Empathy is an essential building block for successful interpersonal relationships. Atypical empathic development is implicated in a range of developmental psychopathologies. However, assessment of empathy in children is constrained by a lack of suitable measurement instruments. This article outlines the development of the Kids' Empathic…

Results are discussed in terms of cognitive growth, the psychoanalytic notion of ambivalence, the role of stimulus context in eliciting laughter or fear, and a possible adaptive, stimulus-maintaining function of laughter. (Authors)

Changes in manipulative play with objects were examined in a longitudinal sample of 10 boys and 9 girls tested at ages 9, 13, and 18 months. Stability of individual differences in play was also examined. Each child was observed individually for 7 minutes in a room in which a tea set was the only toy present. Seven types of play behavior were…

One hundred sixty sibling pairs from two child families were sampled for sibling interaction behaviors as they relate to measures of categorization style. The study provides additional evidence of the importance of a child's siblings to his cognitive development. (Editor/RK)

Studies based on an analysis of one species of learning and transfer task, the transposition problem, in terms of two ways in which the experimenter's and the child's definition may differ. (Author)

Study examined word associations from the perspective of cognitive level and thought processes. (Authors/MB)

Two experiments investigated developmental aspects of the two components of scientific reasoning: induction and deduction. In the first experiment, 98 subjects, ages 5 through 11, inductively identified four silhouetted pictures by removing, one at a time and in any sequence, as few covering pieces as possible. Results indicated that: (a) the…

This study is one of a series which attempts to arrive at generalizations about the learning of mathematics and the use of its terminology in the context of mathematical structure by young children. The first half of the document describes an experimental training program designed to integrate mathematical concepts of metric space, arc length, and…

A four-year longitudinal study of concept attainment and uses of concepts, as specified by the Conceptual Learning and Development Model, is described. Data collected during the first two years were based upon the assessment of the concept, equilateral triangle. The assessment battery was administered to 351 children (grades K, 3, 6, and 9) in…

This study was designed (1) to determine differences in classificatory skills of low socioeconomic status children under intervention and non-intervention conditions; (2) to determine differences in classification skills of bilingual, biliterate, and monolingual students; and (3) to study differences in classificatory skills as a function of age.…

The Sigel Object Categorization Test (SOCT) is used for studying classification abilities in young children, the criteria for which is considered indicative of both cognitive ability and style. The test consists of two types of stijuli--one set of 12 relatively familiar three-dimensional objects and a second set of colored photographs of these…

Examines explanations used by children (ages five-14) to explain academic success and failure; frequency of their use; and developmental variations in types of explanations used. It was found that patterns of attribution categories vary by age, and that the attribution process involves a complex interaction of subjective and objective reality.…

The Spontaneous Numerical Correspondence Test is an adaptation of a Piagetian procedure. Here the tester sets out an array of blue ceramic tiles and, providing the child with his/her own box of 15 blue and 15 red tiles, asks the S to take out the same number. The task is repeated four times: twice with 7 tiles, once with 8, and once with 10. In…

The Conceptual Learning and Development (CLD) Model specifies four levels of concept attainment (concrete, identity, classificatory, and formal) and three uses of concepts (problem solving, subordinate-supraordinate, and principles). Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of concept attainment may be conducted. The results of this study of 300…

This study identified behaviors of sibling pairs interacting on a cognitive task and related these behaviors to sibling structure variables (age and sex of each sibling and age spacing between them) and to measure of cognitive abilities of the younger sibling. Subjects were 160 sibling pairs randomly selected from appropriate subpopulations of…