This report summarizes research about development during the first 3 years of life. It highlights research in domains that are foundational for later school readiness and success, including: (1) perceptual, motor, and physical development; (2) social and emotional development; (3) approaches to learning; (4) language and communication; and (5)…

Bhatt and Quinn (2011) present a compelling case that human learning is "early" in two very different, but interacting, senses. Learning is "developmentally" early in that even infants show strikingly robust adaptation to the structures present in their world. Learning is also early in an information processing sense because infants adapt their…

Bhatt and Quinn (2011) review evidence indicating that learning plays a powerful role in the development of perceptual organization, and provide a theoretical framework for studying this process. The fact that prominent researchers in diverse areas of cognitive development and adult cognition have commented on this paper (Aslin, 2011; Goldstone,…

This paper reviews progress over the past 20 years in four areas of research on infant perception and cognition. Work on perception of dynamic events has identified perceptual constraints on perception of object unity and object trajectory continuity that have led to a perceptual account of early development that supplements Nativist accounts.…

This commentary endorses J. Kagan's (2008) conclusion that many of the most dramatic findings on early perceptual, cognitive, and social competencies are ambiguous. It supports his call for converging research operations to disambiguate findings from single paradigms and single response indices. The commentary also argues that early competencies…

Development of cognitive processes and visual perception in 128 Down Syndrome (DS) children (ages 5 to 18) was compared to that of 162 nonhandicapped children (ages 3 to 8). Linear, rather than stepwise, relationships between performance and chronological age in the DS subjects and similar to normal visual perceptual development were found.…

It is proposed here that adults process orientation information at different levels and that these levels correspond to developmental stages in the coding of orientation in childhood. (Author)

Examined whether children differentiate or confuse the domains of folk biology and folk psychology. Children and adult subjects were asked whether the animals depicted in pictures possessed certain biological and psychological properties. Results indicated that by kindergarten, notions of folk psychology and folk biology are sufficiently…

Discusses the use of a dynamic approach to explain how young children master motor skills and perform an array of cognitive feats including word learning. Introduces a perspective that is a departure from established scientific theories of the mind. Argues that a child's physical, mental, and social lives arise out of a shifting interplay between…

This article reviews the major components of Viktor Lowenfeld's approach to art education, devoting specific attention to the misconceptions often attributed to his use of developmental stages. Notes that Lowenfeld was not the first individual to describe developmental stages in art learning and promotes a more accurate interpretation of how…

Twenty-two children ranging in age from 2 to 3 years were tested on their abilities to apply weight and distance rules to the balance scale. This study was performed to test the prediction that 2-year-olds would be able to understand either a weight rule or a distance rule, but not be able to integrate the two. The sample group was instructed in…

The purpose of this study was to determine if intervention instruction in encoding processes affects novice teacher problem solving ability in educational contexts of varying levels of complexity. It sought to determine the effects of intervention training in nine specific encoding processes, prerequisite to effective problem solving, on novice…

Examines current research on brain development, focusing on infants' ability to understand basic numerical concepts and arithmetic operations. Asserts that as the brain undergoes dramatic transformations, it already has a built-in capacity to understand basic numerical concepts. Recommends that parents and professionals engage in activities…

The study reported in this paper traces the nature of the changes which take place as the child gradually acquires perspective-taking skills. The results indicate that at first the young child can correctly represent only the location of the object nearest another observer; later, he can correctly represent a before-behind relationship between…

Reviews empirical research on the development of ethnic attitudes and finds overlapping sequences: (1) progression from a focus on oneself to a focus on groups, and then on individuals; and (2) progression from affective to perceptual to cognitive forms of differentiation. Also discusses differences between majority and minority group children.…