A simulation experiment demonstrated that the perceptual sensitivity of Swedish and Danish students at upper secondary school level varies systematically concerning the basic conditions for "personal growth." An attempt is made to constrain this concept contextually, in such a way that it can be described behaviorally. It is made evident…

Using a sample of 77 10th grade boys, the researchers studied the relationships between the mental abilities measured by the Differential Aptitude Tests and cerebral dominance (CD: the extent to which one hemisphere of the brain dominates the other for control of behavior). The surprise finding was that CD was negatively related to spatial…

In three amplitude discrimination experiments involving a backward masking task, children's rate of perceptual processing was compared to that of adults. Developmental differences in discrimination were compensated for by increases in the psychophysical difference between test tones. No developmental differences in rate of perceptual processing…

Four experiments examined sources of gender differences routinely found on the water-level spatial test. Undergraduates' errors offered no evidence that less accurate responses by females than males reflected a less developed Piagetian spatial system, and that females' requisite motor skills were poorer than those of males. (MM)

The purpose of these companion studies was to assess immediate and delayed effects of social modeling, cognitive structuring, and two self-management strategies for increasing affective self-disclosure in undergraduate males. Subjects were randomly assigned to: (a) social modeling, (b) cognitive structuring, (c) attention-placebo, or (d)…

Two experiments used Visual Expectations Procedure to investigate development of expectations in infants up to 12 months old. Reaction time improved and the percentage of anticipations increased between 6 and 9 months using an alternation pattern or a complex pivot pattern, and between 4 and 8 months when using a left-right alternation or a…

Tested understanding of correspondence on the part of 2.5- to 3.5-year olds who watched a toy hidden in a model and tried to find an analogous toy in a room. Retrieval scores increased with increasing model-room similarity; were higher for older than younger children; and were affected by object and size similarity. (BC)

The quality of the Bender-Gestalt performance of normal class-six children in four Sierra Leone subcultures with varying degrees of modernization showed the quality of the reproductions of the most modern subcultures to be significantly higher. The interaction of gender and the parallel to adult divisions of labor are discussed. (Author/CM)

Research was undertaken to determine what informal education practices lend themselves to the precocity in sensorimotor development noted among Bagandan infants in Uganda, relative to their American white and black counterparts. With the assistance of a Muganda midwife/nurse a prenatal questionnaire was answered by women visiting antenatal clinics…

Five and seven year olds were able to correctly distinguish between factual and fictional television programs and test clips, based upon genre of program, production features, content. Age and vocabulary scores predicted accuracy of factuality judgments, but television viewing history did not. Older children understood better than younger ones…

Investigates the drawing and copying skills of nine autistic and eight mentally retarded children matched for mental age. Results indicate a similarity of performance for the drawing tasks and significant differences concerning the copying. Discusses the specific functions performed better by the autistic children and provides illustrative…

Reviews the results of a longitudinal study examining the development of drawing skills of six children with Williams Syndrome. Presents quantitative and qualitative data regarding recognizability, organization, and developmental progress. Reveals that, although extremely delayed, the children made consistent progress in a manner similar to normal…