Investigates transfer of direct and indirect forms of social influence on children's judgments of criminal cases. One hundred forty-two children in grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 were asked to impose sentence twice on criminal cases, the second time after hearing that the judge had imposed a harsh sentence. (SS)

Examined gender differences in 514 children's competence and value beliefs from first through twelfth grade, and the relation of these trends to initial differences in parents' perceptions of children's ability. Found that gender differences in competence and value beliefs related to sports and mathematics. Gender differences in competence beliefs…

Examined whether the quality and content of everyday parent-child conversations about negative emotions differed from everyday talk about positive emotions. Found that children and parents talked about past emotions, causes of emotions, and connections between emotions and other mental states at higher rates during conversations about negative…

Experiment 1 suggested that age differences in line-drawing interpretation among subjects between 6 and 24 years reflected changes in short-term memory for features and changes in strategies used to integrate features over space and time. Experiment 2 suggested that older observers were more active in their attempts to interpret drawings and that…

Five and seven year olds were able to correctly distinguish between factual and fictional television programs and test clips, based upon genre of program, production features, content. Age and vocabulary scores predicted accuracy of factuality judgments, but television viewing history did not. Older children understood better than younger ones…

Two experiments used causal models to examine possible relationships among age, learning rates, learning opportunities and forgetting rates. Found that forgetting rates declined markedly between early and late childhood. (ET)

Examined age- and schooling-related influences on memory and phonological segmentation skills of 19 children who missed and made the school-entry cutoff date in a given year. Tested recall ability, short term memory strategies, and phonological awareness. Found that growth of memory skills and strategies, particularly short term, is primarily a…

A 10-step scale for assessing development of understanding relationships between honesty and kindness was developed and administered to 113 youths. Results indicated that development moved through 3 stages, as youths age 9-12 demonstrated abstract concepts of honesty and kindness; age 13-15 demonstrated simple abstract relations; and age 16-20…

Analyzed young, middle-aged, and old adults' ratings of person-descriptive attributes with respect to developmental change throughout adulthood for themselves and other people. Also assessed aspects of subjective identification with age groups. Findings suggested three modes of social comparison: self-assessment, self-enhancement involving…

Reports three studies which (1) investigated children's and adults' concepts of development (COD); (2) observed parents' tutoring their fifth-grade children; and (3) interviewed adults in three age groups about parenting dilemmas. In each study, COD scores were obtained. Results of all studies showed that subjects' stage of COD reasoning was…

Tested serial work recall of young and old adults in an effort to examine developmental reserve capacity in old age. Results showed magnification of differences early in training, and prediction of posttraining scores by the digit symbol substitution variable. (BC)

Children and adults were tested on six speeded perceptual-motor and cognitive tasks, including a (1) response time task; (2) button tapping task; (3) pegboard task; (4) coding task; (5) picture matching task; and (6) mental addition task. Age-related change in processing time on most of these tasks was described by a single exponential function.…

Administered translations of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory to adults in Germany, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, and South Korea. Found declines in neuroticism, extraversion and openness, and increases in agreeableness and conscientiousness age for both men and women. Results support hypothesis that age differences reflect universal maturational…