These results provide a more precise attentional interpretation of both preference and pretraining effects. (Authors)

Two studies examined how nonconservers use the dimensions relevant to quantity in the conservation of substance task. Most nonconservers are very selective in their use of the information provided by these dimensions. Most preschool and kindergarten nonconservers used length to define amount, while ignoring width. This was true regardless of how…

Preschool teachers rely on several strategies for motivating children to participate in learning activities. In the current study, we evaluated the effectiveness of and preference for three teaching contexts in which embedded, sequential, or no programmed reinforcement was arranged. The embedded context included highly preferred teaching…

This experiment was designed to test whether paired objects described as interacting through movement are more memorable to young children than the same objects described as alike in structure or color. Drawings of eight familiar objects were presented in unfamiliar combinations to forty-five 4-year-old subjects. Objects were described as…

Study explores the preschool child's ability to operate on a cognitive level by testing his capacity to compare a concrete stimulus with some abstract concept. (Author/CB)

Results indicate that for children in this study's age range orientation is a less salient discriminative cue than either size or color. (Author/MB)

Four-year-old boys and girls initially named and matched by form more often than by color. Also, agreements involving form names and matches occurred more often than agreements involving color names and matches. (Authors)

Five preschool-age boys participated in a study of the effects of detailed and nondetailed toys on solitary creative play. In contrast to detailed, high-structure toys, nondetailed, low-structure toys were hypothesized to enhance creative play. In a multi-element design taking place over 13 daily sessions, detailed and nondetailed toys were…

The purpose of this paper is to set out a descriptive model in which the relative dominance of a stimulus dimension is related to the form of attention it receives. (Author/DB)

The development of two structural principles, hierarchical complexity and interruption, was examined in a new domain: two-dimensional pictures. Subjects were 60 4-to 5 1/2-year-old children. (Author/MP)

The effects of stimulus dimension and mode of exploration on preschool children's responses to pattern meanings and unusual uses tasks of original thinking were studied. The 3D tasks generated more responses overall. Visual and haptic exploration combined with 3D was the only condition studied to meet all criteria for construct validity.…

This paper discusses three studies which examined the interaction of dimensional dominance with the attentional components of alertness and encoding. In Study I, twenty 6- and 7-year-olds observed thirty 3-second exposures of a color, then participated in a 40-trial choice reaction time task in which the familiarized color and a novel color served…

Reports two experiments which examined developmental changes in the patterns of preference for varying degrees of perspective while controlling for the station point used in viewing. Subjects were 28 preschool children (age four years), 23 elementary school students (age six years) and 30 college students from introductory psychology classes. (MP)

Coordination and integration of class information was examined using a multidimensional similarity judgment task in which four- and nine-year-old children rated the similarity of pairs of stimuli sharing either one or two attribute values. (Author/MP)