Two statistical characteristics of the Matching Familiar Figures test which produce methodological problems in reflection-impulsivity research are discussed. (BRT)

Introduces a special journal issue on children and poverty, reviewing child poverty rates in the United States, the nature and dimensions of poverty, and the state of child poverty research. Also examines processes mediating the influences of poverty, contextual influences on children in poverty, and child outcomes, with reference to the remaining…

Focuses on implications for intervention and highlights conceptual and methodological advances in studies establishing a causal link between social behavior and peer status. Studies reviewed investigate social interaction over time, use fine-grained coding systems, employ multiple measures, and videotape behavior in carefully designed analogue…

Describes two studies designed to determine how children in first through third grades become aware of their failure to comprehend instructions. Results suggested that children's initial insensitivity to their own comprehension failure is due to a relative lack of constructive processing. (JMB)

Two experiments contrasted the effects of several methods of initiating the play activity of elementary school children on children's willingness to persist in an initially interesting activity. (Author)

Attempted to determine (1) whether developmental differences existed in children's comprehension of simple necessity and simple sufficiency relationships, and (2) the source of developmental differences in children's causal reasoning. (SB)

Differences in cooperation and competition were assessed in samples of Polynesian and European children, ages 7 to 12. (JMB)

This study tested the hypothesis that when extrinsic rewards for an intrinsically interesting activity are withdrawn, the activity acquires aversive properties through the arousal of anticipatory frustration, which causes decreased interest. Subjects were 64 7-year-old children. (Author/JMB)

Children's drawings of objects about to be moved in space (anticipatory images) were studied in relation to their judgments about Euclidian spatial relations. (SB)

This study investigated the relationship between the attainment of a Piagetian formal operational concept (proportion) and personal characteristics in 117 children 10 to 12 years old. (SB)

Investigates differences among children in relative reliance on spelling-sound rules v word-specific associations in reading words. The tendency to rely on rules is correlated with ability to read regular words. Findings indicate that analogies and smaller-unit rules are used in the reading tasks. (JMB)

Tests Piaget's interpretation of long-term memory improvement among 82 five- and six-year-old children. Concludes that there is little evidence for long-term memory improvement or for Piaget's theory of memory. (Author/RH)

In 2 studies, age differences in children's self-evaluative responses as a function of success/failure outcome and task ease information were explored. (SB)