We investigated the role of children's conflict monitoring skills in revising an intuitive scientific theory. Children aged 5 to 9 (N = 177; 53% girls, data collected in Germany from 2019-2023) completed computer-based tasks on water displacement, a concept prone to misconceptions. Children predicted which of two objects would displace more water…

Do children consider how others learned when seeking help? Across three experiments, German children (N = 536 3-to-8 year olds, 49% female, majority White, tested 2017-2019) preferred to learn from successful active learners selectively by context: They sought help solving a problem from a learner who had independently discovered the solution to a…

Ninety-seven children aged 4-11 (49 males, 48 females, mostly White) were given the opportunity to improve their problem-solving performance by devising and implementing a novel cognitive offloading strategy. Across two phases, they searched for hidden rewards using maps that were either aligned or misaligned with the search space. In the second…

A prevailing theory of mathematical problem solving predicts that children will be less accurate solving a + b = c + __ problems versus a + b = __ + c. However, this has never been tested directly. Because of low base rates, information combined from multiple studies can help improve estimation accuracy and precision. This study compared…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving)…

Skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) was examined as a moderator of the association between harsh parenting and child externalizing behavior. Participants were 251 boys and girls (8-9 years). Mothers and fathers provided reports of harsh parenting and their children's externalizing behavior; children also provided reports of harsh parenting.…

Do typical arithmetic problems hinder learning of mathematical equivalence? Second and third graders (7-9 years old; N= 80) received lessons on mathematical equivalence either with or without typical arithmetic problems (e.g., 15 + 13 = 28 vs. 28 = 28, respectively). Children then solved math equivalence problems (e.g., 3 + 9 + 5 = 6 + __),…

Investigated the ability of preschool and early grade school children to use logical search strategies to find a missing object on a familiar playground. Results indicated that children of all ages studied could deduce a critical search area and were not guided primarily by strong spatial associations. (Author/DB)

A total of 61 children from first through sixth grades participated in four balance-scale and four inclined-plane problem types in a study testing for invariance of subject classifications as rule-users across problems whose products differed but whose type did not. Results indicated that many children's classifications differed across…

Relates the problem-solving behavior of second, fourth, and sixth graders to conceptual tempo. Correlations with indices of strategic and efficient performance on a pattern-matching task confirmed that reflectives are more strategic than impulsives. A task-analysis identified the sources of inefficiency for each child and related these sources to…

Assesses ability of subjects aged 3 to 6 and 10 to 12 to solve a problem by analogy. Subjects had to discover ways to transfer balls to a bowl; stories read first to some subjects included an analogous problem and its solution. Older children's use of analogies was similar to that of adults; younger children exhibited different limitations.…

A set of covariation problems was structured so that the solution pattern across problems would indicate the judgment rule used by each subject. A developmental trend across subjects in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades and in college demonstrated rule shifts toward use of increasingly accurate rules. (Author/RH)

In terms of Kagan's theory of the problem-solving process, this study explores the relationship between reflection-impulsivity, hypothesis generation and testing, and evaluation of the quality of one's own solutions among children approximately 8 to 12 years old. (JMB)

Six- to 9-year olds predicted the movement of a balance beam. Results indicated that children who received feedback improved their performance more than those who did not receive feedback; the presence of a partner was beneficial only when children did not receive feedback; and children whose partner exhibited higher-level reasoning benefitted…