A 32-item test battery was administered to 154 male and female elementary school students to describe the static balance ability of 6- to 9-year-old children. Body position, visual use, and one-footed static base of support were found to affect subjects' balance performance. (Author/RH)

Assessed 3- to 7-year-old children's sensitivity to logical necessity by contrasting performance in insufficient and sufficient information conditions. A search task used in Experiments 1 and 2 allowed children to search for additional information in insufficient conditions. A judgement condition used in Experiment 2 required a "can't tell"…

Across three experiments involving four-, five-, and six-year-olds, the same pattern of ability to sequence events was found: familiar events in forward order were the easiest to sequence, then unfamiliar events in forward order, familiar events in backward order, and finally unfamiliar events in backward order. (Author/RH)

To test their skill with spatial relationships, 4- to 6-year-olds were given problems in which they had to decide which one of an array of points was in line with two coordinate markers. Results establish that young children's grasp of Euclidean spatial relationships is more adequate than has been suggested. (Author/BE)

Compared conflicts between 53 children (median age four years, three months) and their friends to conflicts between nonfriends. In comparison with conflicts among friends, conflicts between neutral associates were no less frequent, were less intense, were resolved more frequently with disengagement, and more frequently resulted in equal outcomes.…

Young children's understanding of the effects of ambiguous and informative messages on a listener's knowledge is studied in two experiments. (PCB)

Parental responses to grammatically correct and incorrect child utterances were observed in free-play interactions of two groups, each containing 10 parents and their language learning children. Group 1: 21-26 months old, with MLU's between 2 and 2.5 morphemes. Group 2: 34-40 months old, with MLU's between 3 and 3.5 morphemes. (Author/BN)

Assesses whether 30 children aged three-five years had a preferred direction in responding to "when"-questions and whether this preference could be influenced by story structure. Results indicated that children showed a preference for "after"-type responses and that productions of "before" were more likely to be…

The developmental significance of unresponsive or uncooperative behavior of children in standardized developmental assessments made during the preschool years was investigated. Untestable children were significantly lower than testable children on a wide range of abilities at all ages from 12 through 72 months. (PCB)

Four experiments studied 4- to 6-year-old children's understanding of inferential reasoning as a source of knowledge. To assess understanding that knowledge of relevant premises leads to knowledge of the conclusion, children had to judge the knowledge of another person, who was presented to the child as being aware of two premises. (Author/BN)

Studies investigated the development of children's ability to differentiate what they see from what they know in the context of conceptual perspective taking. Two developmental levels accounted for children's performance when they were asked about a naive observer's knowledge of the identity of objects. Perspective awareness training improved…

Assesses the acceptance of and expressed preference for varying levels of salt in soup among children three to six years of age. (HOD)

Children, ages three, five, and seven, were asked to evaluate a series of children's drawings for their own likes and dislikes and for the likes and dislikes they imagined for individuals older and younger than themselves. Results suggest that children as young as three can judge drawings for others differently from the way they judge them for…

The purpose of present experiments with subjects approximately three, five, and seven years of age was to provide additional evidence for the obviousness of the generative transmission principle and to provide initial evidence for the secondary principles of absence and facility. Empirical support was found for each of these selection principles,…

Maternal involvement effects on symbolic play development in toddlers were investigated. Sixteen mother-child dyads were observed at bimonthly intervals in a free-play setting during the period from 20 to 28 months of age. The complexity and length of play episodes increased when the mother was available to play with the child. (Author/BN)