Cognitive Development, 8, 47-62 (1993) The Development of Biological Knowledge: A Multi-National Study Giyoo Hatano Dokkyo University, Japan Robert S. Siegler Carnegie Mellon University D. Dean Richards University of California, Los Angeles Kayoko Inagaki Chiba University, Japan Ruth Stavy Naomi Wax Tel Aviv University, Israel This study was designed to differentiate between universal and culturally specific aspects of children's biological understanding. Kindergartners, second graders, and fourth graders from Israel, Japan, and the United States were asked whether people, other animals, plants, and inanimate objects possessed each of 16 attri- butes. The attributes included life, unobservable attributes of animals, sensory capacities, and attributes of all living things. The results indicated that children of all three ages in all three countries knew that people, other animals, plants, and inanimate entities were different types of things, with different properties. Chil- dren in all cultures were extremely accurate regarding properties of humans, somewhat less accurate regarding properties of other animals and inanimate en- tities, and least accurate regarding properties of plants. As predicted from cultural analyses, Israeli children were the most likely to fail to attribute to plants qualities that are shared by all living things. Also as predicted, Japanese children were the most likely to attribute to inanimate entities attributes possessed only by living things. In contrast to many previous findings, U.S. children in the study presented This research was initiated as a collaborative research project between the Social Science Re- search Council of the U.S. and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. Data collection was carried out in Japan by Inagaki and Hatano, in the U.S. by Richards and Siegler. and in Israel by Stavy and Wax. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Robert S. Siegler. Psychology Depart- ment, Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh. PA 15213, or Giyoo Hatano, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Dokkyo University, Soka, Saitama, 340 Japan. Manuscript received March 9, 1992; revision accepted June 22, 1992 47