Developmental psychology focuses on how psychological constructs change with age. In cognitive development research, however, the specifics of this emergence is often underspecified. Researchers often provisionally assume linear growth by including chronological age as a predictor in regression models. In this work, we aim to evaluate this…

Humans accumulate knowledge throughout their entire lives. In what ways does this accumulation of knowledge influence learning of new information? Are there age-related differences in the way prior knowledge is leveraged for remembering new information? We review studies that have investigated these questions, focusing on those that have used the…

The systematic literature review is based on a critical need in the area of values, where there are many uncertainties around universal definitions and drivers of values and traits. The study evaluated definitions, categories, drivers and the interdependence between values and personality traits and behaviours. Over 5,873 studies over a 70-year…

This paper sets out to peruse the role of various theories or more precisely, hypotheses invoked in second language acquisition (SLA) research by surveying three empirical studies pertaining to the critical period hypothesis in the SLA of phonetics and phonology. In particular, the three studies reviewed are titled in chronological order as (1)…

Mathematics anxiety is a pervasive issue in education that requires attention from both educators and researchers to help students reach their full academic potential. This review provides an overview of past research that has investigated the association between math anxiety and math achievement, factors that can cause math anxiety,…

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to critically analyse the extant research and help readers understand the ways the school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can contribute towards youth development and urge policymakers to implement nationwide good-quality, scientific, culturally relevant, age-appropriate and holistic…

Early foreign language (FL) programmes have grown rapidly worldwide in the past two decades, resting on the assumption that "earlier is better" for learning a FL. However, the majority of empirical studies that investigated the "earlier is better" hypothesis were conducted in naturalistic immersion contexts. Given the…

Previous work on the long-term effects of early reading focuses on whether children can read early (i.e. capability) not on whether this is beneficial (i.e. optimality). The Luke Effect is introduced to predict long-term reading development as a function of when children learn to read. A review of correlational, intervention, and comparative…

In this article, we review the most important findings to have emerged during the past 10 years in the study of judgment and decision making (JDM) in adolescence and look ahead to possible new directions in this burgeoning area of research. Three inter-related shifts in research emphasis are of particular importance and serve to organize this…

A large body of evidence supports the link between acquisition of phonological sensitivity skills among young children and their later literacy achievement. This literature review presents a synthesis of the developmental nature of phonological sensitivity skills as assessed among typically developing children over the past 30 years. Phonological…

It has been suggested in many studies and reviews that the form of aggressive behaviour displayed differs between the two genders. Studies that take on a developmental focus argue that the prevalence of aggression in general and relational/indirect aggression in particular varies over the developmental course of boys and girls with regard to its…

Explores implications of two cognitive development perspectives for characterizing ontogeny of causal reasoning. Reviews literature on causal reasoning in the preschool years and concludes that the hypothesis of an invariant causal scheme is only partially correct. (Author/SO)

The literature on clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse suggests that there are two modal populations of survivors: boys and adult women. We review what is known about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder following sexual abuse and explore the different treatment needs for these two survivor groups. For children, clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse can…

Considers the similarities between current drug abuse trends and epidemics of infectious diseases. Briefly reviews significant findings from drug abuse research reported in the same journal issue. (GC)

Reviews research on children's and adults' beliefs about fantasy and their tendency to engage in "magical thinking." Suggests that children are not fundamentally different from adults in their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Both entertain fantastical beliefs and engage in magical thinking. Offers suggestions regarding age…