We systematically compared beliefs about animal (e.g., "lion"), artifactual (e.g., "hammer"), and institutional (e.g., "police officer") categories, aiming to identify whether people draw different inferences about which categories are subjective and which are socially constituted. We conducted two studies with 270…

In Study 1, 103 children ages 4 through 10 answered questions about their concept of and belief in luck, and completed a story task assessing their use of luck as an explanation for events. The interview captured a curvilinear trajectory of children's belief in luck from tentative belief at age 4 to full belief at age 6, weakening belief at age 8,…

Understanding measurement units is critical to mathematics and science learning, but it is a topic that American students find difficult. In 3 studies, we investigated the challenges underlying this difficulty in kindergarten and second grade by comparing performance on different versions of a linear measurement task. Children measured crayons…

Visual appearance is one of the main cues children rely on when categorizing novel objects. In 3 studies, testing 128 3-year-olds and 192 5-year-olds, we investigated how various kinds of information may differentially lead children to overlook visual appearance in their categorization decisions across domains. Participants saw novel animals or…

Individuals in many cultures believe in omniscient (all-knowing) beings, but everyday representations of omniscience have rarely been studied. To understand the nature of such representations requires knowing how they develop. Two studies examined the breadth of knowledge (i.e., types of knowledge) and depth of knowledge (i.e., amount of knowledge…

Based on a 2-component framework of episodic memory development across the lifespan (Shing & Lindenberger, 2011), we examined the contribution of memory-related binding and monitoring processes to false memory susceptibility in childhood and old age. We administered a repeated continuous recognition task to children (N = 20, 10-12 years),…

Executive functions and social cognition develop through childhood into adolescence and early adulthood and are important for adaptive goal-oriented behavior (Apperly, Samson, & Humphreys, 2009; Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). These functions are attributed to frontal networks known to undergo protracted maturation into early adulthood…

The current study analyzed figure size modification in different types of spatial context (C. Lange-Kuttner, 1997, 2004) for sequence and practice effects. Children of 7, 9, and 11 years of age, as well as 17-year-olds, drew figures in a series of ready-made spatial axes systems, which (a) logically increased in dimensional complexity as in child…

A total of 50 children between 6 and 13 years of age were tested for a predicted, eight-step sequence of family role concepts. Dolls representing typical roles were used as props, and each child was asked questions concerning role explanations and increasingly abstract family definitions. The sequence was found to be scalable and age-related.…

False recognition errors in elementary school children were studied using word association tasks. Data obtained validated the developmental changes in the dominant dimensions of associative organization. (ST)

This study investigated the development of understanding of animate and inanimate items in 52 children between 4 and 7 years of age. (Author/JMB)

Rejoinder to article PS 502 129. (MB)

The utility of Heider's model for specifying relations between perceived properties of an act and the attributed intentionality of the act is explored empirically with children of varying ages. (Author/ED)

Four-year-olds were reliably accurate about movement potentials for the categories of mammals, nonmammalian animals, statues of animals, wheeled vehicles, and multipart, rigid objects. The three-year-olds' scores were significantly above chance in all categories but animals. Analyses showed that children were concerned about the cause of movement…