Three experiments found that (1) nine-month olds listened more to two-syllable words with strong-weak stress patterns than weak-strong stress patterns; (2) six-month olds showed no preferences for stress patterns; and (3) nine-month olds showed preferences for strong-weak over weak-strong stress patterns in speech sounds passed through a low-pass…

Infants were exposed to symbolic gestures from their parents beginning at 11 months of age. In bimonthly interviews, mothers reported their infants' use of gestures and words. Results indicated a smaller but reliable difference between the onset of infants' use of symbolic gesture and the onset of their use of words than earlier research…

Infants were familiarized haptically to an object and then presented with stimuli that were identical to or different in shape or texture from the first object. Infants demonstrated recognition of shape and texture when the stimuli were presented without delay; of shape when presented after a five-minute delay; and of texture when presented after…

Nine- to 16-month-old infants explored pairs of novel toys in 2 conditions: violated expectation, in which the first toy produced an interesting nonobvious property and the second toy did not; and interest control, in which neither toy produced the interesting property. Infants persistently attempted to reproduce the interesting property in the…

In one task, preschoolers pretended to use common objects. Three- and four-year olds used gestures in which body parts represented the objects. Five-year olds used gestures that involved imaginary objects. In a second task, preschoolers were asked to imitate gestures modeled by the experimenter. Three-year olds could not imitate imaginary object…

Compared low-birthweight infants who participated in an intervention involving educational and family support services during the first three years of life with low-birthweight infants who received pediatric follow-up. Intervention group infants scored higher on cognitive tests and lower on measures of behavior problems at 24 and 36 months than…

Compared dyads of mothers and low-birthweight infants who participated in a comprehensive early intervention program during the infant's first three years with dyads who received pediatric follow-up. Intervention group mothers had higher ratings than follow-up mothers on quality of assistance. Intervention children had higher ratings on…

Event-related potentials (ERPs) of five- to seven-year-old girls were measured while the girls performed a visual selective attention task and a Piagetian conservation task. Results suggested more anterior ERP sources for nonconservers than conservers during early stimulus analysis, and more lateralized ERP sources for conservers than…

In two studies, four- but not three-year olds understood that (1) of two characters who saw an object, the one who waited longer before attempting to find it would not remember where it was; and (2) of two objects seen by a character, the object seen long ago would be forgotten and the object seen recently would be remembered. (BC)

Compared teachers' ratings of students and students' marks in reading and math and their achievement test scores during their first, second, and fourth years in school. Teachers' ratings of students' interest and participation and their attention span and restlessness were related to students' first-year achievement test scores and their marks in…

Used longitudinal data from a sample of African-American children of teenaged mothers in the Baltimore, Maryland, area to examine determinants of functional literacy in adulthood. Found that preschool cognitive and behavioral functioning predicted literacy in young adulthood. Family environmental factors that predicted literacy in young adulthood…

First, second, and fourth graders completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their competence in several activities. Younger children had more positive perceptions than older children of their competence in nonsports activities. Boys had more positive beliefs than girls about their competence in sports and mathematics. Girls had more…

Examined children's developmental trajectories in five domains. Children were assigned to same- or mixed-age child care groups and assessed at 6-month intervals between approximately 32 and 49 months. Children in the two groups differed in their trajectories for communication, cognitive, and motor development but showed similar trajectories for…

Fourth and fifth graders viewed a slide show that depicted a boy displaying negative behaviors and that had a negative consistent or a positive inconsistent ending. Children who believed that personality is fixed, but not children who believed personality is malleable, did not differ in their ratings of the boy in the consistent- and…

Aggressive unpopular, withdrawn unpopular, aggressive-withdrawn unpopular, and average status children were identified by peer evaluation and compared in terms of peer and self-perceptions of competence in various social and nonsocial domains. Results indicated that the three groups of unpopular children exhibited distinct profiles according to…