Sixty-eight preschoolers (30 to 60 months old) were told that a toy belonged either to them or to the class or were given no specific instructions. Their subsequent behavior with the toy was observed. (JMB)

Compares older and newer methods of studying language acquisition in younger and older toddlers in an attempt to explain discrepancies in the literature concerning whether girls are more advanced than boys in language acquisition. (SS)

Revealed that children were able to indicate that an apparently safe substance such as juice may be contaminated by contact with a foreign body such as a cockroach. Supported the hypothesis that early sensitivity to substances that contain invisible contaminates may be guided by knowledge of a distinction between appearance and reality. (RH)

A total of 46 preschoolers were asked to decide whether two rows of drawings of objects were exactly the same. Results revealed that preschoolers can gather information systematically, and that by age four, the majority are producing, and benefitting from, a strategy that is very efficient for same-different tasks. (RH)

Three experiments examine how preschoolers partition their basic level categories to form subordinate level categories and whether these have inductive potential. Results suggest that contrastive information promotes the emergence of subordinate categories as a basis of inductive inference and newly established subordinate categories can retain…

Two studies investigated linguistic representations underlying English-speaking 2.5-year-olds' production of transitive utterances. Findings indicated that children trained with pronouns and nouns could produce a transitive utterance creatively with a novel verb. Results suggest that English-speaking children build many of their early linguistic…

When comparing rows of dots in length or number, some children used number strategies and some length strategies. After training to correct missed items, errors were made on previously correct items. These findings are interpreted with reference to the distinction between having a dimensional strategy and attaching it to appropriate situations.…

This experiment tested the effects of racial group membership, race of experimenter, and dialect on recall in 4-year-olds. The findings indicated that whites outperformed blacks in standard English, blacks outperformed whites in black vernacular, and both performed better in their own vernacular. (JMB)

This study was designed to determine the age relationships for each type of perceptual strategy used by nonconserving children during tests of conservation of quantity. The results indicate that the type of perceptual strategy reflected in children's answers varied with their age. (JMB)

Five role-taking tasks were arranged in a task hierarchy on the basis of their content and structural aspects. These tasks were then presented to 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds and the data analyzed by scalogram and cluster analysis. The results supported the hypothesis and revealed a fundamental structural difference among tasks. (JMB)

Investigated the development of perceptual differentiation of writing in 45 preschool children. Subjects were asked to label graphic displays varying in features shared with Roman letters and with letter strings. (Author/JMB)

This study investigated whether 4- and 5-year-old children can evoke and use kinetic imagery and whether the ability to use kinetic imagery depends on the attainment of concrete operations. Results yielded no evidence of association between kinetic imagery and conservation. (Author/JMB)

Speech-action coordination in 100 three and four year olds was measured according to a modified version of Wozniak's hammering-board task. Four instructional conditions (instructional, demonstration, vocalization, no vocalization) were presented in a numerical task ("Hit four times") and in two spatial tasks: three-color ("Hit red,…