This study investigates whether age-related changes in the structure of 5 complex working memory (WM) tasks (a) reflect a general or domain specific system, (b) follows a similar trajectory across different age spans, and (c) contribute domain general or domain specific resources to achievement measures. The study parsed the sample (N = 2,471)…

Adults have little difficulty perceiving objects as complete despite occlusion, but newborn infants perceive moving partly occluded objects solely in terms of visible surfaces. The developmental mechanisms leading to perceptual completion have never been adequately explained. Here, the authors examine the potential contributions of oculomotor…

Prior work suggests that active experience affects infants' understanding of simple actions. The present studies compared the impact of active and observational experience on infants' ability to identify the goal of a novel tool-use event. Infants either received active training and practice in using a cane to retrieve an out-of-reach toy or had…

Two conflicting developmental accounts of how mental states are used in evaluating actors were tested by varying actors' intentionality, foreknowledge of outcome, and the values of motive and outcome. Findings suggested that children use intentionality before knowledge in judgments of action sequences and that actor's foreknowledge of an outcome…

Study analyzes figures children make with playdough, a different medium that provides evidence related to two opposing theories of the development of representation. (Author)

Sixty-six first-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children were tested for their sensitivity to the dimensions of syntactic repleteness (e.g., line variation) and expression (i.e., the feelings conveyed by a work). (Author/MP)