How the memory of adults evolves from the memory abilities of infants is a central problem in cognitive development. The popular solution holds that the multiple memory systems of adults mature at different rates during infancy. The "early-maturing system" (implicit or nondeclarative memory) functions automatically from birth, whereas the…

It is thought that a child takes the first 8 years of life to develop an adult-like volitional attention system. The data that support this belief, however, are based on studies that inadvertently measured a combination of volitional and reflexive attention, rather than volitional attention alone. What is immature then in children that are younger…

Scholars from multiple disciplines have commented on the divided nature of childhood as a historical construction: a period of life to be valued in itself as well as a means to adulthood. In this essay, James Stillwaggon considers George Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys," an autobiographical account of his childhood education, as a site of…

Historically, it was believed the perceptual mechanisms involved in individuating faces developed only very slowly over the course of childhood, and that adult levels of expertise were not reached until well into adolescence. Over the last 10 years, there has been some erosion of this view by demonstrations that all adult-like behavioural…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the employment and training of mature-aged workers, so that suggestions for improving training for mature-aged workers may be offered. Design/methodology/approach: Six expert interviews were carried out by telephone, and three case studies involving company site visits were completed. Each company case study…

Past research in both the transitions to adulthood literature and cultural sociology more broadly suggests that the working class relies on traditional cultural models in their construction of identity. In the contemporary post-industrial world, however, traditional life pathways are now much less available to working-class men and women. I draw…

This article aims to explore the ways in which preadolescents associate smoking with transitions to adulthood, in the context of sociological theories of childhood, using data from the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. The research found that at age 9 many of the cohort argued that smoking was more acceptable for adults because they had…

It is widely accepted that young people residing in residential care transition to independence and adult responsibilities earlier than peers living within their family of origin. There has been a lack of literature examining the way young people in care construct this transition. In response, in-depth qualitative interviews, guided by grounded…

The present study examined the relationship of psychological androgyny with ego development in the context of Loevinger's theory, and with psychosocial crisis resolution from the perspective of Erikson's theory. A sample of 30 male and 30 female adults completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and the…

The case study describes a middle-aged man whose developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia have persisted for the 30 years since he left school. The phonological dyslexic appears to operate on too large units with performance on paralinguistic rhyming tasks, and with higher order sound segmentation, analysis, and organization poor. (Author/DB)

The quest to explain the extreme realism found in some Newbery Award books led the authors to discover that there is no unified view of childhood affecting children's literature today. While some adults feel that children must be protected against the evil surrounding them, others feel that they must be prepared to face the world in which they…

This paper proposes that, contrary to the idea that creativity declines during the second half of life, observed changes may actually reflect qualitative changes in the creative process. Life span developmental theory is used to examine empirical and theoretical ideas about mature forms of thinking in relation to creativity. (DB)

Examined psychological maturity based on personal strivings in 108 adults ages 17 to 82 years. Results supported hypotheses that older people would list more strivings concerning generativity and ego integrity and fewer strivings concerning identity and intimacy, and that maturity and age would be positively associated with subjective well-being.…

A review is presented of major theories on the characteristics of adult cognition. The roles of social and cultural backgrounds, education, mental ability, and experience as they pertain to cognition are discussed. (JD)