Relational complexity (RC) theory conceptualizes an individual's processing capacity and a task's complexity along a common ordinal metric. The authors describe the development of the Latin Square Task (LST) that assesses the influence of RC on reasoning. The LST minimizes the role of knowledge and storage capacity and thus refines the…

Infants' sensitivity to social contingencies was assessed. In Study 1, 1-month-old infants and their mothers interacted face-to-face in three types of imperfect contingent interactions: Normal, Non-Contingent and Imitation. One-month-old infants did not discriminate these conditions. In Study 2, 3-month-old infants were tested as in Study 1. At 3…

This paper describes two experiments in which first, 10, then 20 first-grade students were taught the geographic concept of location through organized lessons and then were able to transfer their learning to concentric area questions with understanding. This study applies Vygotsky's and Gagne's theories that children can learn, recall, and apply…

A total of 129 male and female ambulatory residents were surveyed in settings of high and low constraint on the following measures: life satisfaction, developmental task resolution, self-acceptance, perceived autonomy, activity level, health and educational level. The results are discussed in terms of the effects of constraints on the individual.…

A sample of 228 elementary school children in a large eastern city was administered tasks which tested visual perceptions of solid objects, and photographs and drawings of these objects. Results showed that children in grades one, four, and six demonstrate a tendency to perform more efficiently on observation and comparison tasks employing solid…

A life span approach to child development has important implications for early childhood professionals: teachers, teacher educators, or directors of programs. Students-in-training need to learn to structure for themselves a positive developmental context for understanding and programing for the infants and young children they will be teaching.…

A series of easy activities for parents or caregivers to use in guiding the developmental progress of children at the infant, toddler, and preschool levels. (Author)

A total of 60 kindergarten and first- and second-grade girls were presented with three tasks: concept-shift, sort, and hierarchization. Without exception, children who failed a task also failed the higher-order task(s), and children who passed a task also passed the lower-order task(s). Implications in relation to Piaget's theory of development of…

The age-status system in adulthood was investigated, using a 58-item instrument which divided adulthood subjectively into three periods: normative expectations for various adulthood developmental tasks (marriage, parenthood, employment, retirement, etc.); the lower age constraints ("too young") for these behaviors. In addition, 22 items regarding…

The paper describes a process for planning, implementing, servicing, and revising handicapped children's individualized education programs (IEPs). The procedure is based on a developmental approach with emphasis on systematic instruction and methodical planning of long-term objectives. Sample record sheets suggest a format for detailing strengths…

An auditory discrimination procedure was used in this study to attempt to correct the speech problem of a 4-year-old girl. The major characteristic of that speech problem was the consistent use of inappropriate first consonant sounds in some words, like "gog" for "dog." The child was given 25 training sessions and two posttraining sessions. The…

Both economic and sociological analyses of the "youth problem" tend to segregate young people into two classes: those who will make it through the system as it exists, and those who will need help to make it. The resulting programs for those who need help often have the effect of further stigmatizing the participants. By contrast, a program which…

Piaget and Inhelder, in The Child's Conception of Space (1956), described the coordination of viewpoints (CV) spatial operation as one of the prerequisites to the development of the rotation and development (RD) spatial operation. This study investigated this developmental dependency notion and also evaluated the effects of age and sex on the…

On the basis of Guilford's model of intellect and of the work of others in the field of cognitive psychology, an attempt is made here to identify the abilities and attitudes which are likely to make possible the performance of the vocational developmental tasks. From this conception, a new approach to guidance is suggested, in which the student is…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between a developmentally disabled child's ability to perform (a) a simple rhythmic task, and (b) a series of gross and fine motor tasks. The subjects of this study were 77 boys aged 65 months (5.416 years) to 174 months (14.5 years). All were classified as educable mentally retarded,…