Ninety-seven children aged 4-11 (49 males, 48 females, mostly White) were given the opportunity to improve their problem-solving performance by devising and implementing a novel cognitive offloading strategy. Across two phases, they searched for hidden rewards using maps that were either aligned or misaligned with the search space. In the second…

Notwithstanding its well-established role on high-demanding spatial navigation tasks during adulthood, the effect of field dependence-independence during the acquisition of spatial navigation skills is almost unknown. This study assessed for the first time the effect of field dependence-independence on topographical learning (TL) across the life…

Little cross-cultural research exists on parental socialization of children's learning beliefs. The current study compared 218 conversations between European American and Taiwanese mothers and children (6-10 years) about good and poor learning. The findings support well-documented cultural differences in learning beliefs. European Americans…

Examines stability of individual differences in behaviorally induced heart-rate reactivity in 34 boys presented a cognitive task. Task-related heart-rate reactivity revealed substantial and highly reproducible individual differences in heart-rate reactivity independent of subjects' task performance. (Author/DB)

Relates the problem-solving behavior of second, fourth, and sixth graders to conceptual tempo. Correlations with indices of strategic and efficient performance on a pattern-matching task confirmed that reflectives are more strategic than impulsives. A task-analysis identified the sources of inefficiency for each child and related these sources to…

Three types of concepts were examined: concepts defined by sufficient features, concepts which possessed necessary and sufficient features, and concepts composed of exemplars with distinctive features. Second- and fifth-grade subjects learned the concepts in a procedure encouraging abstraction of common features or a procedure fostering exemplar…

Examined differences between five-, seven-, and nine-year-olds' ability to estimate their counting accuracy for large set sizes on tasks of three levels of counting difficulty. With increasing age, children's estimates of their counting accuracy increasingly corresponded to their actual counting accuracy. (Author/DB)

Preschool children were asked to choose the figure most resembling a real man from three figures drawn according to formulas used by children to depict humans. Results suggest development of drawing systems influences children's conceptions about objects or events. (Author/DB)

Geometric matrix problems were presented to 11- and 14-year-olds and adults to investigate latency to solution as a function of number of elements (1-3) and of transformations (0-2) that had to be considered for correct solution. At all ages latencies increased as the number of elements and number of transformations increased. (Author/DB)

Examines developmental changes in the resolution of conflicting goals involved in self-evaluation among children entering second, fourth, and sixth grades who represent high, medium, and low ability levels in arithmetic. Results are discussed in terms of strategies for balancing self-assessment with self-enhancement needs. (Author/RWB)

Examines developmental differences among children and adults in causal reasoning concerning story characters who were offered various inducements to behave helpfully. Results indicate that external consequences enhanced attributions of internal motivation for kindergartners and reduced such attributions for older subjects. (Author/DB)