Early exploratory behaviors have been proposed to facilitate children's learning, impacting motor, cognitive, language, and social development. This study related the performance of behaviors used to explore oneself to behaviors used to explore objects, and then related both types of exploratory behaviors to motor, language, and cognitive measures…

In 2 studies, the authors examined the development of the relationship between inductive reasoning and visual recognition memory. In both studies, 5- to 6-year-old children and adults were shown instances of a basic-level category (dogs) followed by a test set containing old and new category members that varied in their similarity to study items.…

Children and adults often judge that the side effects of the actions of an uncaring story agent have been intentional if the effects are harmful but not if these are beneficial, creating an asymmetrical "side-effect" effect. The authors report 3 experiments involving 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 188) designed to clarify the role of foreknowledge and…

To assess predictive relations between joint attention skills, intention understanding, and mental state vocabulary, 88 children were tested with measures of comprehension of gaze and referential pointing, as well as the production of declarative gestures and the comprehension and production of imperative gestures, at the ages of 7-18 months.…

For pairs of full siblings, half-siblings, and cousins, analyzed maternal ratings of children's behavior problems at three times between ages 4 and 10. Found that nonshared environmental influences were substantial at each age but did not contribute to continuities in children's problem behaviors. Results favor a liability model that relates…

Explored the stability of temperament of 450 Australian children. One of the child's parents completed a measure of the child's temperament at 5 instances between 18 months and 8 years. Approach, irritability, cooperation-manageability, inflexibility, rhythmicity, and persistence factors showed substantial continuity from infancy to eight years.…

This study used data from the Berkeley Guidance Study (1954) to identify children with a pattern of temper tantrums in late childhood (ages 8-10) and to trace the continuities and consequences of this behavioral style across the subsequent 30 years of their lives. Life course continuities in behavioral style were found for both sexes. (Author/BN)

Reflects on researchers' conceptions about psychological growth over the last century. Discusses five themes relevant to developmental research: (1) the selection of phenomena for study; (2) the use of continuous dimensions or categories to describe children's characteristics; (3) continuity versus discontinuity in development; (4) the influence…

Examined the role of early versus ongoing maternal responsiveness in predicting cognitive and social development for full-term and preterm children (low- and high-risk) at five ages. Found that children, especially preterm children, showed faster cognitive growth when mothers were consistently responsive. Social growth was similar in the…

Yearly cognitive tests were administered to adoptive and nonadoptive siblings between one and seven years of age and identical and nonidentical twins between one and three years. Results indicated that genetic influences are a source of continuity and change in mental development, whereas shared and nonshared environmental effects contribute to…

Examined the joint and unique predictive significance of emergent literacy skills for later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Structural equation modeling revealed significant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early…