Optimal integration of positive and negative outcomes during learning varies depending on an environment's reward statistics. The present study investigated the extent to which children, adolescents, and adults (N = 142 8-25 year-olds, 55% female, 42% White, 31% Asian, 17% mixed race, and 8% Black; data collected in 2021) adapt their weighting of…

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. This study included 369 children and examined whether their implicit racial…

Teaching supports the high-fidelity transmission of knowledge and skills. This study examined similarities and differences in caregiver teaching practices in the United States and Vanuatu (N = 125 caregiver and 3- to 8-year-old child pairs) during a collaborative problem-solving task. Caregivers used diverse verbal and nonverbal teaching practices…

Examined the development of the ability of 5-, 9-, and 13-year-old children to produce elemental and complex facial movements intentionally. (Author/DB)

Developmental changes in conditions engendering pride and embarrassment were explored. Among other results, developmental change was found in the standards used to evaluate emotional experiences; references to social comparison increased with age and references to mastery decreased. (PCB)

Study tests the hypothesis that younger children's self-reinforcing tendencies would be governed by prior social comparison concerning the relative amounts of rewards each received by himself and a peer, while older children will take into account whether any observed discrepancy in rewards received is merited or arbitrary. (Author/CB)

The relative strength of mastery motivation and need for approval was tested in subjects, ages 4 and 10. Mastery motivation was of major importance to the older children, particularly the boys. Contrary to prediction, approval was not of major importance to the young children. Need for approval was important for girls, but not boys. (Author/CS)

Adult assistance procedures were experimentally compared for their effects upon the preschool child's tendency to persist in self-selected manipulative tasks in a free-play setting. (JMB)

Examines the effects of providing different reasons for young children inteacting with a peer during play. Shows that dispositional or situational information about an unknown peer affects children's impressions of that peer differently, depending on the age of the child. (HOD)

Preschool, third-, and sixth-grade classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged or nondisadvantaged were subjects in a voluntary-delay-of-reinforcement paradigm. Results indicated a shift from preference for immediate reinforcement in preschool to deferred selection in sixth grade for both socioeconomic groups. (ST)

Observers recorded the sex-typed activities of 49 children during free-play sessions in nursery school and kindergarten. Reinforcing and punishing responses of peers and teachers were also recorded. Among the results, children reinforced one another primarily for gender-appropriate activities. Most reinforcements and punishments were received from…

Two studies explored factors relating to children's willingness to perform tasks that are not traditional to their gender. More untraditional behavior was elicited with male than with female examiners. Mechanisms that may underlie this effect are discussed. (BC)

This study examined variables related to problem-solving approaches of young children, using the theoretical framework provided by Zigler and collaborators in their work on outerdirectedness. Four aspects of outerdirectedness were examined: developmental trends, different types of reinforcement, task difficulty, and pride in accomplishment. (ST)