To test general and specific processes of symbol learning, 4- and 5-year-old children learned three kinds of abstract associates for novel objects: words, facts, and pictograms. To test fast mapping (i.e., one-trial learning) and subsequent learning, comprehension was tested after each of four exposures. Production was also tested, as was…

The aim of the current study was to investigate the performance of 6-, 8-, and 14-year-olds on an analogy-making task involving analogies in which there are competing perceptual and relational matches. We hypothesized that the selection of the common relational structure requires the inhibition of other salient features, in particular, perceptual…

The Dimensional Change Card Sorting task frequently is used to measure extradimensional shifting abilities in preschool children. In two studies, we investigated what makes this extradimensional shifting task difficult. In Study 1 with 61 2- to 4-year-olds, we showed that extradimensional shifts from one dimension to another are more difficult…

Among children four to six years of age who were tested for their detection of melodic transformations, performance was superior for transformations that changed contour, for greater changes in contour, and for faster presentation rates. Melodies transformed by reordering tones were as discriminable as those transformed by inserting novel…

Results indicate that children prefer novel stimuli over stimuli to which they previously have been exposed. (Author)

Discusses when one can infer children's use of a rule, the mechanisms underlying the development of rule use, and the relation between understanding and execution. Contrasts relational complexity theory with cognitive complexity and control theory. (Author/KB)

Errors made by 5- and 8-year-old children asked to draw a model were investigated in two studies. Results from both indicated that 5-year-old children are more likely to produce visually accurate drawings than had previously been supposed; for both ages difficulty in producing accurate drawings occurred when drawing rules and conventions…

Second and sixth graders acquired information about a large-scale environment either actively or passively. They were subsequently asked to estimate distances in either active or passive response style. Unlike the older children, second graders did not estimate distances accurately when acquisition and response activities were incongruent.…

Reyna and Brainerd supplement arguments they made previously in this issue by advancing five additional reasons for preferring output-interference explanations over the resources hypothesis. (RH)

Kowalski and Zimiles (2006) and O'Hanlon and Roberson (2006) address an age-old question: Why do children find it difficult to learn color terms? Here these articles are reflected on, providing a focused examination of the issues central to this question. First, the criteria by which children are said to find color naming difficult are considered.…

Elementary school students and adults were presented with a paired comparison task of visual complexity in which contour and presence or absence of structure in the patterns were manipulated. Results indicated that complexity judgments of all subjects were affected by the presence of structure at lower levels of contour. (GO)

Presents a study of communication development in 5-year-old children. Subjects described multidimensional triangles for the listener. Tasks involved simple or complex attribute variation. Results indicated success only on simple tasks. (CM)

Three experiments investigated the dynamics of human infant visual fixation. Results showed that, over a series of trials, four-month-olds fixate longer on a complex than on a simple stimulus. Findings challenge prevailing cognitive-schema theories as a complete account of the dynamics of infant visual fixation. A two-process theory that accounts…

Children between the ages of three and six years were asked to predict their success or failure in two tasks, each of which had five difficulty levels. Tasks were presented either simultaneously or successively. Results indicated that children made realistic assessments of their chances for success at the difficulty levels. Performance factors are…