Two experiments investigated causes of children's selection of easy tasks in task choice situations. Experiment 1 probed the effects of experimenter presence on task choices of 55 Japanese children ranging in age from 66 to 76 months, of whom 32 were boys and 23 were girls. A total of 30 subjects were assigned to an experimenter attending…

This study, which focused on the social behavior of 4-year-old children toward peers and adults, investigated relationships of 54 children in California and Japan who were observed for 20 minutes while they were playing in preschool or day care. All their behaviors during the first 30 seconds were observed and written down during the second 30…

This paper reports on an exploratory cross-cultural study of the attitudes of first and second grade students toward the use of microcomputers in instruction. Questionnaire responses were compared among three groups: Japanese students in Tokyo, Japan; American students in Sanger, Texas; and Japanese students attending a special school for Japanese…

Conversations between mothers and children from three different cultural groups were analyzed to determine culturally preferred narrative elicitation patterns. The three groups included Japanese-speaking mother-child pairs living in Japan, Japanese-speaking, mother-child pairs living in the United States, and English-speaking Canadian mother-child…

In order to understand how learning occurs in children from different cultures, the learning profiles of Japanese and American children who ranged in age from 4 to 6 was examined, using the Iowa Early Learning Assessment Instrument (IELA). After the English instructions of the IELA were translated into Japanese the IELA was sent to Japan and was…

Two studies examined conversations between mothers and children from three different groups to determine culturally preferred narrative elicitation patterns: (1) Japanese-speaking mother-child pairs living in Japan; (2) Japanese-speaking mother-child pairs living in the United States; and (3) English-speaking Canadian mother-child pairs.…

The development of and relationship between early language, symbolic play, sensorimotor skills, and social development were examined in a longitudinal study conducted in Japan with two young autistic males who were observed from the approximate ages of 2 to 4 years in clinic, day care, and home settings. One child acquired speech; the other did…