Depression often emerges during adolescence and persists into adulthood. Thus, it is critical to study risk factors that contribute to the development of depression in adolescence. One set of risk factors that has been recently studied in adolescent depression research is eating- and weight-related disturbances (EWRDs). EWRDs encompass negative…

Two experiments were conducted to explore the extent to which individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as well as young typically developing (TD) children, are explicitly aware of their own and others' intentions. In Experiment 1, participants with ASD were significantly less likely than age- and ability-matched comparison participants to…

The consequences of prenatal maternal stress for development were examined in 125 full-term infants at 3, 6, and 12 months of age. Maternal cortisol and psychological state were evaluated 5 times during pregnancy. Exposure to elevated concentrations of cortisol early in gestation was associated with a slower rate of development over the 1st year…

We investigate the development of two types of prosocial behavior, trust and reciprocity, as defined using a game-theoretical task that allows investigation of real-time social interaction, among 4 age groups from 9 to 25 years. By manipulating the possible outcome alternatives, we could distinguish among important determinants of trust and…

Upon witnessing a causal event, do children's gestures encode causal knowledge that (a) does not appear in their linguistic descriptions or (b) conveys the same information as their sentential expressions? The former use of gesture is considered supplementary; the latter is considered reinforcing. Sixty-four English-speaking children aged 2.5-5…

Studies of the development of racial awareness have used--albeit asystematically--stimuli of varying degrees of realism (dolls, drawings, photographs). Although researchers have weighed the advantages and disadvantages of using one or the other type of material with young children, there are no empirical studies that determine whether the nature…

Three experiments demonstrate that biological movement facilitates young infants' recognition of the whole human form. A body discrimination task was used in which 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants were habituated to typical human bodies and then shown scrambled human bodies at the test. Recovery of interest to the scrambled bodies was observed in…

This article was given as a keynote address to the 2009 conference of the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW), 30 June to 2 July, at Coventry University, UK. It draws on experiences at Queen Mary, University of London, of developing a "writing in the disciplines" initiative and of working towards…

This study examined if solving arithmetic problems hinders undergraduates' accuracy on algebra problems. The hypothesis was that solving arithmetic problems would hinder accuracy because it activates an operational view of equations, even in educated adults who have years of experience with algebra. In three experiments, undergraduates (N = 184)…

Instructional management focuses on planning, execution and evaluation of learning experiences. For teachers in pre-secondary schools to plan, execute and evaluate learning experiences effectively, they need to have good understanding of the process of cognitive development in children. Piaget has postulated that children progress through a series…

Goal neglect is the phenomenon of failing to execute the momentary demands of a task despite understanding and being able to recall the task instructions. Successful goal maintenance is more likely to occur in adults with high working memory capacity (WMC) who can keep rules mentally accessible while performing the task. The current study…

Recent studies suggest that even infants attend to others' beliefs in order to make sense of their behavior. To warrant the assumption of early belief understanding, corresponding competences need to be demonstrated in a variety of different belief-inducing situations. The present study provides corresponding evidence, using a completely nonverbal…

Recent cognitive psychological research has argued that involuntary mental time travel is an important individual difference variable that has the potential to affect an individual's motivation. However, this issue has not been empirically investigated in educational settings such as teacher education. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the…

In hindsight, that is, after receiving the correct answers to difficult questions, people's recall of their own prior answers tends to be biased toward the correct answers. We tested 139 participants from 3 age groups (9- and 12-year-olds and adults) in a hindsight-bias paradigm and found that all groups showed hindsight bias. Multinomial…

According to van der Linde (1999), play and music are interrelated activities. They are both essential components to a child's development, but this is not always understood. There are many areas in early childhood where music and play are inseparable and others that are strengthened by the pairing. This article discusses the importance of both…