The current study tests if the type of children's daily main meal (slow versus fast food) mediates the association of socioeconomic status (SES) with cognitive ability and cognitive growth in childhood. A Scottish birth cohort (Growing Up in Scotland) was assessed at ages 3 (N = 4512) and 5 years (N = 3833) on cognitive ability (i.e. vocabulary…

In longitudinal studies data is collected in a series of waves. Each wave after the first suffers from attrition. Therefore it can be difficult to discriminate between changes in sample parameters due to a longitudinal process (e.g. ageing) and changes due to attrition. The problem is particularly vexing if one of the purposes is to compare…

Recent neuroimaging research has shown sex-related differences in the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function. Anatomical studies have shown a greater reliance for cognitive function on white matter structure in adult females, and a greater reliance on gray matter structure in adult males. Functional neuroimaging studies have…

We evaluated over 200 participants semiannually from 12 to 48 months of age on measures of intellectual (Bayley Scales, Stanford-Binet Scale) and verbal (MacArthur-Bates Inventory, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test) status. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear (growth curve) analyses were applied to address the nature of development…

Sex differences in the latent general and broad abilities underlying the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (KABC-II) were investigated for children and youth ages 6 through 18. The data were split into different age groups to account for changes due to differential development. Multi-group higher-order analysis of mean and…

Proposes a developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence that states that the faster maturation and brain size growth in girls up to age 15 compensates for their smaller brain size so that sex differences in intelligence are very small. Discusses evidence that supports this theory. (SLD)

Data from the national standardization of the French version of the WISC-III were analyzed to determine when during childhood the IQ-related process of differentiation appears and how the strength of the relationships among subtests evolves with age in low- and high-IQ groups. Indeed, some recent studies suggest that age might moderate the effect…

Tested 226 children aged 6 to 9 years on an inspection time (IT) task in year 1. Immediately retested the children to study task familiarity and then tested them 1 year and 2 years later. Results indicate that task experience has a bigger effect on children's IT than maturation. (SLD)

Based on the construct of classical IQ, a model of the proportions of the population at various stages of cognitive development as a function of age is proposed. The model compares well with other theoretical models and provides evidence of the salience of the construct of general cognitive capacity. (SLD)

Whether mental attentional capacity increases as a linear function of age during normal childhood development, as predicted by the neo-Piagetian developmental theory of J. Pascual-Leone (1970 and later), was studied with 215 children aged 5 to 12 years. Results provide only partial support for the Pascual-Leone theory. (SLD)

The validity of the fourth edition of the Stanford-Binet (S-B IV) test was studied with 30 linguistically precocious children at ages 20, 24, and 30 months. Validity at 24 months was questionable. Problems in using the test with very young children are discussed. (SLD)

In a study of operative thought in children, 104 children, aged 4 to 9, were tested 5 times with the same 25 Piagetian tasks. There were manifest indicators of synergy in the development of the various behaviors, but it was not possible to validate specific problems of behavior organization. (SLD)

Results from a quasi-experimental research design used with 578 10-year-old children showed considerable effects of schooling on all intelligence tests given, including tests of fluid intelligence, and indicated that schooling effects explained most of the intellectual progress made in 1 year at that age. (SLD)

A meta-analysis of research on the relationship between inspection time (IT) and IQ was performed. The analysis was designed to determine whether a non-zero relationship between IT and IQ exists, estimate the size of this relationship, and test whether IT is ontogenetically related to "g" (intelligence). (TJH)

Intelligence tests were administered twice to 426 members of 93 transracial adoptive families, once when the adopted children's ages averaged 7 years and again when they averaged 17 years. Correlations suggest that influences on intellectual development in this sample of black and interracial adoptees reared in white families are similar to those…