Two experiments contrasted the effects of several methods of initiating the play activity of elementary school children on children's willingness to persist in an initially interesting activity. (Author)

Children from grades 1, 3, and 5 were exposed (in pairs) to a series of slides accompanied by descriptive statements, and invited to ask questions. Questions were answered for 1 subject in each pair. A clear reinforcing effect of providing answers to children's questions was found. (Author/CS)

Second- and third-grade children receiving no consequences or only social consequences for donating to needy peers attributed their behavior to a concern for the other child. Children receiving material consequences together with social consequences tended to attribute their help giving to external sources. (JMB)

Three experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between developmental differences in reinforcer preference value and in learning-set performance. A second purpose was to investigate ontogenetic differences in the effects of experience with continuous but qualitatively inconsistent reward. (Author/SB)

Black and white male schoolchildren evaluated their own performance at a verbal task administered by black and white male experimenters. It was hypothesized that academically successful children would be predisposed to appraise themselves favorably and vice versa. The prediction was upheld in the white experimenter condition but not in the black…

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)