Addressing practical issues rarely covered in methods texts, this user-friendly, jargon-free book helps students and beginning researchers plan infant and child development studies and get them done. The author provides step-by-step guidance for getting involved in a developmental laboratory and crafting effective research questions and proposals.…

This study compared the auditory lexical decision times of children (N=46, mean age=7) with specific language impairment (SLI) to those of typically developing age peers. Although SLI children were significantly slower than peers, speed of word recognition was not correlated with measures of language comprehension for the SLI group. Possible…

Investigates strategies of 10-year-olds and 14-year-olds in tasks requiring prospective memory. Subjects were instructed to perform activities after waiting 30 minutes. As predicted, strategic time-monitoring occurred more frequently in the home than in the laboratory. Emphasizes the power of the laboratory as a contrasting context for…

A sample of 492 children and adolescents analyzed to determine differences in time use shows that males spend more time in leisure activities and less time in household work and personal care than do females. (DM)

Three groups of elementary school children, rated on activity and distractibility, were given a visual search task with three levels of display load and tested twice in two conditions of stimulus visibility. Encoding deficit or data limitation did not account for the attentional performance of either hyperactive or somewhat hyperactive subjects.…

Investigates effects of age and instructions on temporal regulations of behavior in two experiments. Results of two experiments suggest that for 4 1/2- and 7-year-olds trained with DRL (differential reinforcement of low rates), age and timing performance are related, and that instructions to wait between operant responses enhance DRL performance…

This study of 14 school-age children who stuttered found that the average duration of stuttering was approximately three-quarters of a second and was not correlated with age, length of post-onset interval, or frequency of speech disfluency. Stuttering duration may be related to amount of sound prolongations as well as articulatory rate during…

This examination of the auditory perceptual abilities of 40 children, ages 4-10, and 10 adults found significant differences between the performances of the 4- to 8-year olds and of the adults. Acquisition of adultlike duration discrimination performance was demonstrated between the ages of 8 and 10 years. (Author/JDD)

Examines development of processing speed in three backward masking studies, where presentation of second stimulus figure (mask) within a critical time interval from arrival of first figure (target) interrupts processing of first. Results indicate that processing time increases until early adolescence; changes are less marked after 13 years of age.…

The study examined whether stutterers (27 children and 19 adults) subvocalize more slowly than nonstutterers and need more time for overt fluent speech production. Results indicated that a strictly motoric explanation of stuttering is inadequate as stutterers and nonstutterers differ in temporal parameters not only during speech execution, but…

Simultaneous recordings of auditory brainstem and middle latency responses were obtained in both vertex-ipsilateral and vertex-contralateral derivations in 22 children, ages 8-12. For specific recording conditions, the latencies of middle latency responses differ significantly between children with and without learning disabilities, offering…

Four methods for response prompting and fading are reviewed: increasing assistance, decreasing assistance, graduated guidance, and time delay. Comparative investigations involving these methods are discussed, and recommendations for practitioners and for future research are included. (Author/JDD)

This study compared the effects of unequal and equal reinforcer duration during a functional analysis of aberrant behavior in an 11-year old with moderate mental retardation. Results showed that reinforcer duration affects the rate of aberrant behavior and may potentially alter functional analysis interpretation. (DB)

Assesses performance of 9-, 13-, and 20-year-olds on 3,840 trials of a mental rotation task in which subjects judged if pairs of stimuli presented in different orientations were identical or mirror images. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms underlying the impact of practice. (Author/NH)

Describes an empirical study that examined the effects of computer use by children and adolescents for possible negative psycho-social effects. Results showed no indication of negative effects of working or playing with computers; data points toward certain positive effects of computer use. (Author/LS)