Explored mechanisms responsible for improvements in short-term memory in early to middle childhood. Recall and speech rate for acoustically similar and dissimilar words and words of differing lengths were assessed in three groups of children of 4 to 10 years. (RH)

Three studies found that 3- to 5-year-olds judged that an utterance would be ignored by a listener who had previously seen something contradictory. However, children judged that the listener would believe an utterance if the listener had no contradictory information. The results suggest an early understanding of how people prioritize information.…

Children between 7 and 13 years of age were presented with scenarios for which they predicted a result derived from 2 or 3 interacting variables. The effect of the interaction of variables was observed for all ages in familiar scenarios, but the effect diminished in scenarios of unfamiliar activity. (BC)

Results of three experiments indicate that the developmental increase in memory span cannot be explained by differences in identification time or by the hypothesis that articulation time is the sole or major cause for the increase. It is argued that the development of memory span with age depends on a combination of factors. (BC)

Using information contained in nine photographs, young children constructed a wooden pyramid. Control children were given the same task but no pictorial information. Children's performances were significantly better when pictorial information was available. Sex and age differences were noted regarding strategies used to complete the task.…

Among children ranging in age from 5.5 to 7.5 years, there was no evidence that social conflict engineered in dyads composed of a conserver and a nonconserver stimulated cognitive change. It is concluded that the ineffectiveness of symmetrical social conflict is consistent with Piaget's conception of nonconservers. (RH)