Males (N = 170) aged 24 to 91 years were measured on daydreaming and related mental activity. An earlier derived factor of "Neurotic-Anxious Absorption in Daydreaming" was found in this sample and had a negative correlation with chronological age, suggesting a decrease with increasing age. (Author)

Describes the rationale and objectives of a Title III program in the Hartford, Connecticut, public schools. (RD)

Examined changes in preschoolers' ability to distinguish among memories of performed, pretended, and imagined episodes, and used source monitoring as a tool for inferring the nature of preschoolers' conceptualization of pretense. Found significant improvements between ages three and four in their ability to distinguish performed actions from…

Child's play may be at risk in today's technologically-oriented society. The limited interactive capacities of high-tech toys constrain the possibilities for cognitive development, interpersonal learning, and the quality of relationships that can be formed. Current high-tech toys change the nature of play, so that the object, rather than the…

Noting that the reading process is interactive, describes the use of guided imagery as a strategy to help children monitor their own comprehension. Presents support from research. (NH)

Educating for personal knowing requires an approach to learning that is based in direct sensory experience. Creative art activity nurtures the development of vital sensory experience at every stage of the life cycle. Through imagination, sensory experience is transformed into self-knowledge and conceptual thought; together they illuminate the…

Cognitive consequences of play and exploration were examined by assigning 36 economically disadvantaged preschoolers to one of three treatment conditions: sociodramatic play training, exploration training, and free-play control. (MP)

Discusses conception of moral formation. Traces progress to moral maturity through well defined stages of cognitive, conative, and/or affective growth. Explains that logical status of developmental theories are not clear. Argues that the accounts are more evaluative than descriptive. Explores the problematic moral educational implications of this…

Studied children's grasp of make-believe transformations they had seen enacted. Children indicated the pretend outcome by choosing a picture depicting no change or a picture depicting the pretend change. Older children chose correctly, even with the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation, but younger children did not. Autistic…

Explores the dissociation between the performance by children with autism on false belief tasks, on which they do poorly, and false photograph, false map, and false drawing tasks, on which they do well. Suggesting domain specificity in the development of representational system, the results supported the modularity of theory of mind and the…

Interviewed mothers to examine the developmental significance of preschoolers' imaginary companions. Found that relationships with invisible companions were described as sociable and friendly, whereas personified objects were usually nurtured. Object personification frequently occurred as a result of acquiring a toy; invisible friends were viewed…

During birth to 2 years, babies are motivated by an innate need to know about things. At 3 to 4 years, children tend to wonder about a lot of things. They wonder about scary things, how things work, nature, origins, and the world around them. At 5 to 6 years, they tend to increase their awareness, observe and notice a lot of differences. The…

Imagery has a significant role in cognitive development. Reading research has established the fact that good readers image spontaneously and that there is a high interrelationship between overall preference for a story, the amount of text-related imagery in the story, comprehension, and recall. Imagery researchers agree that everyone is capable of…

To foster individual development, educators must seek the gifts in every child, in those not demonstrating academic abilities as well as in the most brilliant. Instead of stifling thinking, creativity, and interest development, educators must encourage these behaviors. Currently, a big discrepancy exists between the child's potential and what…

This article provides a comparative analysis of studies in which symbolic play in children ages 1 through 3 was the major focus of a formal research strategy. The review provides readers with (1) information allowing more effective evaluation of research involving symbolic play and (2) background for designing or adopting play measurement…