Explored the effect of person familiarity and parental involvement on 3.5-month-old infants' sensitivity to the dynamic emotion expressions of others. Found that infants looked differentially at mothers' expressions but not at those of fathers or unfamiliar adults, and that parent-child involvement significantly influenced infants' developing…

Three studies investigated how 3-year-old Japanese children interpret the meaning of a new word associated with a familiar artifact. Findings suggest that children flexibly recruit clues from multiple sources, including shape information and function familiarity, but the clues are weighed in hierarchical order so children can determine the single…

Presents a model that describes how students reconstruct geological transformations over time. Defines the critical factors influencing reconstructive thinking: (1) the transformation scheme, which influences the other diachronic schemes; (2) knowledge of geological processes; and (3) extracognitive factors. (Author/KHR)

Examined causal attributions about aggression made by early, middle, and late adolescents. Analyses of the attribution questionnaire supported the hypothesized model of causal beliefs. The strength of endorsements of internally oriented causal factors increased with age. Findings are discussed with regard to socio-cognitive development and…

In order to shed light on the needs of children with cortical visual impairments, normal visual development of infants is described. Infant preferences for motion, faces, and black-and-white patterns are explained. Colors useful in stimulating vision development and the time needed for exposure to visual stimuli are discussed. (CR)

Four- to 10-year olds viewed pictures in which all or some individuals pictured were doing something to all or some objects pictured. Children indicated which sentences, using "all" or "each" to modify the subject or object, applied to the pictures. In choosing the applicable sentence, children showed little difficulty with…

Examined development of displaced reference in four deaf children who used homesign and in 18 hearing children. Found that deaf children referred to the nonpresent less frequently and at later ages than hearing children, both groups followed similar developmental paths. Deaf children evoked the nonpresent by generating novel gestures, modifying…

Examined relation between early fantasy/pretense and knowledge about mental life in 3- and 4-year olds. Found that performance on theory of mind tasks was significantly intercorrelated when effects of verbal intelligence and age were statistically controlled. Individual differences in fantasy/pretense were related to theory of mind performance in…

Chronicles Piaget's and Vygotsky's criticism of each other's ideas on childhood egocentrism. Notes that genuine, critical dialog failed to develop because Piaget did not reply to Vygotsky's criticism at first. Five reasons for his reticence are considered: (1) a language barrier; (2) lack of knowledge; (3) quality of the criticism; (4) ideology;…

Identifies a new urgency to the struggle over the emphasis of U.S. developmental psychology. Suggestions for developmental psychologists include: recruiting diverse and empathic students; broadening the curriculum and incorporating multicultural education; implementing senior faculty development programs; transforming developmental theory to…

Agrees with Gellatly that sociocultural influences are important in children's cognitive development, but maintains Gellatly confounds the contents of beliefs with the processes of forming beliefs. Argues that, though content varies cross-culturally, children use similar processes to make distinctions related to cultural contents. Suggests that…

Focuses on the role of enculturation in children's cognitive development by distinguishing between, and elaborating upon, three factors: (1) cultural context; (2) cognitive contents; and (3) cognitive processes. Suggests problems inherent in positing homologies between children's cognitive development and the historical development of scientific…

This study examined inhibitory function in 13 nonretarded children with autism and 13 normally developing controls. Tasks measuring motor and cognitive components were administered to both groups. Results suggest that at least two components of inhibition are spared in individuals with autism, standing in contrast to flexibility and other…

Extends earlier work with American children to explore British children's application of teleological explanation to artifacts, biological properties, and properties of nonliving natural phenomena, based on the view that because of lower religiosity in Britain, these children might be less inclined than American children to endorse purpose-based…

Three experiments tested 3- and 4-year-olds' use of abstract principles to classify and label objects by shape or function. Findings indicated that 4-year-olds readily adopted either rule when instructed to match objects by shape or function, but 3-year-olds followed only the shape rule. Without a rule, 4-year-olds tended to match by shape unless…