Trained 3-month olds to move an overhead crib mobile while one of two musical selections was played, and assessed retention one or seven days later in presence of same or different music. Found that infants displayed one-day retention regardless of musical selection. At seven days, retention was seen only when test music matched training music.…

Compared comprehension of novel communicative signs to assist 2.5- and 3-year-old humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans find hidden objects during a hiding-finding game. Found that children at both ages performed above chance with all signs. No ape performed above chance for any signs not known before the experiment despite three times as many…

Three studies used illustrated stories to examine preschoolers' understanding of emotional changes when memories of past events were cued by objects in the current environment. Found substantial development between 4 and 6 years in understanding the influence of mental activity on emotions. The strength and consistency of this knowledge was…

Two studies used a modification of the weakly interpretive scoring method of Langford and D'Cruz to examine judicial and legislative reasoning. Findings were in accord with modified versions of Piaget's and Kohlberg's views and contradicted Gibbs' theory. There were three stages of legislative reasoning between 7 and 21 years: heteronomy or…

Used stories involving self-deception, lying, and misleading appearances to examine 4- to 9-year olds' understanding of the relations between false belief, evidence, and epistemic responsibility. Found that younger children who understood false belief understood simpler types of deception but that understanding self-deceivers' epistemic…

Examined 3- to 5-year-olds' attributions of the mental states of television characters depicting make-believe or realistic actions. Found that children who identified when television characters were engaging in pretend play did not necessarily infer the pretenders' thoughts and beliefs. Inferring pretenders' thoughts was related to performance on…

Examined the relationship between infants' attachment quality and attention and memory at 3.5 years. Found that insecure/avoidant and insecure/ambivalent children looked away from mother-child drawings more than secure children. Secure children better recalled stories in which mothers responded sensitively than did insecure/avoidant children, and…

Investigated the representational model of self and attachment figures in family drawings of 8- to 9-year-olds in a high-risk, racially mixed sample. Found that specific signs and global rating scales were related to early relationship history. Even after contemporary influences of child intelligence, stress, and emotional functioning were…

Examined convergences and divergences among dimensions of ability concepts (uncontrollable, constant, capacity) in second through fifth graders. Found that the near-zero correlations, three-factor solution yielded by confirmatory factor analysis, variability in age-related differences, differential links to cognitive competence, and diverse forms…

Examined linkages between 5- to 6-year-olds' participation in friendships, peer acceptance, and peer victimization and their school adjustment over time. Found evidence that adjustment was influenced by the diverse experiences encountered in different forms of relationships and that certain types of relationships had greater or lesser adaptive…

Two studies examined relationships of the number of reciprocated friendships, peer acceptance, and group membership to academic achievement in two samples of sixth graders. Found that group membership was the most consistent predictor of grades over time. Longitudinal analyses found that peer relationships were related indirectly to classroom…

Examined relations of children's regulation and emotionality to their social functioning. Found that resiliency mediated effects of individual differences in attentional regulation on social status and socially appropriate behavior, and that negative emotionality moderated the positive relation between attentional control and resiliency. Also…

Conducted an experimental evaluation of Teen Outreach, a national volunteer service program. Found that rates of pregnancy, school failure, and academic suspension, at exit nine months later, were substantially lower in the Teen Outreach group, even after accounting for group differences at entry. Results suggest potential value of interventions…

Adolescent boys perceive their male peer group culture--and their socialization toward masculine norms emphasized within this culture--as negatively influencing their abilities to develop close male friendships. Boys who manage to develop close, male friendships, however, draw strength from these relationships to resist the social pressures of…

Gender and self-esteem provide lenses through which early and late adolescents construct their narratives of ideal and actual friendships. These narratives provide a unique window into the dynamics of adolescents' friendships during school transitions.