Investigated the ability to deceive in participants with autism, mental retardation (MR), and normal development. Results indicated that participants with autism and those with MR did not differ in their ability to use a deceptive method, but participants with autism were significantly less able to understand that they manipulated the beliefs of…

Examined factors associated with individual variation in false belief understanding in three- to five-year olds. Found that family size was strongly associated with false belief understanding in children who were less competent linguistically, suggesting that the presence of siblings can compensate for slower language development in developing…

Examined the relationship between sibling interactions and the social adjustment of children with behavior problems. Subjects were 53 aggressive first- and second-grade children, their mothers, and their siblings. Found that children in sibling relationships with moderate levels of warmth and conflict showed better adjustment than did children in…

Studied the application of principles of entitlement by observing sibling property disputes. Subjects were 40 families, each with a 2- and a 4-year-old child. Found that parents supported children's sharing and prohibited property damage, but conflict outcomes upheld these principles only when parents intervened. (MOK)

Investigated the development of scientific reasoning in the context of self-directed experimentation. Subjects were fifth and sixth graders and noncollege adults. Found that neither valid strategies nor correct beliefs alone was sufficient to guarantee success, suggesting that regarding experimentation either as domain-general induction or as…

Two marble-and-ramp experiments investigated whether a simple-to-embedded-rules account can explain changes in children's causal reasoning. Results indicated that the same difference between three- and four-year olds in the prediction experiment appeared in the action experiment, suggesting that the same rules may underlie causal action as well as…

Two longitudinal studies examined patterns of reading disability in children. Results indicated that remission of reading disability was relatively common with up to 37% of reading-disabled children showing remission within a 2-year period. Results suggest that the presence of measurement errors may lead to misleading impression of the rate of…

Analyzed toddlers' verbal speech concurrent with nonverbal behavior. Fourteen dyads of unfamiliar peers were observed at 16, 20, 24, and 32 months of age. Found that six types of speech increased in frequency only after the peer partners had shown a marked increase in their readiness to imitate each others' nonverbal actions. (MOK)

Determined whether young children's inconsistent production of sentence subjects was due to limitations in their knowledge of English or in their ability to access and use that knowledge. Subjects were 19 young children from 1 to 2 years old. Found that processing limitations, rather than defective grammar, explain the missing subjects in very…

Investigated interactions between stress level of syllables and articulatory difficulty as influences on children's early words. Subjects were 32 two-year olds asked to imitate nonsense words and syllables that varied in articulatory difficulty. Found that both factors had significant effects on aspects of children's imitations. (MOK)

Examined the existence of preschoolers' assumption of one-proper-name-to-one-individual in their word learning. Subjects were 90 4-year olds. Found that children were likely to interpret a word as a proper name if it was applied to one instead of two objects. However, children overrode this default assumption if sufficient contextual information…

Examined the relationship of kindergartners' to second graders' dispositional sympathy to individual differences in emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Found that sympathy was associated with relatively high levels of regulation, teacher-reported positive emotionality, and general emotional intensity; and, especially for boys, high…

Four- and five-year-old Euro-American children participated in a study of moral reasoning, vicarious emotional responding, and prosocial behavior. Found that higher levels of moral reasoning were positively related to prosocial behavior. Children high in both other-oriented moral cognitions and sympathy were most helpful toward peers. (Author/DR)

Investigated the effects of gender, gender role, and type of moral dilemma on moral maturity and orientation of university students. Found that females were more consistent than males in moral stage; males were more consistent in moral orientation. Findings suggest that a more interactional model of moral judgment than the models of L. Kohlberg…

Examined correlates of prosocial moral reasoning (PMR) in two studies. Study one investigated differences in PMR in Brazilian children and adolescents and U.S. adolescents. Study two examined relations between PMR and prosocial behaviors and gender role orientations of Brazilian adolescents. Age and gender differences in PMR were similar for…