Examined longitudinally changes in inhibition from toddler age to age 4 and age 7 years. Found that temperament change in children who tested as inhibited or uninhibited as toddlers was more common than remaining extremely inhibited or uninhibited, but that change was largely limited to intermediate groups. Subgroups distinguished by responses on…

Explores proactive and reactive parental behavior among 24 mothers and their first-born children whose ages ranged from 27 to 45 months. Children responded to proactive behavior as compared to reactive behavior by engaging in acceptable behaviors for longer periods and by violating fewer rules. (RJC)

Examines young children's preferences and understanding regarding external and internal causes of behavior. Considers research in four areas: (1) knowledge of psychological states; (2) understanding that psychological states can cause behavior; (3) preference for internal versus external causes; and (4) discounting. (RJC)

Investigated the effect of setting on the social referencing of 48 children of 6-40 months. Behavioral regulation was observed in familiar child care centers and an unfamiliar university laboratory. Affect was not influenced by setting and showed regulation only for the oldest children. (RJC)

Five experiments investigated children's intuitions about genetic transmission of features. Results suggest young children have principled, specifically biological notions of inheritance. (PCB)

Behavioral and physiological assessments of 41 seven-and-one-half-year-old children who had been selected to be inhibited or uninhibited at 21 months and observed again at four and five-and-one-half years revealed that each of the two original behavioral profiles predicted theoretically reasonable derivatives. Shy children remained shy, while…

Examined the influence of postevent suggestions on five-year olds' reports of their visit to a pediatrician for an inoculation. The children were given pain-affirming, pain-denying, or neutral feedback immediately following and one year after the inoculation. The latter suggestions had a significant effect on the children's reports of the event.…

Three experiments explored four and seven year olds' and adults' knowledge of taxonomy, including horizontal relations between items at the same hierarchical level and vertical relations between items at different hierarchical levels. Results showed that four year olds' taxonomic knowledge was restricted to one type of horizontal relationship. (BC)

Event-related potentials (ERPs) of five- to seven-year-old girls were measured while the girls performed a visual selective attention task and a Piagetian conservation task. Results suggested more anterior ERP sources for nonconservers than conservers during early stimulus analysis, and more lateralized ERP sources for conservers than…

Three experiments examined the modes of processing that children and adults use in learning family-resemblance categories. Children and adults exhibited primarily analytic, rather than holistic, modes of learning. (PCB)

Three experiments examined four- through seven-year-olds' understanding of the role of covariation evidence in hypothesis formation. Found that by age six most children understood how evidence would lead a story character to form a hypothesis different from the child's own hypothesis. (MDM)

Two studies examined young children's knowledge of letters' sounds and names and preschoolers' ability to learn various sound-letter mappings. Findings indicated that an important determinant of letter-sound knowledge is whether the sound occurs in the name of the letter, and its location. Children used knowledge of letters' names when learning…

Three experiments assessed children's abilities to track behavioral, representational, and truth aspects of conventions. Three- and 4-year-olds recognized that conventional stipulations would change behavior, but not how stipulations might affect representations. Three- and 5-year-olds confused pretenses and conventions; 7-year-olds consistently…

Three studies investigated toddlers' judgments and communications about how desires, perceptions, and emotions connect in people's lives and minds. Findings indicated that in appropriate circumstances, young children realized that a person's perception of desirable or undesirable objects leads to related emotional experiences. Children's…

Structural equation modeling was used to examine how maternal distress mediated the link between exposure to community violence (CV) and development of early child behavior problems. Findings indicated that direct CV-early child behavior problems path diminished when maternal distress was included in the model, after controlling for maternal SES…