Recent research on early brain development holds several implications for parents, teachers, health professionals, and policymakers. This report, based on the proceedings from a 1996 national conference on the importance of early brain development for the nation's future well-being, highlights major findings, summarizes their implications for…

Comments on problems raised in this special issue, focusing on the distinctive aspects of the risk research reported. Highlights issues like sample characteristics, measurement strategies, specificity of risk factors, and risk mechanisms. Discusses the challenges of integrating alternative models of risk, with special references to research into…

Changes from the expected life course can arise from at least three different reasons in longitudinal work: developmental novelty, errors in diagnosis, and errors in expectation. This longitudinal study examined the social development of 220 fourth graders and 475 seventh graders over a period of 10 years with over 98 percent of the original…

Papers presented at this symposium were on the following topics: (1) the role of education in clarifying the relation of the individual to the state and the basic meaning of citizenship; (2) the mythologies of college teaching; (3) the movement of education from elitism to educational populism; (4) how empathy, morality, and altruism affect…

Testing with minority and disadvantaged populations in America has resulted in widespread abuse. Theorists have historically viewed tests as instruments for upward mobility in a system in which doors are often opened by parental wealth and status. Predictive validity of tests has not properly accounted for problems in correlational techniques…

This book describes the major differences between men and women in cognitive or problem-solving abilities and discusses the possible biological contributions to such differences. The book argues that sex differences in cognitive patterns and in motor skills arose out of complementary evolutionary histories of men and women and that evidence for…

There has been a recent academic controversy over whether parental child-rearing has any real effect on how offspring turn out. This book is a comprehensive collection of the experimental evidence establishing that parental treatment does affect child outcomes. Also included are natural experiments, as in the case of children raised in…

Patterns of assistance in parent-child dyads were examined by developing measures that could be used to explore the nature of assistance and learner action sequences. A microgenetic approach was adopted in a teaching experiment that may be regarded as a variation of the double stimulation method of L. S. Vygotsky. A second goal was to explore the…

This paper examines the issue of gender bias in education. Major components of the thesis include research in Vermont schools and secondary sources including the 1992 American Association of University Women report. The paper includes three main divisions. The first part addresses the paradox of trying to study gender, including some basic…

Experiences in prenatal life and early childhood that may cause personality disorders of criminal behavior in later life are examined in these proceedings of the Subcommittee on Childhood Experience as Causes of Criminal Behavior of the Standing Committee on Health, Welfare and Science. This issue, the thirteenth in a series of 19 hearings dating…

The controversial and complex issues regarding the effects of educational and psychological testing on the education of minority group children in America are discussed. Although the focus is primarily on black students, the issues discussed are equally valid for all minority populations in the American public schools. The articles in the book…

A chapter of a serialized book refutes the contention that attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is a genetically caused neurological disorder. It argues that ADD arises from the accumulation of risk factors in a child's life, such as poverty, father absence, environmental degradation, demise of extended families, and dysfunctional childrearing, which…

Although hypotheses about the consequences of peer relationships for children's development have served as the foundation for much of the research into children and adolescent peer relationships, direct assessment of the impact of such relationships on children's personality, social behavior, or cognition has rarely been done. This book discusses…

Noting that recent advances in neuroscience and psychology make it possible to understand more clearly how parents help to shape their children's brain development, this book discusses what is becoming known about how young children acquire language, develop emotional ties, gain control of their own emotions, become able to experience the joy and…

Criticizes approach to equal education that seeks equality of outcome as well as equality of opportunity. Discusses Spearman's theory of g that attempts to explain individual differences in intelligence. Contrasts efforts at genuinely reducing equality of outcome, including Aptitude X Treatment Interaction, Mastery Learning, and Thinking Skills…