Investigated Japanese children's understanding of the difference between real and apparent emotion. Children aged four to six years listened to and answered questions about stories in which the protagonist masked strong emotions. Results showed six-year-olds understood real versus apparent emotion more systematically than did four-year-olds. (SKC)

The strength of the tendency of children (aged 4 1/2 to 7 1/2 years) to give phenomenist reading of neutral questions about object properties was investigated. Phenomenist answers decreased with age, and social dominance and conversational context affected answers. (SKC)

Two experiments investigated children's tendencies to draw what they know rather than what they see. The first experiment looked at the way children, aged five to nine, and adults represent an object occluded by another object. Most subjects drew only what they could see. The second experiment investigated subjects' interpretation of pictures…

Argues that abilities to use sensory standards and construct and use model images are the primary cognitive abilities that preschool children develop. Discusses longitudinal intervention programs designed to enhance these abilities; their results demonstrate improvement in cognitive tasks and positive changes in neurophysiological activity. (SKC)

Data from 226 adoptive and 224 nonadoptive families was used to explore the etiology of individual differences in communication development. Children's scores from the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) were compared with verbal and cognitive ability measures of their parents. Sibling correlations were also examined. (SKC)