The influence of culture on cognitive development is well established for school age and older children. But almost nothing is known about how different parenting and socialization practices in different cultures affect infants' and young children's earliest emerging cognitive and social-cognitive skills. In the current monograph, we report a…

The federal Early Head Start (EHS) program began in 1995, and a randomized trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of 17 EHS programs. In all, 3,001 low-income families (35% African American, 24% Hispanic, and 37% White) with a pregnant women or an infant under the age of 12 months were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group (with…

We present a domain-general framework called "constrained attentional associative learning" to provide a developmental account for how and when infants form concepts for animates and inanimates that encapsulate not only their surface appearance but also their movement characteristics. Six simulations with the same general-purpose architecture…

Preschoolers' questions may play an important role in cognitive development. When children encounter a problem with their current knowledge state (a gap in their knowledge, some ambiguity they do not know how to resolve, some inconsistency they have detected), asking a question allows them to get targeted information exactly when they need it.…

Using data from the first 2 phases of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the authors examine the links between maternal employment in the first 12 months of life and cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes for children at age 3, at age 4.5, and in first grade. Drawing on theory and prior research from developmental psychology as well as…

This commentary on the article by Demetriou et al. in this monograph focuses on three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of (1) developmental domains; (2) reflective abstraction, or metacognition; and (3) representation, which involves considerations of what knowledge consists of, how it emerges, and how it relates to reality.…

Attempts to clarify issues related to three problems in neo-Piagetian theory, namely, the problems of developmental domains; reflective abstraction, or hypercognition; and representation, or knowledge. Concerning domains, answers three questions: (1) What is a domain?; (2) How are domains identified?; and (3) What happens to domains as they…

Reviews studies on the effects of infant food supplementation on the children's later cognitive development. Suggests that the study by Pollitt et al. reported in this monograph presents evidence that correcting early malnutrition provides large benefits to children when they become adolescents and young adults. (BC)

Focuses on the question of whether developmental improvement in performance on cognitive tasks is abrupt or continuous. Explains three model-based approaches to this question, and stresses that research conducted in these approaches has indicated that developmental improvements consist of jumps through discrete states. Concludes that these results…

Hypothesized that elevated ratio of phenylalanine to tyrosine in blood of children with phenylketonuria uniquely affects cognitive functions dependent on prefrontal cortex because of the special sensitivity of prefrontally projecting dopamine neurons to small decreases in tyrosine. Found that children whose phenylalanine levels were three to five…

Highlights the findings of the study by Pollitt et al. in this monograph that nutritional supplementation has long-term consequences for cognitive development and that the relationship of nutrition to cognitive performance does not fit a main-effects model. Also reviews methodological and conceptual issues unresolved by the study; and discusses…

Responds to commentary on the Pollitt et al. study reported in this monograph. Posits that nutritional insults are sensitive to intervention. Discusses research methodology; methodological issues related to sex differences; the buffering influence of high SES and dietary supplementation against the adverse effects of poor diet and low SES,…

Reports results of an exploratory study in which a total of 80 children (in kindergarten, first, third and fifth grades) were interviewed in order to sample their knowledge of how certain classes of variables act and interact with one another to affect the quality of an individual's performance on a retrieval problem. (ED)

Investigated the influence of schooling and environment on young children's memory and cognitive skills. Subjects were five- and six-year-old Mestizo and Quechua Indian children living in jungle villages or city slums in Peru. Samples of upper-middle-class children in Lima and poor children in Detroit were also tested. (JMB)

Comments on the monograph reported in this issue. Stresses that the monograph illustrates the difficulty of measuring gender stereotypes; provides insight on activity preferences in middle childhood; considers the role of affect in sex typing by distinguishing affective from cognitive influences; encourages broad-based theories to account for sex…