本研究的目的有四：(1)以布魯納理論爲基礎，編擬一套能包含「動作表徵」、「影像表徵」及「符號表徵」三種認知能力之測驗，以爲測量兒童認知發展能力之工具。(2)探討年級與兒童認知發展能力之關係。(3)探討都市與鄉村兒童認知發展能力之差異情形。(4)探討智力高低與兒童認知發展能力之關係。受試者爲北市及苗栗縣國小三至六年級共三百廿名學生，男女各半。每位受試須個别參予十題由本研究者自編而成的認知表徵方式測驗，每題均包含三個子題，分别代表動作表徵，影像表徵和符號表徵材料。爲避免在測驗中產生學習起見，測驗時，總先呈現符號式問題，再以呈現圖畫式或影像式問題，最後再呈現實際材料讓受試操作。本研究所有資料以多因子變異數分析處理，結果發現：(1)國小三至六年級兒童，皆以「動作表徵」的認知能力爲最高，其次爲「影像表徵」能力，以「符號表徵」能力爲最低。然而，隨年級增加，各年級兒童的「符號表徵」能力間差距顯然大於「影像表徵」能力的差距，及「動作表徵」能力的差距。(2)都市兒童認知發展能力，不論在「動作表徵」、「影像表徵」及「符號表徵」能力，皆優於鄉村兒童。(3)智力高兒童不僅在「符號表徵」的認知能力優於智力低者；甚至於「動作表徵」及「影像表徵」等認知能力皆優於智力低者。這些結果可支持兒童的認知發展能力與年級，地區背景以及智力有密切關係的說法。

The purposes of this study were (1) to construct a test for measuring cognitive developmental abilities of children according to J. S. Bruner's theory, (2) to investigate the relationships between grades and cognitive abilities of children (3) to explore the differences between the cognitive abilities in city children and rural children, and (4) to discuss the connection between the levels of the intelligence and cognitive abilities. 320 subjects (160 boys and 160 girls) in grades three to six were selected from two elementary schools in Miau-Li and Taipei city. Each subject was tested through a self-compiled test with ten questions, three items in each. Each question was presented tin he order of symbolic item, pictoral item, and then manually operation alreal materials, in order to prevent learning experience bias. The results were as follows: (1) The cognitive developmental ability of ”enactive representation” was found to be the highest one in all grade levels of children, the ”iconic representation” the next, and the ”symbolic representation” the lowest. Besides, the higher grade the child went into, the more ”symbolic representation” was used, comparing to the ”iconic representation” and ”enactivereprentation” (2) The cognitive abilities of city children were superior to those of rural children. (3) The Chidren with high intellgence were superior to those with low intellgence in all three stages of cognitive development. It was concluded that there are close relationships among cognitive developmental ability of children, grade, cultural background, and intelligence.