Asserts that the sensitive-period hypothesis has not been tested on three counts: (1) no systematic studies of initial mother/infant contacts exist, (2) the majority of studies confound timing and amount of contact, and (3) failure to consider underlying mechanisms results in the omission of designs and dependent measures that could address…

The development of sociometric status in children's peer groups over time was observed among 48 unacquainted second-grade boys brought together in play groups of eight boys each. Observers recorded free-play interaction behaviors of each boy by using a complex event-recording system and video cameras. (Author/RH)

Familiar or unfamiliar rejected, popular, neglected, and average Black fourth-grade boys met in play groups once a week for six weeks. The investigation focused on the extent to which social status becomes reestablished in new social circumstances and behavior patterns associated with the evolution of status positions in new groups. (RH)

During the summer before first grade, 22 boys were videotaped as they attempted to enter a group composed of two unfamiliar boys. Confederates of the experimenter, the unfamiliar boys enacted scripted games and presented several scripted problematic social situations. Subjects' behavior in the setting was used to predict their first-grade…

Focuses on implications for intervention and highlights conceptual and methodological advances in studies establishing a causal link between social behavior and peer status. Studies reviewed investigate social interaction over time, use fine-grained coding systems, employ multiple measures, and videotape behavior in carefully designed analogue…

Studied across a 16-month period, young children of deaf parents showed accelerated early language development, on the average producing their first recognizable sign at 8.5 months, their tenth sign at 13.2 months, and their first sign combination at 17.0 months. Findings are inconsistent with previously reported patterns of synchrony between…

Preschool children were presented with short passages in either a story or a communication context. In the first experiment, recall according to importance level was ascertained; in the second, metacognitive awareness of importance level was evaluated. Six-year-olds demonstrated some metacognitive awareness of importance level. Developmental…

On tasks involving assessement of the heights of colored sticks, kindergarten, third-grade, and adult subjects were successful on inferences involving only equalities or only inequalities across various conditions and procedures. A dramatic developmental increase in performance was found on inferences based on the combination of equality and…

Judgments of similarities between numbers were solicited from kindergarten, third-grade, sixth-grade, and adult subjects. Results suggested children become sensitive to an expanding set of numerical relations during the period from kindergarten through sixth grade. Results of a second study suggested that the number similarity judgments of…

Children four and five years of age were shown photographs of persons with whom they were familiar in varying degrees and asked to recall depicted persons' names. When subjects could not name, feeling-of-knowing judgments and judgments about whether subjects had seen the depicted person were obtained. Both judgment types predicted recognition…

Examines the relation between children's (1) probability learning performance and a measure of their memory for items presented in a sequence and (2) probability learning and performance on a test of abstractive integration. Participating were 80 six- and seven-year-old boys and girls from both low and middle socioeconomic classes. (Author/RH)

Children 3.5 to 5.5 years of age who were unable to conserve length with Piaget's classical task did conserve length with parallel nonverbal tasks. Findings suggest that "preoperational" children apparently do not fail to conserve length because of centration, misleading perceptual information, or immature cognitive operations regarding quantities…

Attempts to identify the age range during which Type A behaviors emerge and begin to stabilize. A total of 633 children residing in two communities were assessed on the Matthews Youth Test for Health on two occasions approximately 1 year apart. (Author/RH)

Findings indicate Type A behavior was related in preschoolers to ratings of aggression and impatience, but not to intelligence. Reaction times of Type B children who worked without a time limit and an incentive were significantly longer than those of Type A children and those of Type B children who worked with a time limit and an incentive.…