Understanding conceptual development along the implicit-explicit dimension: looking through the lens of the...

This study examined conceptual changes in children in the dimension of explicitness through the lens of the representational redescription model (A. Karmiloff-Smith, 1986, 1992). The 4- to 9-year-old participants (N = 24) had to balance blocks on a narrow support in one task and predict whether the blocks could be balanced in another task. In addition to the application of a microgenetic approach, various new methods were introduced to capture fine-grained changes in explicitness. Explicit understanding and behavioral performance were assessed separately with different measures. By using an adapted prediction task in a new way, evidence supporting the existence of an intermediate level of explicitness (Level E1) was found. The results also supported the existence of implicit-to-explicit development. The findings imply that the development of conceptual explicitness deserves further investigation.