A total of 87 infants 10 months of age received, either directly or indirectly, a positive nonverbal message, a neutral nonverbal message, or no message about a stranger. Infants, especially those with easy temperaments, were friendlier to the stranger when mothers had spoken positively, but only when the message was directly communicated.…

Two experiments investigated 18- to 30-month-old children's memory for the location of a hidden object. Memory performance was significantly better when the object was hidden within the natural environment as opposed to when hidden in a set of boxes. Older subjects effectively used a landmark cue as a memory aid. (Author/RH)

Children 10 to 14 years of age tried to identify and remember words presented visually with a backward mask. On different tasks, children recalled freely or serially, recognized by making a rapid forced-choice response, or simply named words as they were presented. Results were interpreted as identifying two sources of developmental and individual…

Both between- and within-group differences in children ages nine to eleven identified as having reflective or impulsive cognitive tempos. Cognitive tempo was first assessed using Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures test, and children were later tested on the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. (Author/RH)

Findings demonstrated that the Guilford-Mednick conceptualization of original thinking is applicable to preschool as well as to older children. (Author/RH)

The apprehension spans of learning-disabled and normal boys were compared by means of a forced-choice letter-recognition task involving tachistoscopic exposures of letter displays. Results of three experiments indicated that the decreased spans of apprehension observed in the first experiment for learning-disabled boys resulted either from greater…

A total of 20 children with idiopathic precocious puberty; 27 adolescents with clinically delayed puberty; and an equivalent number of controls matched for sex, age, and IQ were given a battery of tests including measures of verbal and spatial abilities and a task using a dichotic listening procedure to assess hemispheric lateralization.…

Deals with (1) developmental changes in children's concepts of difficulty and ability and (2) individual differences within different developmental levels. Three levels of understanding of ability and difficulty are proposed, and cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence of progressive development through the stages is presented. (Author/RH)

Investigates logical and perceptual determinants of social-cognitive development by examining children's use of consensus information for causal attribution. Results verify the importance of perceptual processes, demonstrating that children can use consensus for person attribution earlier in development than they can for stimulus attribution.…

Students from the fifth, seventh, and eleventh grades, as well as college students, wrote constrained and unconstrained summaries of stories they had previously learned to criterion. While developmental trends were apparent, it was also found that fifth and seventh graders who made rough drafts performed at a level set by college students.…

Examined comprehension of stories with and without obstacles to goal attainment among 16 second- and fifth-grade students and 16 adults. Results suggest that processing characteristics of a task, as well as prior knowledge of problem-solving behavior, affect story understanding. (Auhtor/RH)

Preschool and third-grade children judged the emotional states of other children on the basis of expressive cues alone, contextual cues alone, or both expressive and contextual cues. Older children were more accurate than younger children only when given multiple cues. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive-developmental and social learning…

Predicted that a particular form of perspective-taking skill, as assessed within a communication setting, would show a strong relationship to referential communication skill. A total of 42 children four- to six-years-old were tested. Results indicated that the ability to appreciate a listener's informational needs was strongly related to…

Examines the relationship between children's attention and comprehension of auditory and visual information on television. After viewing a videotape of "Sesame Street" with visual, auditory, or no distractors, 60 five-year-olds were asked comprehension questions. Findings indicated that children could process auditory and visual information from…

Explored relationships between external (physique), impersonal (preferences), and interpersonal (character) information and children's attraction ratings of peers. A total of 160 Black second-grade male and female children participated in the study. While each level of information significantly influenced attraction ratings, character information…