The social, imaginative, and self-regulatory behavior of 141 children in Head Start centers was observed before and during one of the following four experimental treatments: (a) neutral films, (b) prosocial TV only, (c) prosocial TV plus related play materials, and (d) prosocial TV plus related materials plus teacher training for rehearsal using…

Studies the effects of distinctive features on incomplete picture recognition for three to four year olds, five to six year olds, and adults. (Author/SS)

Findings provide tentative support for the hypothesis that strategy information derived from enactive interviews is more predictive of children's behavior in peer situations than is information derived from the verbal interview method. This suggests that preschool children automatically access cognitive scripts for behavior in social interactions.…

Results support the prediction that mothers of high social status children and mothers of low social status children would show behavior and social knowledge differences comparable with those reported in the literature. Findings are considered consistent with the hypothesis that children may partly acquire social skills from their mothers. (RH)

Investigated egocentricity and ascriptions of knowledge to others in 45 children of 3-6 years. Six-year-olds were better than younger children at assessing the other's knowledge. Subjects were better at assessing the other's knowledge when their own access and knowledge were identical. (RJC)

Assessed preschoolers' gender-typed toy choices and judgments regarding cross-gender behavior. Children's level of reasoning, but not their gender constancy, was related to gender-typed toy choices. Children who could distinguish between moral and social norms exhibited fewer gender-typed toy choices than did other children. (BC)

Analyzed relationships between child-care experience and preschoolers' attachment. Found that maternal sensitivity was the strongest predictor of preschoolers' attachment. When maternal sensitivity was low, more hours per week in child care at 15 months somewhat increased the risk of the insecure-ambivalent classification at 36 months. Found…

Investigates the role of operative schemes in explaining older children's superior memory on past Piagetian memory tasks. Contrasts were made between the performance of normal v learning disabled grade school children, and between preschool children who either possessed or lacked seriation schemes. (Author/SS)

Compared boys' and girls' use of interference competition during game play when resources were scarce or plentiful, among children from kindergarten or fourth grade. Found that fourth-grade girls used less interference competition when resources were plentiful, while their male peers and kindergartners of both sexes used interference competition…

Tested the hypothesis that the instructions that mothers of popular, rejected, and neglected children gave regarding entry into group play would parallel their children's known group-entry behavior. Hypotheses were substantially supported for mothers of popular children, moderately supported for mothers of neglected children, and less supported…

Explored relations between measuring procedures and reasoning about amount on the part of 36 children of 3-8 years in 2 studies. Transformation on a relevant measurement procedure predicted difficulty of transformation for a domain. (RJC)

Two experiments examined the effects of drawing on young children's memory of an event one day and one month later, respectively. Children who were asked to draw what happened were as accurate and reported more information than children who were asked to tell what happened, although only the verbal reports of both groups were scored. (MDM)

Examined impact of three preschool models identified through cluster analysis of teacher-survey responses on 4-year olds' development and basic-skill mastery. Found that children in the child-initiated model demonstrated greater skill mastery than children in programs emphasizing academics and skill instruction. Children in the combination model…

Assessed the relative benefits of three styles of adult book reading for preschoolers' emergent literacy. Measured children's receptive vocabulary, print, and story comprehension skills after exposure to one style. Found that the describer style resulted in the greatest benefits for children's vocabulary and print skills; a performance-oriented…

Examines relationships among gender constancy, preferences for same- or opposite-sex playmates, and sex-typed activities in preschool children. Findings suggest that, at least for females, gender concepts may have an organizing role in sex-role development by motivating children to seek social contexts in which to acquire and practice…