Nongifted students (N=25) were slightly more curious than gifted Ss. Gifted boys displayed a greater curiosity level than gifted girls, whereas nongifted girls expressed slightly greater curiosity than nongifted boys; in both cases, no significant differences were found. Curiosity items rated the highest were associated with novelty, unknown…

Data indicate that for girls, affective dispositional factors (empathy, depressive affectivity, aggression, and self-concept) are intimately linked to cognitive development and academic achievement. (PCB)

Comparison of gender differences in the observed play of 30 preschool children with cognitive delays found that, overall, boys engaged in more functional play and were more sophisticated when playing with a vehicle toy set whereas girls engaged in more constructive play and demonstrated greater sophistication with respect to doll toys. (Author/DB)

Mentally retarded (N=36) and nonretarded (N=37) children matched for MA (48 months) were assessed on gender understanding with the expectation that the two groups would show similar sequencing and attainment. The nonretarded subjects' data mirrored previous cross-sectional findings, but the retarded respondents displayed signficantly better gender…

Gifted (N=19) and average-functioning (N=19) hearing impaired adolescents were examined for ability to perceive that still water remains horizontal regardless of degree to which the container is tilted. Gifted Ss performed better on this task than average functioning Ss and the straight-sided containers induced more errors than containers with…

Sixteen intermediate level hearing-impaired students were examined on perceptions that still water remains invariantly horizontal regardless of container tilt. Similar to findings reported for older hearing-impaired students, Ss made more errors with the straight-sided than with the curve-sided containers. Males performed better than females on…

A longitudinal study among American adolescents revealed (1) an insignificant impact of field dependence-independence on the development of formal operational thought; (2) continuous development of combinatorial reasoning and propositional logic abilities, but little increase in comprehension of proportionality; and (3) sex differences in formal…

The results showed that the performance of the autistic children was better than the other two groups on concrete discrimination tasks, was poorer than the other two groups on formal discrimination tasks, and the quality of the autistic children's performance decreased as task requirements for formal discrimination increased. (Author/SB)

Investigates the relationship between self-recognition and self-evaluative emotions in two studies on 27 children aged 9-24 months and 44 children aged 22 months. The results of both studies indicate that embarrassment but not wariness was related to self-recognition. (RJC)

Responds to commentary on the Pollitt et al. study reported in this monograph. Posits that nutritional insults are sensitive to intervention. Discusses research methodology; methodological issues related to sex differences; the buffering influence of high SES and dietary supplementation against the adverse effects of poor diet and low SES,…

Describes a study which investigated the relationship between level of cognitive development and mathematics performance for college-age males and females. Ninety-four undergraduate educational psychology students were given mathematics and cognitive exams. Findings indicated significant sex differences in mathematical performance but not in…

Studied gender effects on false belief development among children ages 2 to 6 years. Found a slight advantage for girls on false belief task performance in both datasets that was apparent in younger but not older children. Language ability could be controlled only in a small subsample and cannot be ruled out as a mediator to this effect. (JPB)

Examined whether 6.5- and 5.5-month-old infants believe, like 11-month-old infants, that a moving object's size affects how far a stationary object is displaced in a collision. After a habituation event, tests indicated that the 6.5-month-old infants and 5.5-month-old female infants believed the size of the moving object affected the collision…

How physiological disciplines can contribute to the study of how people learn mathematics is considered. Manipulative and experiential learning, sequential versus hierarchical organization, declarative versus procedural knowledge, and short-term versus long-term memory are among the points discussed. (MNS)

Witelson found that boys but not girls showed right-hemisphere specialization for tactile-spatial processing as early as six years. Witelson's task was administered to 46 normal four- and five-year olds. Both sexes showed right-hemisphere specialization. No sex differences appeared either in specialization or in overall performance. (Author/SJL)