Three experiments investigated whether preschoolers attend to actions or object when learning a novel verb. Findings showed that children learning nouns in the context of novel, moving objects attended exclusively to appearances of objects. Children learning verbs attended equally to appearances and motions. With familiar objects, children…

Examined in 2 studies the ability of 2- and 3-year-olds to learn to use tools via imitation. Found that when shown a correct solution to a tool-using task, all children managed at least a partial solution. When shown an incorrect followed by a correct solution, 2-year-olds produced a partial solution and most 3-year-olds produced a full solution.…

Although prior research clearly shows that toddlers have difficulty learning from video, the basis for their difficulty is unknown. In the 2 current experiments, the effect of social feedback on 2-year-olds' use of information from video was assessed. Children who were told "face to face" where to find a hidden toy typically found it, but children…

Describes a study designed to test (1) the effects of an educational prosocial television program on learning and behavior of kindergarten children; and (2) two types of training, verbal labeling and role playing, designed to help children learn the content of the program. Children were able to generalize learning. (ED)

Theories of imitation learning are examined regarding their account of how the infant acquires the ability to emit a response which resembles a response previously exhibited by another. The role of cognition in imitation learning theory is discussed. (BRT)

Reports the results of one study in which parents taught their two- to four-year-olds basic and superordinate concepts, and another, in which they taught them subordinate concepts. Parents' teaching styles were analyzed in terms of their usefulness for children who are attempting to learn about principles of hierarchical classification. (AS)

Examines the development of intermodal perception in infancy by means of a new method, the intermodal learning method. Results support the claim that only subjects who had been familiarized with appropriate and synchronous film and soundtrack pairs showed evidence of intermodal learning. (Author/RWB)

Investigated the extent to which 3.5-month-old infants trained in amodal auditory-visual relations between falling objects and the sounds they made could generalize their intermodal knowledge to a new task and across events. Found that infants tested with familiar events and with events of a new color or shape showed learning and transfer…

Four studies examined 10- to 18-month-old infants' ability to detect and encode correlations among features in a motion event. Findings indicated that the youngest infants process static features in an event independently but do not process correlations among dynamic features; the oldest detect correlations between all three features when the…

Maintains that recent theoretical and methodological advances have sparked renewed interest in studying children's learning. Describes consistent and interesting findings regarding how children learn and intriguing proposals regarding mechanisms underlying learning. Argues that increasing the focus on children's learning promises practical…

Describes a group method for determining the influence of reinforcement on a child's recognition learning. Subjects were found to recognize designs and abstract paintings which they had idiographically prejudged as positive in reinforcement value more readily than those which they had prejudged as megative. (ED)

Two concept-formation experiments were conducted with groups of American and Liberian Ss differing in age and educational background. (Authors)

Study concerned with the question of why older children remember more in categorized free recall. (Authors/MB)

Preschool children were trained to acquire transitivity, conservation, and class inclusion of length via feedback to their judgments. Feedback was found to facilitate the learning of all three concepts. (ST)

The logical extension of results may be valuable in adding to our understanding of the variety of phenomena involving mediational processes, such as transposition, reversal and nonreversal shifts, imagery, concept formation, word meaning, and the effectiveness of verbal stimuli in discrimination and generalization. (Authors)