Processes of language development are viewed as controlled by genetic program (1) written at a level of moderate generality, (2) with executive control based within the organism, and (3) including process for fostering interaction with relevant environment. Evaluates above view in light of data from three research papers (published in this issue).…

Examines imitation of motor, vocal, and verbal behaviors by infants 10 to 16 months old. The imitation battery consisted of 21 behaviors in four motor and two vocal categories. The familiarity or novelty of individual behaviors was assessed through maternal interviews. Results are discussed in terms of Uzgaris' (1981) conceptualization of two…

The ability of preschool children to comprehend comparative sentences was studied in order to test previous findings and to test for a developmental shift. Subjects were 50 children aged 3 to 5 1/2 years. Data was analyzed in terms of functional versus relational responses as well as changes in relational responses. (MS)

Examines one aspect of communicative competence: the recognition of linguistic correlates of sex roles. Acquisition occurred according to 2 patterns: (1) increasing approximation to adult norms, and (2) rule learning and rule differentiation. Timing of these developmental sequences is discussed. (GO)

Examines developmental trends in and relationships between the metacommunicative, metamemorial, and metasocial-cognitive skills of 182 first- through sixth-grade children. (Author/MP)

Investigated linkage between delay-of-gratification dimension of impulsivity and social information processing in 80 second-graders and 80 fifth-graders. Found that low-delay ability and younger participants made less use of social cues than did older and high-delay ability participants; however, these findings were qualified by grade and gender…

Used hypothetical vignettes to examine 384 preadolescents' understanding of gossip in varying circumstances. Found that children correctly labeled talk about nonpresent others as gossip and considered it inappropriate. Skepticism was higher for gossip than for firsthand information and was greatest with cues suggesting that speakers were…

This study examines the existence of Oedipal conflicts and the relationship of social and cognitive factors to Oedipal conflicts. Forty children of three to six years were studied and found to show Oedipal behaviors that varied with age and changes in the children's social and cognitive understanding. (SH)

Examined 5- to 12-year-olds' emerging understanding of the origins of species in two studies. Demonstrated systematic developmental pattern in children's explanations for biological origins. Found age-related shifts from mixed creationist and spontaneous generationist explanations, to exclusive creationism, and finally to evolutionist or…

Mothers of 6 cohorts of infants at ages 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 months were interviewed to determine their children's responses to potentially stressful daily events. Found older infants and temperamentally more difficult infants experienced more events and reacted with distress to a greater proportion of the events than did younger infants and…

The effects of training on first, third, and fifth graders' spatial perspective taking with multiobject two-dimensional arrays were assessed in two studies. Found that, on an immediate test of retention, performance was significantly better for those subjects trained with feedback present than for nontrained students. (MDM)

Examines a general developmental hypothesis concerned with children's understanding of perceptual experience, memory, intentions, and emotions. It is hypothesized that young children view the mind as passive in relation to the external world and regard external events as determining subjective experience, whereas older children know many ways that…

Assesses children's ability to coordinate information in the context of perspective taking and moral judgment tasks and tests the assumption that both perspective taking and moral judgment involve a common decentering process. Subjects were first and third graders. (MP)

Investigated the age at which children first acquire understanding of others' feelings and of ways in which they can affect others' feelings. Also considered the relation of children's development in this domain to their understanding of the nonsocial world. Findings indicated that it was possible to predict the age at which children would pass…

Investigated 48 fifth- and eighth-grade boys' moral judgments of stories featuring good intentions with bad outcomes. Clear differences in moral judgments were found between groups recruited from the same general social setting that were comparable in intelligence but different in moral and social behavior. (RJC)