A general assessment procedure to measure children's schema acquisition

The theoretical and methodological underpinnings of a general procedure to assess the degree to which children have acquired cognitive schemas are presented. This procedure integrates prototype-plus-transfor-marion theory, sorting techniques, and statistical analysis from the quadratic assignment paradigm (QAP). The development and evaluation of appropriate stimuli to be used in this procedure are discussed, and an illustration of their use is provided. It is argued that this assessment procedure has broad applications for clinical interventions that attempt to train individuals to acquire and use new cognitive schemas or to restructure existing ones.