Children tend to overestimate their performance on a variety of tasks and activities. The present meta-analysis examines the specificity of this phenomenon across age, tasks, and more than five decades of historical time (1968-2021). Self-overestimation was operationalized as the ratio between children's prospective self-estimates of task…

Executive function mechanisms underpinning language-related effects on theory of mind understanding were examined in a sample of 165 preschoolers. Verbal labels were manipulated to identify relevant perspectives on an explicit false belief task. In Experiment 1 with 4-year-olds (N = 74), false belief reasoning was superior in the fully and…

Two naming tasks were simultaneously presented to either one visual field/hemisphere combination or were divided between visual fields/hemispheres. Hypotheses that bilateral presentation would improve performance by insulating conflicting tasks from mutual interference and that there would be a developmental shift in the bilateral advantage was…

Results of three experiments support the conclusion that tasks involving the localization of objects or events from mirror images are not direct indices of self-recognition among children between 14 and 22 months of age. Rather, they indicate the skill of infants in using the mirror as a perceptual tool. (RH)

Assesses whether a model of at least two levels of perspective-taking ability beyond egocentrism provides a more adequate account of the variance in subjects' responses across perspective-taking tasks. (Author/MP)

Ratings of social behavior and scores on the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) were obtained for 33,685 infants, eight months of age. A composite measure of sociability correlated .23 with total MDI scores, .26 on the socially loaded items, and .17 with the nonsocial items. (Author/RH)

Children's ability to produce integrated sequences of discrete behaviors was examined as a function of age and task demands for several behavioral domains. Results are discussed in terms of possible age-related constraints on combinatorial skills that operate at a general, cross-domain level during toddlerhood. (RH)

Two experiments investigated 18- to 30-month-old children's memory for the location of a hidden object. Memory performance was significantly better when the object was hidden within the natural environment as opposed to when hidden in a set of boxes. Older subjects effectively used a landmark cue as a memory aid. (Author/RH)

First- and fifth-grade children were presented a hypothetical case in which a child, who circumstantial evidence suggests might have committed a "crime," is punished by a parent. Subjects were asked to indicate whether or not they believed the punishment to be fair and the child guilty. (Author/RH)

Two experiments investigated young children's ability to use the spatial context in which objects are encountered to aid later recall of the objects themselves. Results indicated that, at least in meaningful situations, the ability to use the spatial context of items to facilitate item recall is present from a very early age. (Author/RH)

It is suggested that field dependents have more difficulty than field independents in giving up reliance on a formerly relevant cue. (Authors/CB)

Examined children's recall of the spatial configurations of an environment after the children followed prearranged paths and encountered barriers to movement. When asked to reconstruct the environmental configuration from memory, males estimated distances more accurately than did females. No age differences were noted. (Author/DB)

Study is an investigation of the effects of an attention-focusing variable--spatial separation of central and incidental cues--and a cognitive strategy factor--verbal labeling of central cues--and their interaction on the incidental learning of Ss younger than those previously tested with these manipulations. (Authors)

Assessing Markman's hypothesis that the organizational principles underlying collection concepts facilitate children's performance on cognitive tasks requiring part-whole comparisons, three experiments indicated that the facilitative effect of collection labels appears to be specific to the class-inclusion task. Results suggest that Markman's…