Harris and Koenig make a compelling case for the importance of adult "testimony" and its influence on children's developing conceptions of topics in science and religion. This commentary considers how their analysis relates to constructivist and sociocultural theories and discusses several ways in which Harris and Koenig's arguments help to debunk…

Children's learning--in the domains of science and religion specifically, but in many other cultural domains as well--relies extensively on testimony and other forms of culturally transmitted information. The cognitive processes that enable such learning must also administrate the evaluation, qualification, and storage of that information, while…

Four studies examined whether Israeli 5-year-olds (N=88) and adults (N=48) drew inferences about psychological properties based on a character's social category, personality trait, or physical appearance trait. Study 1 revealed that while children drew inferences mostly by social category, adults did it by personality trait. Study 2 showed that…

This study assessed the combined and differential contributions of Chinese mothers and fathers (in terms of spouse-reported physically coercive and psychologically controlling parenting) to the development of peer-reported physical and relational aggression in their preschool-age children (mean age of 5 years). Results of the two-group (boys and…

Concern exists that a constellation of negative maternal emotions during pregnancy generates persistent negative consequences for child development. Maternal reports of anxiety, pregnancy-specific and nonspecific stress, and depressive symptoms were collected during mid-pregnancy and at 6 weeks and 24 months after birth in a sample of healthy…

The present study examined how adolescents' and their romantic partners' romantic working models and relational styles were related to their interactions with each other. Sixty-five couples (M age=18.1 years) were observed interacting. Romantic working models were assessed in interviews about their romantic experiences; romantic styles were…

A socialization model of coping with community violence was tested in 101 African American adolescents (55% male, ages 9-13) and their maternal caregivers living in high-violence areas of a mid-sized, southeastern city. Participants completed interviews assessing caregiver coping, family context, and child adjustment. Caregiver-child dyads also…

This study used latent growth modeling to investigate longitudinal relationships between self-system processes and depressive symptoms among maltreated (n=142) and nonmaltreated children (n=109) aged 6--11 years. On average, self-esteem and self-agency increased and depressive symptoms decreased over time. Multivariate growth modeling indicated…

Human children 18-24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult partner. The human children successfully participated in cooperative problem-solving activities and social games, whereas the chimpanzees were uninterested in the social games. As an experimental manipulation, in each task the adult…

Meta-analysis aggregated results of 40 investigations involving 2,867 children who averaged 29.6 ("SD" = 8.6) months of age when their attachments to care providers were assessed using either the Strange Situation (SS) or the Attachment Q-Set (AQS). As opposed to parents, secure attachments to nonparental care providers were less likely (using SS)…

To examine the development of look duration as a function of age and stimulus type, 14- to 52-week-old infants were shown static and dynamic versions of faces, Sesame Street material, and achromatic patterns for 20 s of accumulated looking. Heart rate was recorded during looking and parsed into stimulus orienting, sustained attention, and…

Cognitive outcomes at age 11 of 131 Romanian adoptees from institutions were compared with 50 U.K. adopted children. Key findings were of both continuity and change: (1) marked adverse effects persisted at age 11 for many of the children who were over 6 months on arrival; (2) there was some catch-up between ages 6 and 11 for the bottom 15%; (3)…

Studies using the English and Spanish MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories demonstrated that the grammatical abilities of 20--30-month-old bilingual children were related more strongly to same-language vocabulary development than to broader lexical-conceptual development or maturation. First, proportions of different word types in each…

This study investigated whether 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds use their video feedback as a reflection of their current state, even when their feedback was presented with a short temporal delay. In Experiment 1, the effects of 1- and 2-s delayed feedback were examined on an analog of the mark test. In the case of live and 1-s delayed feedback,…

This study investigates the relationship between theory of mind (ToM) skills in deaf children and input from their hearing mothers. Twenty-two hearing mothers and their deaf children (ages 4-10 years) participated in tasks designed to elicit talk about the mind. The mothers' mental state talk was compared with that of 26 mothers with hearing…