Using hypothetical scenarios in which sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can be transmitted, college freshmen and seniors were asked to explain why they believed the characters should or should nor engage in risky behaviors. Results indicated that seniors had a significantly higher stage of moral reasoning than the freshmen when responding to…

Interest in babies was assessed in 30 high school seniors and 32 college freshmen. Measures varied from passive perceptual responses to pictures, to behavioral reactions to a live baby in the presence and in the absence of an adult. (JMB)

A total of 400 subjects differing in age, sex, and SES were tested on strategic, relational, experimental, and postformal abilities. Results showed that Demetriou and Efklides' model of the development of formal thought could be integrated with theories claiming that thought is structured in different inquiring systems and develops postformally as…

Investigated the relationship of two memory components involved in the retrieval of information from long-term memory--one process-oriented and one structure-oriented-- to variability associated with age and ability differences. Striking developmental differences obtained for retrieval efficiency were highly related to scores on tests of ability,…

Three studies found that there was a marked increase with age from preschool to adulthood in individuals' tendency to say that persons always have some thoughts and ideas flowing through their minds. Four year olds tended to say that persons could keep their minds completely empty of ideas. (MDM)

Examined differences in perceptions of relationships in preadolescence, early adolescence, midadolescence, and late adolescence. Findings were largely consistent with seven propositions derived from major theories of the developmental courses of personal relationships. Discussion centers around the role that various relationships are perceived as…

Students in grades two, four, six, and college sorted abstract visual patterns that varied both in amount of contour and in type of visual organization (unstructured, simple symmetries, multiple symmetries, and rotational). Results suggested that children attend to both amount of contour and visual organization, but that attention to visual…

Second graders, sixth graders, and college students served in two experiments designed to assess (1) the selection and use of landmarks during route learning and (2) the coordination of successive environmental experiences into an overall configuration. (Author/RH)

First- and sixth-grade students, as well as college- age students, were examined with a procedure that generates separate measures for storage and retrieval components of the probability of correct recall. While recall performance was found to improve with each advancing grade level, it was found that storage and retrieval processes develop at…

Investigates performance of 8, 10, 12 year olds and adults on cognitive tasks in terms of several processing-speed measures, each of which may change independently with age. Results underscore the complexity of developmental change in processing efficiency. (Author/RH)

Two experiments were conducted to examine differences in word-recognition processes between third-grade and college students. Results suggested that children make more predominant use of phonological recoding to obtain lexical access than do adults. (Author/MP)

Tests two hypotheses concerning developmental change in the speed of cognitive processes: (1) age differences in processing time reflect changes that are specific to particular tasks, and (2) age differences in processing speed do not reflect task-specific change but are due instead to more general developmental change. (HOD)

Investigates the role of causal mechanism, sampling method, and sample size in causal reasoning of 216 sixth and ninth grade and college students. Subjects did not base judgments solely on covariation. Age differences were negligible when covariation was absent and striking when covariation was present. (RJC)

Asked 9, 11, and 13 year olds and college students about risk factors for AIDS, colds, and cancer. Found that knowledge of risk factors became more accurate with age; knowledge of risk factors was largely independent of knowledge of nonrisk factors; and knowledge about 1 disease was largely independent of knowledge about another. (MDM)

Training paradigms were used to pinpoint key obstacles to covariation judgment accuracy among children, adolescents, and adults. The majority of junior high subjects, even when given training, failed to learn the rule. Fourth through eighth grade subjects could be taught to compare two sums in the sum-of-diagonals rule. (RH)