Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely-reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status families, including recent proposals that the pattern is…

This integrative text spotlights what educators need to know about children's cognitive development across grade levels (PreK-12) and content areas. The book provides a concise introduction to developmental neuroscience and theories of learning. Chapters on general cognitive abilities probe such crucial questions as what children are capable of…

Self-assessment practices have been advocated in recent Irish educational documents due to their potential to enhance school children's learning and self-regulatory skills. However, the literature has highlighted how some children struggle to make accurate self-assessments of their academic work, which diminishes such positive effects (Keane and…

The main goal of this social policy report is to propose a holistic approach for promoting developmental success among Latinx children and youth. This report highlights the need to 1) redefine success and 2) account for intersectional inequalities. First, the current demographic landscape of Latinx students is presented to showcase the variability…

Moral and conventional violations are usually judged differently: Only moral violations are treated as independent of social rules. To investigate the cognitive processing involved in the development of this distinction, undergraduates (N = 34), adolescents (N = 34), and children (N = 14) read scenarios presented on a computer that had 1 of 3…

This paper discusses research exploring the performance factors involved in studies which test for formal operations. It is suggested that several previous studies dealing with formal operations confound performance and competence in determining the extent of subjects' formal operations schemata. Factors which might account for performance…

This study investigated the relationship between giftedness and conservation of weight based on Piaget's theory of intelligence. A total of 56 gifted and 72 nongifted children (ages 114-150 months) were tested on a series of tasks designed to measure conservation of weight. (MS)

To investigate the relationship of children's beliefs about sex differences to their own age and gender, 427 children (seven, 10, and 15 year olds) were asked to explain their beliefs. Younger children's responses displayed a biological orientation, and older children's a societal orientation, but no evidence supported a hypothesized third stage…

An interaction exists among cognitive processes, basic learning skills, and the cultural and social contexts in which they develop. Primary socialization experiences, those that children are exposed to in their personal, immediate lives, form a fundamental basis for cognitive development. In secondary socialization settings children acquire…

Reports on three studies which investigated the development of the concept of horizontality in subjects from nursey school through college age. Normative data collected allowed for evaluation of Piaget's stages and for differences due to age, sex, and apparatus shape and orientation. (ED)

A study investigated the problem-solving performance, style, and cross-cultural differences of 72 students (ages 9-15) with mild mental retardation from African American, European American, and Nigerian cultural backgrounds. Nigerians generated more independent responses and European American generated more independent responses than African…

The relationship between understanding of friendship and asociality was examined in 91 girls and 104 boys, ages 9 to 17 years. Understanding friendship was significantly related to age and sex. Difficulty in understanding components of friendship appears to be one correlate of boys' delinquent tendencies. (Author/BS)

Robert L. Thorndike was awarded the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Measurement Award at the 1972 ETS Invitational Conference. In "Heredity, Environment, and Class or Ethnic Differences," J. McV. Hunt addressed several fundamental questions pertaining to the hereditary and environmental influences of the observed social class and ethnic…

The determinants of student decisions to take or not take mathematics were studied. The variables selected for the study were derived from the expectancy/valve model of behavior. Choice is found to be influenced most directly by the utility valve of mathematics for attaining future goals and the interest of on-going mathematics activities.…

This special issue of the Mensa Research Journal contains four papers written by K. Warner Schaie, a psychologist who focuses on psychological development from young adulthood through old age. The first paper is "Living with Gerontology." In it, Schaie recounts his own childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, his path to becoming a…