Groups of 30 children (kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth grades) were shown videotapes of four types of conversations between two stimulus children. In each videotape, one child began conversation, and other child responded, each of them making either a high- or low-intimate self-disclosure. Findings indicated that norm of reciprocity…

Examines effects of age, sex, and sibling status on children's ideas about infants and infant care. The sample consisted of 43 preschoolers and 42 second graders, half of whom were boys, half were girls, and half were singletons. Older children with siblings were more knowledgeable than either their singleton peers or younger children.…

Reports a study of 5- to 12-year-old children and adults regarding the role of perceptual motor factors in copying an equilateral four-sided "square" or "diamond" figure under five conditions. Developmental trends were found for copying both figures; the diamond was less well performed than the square at all ages tested.…

Reports on two studies during which 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were interviewed about three different types of regularities or rules: social conventions, physical laws, and logical necessities. Shows that older children made more distinctions between social and nonsocial items than did younger children. (HOD)

Describes three experiments that tested autistic children's nonverbal and verbal categorization abilities. Concludes that autistic children do not suffer a specific cognitive deficit in ability to categorize and form abstract concepts. (HOD)

Demonstrates the usefulness of the inclusion paradigm as a methodological tool in providing information about the conceptual breadth of selected social and nonsocial superordinate categories in children who exhibit some degree of inclusion logic. (HOD)

The contribution of shared experience to the social role-taking competence of 120 children in preschool, second grade, and fifth grade was evaluated under conditions that did or did not provide subjects the previous opportunity to occupy the perspective of those whose points of view they were later required to assume. (Author/RH)

Investigated children's use of context to facilitate word recognition and comprehension-monitoring processes in oral reading of connected prose as a function of grade level and decoding skill. Found no overall contextual facilitation of word recognition accuracy; however, less skilled decoders were helped by context in decoding some content words.…

Examines extent to which second- and fifth-graders use social comparison information to evaluate themselves. Results indicate that fifth-, but not second-graders, made appropriate evaluations of their abilities on the basis of variations in relative performance and compensated for time differences. (Author/BE)

Fifty-nine children with varying amounts and types of day-care experience were followed over their first 2 or 3 years of public schooling. Schoolteachers rated aggressiveness of several types and in several situations and supplied information about managing the children, their use of conflict-avoiding strategies, and other associated skills and…

Describes the self-worth theory of achievement motivation, the research generated under this model, and the implications of this research for classroom teaching. Discusses developmental changes in ability perceptions and the conflict between strategies employed by students to maintain a sense of worthiness in the face of failure and the prevailing…

Hypothesizes that organizational conditions in classrooms affect aspects of student motivation, i.e., students' academic self-concepts, their perceptions of their peers, and their perceptions of school. Research findings in studies of elementary students confirmed the hypothesis that classrooms that narrowly define academic ability increase the…

This paper reports on a study that represents a new approach to understanding early and middle grade children's development of historical time awareness. The study sought to embed children's time awareness in a sociocultural framework, and to move beyond linguistic symbol systems to incorporate visual data sources. The researchers began with three…

Compares the effect of weak, flexible, and rigid family structures on the cognitive development of 61 Scottish and 40 Pakistani school children in Glasgow, Scotland. In a problem-solving test, children from flexible environments outperformed those from either weakly or rigidly structured homes. This difference was reflected in the school…

Two experiments provide strong evidence that very young children are capable of constructing the meaning of metaphors pertaining to psychological phenomena, even when not given opportunity to derive the meaning of the metaphor from context alone. Subjects at all ages from five years to college age were able to achieve above-chance levels of…