The ideas of Vygotsky [Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). "Thinking and speech." In "The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky," (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum. (Original work published 1934.)] have been increasingly influential in accounting for social-environmental influences on the development of social understanding (SU). In the first part of this article, I…

Provides a developmental interpretation of some of the differences in peoples' responses to art. The interpretation is based on a theory that focuses on how people understand paintings. Identifies a five-stage theory of aesthetic development and illustrates the typical stage responses of people viewing the Ivan Albright painting "Ida." (JDH)

Suggests that children construe the world as they develop relationships with other individuals. Offers considerations regarding developmental changes marking the first year of life and argues that cognition is framed in public social exchanges and private dialogical thinking. (DLH)

Reports on a study of the interactions of students in Australian high schools and was designed to focus on "target students" who monopolized whole class interactions. Students who were asked by teachers to be target students tended to have higher formal reasoning ability and achievement levels than the other students. (TW)

Studied partner and site novelty for mother-infant, stranger-infant, and mother-stranger face-to-face interactions. Found that adult-infant vocal timing measures at age 4 months did predict attachment and cognition at age 12 months. Comparison of mother-infant and stranger-infant interactions suggested the dynamics of infants' early…