Three experiments investigated the developmental progression of reliance on object function versus object shape to extend novel words among 3- and 5-year olds and adults. Findings indicated that children focused on shape, whereas adults focused on function when extending novel words, suggesting a developmental change in the consideration of these…

Investigated whether children's ability to recognize themselves in delayed video feedback indicates change in self awareness. Parallel results in both conditions studied, and the likelihood of false positives and false negatives indicate that the video test in its present form may not be a valid measure of differences in self-awareness. (Author)

Studied infant ability to extract depth information from a three-dimensional structure. Found evidence that 8-month-old infants distinguished between lines indicating edges, and lines indicating markings, and that they are able to use line junctions to perceive line drawings as depicting three-dimensional objects in the picture plane. (Author)

Established the differential maturation of rapid-speaking durations and the durations of interword pauses in the memory-span-task responses of first, third and fifth graders. Found that a particular memory span is accompanied by different profiles of processing rates in children of different ages. (Author)

Highlights two problems with examined study: (1) investigation is based on a misunderstanding of Goswami and Bryant's claims about the role of rhyme and analogy in beginning reading; and (2) methodological weaknesses, in particular unintended intra-list priming effects, limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the booklet analogy task. (Author)

Examines each of Goswami's criticisms of the methodology employed by Bowey et al. Argues none can explain the differential analogy and phonological priming effects or why, when phonological priming effects are controlled, size of the end analogy effect is no greater than that of beginning and medial vowel analogy effects. (Author)

Examined 3- to 13-year olds' memories for an experienced and a never-experienced medical procedure. Found that children 4 years or older at time of the procedure described it more accurately than did younger children. Longer delays between procedure and recall were related to providing fewer correct information units but not more inaccuracies.…

Examined impact of phonological-awareness training with or without explicit attention to articulation and with or without manipulation of sounds. Subjects were 7- to 11-year olds with reading difficulties. Found that children in all training conditions outperformed controls on all tests except math. Individual differences in response related to…

Two studies tested the hunter-gatherer theory predicting that females should have better incidental memory for objects and locations than males. Subjects were 3- to 6-year olds and adults. Results indicated that females and males remembered more toys or objects congruent with their own sex but that there was no overall advantage for females.…

Examined heritability of reading deficits in dyslexic subtypes. Found reading deficits were heritable in developmental phonological and surface dyslexics, with greater genetic contribution in the former. Findings suggest a partial independence in the development of cognitive processes involved in reading, and affirm accounts of surface dyslexia…

Four experiments tested the self-teaching hypothesis of word learning. Findings indicated that: (1) minimizing phonological processing significantly attenuated orthographic learning; (2) reduced orthographic learning was not attributable to alternative factors; and (3) contribution of pure visual exposure to orthographic learning is marginal. It…

An intervention study of 7-year-old, poor readers examined the extent to which factors of phoneme manipulation, rhyme, verbal ability, nonverbal ability, and phonological memory were predictive of responsiveness to teaching interventions. Only phoneme manipulation was a predictor for reading accuracy. However, for reading comprehension, verbal…

Investigated the contribution of two working-memory systems (the articulatory loop and the central executive) to the performance differences between learning-disabled and skilled readers. Found that, compared to skilled readers, learning-disabled readers experienced constraints in the articulatory and long-term memory system, and suffered…

French-speaking children and adults heard silent comic-strip stories that differed by frame display mode, explicitness of the links between depicted events, and whether the topic changed on the last frame. Subjects' use of referents for the last frame indicated that manipulation of context was a good means of assessing speakers' acquisition of…

Studied whether patterns of developmental progression in reality monitoring were present in visual and auditory modalities and the role of cross-modal imagery in reality-monitoring tasks. Found scores revealed evidence of developmental progression in both auditory and visual source-monitoring tasks, but no effect of cross-modal imagery. (Author)