This essay traces the history of an activity designed to promote the intellectual and social development of elementary-age schoolchildren during the afterschool hours. Following in the footsteps of Urie Bronfenbrenner, I highlight his argument that just as all human development occurs in contexts of varying levels of inclusiveness and mutual…

We examine (a) the normative course of eudaimonic well-being in emerging adulthood and (b) whether people's narratives of major life goals might prospectively predict eudaimonic growth 3 years later. We define eudaimonic growth as longitudinal increases in eudaimonic well-being, which we define as the combination of psychosocial maturity and…

Observes 75 first- and third-grade children in their classroom mathematics seatwork to test assumptions drawn from Vygotsky's theory about the development of private speech and its relationship to task performance, attention, and motor behaviors accompanying task orientation. (HOD)

The influence of perceptual factors and language comprehension on quantity judgments (number conservation) was assessed in children, aged 2-5. (ST)

Defines life-span developmental psychology as the study of constancy and change in behavior throughout the life course. Advances metatheoretical view regarding development. Stresses focus on the dynamic and continuous interplay between growth (gain) and decline (loss). Examines structural contextual factors and study of range of plasticity in…

Examined the relation of control beliefs to individual differences in 63 elderly adults in 1981 and 1986. Over the 5 years, generalized control and intellectual performance did not change, but intellectual control beliefs did. (RJC)

Assessed the intellectual development and academic achievement of 87 diabetic children during the first 6 years of their illness. At the initial diagnosis, intellectual performance and school grades were in the average range. Over time, verbal intellectual performance and school grades declined, whereas nonverbal intellectual performance improved…

Metaphors of similarity and proportionality, together with a pictorial form of similarity metaphors, proverbs, and several Piaget-type cognitive tasks, were given to 50 boys aged 5 through 13 years. Results indicated that metaphor comprehension is a type of classificatory behavior, the development of which is related to maturing cognitive…

Cohort-sequential analyses were conducted on measures from the Primary Mental Abilities Test and the Test of Behavioral Rigidity for 2,151 participants at the first testing and 723 individuals at the retesting 7 years later. Data were examined for 7-year age intervals from 25 to 81 years and cohort intervals from 1889 to 1938. (Author/JMB)

This study compared the intellectual development, attachment to mother, peer interaction, and physical health of day care and maternal home care children. The results indicate that very young children who experience high quality group day care differ little from home-reared children. (JMB)

Reviews the literature on the relationship between schooling, IQ, and the cognitive processes presumed to underpin IQ. The data suggest the importance of quantity of schooling for IQ. Schooling fosters the development of cognitive processes that underpin performance on IQ tests. This development is unrelated to the quality of schools. (BC)

A recognition memory experiment with 8-, 11- and 20-year-olds investigated the hypothesis that, with age, semantic encoding becomes increasingly important relative to acoustic encoding. (CM)

Examines whether the use of weight or linear array comparisons provide a contextual cue which facilitates the comprehension of the comparative terms "more" and "less". (Author/ED)

Discusses the patterns of mental development of 350 pairs of twins studied longitudinally from 11/2-6 years of age. (DP)