Decades-old research has demonstrated the effects of virtual space on perception mostly with adult samples. Little is known about children's ability to utilize spatial-temporal qualities from computerized settings. Past research with primary school children suggested that the ability to utilize spatial-temporal information is crucial for inferring…

This study investigated the social role understanding of 72 children aged 5, 8, and 11 years. An illustrated story, written especially for the project, was used as the basis for conducting a semistructured interview with each child. The main aspects examined included role definition and children's understanding of the role's characteristics; and…

Reported are two experiments investigating children's comprehension and production of the causal connectives "because" and "so" in empirical and intentional modes of explanation. In the empirical mode, "because" introduces a description of a cause, whereas "so" introduces a description of an effect. In the…

A study conducted in England (Goebel, 1982) showed that older English adults preferred middle-aged and older persons over young persons in important relationships. Since research has shown Americans to have negative attitudes toward the elderly, it was hypothesized that older Americans might not share the English sample's preferences. To examine…

Questions and sentence completion tasks were used to investigate the ability of twenty-four 5-year-old and an equal number of 8-year-old children to explain actions in terms of intentions. When the children were given information about an action and a result, they were able to infer that the reason for the action was the agent's intention to…

Investigated as a function of adults' birth cohort--a group of adults born during a specific time period--were beliefs influencing current attitudes toward parenting that prevail in England and the United States. Particular attention was given to the value attached to parental role in relation to the specific roles of spouse and worker. The total…

Examines the effect of repeated trials on children aged six to nine from different countries learning a new song. States that: (1) culture influences responses; (2) rote singing improves with age; (3) girls responses are better; and (4) children repeat rhythms more accurately before they can pitch match melodic contours and precise pitches. (CMK)

Exploring whether deductive reasoning can develop adequately without special instruction, this paper presents two studies that examine the development of meta-components of deductive reasoning, first in algebra, and second in verbal reasoning. The first study examined students' understanding of logical necessity in algebraic tasks in different…

These two studies, which were part of a cross-national project exploring the development of Italian and British children's understanding of sociolinguistic rules, investigated politeness in children's requests addressed to adults and children, and children's views on how requests addressed to persons differing in status and familiarity would be…

A study explored the causes cited by British primary school students for instances of relative success and failure in class work in a free-response setting. The study involved 157 7-, 9-, and 11-year old students in 2 primary schools. Because the 7-year-olds were reluctant to talk about their own work, children were asked to talk about the reasons…