This article reviews the relationship between executive skills and academic performance as well as concerns about the current status of the field with respect to executive skills and future considerations. It summarizes what the author sees as the most positive aspects of the current state of understanding with respect to executive skills and…

Each year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) releases a list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field. The "2020 Summary of Advances in Autism Research" provides short, plain language summaries of the top research breakthroughs selected by the IACC from a pool of research articles…

Growth models for subtests of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, 4th edition (R. L. Thorndike, E. P. Hagen, & J. M. Sattler, 1986a, 1986b) were developed for individuals with Down syndrome. Models were based on the assessments of 208 individuals who participated in longitudinal and cross-sectional research between 1987 and 2004. Variation…

Data collection can be the most time- and cost-intensive part of developmental research. This article describes some long-proposed but little-used research designs that have the potential to maximize data quality (reliability and validity) while minimizing research cost. In "planned missing data designs", missing data are used…

This commentary endorses J. Kagan's (2008) conclusion that many of the most dramatic findings on early perceptual, cognitive, and social competencies are ambiguous. It supports his call for converging research operations to disambiguate findings from single paradigms and single response indices. The commentary also argues that early competencies…

Electronic media, particularly television, have long been criticized for their potential impact on children. One area for concern is how early media exposure influences cognitive development and academic achievement. Heather Kirkorian, Ellen Wartella, and Daniel Anderson summarize the relevant research and provide suggestions for maximizing the…

"Science Briefs" summarize the findings and implications of a recent study in basic science or clinical research. This brief reports on the study "Are there Long-Term Effects of Early Child Care?" (J. Belsky, D. L. Vandell, M. Burchinal, K. A. Clarke-Stewart, K. McCartney, M. T. Owen, M. T., and The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network).…

This longitudinal study analyzed the relationship between structure and content of socio-moral reasoning. Using a system that defines independently the cognitive organizational and content aspects of socio-moral reasoning, the study examined whether persons at different developmental levels make use of different content categories, and whether the…

The public dollars spent to stimulate economic development would be more wisely invested in child development programs, according to two different streams of research. Brain research shows the impact of experiences and environments on the developing brain architecture, with weaker architecture leading to increased vulnerability to later problems…

"Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life" presents research findings on the effects of early childhood programs and practices in the first decade of life and their implications for policy development and reform. Leading scholars in the multidisciplinary field of human development and in early childhood learning…

Researchers in the fields of cognitive and language development have made less use of large-scale longitudinal designs and of person-centered approaches to data analysis than have researchers in the fields of social and personality development. It is argued that differences among domains of developmental psychology in the research methods employed…

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is designed to provide detailed information on children's development, health, and early learning experiences in the years leading up to entry into school. The ECLS-B is the first nationally representative study within the United States to directly assess children's early mental and…

The document discusses the nature of moral judgment, reviews previous studies which link higher education to moral judgment, and presents results of a longitudinal study comparing college and non-college subjects. This project report from the Higher Education and Cognitive-Social Development Project at the University of Minnesota is presented in…

This special issue of the Mensa Research Journal contains four papers written by K. Warner Schaie, a psychologist who focuses on psychological development from young adulthood through old age. The first paper is "Living with Gerontology." In it, Schaie recounts his own childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, his path to becoming a…

The proportion of low-achieving children in a class can affect the progress of individual pupils in that class. Having a large proportion of low achievers in a class could slow down growth in cognitive achievement but, might also boost such growth, due to the effects of specialist teaching geared to low achievers' needs. In a longitudinal study of…