Discusses issues related to the development of only children v children raised in large families. (CM)

Examined reasoning in normal, autistic, and deaf individuals. Found that deaf individuals who grow up in hearing homes without fluent signers show selective impairments in theory of mind similar to those of autistic individuals. Results suggest that conversational differences in the language children hear accounts for distinctive patterns of…

Two studies examined progression in children's and adults' ability to monitor attempts to recall event details and the dependence of metamemory on question format. Only with an unbiased question format did subjects give higher confidence ratings after correct than after incorrect answers. When interviews contained misleading questions, children…

In this longitudinal study of African American and Caucasian students from 18 4-year institutions, objective tests were used to estimate the cognitive effects of race in college, while applying statistical controls for an extensive set of confounding influences. Found that Caucasian students scored higher than African Americans on standardized…

Explored whether a system between written place-value system and base-10 manipulatives helped children understand place-value. Found evidence that the intermediate system helped children differentiate between face values and complete values of digits in multidigit place-value number representations, and to grasp that the sum of the digits'…

Examined cognitive profile and multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Compared 30 Chinese dyslexic children with average readers of the same chronological age (CA) and 30 average readers at the same reading level (RL) in several rapid naming, visual, phonological, and orthographic tasks. Found that dyslexic children…

Describes a study conducted at Gallaudet University to assess the need for programs to improve the cognitive skills of hearing-impaired college students. Indicates that 91 students who received systematic cognitive instruction had better logical reasoning, reading comprehension, and math scores than students who did not receive this instruction.…

Head Start children (n=446), divided into intervention and comparison groups, received programing to enhance thinking skills. Intervention group children identified as gifted also received programing in their talent area. Intervention group children, whether or not identified as gifted, made significant gains over the comparison group in cognitive…

Longitudinal study compared matched groups of college freshmen (N=30) and high school graduates who did not attend college (N=17) on changes in critical thinking over a one-year period. The results indicated that the students who attended college for one year scored higher in critical thinking than did nonattendees. (Author/NB)

Language abilities in two twin pairs, in which one twin suffered perinatal left hemisphere brain injury, were studied from the age of 23-30 months to 41-46 months. Twins performed similarly on tests of mental development, picture vocabulary, and receptive language, but brain-injured twins' scores were lower than controls' on expressive language.…

Examined the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and children's intellectual functioning through age four. Found that children whose mothers smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day during pregnancy had Stanford-Binet scores 4 points lower than those whose mothers did not smoke during pregnancy. (HTH)

Examined gender differences in cognitive outcome in children born prematurely who had incurred early cerebral lesions and in a high-risk comparison group. A significant gender difference in cognitive recovery was observed in the lesion group. Girls outperformed boys on standardized intelligence tests. No gender differences were observed in the…

This study examined how 21 blind children (ages 3-8) performed perspective-taking tasks compared to 60 sighted children with and without blindfolds, under different conditions of distance and barriers. Results showed that, with increasing age, young blind children did not exhibit a significant increase in accurate perspective taking. (JDD)

Interviewed mothers to examine the developmental significance of preschoolers' imaginary companions. Found that relationships with invisible companions were described as sociable and friendly, whereas personified objects were usually nurtured. Object personification frequently occurred as a result of acquiring a toy; invisible friends were viewed…

Compared performance of children with autism, with learning disabilities, and normally developing 4-year-olds on reasoning problems with and without instruction to use imagery. Found that instruction to use imagery led to persistent logical performance. Children with autism displayed a distinctive response pattern, performing around chance levels,…