Describes four experiments that examined the ability of second- and fifth-grade children and college adults to use "extra-list" cues to retrieve episodic information from memory. Shows that effective cue use varied with both the "match" of cue and event classification, and with the associative structure of permanent memory.…

Collected normative data for the Children's Depression Inventory on 1,463 public school children in Grades 2 through 8. Obtained significant sex and grade differences, but the absolute magnitude of these differences was small. Scores were very consistent with those previously reported. (Author/BH)

Investigates assumptions young listeners may make about speaker authoritativeness. First and fourth graders were asked how the protagonist in a story would respond to what could be interpreted as redundant directions. Stories varied in terms of age and certainty of speaker. (Author/RH)

Investigates reciprocity in friends' knowledge of each other's personal-social characteristics as a function of age and type of friendship. Using a picture-sort procedure, 48 first- and fourth-grade dyads from mutual and unilateral friendships selected items most descriptive of themselves and their friends. (Author/RH)

Students in grades two, four, six, and college sorted abstract visual patterns that varied both in amount of contour and in type of visual organization (unstructured, simple symmetries, multiple symmetries, and rotational). Results suggested that children attend to both amount of contour and visual organization, but that attention to visual…

Reports an experiment on the rapid naming of printed letter strings by third- and fifth-grade Yugoslavian children. As is consistent with previous experiments on adults, the phonologically ambiguous form of a word or pseudoword was named much more slowly than the phonologically unambiguous form. (Author/BE)

Addresses the questions of why and how school learning activities might be made more playlike. Suggests that the concept of flow and of mastery learning are linked. While this relationship must be tested empirically, it offers the possibility of improving teaching techniques. (CB)

Twenty-two second grade students in Cambridge (Massachusetts) were asked to rate pictures of nature items and artifacts on a seven-point scale ranging from "maleness" to "femaleness." Responses overall showed a female-nature and male-artifact association. Discusses the role of such associations in the development of gender…

Presents two studies investigating whether peer interaction can advance the physics understanding of primary schoolchildren. Concerns understanding of floating and sinking. Focuses on the relevant properties of objects and fluids. Finds progress in children interacting with peers having varied views whether the variation was a result of different…

In this study, we explore an alternate mode for teaching and learning the dynamic, three-dimensional (3D) relationships that are central to understanding astronomical concepts. To this end, we implemented an innovative undergraduate course in which we used inexpensive computer modeling tools. As the second of a two-paper series, this report…

A classical Greek elementary magnet school in a large urban school district has identified the need for a multicultural fine arts program reflecting the contributions of ancient cultures to modern man. The author and teachers (K-5) of this school developed a multicultural program using classical literature, visual and performing arts, history, and…

The extent to which children evaluated non-television advertisements differentially on the basis of performers' gender, expertise, and attractiveness was assessed. Participating were 56 girls and 47 boys attending first-, third-, and fifth-grade classes in Galveston, Texas. A total of 24 pairs of specially prepared advertisements were used as…

This follow-up study, which was part of a larger ongoing longitudinal project, compared early infant-parent attachment relationships to aspects of both parents' and children's mental representations of attachment when children were 6 years old. The sample consisted of 50 mothers, fathers, and children of predominantly upper-middle class social…

A study was conducted to explore how second-grade children's memory for film characters' statements varies as a function of (1) group composition (the proportion of boys and girls in each film condition); (2) congruence level of film characters (incongruent and congruent sex-typed statements); and (3) subjects' own sex-role orientations…

A self-paced free recall task was employed to assess the effects of motivational and metacognitive influences on active processing and recall. A total of 81 fourth-graders were randomly assigned to one of four instructional conditions: strategy instructions plus process monitoring instructions; strategy instructions only; process monitoring…