COGNITIVE-DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICAN CHILDREN

During the past 30 years, numerous studies have been carried out on the cognitive development of African children. In this article, I have reviewed some of these studies, the results of which have shown that African children perform similarly on Piagetian cognitive tasks to others in the West and elsewhere and that environmental factors such as urbanization, education, and culture are similarly related to cognitive development. For example, urban Africans tend to outperform rural Africans, and those who have been exposed to education tend to outperform those who have not.