The relative strength of mastery motivation and need for approval was tested in subjects, ages 4 and 10. Mastery motivation was of major importance to the older children, particularly the boys. Contrary to prediction, approval was not of major importance to the young children. Need for approval was important for girls, but not boys. (Author/CS)

A study of the physical activity or motor responses associated with curiosity, persistence, and problem solving behaviors was undertaken to learn more about the general developmental nature of these behaviors among elementary school children. The sample consisted of 125 children from kindergarten, second, fourth and sixth grade, all of whom…

This paper presents a study designed to clarify the role of perceptual-attentional factors in the development of conservation, and relates the results to procedures for assessing conservation. Subjects were 192 first and second graders. The number and type of perceptual cues in the conservation of liquid quantity task were systematically varied.…

Research on 128 children is presented as evidence of the superiority of a new clustering measure (X) over a more traditional "chance clustering" measure (sigma) as a means of organizing material to be learned to facilitate recall. X is shown to meet three criteria for a measure of a developmental process: X is more highly correlated with recall…

This paper presents a study which investigated the relationship between field-dependence, perceptual egocentrism, and inductive reasoning in 53 kindergarten children. The general objective of the study was to assess the validity of the field-dependence measures in early childhood. Field-dependence was found to relate positively with perceptual…

A total of 240, 7- and 10-year-olds were tested on memory and sex-role preference tasks. The memory task was the Wickens release from proactive inhibition paradigm in which short-term recall of words is tested on successive trials. On trials 1-4 words were selected from 1 of 2 categories, either words with masculine or feminine connotations. On…