Based on investment theories and guided by Mussel's (2013) intellect model, the present study investigated reciprocal relations over 1 year (2021-2022) between investment traits (need for cognition, achievement motives, epistemic curiosity) and fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities in 565 German elementary school children (298 girls;…

Parents' judgment of their children's cognitive ability is important for providing adequate learning environments. This study examined parents' judgment accuracy with 2346 children (M = 8.94 years; 48.3% girls) and their parents (1283 mothers, 426 fathers, and 637 parental pairs). The data were collected between September 2012 and February 2014 in…

This 6-wave longitudinal study (2014-2018) of 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds from a midsized city and rural area in southern Germany (89 females, 72 males; predominantly White; mostly middle class) found that scientific-reasoning abilities first develop at 6 years. Abilities were highly stable, with the kindergarten score predicting 25% of…

Previous research on the role of prior skills like proportional reasoning skills for the development of mathematical concepts offers conclusions such as "more (prior skills) is better (for later learning)." Insights, which prior skill "level" goes along with which "level" of learning outcomes, may advance the…

This 5-year longitudinal study investigated advanced theory-of-mind (AToM) development in 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds (89 females, 72 males). Core aspects of AToM developed nonlinearly, with children reaching a milestone at the age of 7 years, around when they attained the conceptual insight that mental states can be recursive. In late…

This study investigated the vocabulary development of children (N = 547) from linguistically and socioeconomically diverse classrooms in Germany from age 3 in preschool to age 7 in Grade 1. The results showed that for dual language learners (DLLs, n = 107) growth rates in their German majority language skills varied over classrooms. Compared to…

This study investigates whether children's preschool experiences are associated with later achievement via enhanced learning behaviors using data from a German longitudinal study following children (N = 554) from age 3 in preschool to age 8 in second grade. There were two main findings. First, results suggest that more positive learning behaviors…

A reciprocal effects model linking emotion and achievement over time is proposed. The model was tested using five annual waves of the Project for the Analysis of Learning and Achievement in Mathematics (PALMA) longitudinal study, which investigated adolescents' development in mathematics (Grades 5-9; N = 3,425 German students; mean starting…

This article examines the development of social and ethnic disparities in academic achievement in elementary schooling. It investigated whether reading and mathematics development in 136 mixed-ability classes shows path-dependent processes of cumulative advantage (Matthew effects) from Grades 4 to 6 (Grade 4 mean age = 10.62, SD = 0.57) resulting…

Longitudinal direct and extended cross-ethnic friendship effects on out-group evaluations among German (majority status, N = 76) and Turkish (minority status, N = 73) children (age 7-11 years) in ethnically heterogeneous elementary schools were examined at the beginning and end of the school year (time lag: 7 months). The results showed that among…

The present study explored whether competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation for different school domains show reciprocal effects over time. A sample of 670 German elementary school pupils (M= 8.8 years, SD= 0.51) was followed over 1 year. At 4 measurement occasions, children completed self-reports on their intrinsic motivation and competence…

First through fourth graders and adults judged the effect of two forces pulling simultaneously at one object by predicting the direction of the resultant force. Found that children took into account either the direction or the amount of both forces and that performance improved with age. (BC)

Assessed children's beliefs about the effectiveness of five causes of school success. At the age of 7-8 years, children differentiated the factors into "unknown" and "other"; at 9-10, "other" was differentiated into "internal" and "external"; at 11-12, "internal" was differentiated into…