Examines strategies for studying individual differences in infant behavior from the standpoints of the distinction between individual differences and developmental function and the need to study change with multivariate techniques. These themes are applied to the study of mental development, behavior genetics, temperament, and attachment. (RJC)

A survey of one Australian university's faculty found that research activity is highly variable and influenced by a number of factors including personal characteristics; differences in research style, methods, and strategies within and between disciplines; and funding. Individual autonomy in topic selection was important. (Author/MSE)

Reviews research on the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system in normal infants. Special attention is paid to the environmental stimuli and psychological processes regulating the stress responses of this system. (NH)

Reviews evidence that children use diverse cognitive strategies; discusses the adaptive value of using diverse strategies; describes models of strategy choice based on rational calculations; and presents an overview of the distributions of associations model of children's strategy choice. (RH)

A wide variety of studies have offered glimpses of how learners put their second-language knowledge and skills to use during communication. It is shown that the same empirical findings can lead to very different conclusions. (49 references) (GLR)

Examined children's conceptions of the causes of wealth and poverty. As their ages increase, children explain wealth and poverty by referring to individual differences in work, effort, and intelligence rather than social, structural, or political factors. (PCB)

Discusses the relation of research findings concerning field dependence-independence to conceptualizations of the process of learning to read. Proposes directions for investigation of the impact of individual differences in the acquisition of reading skills. (RJC)

Investigated interpersonal understanding in friendship reasoning of 97 children at ages 9, 12, and 15 years. Results support theories of the cumulative nature of the development of friendship reasoning. (RJC)

Investigated long-term stability of vocational interests in 409 college freshmen tested with Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory as freshmen in 1974, four years later (N=204), and in 1986. Results revealed remarkable degree of interest stability over all three time intervals and individual differences in stability over time. (Author/NB)

Suggests that Goad & Ingram's (1987) argument in favor of a cognitive model of phonological development failed to recognize the uniqueness of each individual's neural and vocal structures, ignored documented variability in the phonetic patterns of prelexical infants, and inexplicably assumed that inter-child variability implied the operation of…

Investigated sex differences in the motor activity level of 83 children of 5-8 years. Relative maturity was negatively related to activity level. Girls were less motorically active and more mature than boys. (RJC)

Data suggest that infants with high vagal tone were more reactive than infants with low vagal tone to positive and negative events at 5 months, and were more sociable at 14 months. Infant reactivity to mildly stressful events seemed to be a stable dimension during the first year. (RH)

Presents the case of Daryl, a fourth grader who performs well in daily classroom work, but cannot tolerate testing. Because of New York State testing mandates, this child will probably repeat fourth grade or be assigned to special education classes. Clearly, alternative measures building on children's strengths are needed. Includes two references.…

Utilizes the information processing model of human memory to provide teachers with suggestions for improving the teaching-learning process. Briefly explains and specifies applications of major theoretical concepts: attention, active learning, meaningfulness, organization, advanced organizers, memory aids, overlearning, automatically, and…

Explores the effects of question task conditions on reading comprehension and metacomprehension for proficient readers, disabled readers, and deaf readers. Finds several significant interaction effects for both demonstrated and perceived comprehension performance in selected-response and constructed-response question tasks under both lookback and…