Twenty-four socially withdrawn preschool children, identified through classroom observations, were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) socialization with a younger child during 10 play sessions, (2) socialization with an age mate during a similar series of sessions, and (3) no treatment. (JMB)

The locative categories--"in,""above,""below," and "beside"--were investigated to determine whether their exemplars were organized according to the prototype distinction. (RH)

A content analysis of children's descriptions of liked and disliked peers as a function of their own age (8-13), sex, and verbal intelligence revealed different status of self-reference between young children and older children. (Author/MP)

When 48 first-, fourth-, and seventh-grade boys (classified as high, moderate, or low on an expectancy of success measure) were given a repetition choice task, a developmental trend in number of children choosing the interrupted task was found. When the task's difficulty level was matched to the child's grade, the trend was not found. (Author/JH)

First, third, and fifth graders hid a series of "people pictures" in containers, half of which bore picture cues related to the people's societal roles and half of which bore cues unrelated to the people's roles. Aspects of their memory-for-location were then analyzed by grade level. (Author/JMB)

Attempted to determine (1) whether developmental differences existed in children's comprehension of simple necessity and simple sufficiency relationships, and (2) the source of developmental differences in children's causal reasoning. (SB)

Used stories involving self-deception, lying, and misleading appearances to examine 4- to 9-year olds' understanding of the relations between false belief, evidence, and epistemic responsibility. Found that younger children who understood false belief understood simpler types of deception but that understanding self-deceivers' epistemic…

Examined changes in cortisol and behavioral responses in 83 infants. Found that salivary cortisol responses before and after inoculation were high at 2 months, decreased between 2 and 4 months, remained stable, then declined again between 6 and 15 months. Found some evidence that emergence of circadian rhythm in cortisol might be related to early…

Data provide strong evidence that studies of stress and cortisol release in infants must take into account basal level, circadian rhythm, and behavioral effects and employ appropriate statistical procedures. Participants were infants of two, four, and six months of age from whom salivary cortisol was obtained before and 15 minutes after an…

Investigated awareness of strategies for coping with uncontrollable stress of 72 children of 5-12 years. Children mentioned approach strategies infrequently. Findings showed an age increase in the proportion of cognitive distraction strategies suggested. Behavioral distraction strategies were most frequently suggested by children of all ages. (RJC)

Gauged the impact of mastery and relative-ability appraisal goals on observational behaviors of 230 children of 4-10 years. Results confirmed that younger children observe others in order to develop mastery, but older children observe to assess relative ability. (RJC)

Infants of 14 months of age demonstrated significantly improved understanding of containment as a result of a training intervention in which they played with cans and tubes in their homes for a month. After training, their test scores were similar to those of untrained 20-month-old children. (RH)

Three-, four-, five-, and 24-year-olds were exposed to continuum of new objects: category boundaries became less fuzzy with age; verbal justifications of category decisions were idiosyncratic or uninterpretable in youngest children, but by five years children referred to specific visual features; and fuzzy categories became less sensitive with age…

In a study of drawing development, children's and adults' drawings of cubes were classified into drawing types. Differences between children's and adults' drawings suggest that younger children use a similarity geometry with feature-based criteria, whereas older children and adults use a vantage-point geometry that includes direction-based…

Results of 3 experiments indicated that 12 month olds, but not 8 and 10 month olds, looked longer at objects of a different shape from test objects than at the test objects. Twelve month olds recognized rectilinear, but not curvilinear, forms. They recognized differences in forms for three-dimensional, but not two-dimensional, objects. (BC)