Identified and formalized were two distinct learning strategies employed by 120 children between 7 and 15 years of age who played a simple, computerized board game. "Hexapawn" is played by moving pawns in turn on a 3 x 3 grid, in order to be the first to reach the opponent's starting line or block the opponent. The computer always moved…

The research examined the peer relations of autistic children and adults. In the first study, six autistic males (ages 6-21 years) were observed over a 1-year period. Results indicated that statistically significant improvements in peer relations were not observed over the 1-year period. Subsequently the peer relations of 11 autistic persons (ages…

The purpose of this research was to examine 18- to 30-month-old children's use of scripts for representing common events. A script is defined as a model that specifies the roles and props appropriate to an event and identifies a sequence of acts for achieving the goal defined by the event. Two aspects of script knowledge were investigated: (1) the…

This study examined the hypothesis that the effective visual field of 5-year-old children is smaller than that of 8-year-old children and adults. In addition, an effort was made to determine whether task demands affect the size of the effective visual field and if so, whether the effects on performance are different for children and adults. A…

This study provides evidence of sex-typed behavior in the spontaneous play of infants between 9 1/2 and 15 1/2 months. Eight boys and eight girls at 9 1/2, 11 1/2, 13 1/2, and 15 1/2 months were observed during 15 minutes of free play with a variety of realistic toys equally divided into male, female, and neutral categories. Stereotypical,…

Children's understanding of dreams as mental states was examined as an instance of their development of a "theory of mind." Thirty-five children between three and seven years of age were interviewed to determine how well they understood the reality, location, privacy, origin, and controllability of their own dreams, versus that of a…

The purpose of this study was to determine age-related differences in preschoolers' emerging awareness of the human mind's functions. The study predicted that preschoolers are gradually becoming aware of their own mind functions and those of others. Forty children (mean age in months = 54.1; mean age in years = 4.51) were observed and questioned…

On the basis of a survey as a research method (involving from designing surveys to reporting on surveys), the author examined students' perceptions of computers and information technology. In fall 2005, a survey questionnaire was administered to students enrolled in education courses at a university in the western Pacific. Attention was given to…

Two experiments investigated developmental differences in attention allocation and attention-sharing in a dual-task paradigm using Performance Operating Characteristics (POC) as an innovative data analysis method. In Experiment 1, attention allocation was assessed. Two visual detection tasks were presented to 20 second- and 11 fifth-graders who…

Many Americans engage in voluntary activities and many of these volunteers traditionally have been college students and older adults. A functional approach to volunteerism suggests that similar acts of volunteerism may actually reflect very different personal, social, and psychological functions for different volunteers. This study examined the…

This paper reviews the literature on handedness in infants and reaching behavior in neonates and speculates on evolutionary reasons for the development of handedness. Modern studies have reliably detected handedness from the second half of the first year of life. One study found a preference for the right hand in unimanual tasks at 6.7 months.…

Previous research has shown that 3- to 4-month-old infants form a global categorical representation for cats that includes female lions, whereas 6- to 7-month-old infants differentiate between cats and lions. Three experiments using familiarization-novelty preference procedures attempted to determine whether the differentiation of a global…

This study examined children's speech to other children who varied in facial maturity. Subjects were 20 children, aged 48 to 68 months, who were randomly assigned to see drawings of either a "babyfaced" or "maturefaced" child. Subjects were shown the picture and told that the child in the picture was 3 years old; subjects were…

This study sought to determine whether there is a correlation between depression and aggression in adolescents. Subjects, 41 eleven-year-olds and 22 fifteen-year-olds, completed the Brown Aggressive Tendencies Inventory and the Children's Depression Inventory. The effect of demographic factors such as gender, age, socioeconomic status, and…

This study examined the mode of locomotion preschoolers used to traverse fence-like barriers of various heights in order to reach a goal. Preschoolers could step over the barrier, crawl under it, or walk under it. The experimental situation consisted of a room with four fences set up at different heights. Two age groups of preschool children…