Evaluating whether a limited sample of evidence provides a good basis for induction is a critical cognitive task. We hypothesized that whereas adults evaluate the inductive strength of samples containing multiple pieces of evidence by attending to the relations among the exemplars (e.g., sample diversity), six-year-olds would attend to the degree…

We explore whether infants can learn novel phonological alternations on the basis of distributional information. In Experiment 1, two groups of 12-month-old infants were familiarized with artificial languages whose distributional properties exhibited either stop or fricative voicing alternations. At test, infants in the two exposure groups had…

Violation-of-expectation (VOE) tasks have revealed substantial developments in young infants' knowledge about support events: by 5.5 months, infants expect an object to fall when released against but not on a surface; and by 6.5 months, infants expect an object to fall when released with 15% but not 100% of its bottom on a surface. Here we…

Observations and experiments show that human adults preferentially share resources with close relations, with people who have shared with them (reciprocity), and with people who have shared with others (indirect reciprocity). These tendencies are consistent with evolutionary theory but could also reflect the shaping effects of experience or…

Three-dimensional (3D) object completion was investigated by habituating 4- and 6-month-old infants (n = 24 total) with a computer-generated wedge stimulus that pivoted 15[degrees], providing only a limited view. Two displays, rotating 360[degrees], were then shown: a complete, solid volume and an incomplete, hollow form composed only of the sides…

The present studies investigated children's and adults' intuitive beliefs about the physical nature of essences. Adults and children (ranging in age from 6 to 10 years old) were asked to reason about 2 different ways of determining an unknown object's category: taking a tiny internal sample from any part of the object (distributed view of essence)…

This special section was motivated by a resurgence in the view that it is impossible to investigate perceptual and cognitive development without considering how it is affected by, and intertwined with, infants' and children's action in the world. This view has long been foundational to the field, yet contemporary investigations of the effects of…

Purpose: To examine development of sensitivity to auditory and visual temporal processes in children and the association with standardized measures of auditory processing and communication. Methods: Normative data on tests of visual and auditory processing were collected on 18 adults and 98 children aged 6-10 years of age. Auditory processes…

The author discusses Diederik Janssen's "Re-Queering Queer Youth Development" and how the rendering of the disciplining of childhood and the normalization of queerness places the reiteration of oppositional developmental regulatory practices in question. Talburt concurs with Janssen's suggestion for more inquiry into and theorizing about spaces,…

This article examines relevant government policy documents on education and culture and discovers that Nigerian education authorities do not "discriminate" against art and culture in its articulation of educational policies per se, but lack of administrative machinery or political will has resulted in the deprivation of the Nigerian…

The ability to make sense out of the actions of others is critical to people's daily functioning. Adults are social experts: They understand that people's actions are directed at goals and are driven by intentions. In this article, the authors highlight key findings from studies examining infants' understanding of human action. These findings…

This article describes the core concepts, techniques, and challenges of therapeutic intervention with infants and very young children and their families. The tasks of the infant-parent psychotherapist include addressing internal obstacles that impede the parent from accessing the support she needs, as well as practical assistance in identifying…

Neuroimaging findings which identify normal brain development trajectories are presented. Results show that early brain development begins with the neural tube formation and ends with myelintation. How disturbances in brain development patterns are related to childhood psychiatric disorders is examined.

This study examined developmental changes in children's ability to understand the emotions expressed in other children's drawings. Eighty participants, at each of four age groups--three, four, five and six years--were presented with a series of child drawings, each expressing a different emotion (happiness, sadness, anger or fear). All drawings…

Perceptual reorganisation of infants' speech perception has been found from 6 months for consonants and earlier for vowels. Recently, similar reorganisation has been found for lexical tone between 6 and 9 months of age. Given that there is a close relationship between vowels and tones, this study investigates whether the perceptual reorganisation…