This commentary on the research reported in this monograph stresses the importance of the analogy between the processes involved in pretense comprehension and the processes required to comprehend written or spoken text. The commentary also raises the concern that children could perform correctly on pretense problems using processes of text…

This response to the commentary on the research reported in this monograph discusses children's understanding of pretending adults' attitudes to pretend situations; the effect of the distinction between fictional and instructional texts on interpreting children's understanding of pretense, when pretense comprehension is seen as analogous to text…

A two-year-old child and an eight-year-old bonobo exposed to spoken English and lexigrams from infancy were asked to respond to novel sentences. Both subjects comprehended novel requests and simple syntactic devices. The bonobo decoded the syntactic device of word recursion more accurately than the child; the child performed better than the bonobo…

Discusses the assessment of children's early language comprehension by the use of (1) parent reports; (2) preferential-looking models; and (3) event-related brain potentials. Examines recent findings on dissociations between language comprehension and production in normal, late-talking, and brain-injured children and considers the implications of…

Discusses methods of assessing language comprehension in apes. Considers the possible effect of brain physiology on the differences between productive and receptive language skills. Examines the possibility that differences between synaptic transmission and volume transmission, or transmission across extracellular spaces, of neurological impulses…

Studied the ontogeny of walking by prelocomotor infants. Results support a dynamic systems view of development and the view that upright locomotion emerges from the self-organization of multiple cooperating elements rather than as a result of a preexisting neural code. (Author/GR)

Comments on Thelen and Ulrich's monograph in this issue. Examines theoretical and empirical sections and findings, concluding that the authors have taken a major step forward by introducing the dynamic systems perspective to the study of behavioral coordination in infants, thus opening the way for experimental investigation of phenomena that could…

Tested children in grades one, three, and five on their knowledge of a large sample of words. Found that comprehension of derived words improved dramatically from grade one to grade five and that words consisting of more than two morphemes were not well known by first graders but were relatively better known by fifth graders. (BC)

Comments on the research by Anglin reported in this monograph by considering two points. First, discusses possible problems in defining what a word is. Second, examines some problems with the methodology in vocabulary development research that involves testing individuals' knowledge of words by sampling words from dictionaries. (BC)

In reply to the commentary on the research by Anglin reported in this monograph, considers two issues: (1) implications for research on children's vocabulary knowledge that follow from adopting various definitions of what a word is; and (2) the distinction between learning words and constructing word meaning through a knowledge of morphological…

Presents a theory of cognitive development that postulates a general cognitive processing system, a hypercognitive system governing self-regulation, and specialized structural systems responsible for processing different reality domains. Suggests five principles that serve as organizational pivots of developing cognition. Reports the results of…

This commentary on the article by Demetriou et al. in this monograph focuses on three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of (1) developmental domains; (2) reflective abstraction, or metacognition; and (3) representation, which involves considerations of what knowledge consists of, how it emerges, and how it relates to reality.…

Attempts to clarify issues related to three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of developmental domains; reflective abstraction, or hypercognition; and representation, or knowledge. Concerning domains, answers three questions: (1) What is a domain?; (2) How are domains identified?; and (3) What happens to domains as they…

Explored how mothers convey information about category structure during naturalistic interactions. Videotaped reading-aloud sessions between mothers and toddlers; coded their interactions for explicit and implicit discussion of animal and artifact categories. Found that mothers provided a rich array of information beyond simple labeling routines,…

Comments on the findings of study of maternal input into children's category knowledge in this monograph. Discusses such aspects of maternal input as the child's role in guiding the parent's language, conceptual development, ways of imparting information about category types, parental speech patterns and how they help children learn optimally, and…