Examines whether three-month-old infants can detect variations within the single expression category of smiling and whether individual differences in infants' sensitivities are related to identifiable mother or infant behaviors. (HOD)

Subjects of this study were 144 White, middle-class children in kindergarten, first, second, and fourth grades. Children were interviewed individually about their explanations for both academic and social outcomes and their evaluations of their own outcomes. Self-evaluations became less positive in both domains and less similar across domains with…

Examines the extent to which the changes in friendship during a school year influence children's impressions of their friendships and their preference for sharing over competition with friends. Also studied the differences between friendships in middle childhood and early adolescence, using multiple methods and measures. (HOD)

Assesses the degree of difficulty parents attribute to specific socialization tasks; explores the relation between parents' perceived difficulty and children's perceived and actual competence in these two domains; and determines whether the ease or difficulty of these child rearing tasks, as perceived by parents, varies as a function of the…

One question prompting the present research concerned the relation between performance under tachistoscopic'' conditions where exposure durations are too brief to permit active overt visual search, and performance when overt search is possible. (Author)

Two experiments investigated perceptual primacy of dimensional and similarity relations in stimulus classification of mentally retarded children. Results support a distinction between separable and integral stimulus structures, but do not support an integral-to-separable shift in perceptual development. Results suggest implications for…

Eye movements of 12-week-old infants were recorded in a visual encoding experiment. Results showed that infants who encoded more slowly scanned less extensively over the stimulus and engaged in prolonged fixation. An experiment with two-week olds showed significant age differences in the manner of visual scanning. (BC)

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…

Examined infants' tendency, from a few days to nine months of age, to prefer infant-directed over adult-directed speech. Results suggest that exaggerated pitch contours that characterize infant-directed speech may become salient communicative signals for infants through language-rich, interactive experiences with caretakers and increased…

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)

Three experiments explored 5- and 7-month-olds' intermodal coordination of proprioceptive information produced by leg movements and visual movement information specifying these same motions. Results suggested that coordination of visual and proprioceptive inputs is constrained by infants' information processing of the displays and have…

Argues that the operating characteristics of perceiving and remembering provide a foundation for progress on detailing the processes through which knowledge is realized in real-time tasks and in detailing the processes of developmental change. Includes three examples to illustrate how forming developmental hypotheses in terms of perceiving and…

Examined children's beliefs about the origins of gender differences and age-related changes in these beliefs. Findings suggested that young children may have an early bias to view gender categories as predictive of essential, underlying similarities between members but later come to acknowledge the role of other causal mechanisms in shaping how…

Reviews bases for contemporary discontinuity theories of mental development, presents findings that support alternative proposition of continuity and scrutinizes assessment methods from which these continuity results derive. Also offers several models that help explain the continuity findings, and argues that individual differences in mental…

Examined effect, after 1 year, of parental cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusiveness on verbal and nonverbal abilities of low-income children in Head Start programs. Found that children of parents who provide the highest cognitive stimulation and emotional support coupled with no intrusive behavior fared best in later perceptual…