Across three experiments involving four-, five-, and six-year-olds, the same pattern of ability to sequence events was found: familiar events in forward order were the easiest to sequence, then unfamiliar events in forward order, familiar events in backward order, and finally unfamiliar events in backward order. (Author/RH)

Among children 7 to 11 years of age, recall of words initially accompanied by self-reference questions was found to be superior to recall of words accompanied by semantic questions at all age levels. The advantage of self-reference did not vary with age. Results were interpreted in terms of a distinction between functional and expressive…

Among kindergarten children, second-, fifth-grade, and college students, a gradual age-related increase was found in the ability to interpret an event from another person's perspective in light of that person's prior experiences. Various alternative explanations for the developmental trend were evaluated with data from subjects receiving prompts…

Intercorrelations of 10 successive years of measurement of height and intelligence are presented for separate samples of girls and boys from the Harvard Growth Study. Findings did not differ appreciably by sex, but significant differences between the sexes in the cross-correlations were found. (Author/RH)

Results suggest that (1) sex differences are found for some types of spatial ability but not others; (2) large sex differences are found only on measures of mental rotation; (3) smaller sex differences are found on measures of spatial perception; and (4) when sex differences are found, they can be detected across the life span. (Author/RH)

Analyzed reactions 15 boys and 19 girls received from adults and peers when subjects attempted to communicate and physically assert control. At 14 months, children's behavior did not differ by sex, but caregivers differentiated responses by sex; at 24 months, children's behavior differed by sex, but caregivers did not differentiate their responses…

Mothers' and fathers' socialization of one- and two-year-old children's sex-typed play behaviors was examined. For each parent, dyadic interactions were videotaped in the home on two occasions six months apart. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the social learning account of sex-role development. (Author/RH)

Investigated predominant kinds of parent-infant play and individual differences in play style. Participants were 24 families of healthy, full-term, firstborn infants, four boys and four girls at each of three ages: 7, 10, and 13 months. (RH)

When 96 mothers and 46 fathers of 6- or 13-month-old infants independently generated behavioral cues they believed contributed to their perception of their infant's recent easiness/difficultness, few systematic differences were found between easy and difficult infants, 6- and 13-month-olds, males and females, and firstborn and later-born.…

Children classified as securely attached at 12 months interacted faster and more smoothly with the stranger than did avoidantly-attached peers. Microanalyses revealed different styles of interaction. Failure feedback increased efforts of securely-attached and decreased efforts of insecurely-attached children. After failure, securely-attached…

No differences were found in mother-infant attachment between nonadopted and intraracial adopted subjects or between intraracial and interracial adopted subjects. Suggests that the higher incidence of psychological problems found among adoptees in middle childhood and adolescence cannot be explained in terms of insecure attachment relationships…

Attempts to distill a growing technical literature on repeated-measures analysis of variance into a few simple principles for selecting an analytic technique. Argues that researchers ought not opt for a general analysis strategy when current computer technology makes it possible to select the optimal analysis technique for a given data set. (RH)

Scores generated by two optimality and three complication scales used to assess perinatal risk for 103 infants were compared for accuracy in predicting a variety of neonatal and infant outcome measures. Results suggested an advantage in favor of the three complication scales. (Author/RH)

Determines the time course of circulating cortisol following circumcision in 80 healthy newborns and investigates whether changes in behavioral state following circumcision in anyway paralleled the adrenocortical time course. Adrenocortical and behavioral data indicated that subjects were able to cope with circumcision trauma. Cortisol levels…

Indicates that the Bayley Scales are a useful assessment tool for characterizing the behavior of premature infants. Results further indicate the need for going beyond summary scores of mental and motor performance and assessing performance in specific areas to obtain a more meaningful picture of individual infants' development. (RH)