An open-ended interview, a picture-recognition task, and a forced-choice rating task were administered to 64 four- to seven-year-old boys and girls to assess development of conceptions of friendship. Findings suggested that as children grow older they place increasing emphasis on affectively based friendship characteristics. (Author/MP)

Examines the use of tasks with backward false belief explanation as an effective technique in gaining a complete picture of the development of understanding of the representational mind. Argues that traditional prediction tests of false belief cannot tell whether children's wrong answers show misunderstanding about false belief or seduction by the…

Challenges the view that the cognitive-developmental level of preschool children prevents them from attaining gender constancy. Reviews shortcomings in procedures previously used to assess gender constancy. Reports on a study which uses a new measure of gender constancy and a new test of children's genital knowledge. (PCB)

Extends and replicates the 1948 Soviet study by Istomina that examined the age at which children use deliberate strategies to aid recall and the effect that task context has on remembering. Subjects were 3- to 7-year-old children. Istomina's results were not replicated in this study. (HOD)

Examined environmental and gene-environment processes linking parenting (affect, control, responsiveness) and preschoolers' behavioral adjustment difficulties (noncompliance, conduct problems). Found that estimates of shared environmental variance and mediation were greatest for observational data, and estimates of child genetic variance and…