Studies of the susceptibility of observations of adult-child interactions to bias because of the physical attractiveness of target persons indicated that when making global ratings observers were significantly and favorably biased toward attractive women. No bias was obtained when observers used a molecular coding strategy. (RH)

Sixty mothers of four- through 12-year-old children rated the (1) environmental versus dispositional basis of their child's behavior; (2) behavior's probable origins, cross-situational consistancy, and temporal stability; (3) child's controllability; and (4) personal responsibility for engaging in each behavior. Findings suggested a positive bias…

Compared with nonabusive families, abusive parents were less satisfied with their children, perceived child rearing as more difficult and less enjoyable, reported very different disciplinary approaches, promoted an isolated life style for both themselves and their children, and reported more anger and conflict in the family. Implications for…

Examined were message-receiving skills of schoolchildren in relation to their mother's messages. Participants were hearing children four, six, and eight years of age and deaf children six to 10 years of age. Findings revealed that mothers achieved high levels of communicative success with their six- and eight-year-old hearing children but…

Tested the hypothesis that preschool children between 2 1/2 and 6 1/2 years of age would progress though a stepwise sequence of developing ever-clearer boundaries between fantasy and reality. Findings supported the validity of the hypothesized sequence. (RH)

To reduce confusion and controversy about the nature of self-care and its consequences for children, this commentary defines the self-care child as one between the ages of approximately six and 13 years who spends time at home alone or with a younger sibling on a periodic basis. (RH)

Advances arguments against defining self-care children exclusively in terms of elementary school students who are home alone or with a younger sibling after school. (RH)

Examined developmental change in category representation in the first year of life. Experiment 1 tested infants of three, five, and seven months in a visual recognition memory procedure. Results indicated change in the nature but not the structure of infant form categories. Experiment 2 ruled out a priori preferences as the basis for findings of…

Results of two experiments involving 11-, 14-, 17-, or 20-month-old infants indicated that 14-month and older infants did not differentiate the combination of properties that affords containment and that understanding of the causal basis of that function did not begin to emerge until about 17 months. (RH)

A total of 46 preschoolers were asked to decide whether two rows of drawings of objects were exactly the same. Results revealed that preschoolers can gather information systematically, and that by age four, the majority are producing, and benefitting from, a strategy that is very efficient for same-different tasks. (RH)

Results supported the proposition that children's early counting has important limitations and strengths. Subjects, numbering 20 each at three and four years of age, differentiated appropriately between how-many and compare-sets counting tasks while using basically undifferentiated strategies. This suggests that correct judgment processes…

Results derived from activities involving 33 children of three years and 32 children of four-and-a-half years indicated no age differences in same day recognition. Findings for recall and retention suggest that age differences for these two memory components are best thought of in terms of the type of memory solicited. (RH)

Positively correlated were verbal fluency scores and scores for strategies expected to distinguish levels of verbal fluency among 64 third-graders and 71 sixth-graders. When a smaller sample of similarly aged students completed expanded versions of tasks, results revealed grade and gender differences in strategy use and level of task performance.…

Two studies that avoided methodological problems associated with inconclusive previous reports found that 6-year-olds had less reliable feeling-of-knowing (FOK) judgments but greater FOK accuracy than did 10- or 18-year-olds. Moreover, 18- and 70-year- olds had equally reliable FOK judgments and equivalent FOK accuracy. (RH)

Old and young adults participated in two experiments involving a standardized, hierarchically organized event. In interviews that assessed memory of the event, older subjects reported fewer event actions than did the young. Memory of old and young was influenced similarly by the hierarchical structure of the event. (RH)