Investigated the development of classificatory organization. Two experiments examined age differences in children's spontaneous extensions of a classification and a third examined children's extensions under hypothesis-testing instructions. (JMB)

Seventy-two five year olds viewed a 40-minute version of Sesame Street. Half of the children viewed in the presence of toys and half viewed without toys. The children were then tested for their comprehension of the program. Results suggested that variations in the comprehensibility of the program may determine variations in children's attention to…

A perceptual analogue of Kelley's augmentation principle was created in animated films depicting the movements of two objects toward a goal. Experiment 1 examined children's causal attributions in the presence and absence of inhibitory causes. Experiment 2 investigated children's causal attributions in the presence of inhibitory causes of…

Findings confirmed that whereas six- to eight-month-old infants revealed reliable acquisition under immediate reinforcement, a three-second delay precluded response acquisition, as did six-second and ten-second delay of reinforcement. A modified delayed-reinforcement scheduling procedure enabled a previous methodological criticism to be…

Argues that in research on the effects of modeling, models must be analyzed as a random factor in order to avoid a positive bias in the results. The concept of a random factor is discussed, worked examples are provided, and a practical solution to the problem is proposed. (JMB)

Fifth-grade boys and girls were administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test and a projective measure of fantasy aggression and its control. They were also rated sociometrically by peers and teachers on physical, verbal, and indirect forms of overt aggression. Results indicated that conceptual tempo was related to aggression and its control.…

Replicated the Clarke-Stewart (1973) cross-dimensional study of mother-child interaction using different children at different ages and in a series of four different samples. Variables included measures of children's cognitive, language, and social development and mothers' attitudes, ability, and behavior, assessed in standardized tests,…

The Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ) was developed as a short, factor-analytic screening device for difficultness. Responses of 322 mothers of four- to six-month-old infants suggested that they regard fussy, hard-to-soothe, labile infants as difficult. Mother characteristics may affect perceptions of infant difficultness with…

Longitudinal observations of maternal and infant characteristics were used to investigate the consequences of early day care intervention for infants at high risk for intellectual retardation due to sociocultural factors. (JMB)

Acting on the premise that she was teaching her son a task, each of 30 mothers selected consequences for her child's errors. In actuality, feedback to the mother regarding her son's performance was experimentally manipulated. Results showed that differential conditioning of both high and low maternal punitiveness could be achieved by using the…

Two studies assessed the positive affective correlates of secure attachment in infancy and the relation between secure attachment in infancy and competence in the peer group at 3 1/2 years of age. (JMB)