This study investigated acquisition of music performance skills over 11 practice trials in novice and expert pianists differing in age, training, and sight-reading ability. The finding of a strong positive relationship between the mastery of temporal constraints and planning abilities within performance suggested that these two cognitive…

A study investigated whether effects of volunteer service during undergraduate years persist after college. Data were drawn from 12,376 students attending 209 institutions, who were followed up four and nine years after college entry. Results show that even when precollege service participation is controlled, student volunteer service during…

Observed gesture and speech to investigate patterns of change in third and fourth graders' strategies for solving mathematical equivalence problems before and after an intervention. Children who received instruction were more likely to generate new strategies. Gradual change was more common. Abrupt strategy change was more common in children who…

Tested 3- to 7-year-olds' ability to calculate with whole numbers, fractions, and mixed-numbers, in a task in which an amount was displayed, then hidden. Subjects were to determine the hidden amount resulting when numbers were added or substracted. Found that, although fraction problems were more difficult than whole-number problems, competence on…

Development of reading speed in Italian children with dyslexia was estimated using individualized growth curves for 38 children with dyslexia tested longitudinally from 2nd-8th grade and compared with controls. Their reading speed development followed a linear trend of .3 syllables per second per grade, half the increment observed in controls.…

Relates Vygotsky's concept of zone of proximal development to a fishing story, thereby providing a scaffold allowing preservice students to better understand the educational concept. Concludes that educators should use the right bait (determined by how engaged children are), technique, and progress at the right pace (evidenced by children's…

Examines the relation between a play-based assessment tool, specifically the PLAY observation system, and a standardized assessment of cognitive and social skills of preschool children. Recorded the level of play each child exhibited. Play behaviors reflected the child's cognitive and social developmental functioning. (CMK)

Examined how Japanese 2- and 4-year-olds assigned meaning to novel nouns associated with familiar and unfamiliar animals and inanimate objects. Found that in the absence of useful information from syntax, the 2-year-olds were able to fast map a noun to its meaning by elegantly coordinating word-learning biases and other available sources of…

Discusses the importance of modeling, hints, and other information contexts for providing a link to establishing new problem-solving strategies for toddlers and older children. Discusses the use of the microgenetic approach for yielding valuable information about strategic development despite the lack of availability of verbal reports. Suggests…

Three studies replicated and extended Dweck's findings regarding young children's responses to challenging achievement situations. Findings indicated that a composite of cognitive, behavioral, and affective helplessness indices at kindergarten age predicted helplessness 1 and 5 years later, above and beyond gender and kindergarten task ability.…

Examined in six experiments toddlers' use of syntactic cues to learn proper names and count nouns. Found that by 24 months, both girls and boys were significantly more likely to select a labeled object if they had heard a proper name than if they had heard a count noun. At 20 months, neither girls nor boys demonstrated this effect. (Author/KB)

This article summarizes the important ideas and research findings of DISCOVER, an on-going program of research and development concerning the problem solving abilities of children and youth. It identifies five problem types and reviews the DISCOVER assessment model, including research on its reliability and validity and the DISCOVER curriculum…

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth was used to examine the effect of various family structures on behavioral and cognitive outcomes for children aged 7 to 10. Results indicate family income, mother's psychological functioning, and quality of home environment are important for behavior, whereas family income and mother's aptitude…

Studying normal infant development is a challenge for cognitive scientists in general and for neuroscientists in particular because: (1) physiological indices of infant cognition are generally noisy and technically difficult to obtain; and (2) interindividual variability and a paucity of established results make data interpretation very complex,…

Child care quality plays a crucial role in children's social and cognitive development. While child care quality is a critical issue for all children, it matters more for low-income children. Policy makers have increased the emphasis on allowing parents, not government, to make decisions about the type of care they want for their children. Yet…