A study showed that 5- to 15-year-old children first employed Heider's commission rule, then his intentionality rule, and finally the foreseeability rule at about 11 years of age. Results suggest that both the Heider and Piaget attribution research traditions were correct in part. (RH)

A total 72 children of 3 1/2, 5 1/2, and 7 1/2 years were asked questions about their behaviors and internal states, and of a best friend and an acquaintance. Results indicated even young children have concepts of themselves and other persons that are not restricted to specific points in time and may form basis for later dispositional conceptions.…

Among 120 fourth and sixth graders, correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for effort decreased with increasing levels of reasoning about effort and ability. Correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for ability increased with increasing levels of reasoning. (RH)

A study of effects of age and schooling in grades five and six on raw scores from a variety of general ability tests found that schooling: (1) is the major factor underlying the increase of intelligence test scores as a function of age; and (2) has a larger effect on verbal than nonverbal tests. (RH)

Examined time-sampling reports obtained from 9-15 year olds concerning their emotional states. Findings suggest that the onset of adolescence is not associated with appreciable differences in the variability of emotional states. (RH)

Results of four studies confirmed the hypothesis that three year olds would have less difficulty inferring that another person holds an odd belief about a matter of taste or value than they have in inferring that another person holds a false belief about a matter of verifiable fact. (RH)

Two experiments investigated the possibility that three year olds would do better on tasks in which belief cues were stronger than on standard false belief tasks, in which the children could reason backward to the belief from its effects. Findings provided strong support for the view that three year olds do not fully understand the…

Analysis of natural language data from children up to six years of age revealed that by the third year, children clearly distinguished between reality and a variety of nonreal contrasts in their everyday speech. An experimental study in which children were questioned about the reality and appearance of a variety of items confirmed findings of the…

Reveals that during the elementary school years, children acquire a firm understanding of the brain as the primary locus of psychological attributes and identity. The early school years, when children are five to seven years old, appear to be a transitional phase, when performance is variable and subject to task conditions. (RH)

Results of three experiments suggest that, in contrast to the claims made by Wimmer and others (1988), three- and four-year-old children understand that looking leads to knowing. The three- and four-year-olds' difficulty in the study lay mainly in the form of the questions that they were asked. (RH)

Subjects were 30 participants at each of 4 ages: 5, 7, and 10 years, and adult. Subjects described objects ordered in pairs. Children of 5 and 7 years improved their ability to understand visual metaphors which display a topic-visual interaction. From age 5 to adulthood, subjects improved their ability to comprehend metaphoric similarity. (RH)

Results of a study of four aspects of visual mental imagery (image generation, maintenance, scanning, and rotation) suggested that for 5, 8, and 14 year olds, and adults, 1 or more distinct processes were used for each aspect of imagery. There was no evidence that younger children have fewer processing components than older children. (RH)

Four studies determined when first, second, and third graders recognize that they make inferences to understand text, and the effect of this recognition on their ability to revise text and monitor its informativeness. Younger children tended to attribute inferred information to the text, while older children clearly distinguished inferred and…

Investigated Piaget's belief that immanent justice responses occur when fairness judgments override conceptions of physical causality in six- through eight-year-olds' understanding of a certain type of story. Results supported the prediction that children would use the belief in a just world in immanent justice judgments. (RH)

Results indicate that curvilinear trend in children's understanding of word "big" is not obtained in all stimulus contexts. This suggests that meaning and use of "big" is complex, and may not refer simply to larger objects in a set. Proposes that meaning of "big" constitutes a dynamic system driven by many perceptual, conceptual, and semantic…