinal stu dy is presented as an empirical illustration. In the first phase, a sa mple of subjects ranging in age from 6 to 12 years were examined with eight Piagetian tasks. In the second phase, the same subjects were exa mined again 3 years later with the same tasks. The results from the fi rst two phases are very briefly summarized, stressing intraindividual differences. In the third phase, which took place 8 years later, follo w-up of the school records was obtained, and it was possible to distin guish several groups of students on the basis of their postcompulsory schooling. Several hypotheses are advanced, but they are only partiall y supported by the results for the potential relations between types o f schooling on the one hand, and for the modes of processing inferred from the intraindividual patterns observed in the Piagetian tasks on t he other.