ABSTRACT
If one were to select two task domains that were equally valued by a particular culture, and to isolate an intellectual operation that was used with equal frequency in each, it would seem to be a trivial matter to demonstrate that children begin to utilize this operation in each domain at about the same point in their development. In fact, however, this sort of demonstration has proved quite elusive. As Fischer (1980) has pointed out, studies that have been designed with this intent have usually revealed a strong degree of asynchrony or décalages in children’s development, not synchrony.
