Compared 18 children's and 18 adults' ability to detect information conveyed through the representational hand gestures of videotaped children verbally and gesturally explaining their problem-solving reasoning. Found that children and adults recalled information conveyed through representational gestures. Mismatching gesture negatively affected…

Choice and use of problem-solving strategies were monitored during a picture comparison task for 90 kindergarten, second and fourth grade boys and girls. (SB)

The performance of children ages three through eight years on a series of class-inclusion problems was examined in two studies. Three patterns of performance were observed: three- and four-year-olds responded in an approximately haphazard pattern, five- and six-year-olds tended to be consistently wrong, and seven- and eight-year-olds showed a…

Observed parent-child relationships, sibling relationships, and family problem solving, and obtained parent-reported child temperament assessments. Found that links among mother-older child relationship quality, father-older child relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality were moderated by the older sibling's temperament. The…

Attempted to replicate findings of a previous study which found that mother-toddler interaction during problem solving was related to the child's prior attachment security. Examined the relationship between problem-solving interactions on the one hand, and mother-child interactions at home and infant temperament on the other. (PCB)

Investigated in preschoolers whether the bilingual advantage in cognitive control or selective attention could be found in a nonverbal task, the dimensional change card sort, requiring minimal demands for analysis or representation. Found that bilingual children were more advanced than monolinguals in solving problems requiring high levels of…

This study investigated the hypothesis that there is a developmental trend toward greater flexibility of strategies in visual selection. Subjects were 48 second and sixth graders. (Author/SDH)

Presents an investigation of the hypothesis that an increase in the salience of the total class dimension should improve class-inclusion performance. Subjects were 220 children in kindergarten through third grades. (SDH)

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

Investigates the way that mothers and their preschool children divided up strategic responsibilities for carrying out a problem-solving task which involved making a puzzle in accordance with a model. Among the results, findings suggest that adults' communicative moves were fulfilling different functions for children at different ages. (Author/RH)

Subjects categorized as either players who displayed make-believe in natural free-play situations or nonplayers whose behavioral repertoires did not include make-believe, were exposed to either a free-play, an imitation or a problem-solving condition and given an alternate-uses test. Free-play enhanced associative fluency among players who engaged…