Suggests that the formation of habits is the basis of character and morality. Supports this suggestion with citations from Henry James and other writers, and with examples of intellectual diligence from the lives of Helen Keller and Anne Frank. (HTH)

Examined 18-month olds' intermodal and verbal knowledge about gender. Presented photos of adults or children paired with a female or male voice, or with gender labels. With adult pictures, subjects spent more time looking at pictures with matching voices than at those with mismatched voices. With children's pictures, subjects failed to match faces…

Tested 5- through 9-year-old children in structured and unstructured contexts to determine their ability to demonstrate contrasts in tempo and dynamics using a synthesizer keyboard. Shows that they were able to demonstrate contrasts in loudness and duration. Reports further results based on varied environmental situations. (DSK)

Offers a commentary on five contributions to recent developments in the study of cognitive development that have been selected for this special issue. The relevance of each author's paper to issues that are central to cognitivists today and post-Piagetian developmental psychologists is discussed, and the overall need of evolutionary models to…

This study attempts to rebut criticisms of the developmental theories of Jean Piaget by showing that most criticisms derive from misinterpretation and forget the dialectical, constructivist, and developmental nature of Piaget's work. Important aspects of Piaget's theory have not been assimilated by developmental psychologists. (SLD)

Discusses the four planes of development and the periods of creation and crystallization within each plane. Identifies the type of independence that should be achieved by the end of the first two planes of development. Maintains that it is through individual work on the environment that one achieves independence. (KB)

Discusses the links between emotional development and pretend play in young children using basic foundations of psychoanalytic and learning theories. Explains emotional development and pretend play through interactive levels of expression, control and modeling of emotion, and emotional intelligence. (JPB)

Children of Mexican American women, especially immigrants, have unexpectedly good birth weights. A study of 3,710 Mexican American, Black, and White children aged 3-4, who completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, found birth weight was not a powerful predictor of child cognitive development, nor did it explain pronounced racial and…

Discusses objective knowledge and reality; objective experience and objectivity; objectivity without representation; and problems with constructivism. Argues that at issue with Muller, Sokol, and Overton's model is dispensability of the representation concept in an account of knowledge development during infancy. Concludes that a constructivist…

Maintains that one future direction for cognitive development research involves a closer integration with knowledge about the developing brain. Presents a framework for analyzing and interpreting postnatal functional brain development. Discusses three contributing hypotheses, within which a variety of phenomena associated with the neural basis of…

Suggests that the findings of Legerstee, Barna, and DiAdamo (2000) are most parsimoniously explained by associative learning and may not constitute a precursor to later understanding of intentionality. Argues for the importance of differentiating between associative and inferential processes and reviews evidence that the understanding of…

The present research investigated whether 13.5-month-old infants would attribute to an actor a disposition to perform a recurring action, and would then use this information to predict which of two new objects--one that could be used to perform the action and one that could not--the actor would grasp next. During familiarization, the infants…

Several studies have demonstrated a relation between executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) in preschoolers, yet the developmental course of this relation remains unknown. Longitudinal stability and EF-ToM relations were examined in 81 children at 24 and 39 months. At Time 1, EF was unrelated to behavioral measures of ToM but was…

Research patterns from the past three decades and several current directions of research are used to describe emerging trends in the study of cognitive development. These trends are discussed as moving the field into new areas, particularly biology, learning, and social context, and contributing to a more integrated understanding of psychological…

A more pessimistic assessment to study the effects of maternal employment on children's learning abilities is presented. Parental investments during infancy and childhood not only result in improved cognitive development but also in overall improvement in learning abilities.