This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young children's behavior. Fifty 12-, 24-, and 36-month-olds played with a variety of toys for 1 hr. For half of the hour, a game show played in the background on a monaural TV set. During the other half hour, the TV was off. The children…

Children's understanding of the way objects balance has provided important insights about cognitive development [e.g., Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). "Beyond modularity: A developmental perspective on cognitive science." Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Siegler, R. S. (1976). Three aspects of cognitive development. "Cognitive Psychology," 8, 481-520]. We…

Prospective memory (PM) reflects the product of cognitive processes associated with the formation, retention, delayed initiation, and execution of intentions. It has been proposed that developmental changes in PM across the lifespan are heavily dependent upon the developmental trajectory of executive control functions. This study is the first to…

Philosophers and scientists seeking to conceptualize consciousness, and subjective experience in particular, have focused on sensation and perception, and have emphasized binding--how a percept holds together. Building on a constructivist approach to conception centered on separistic-holistic complexes incorporating multiple levels of abstraction,…

Research and literature in the profession of counselor supervision primarily focus on the development of the trainee and what supervision and supervisors can do to help foster that development. Considerably less attention has been paid to the developmental path of the supervisor or how specific training or experiences in supervision can be used in…

Evert Willem Beth (1908-1964) was a Dutch logician, mathematician and philosopher, whose work mainly concerned the foundations of mathematics. Beth was among the founders of the Commission Internationale pour l'Etude et l'Amelioration de l'Enseignement des Mathematiques and was a member of the Central Committee of the International Commission on…

The similar-sequence and the similar-structure hypotheses are the two mainstays of the developmental approach to mental retardation. In the present study, a third way, the similar-trajectory hypothesis, is described and illustrated using the WAIS-R results of adults with and without mental retardation aged from 20 to 54 years. The whole sample (N…

There is currently much controversy about which, if any, mental states chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates understand. In the current two studies we tested both chimpanzees' and human children's understanding of both knowledge-ignorance and false belief--in the same experimental paradigm involving competition with a conspecific. We found that…

The major tenets of Piagetian theory, such as adaptation and constructionism, are compatible with a cross-cultural approach to the study of cognitive development, but there have been significant methodological and theoretical advances over the past 40 years. Piagetian theory directly influenced three phases of cross-cultural research, ranging from…

Background: Many measures of infants' early cognitive development, including the BSID-II (The Bayley Scales of Infant Development), mix together test items that assess a number of different developmental domains including language, attention, motor functioning and social abilities, and some items contribute to the assessment of more than one…

Two land-grant universities cooperated with the Extension Service and the National Agricultural Library to identify the knowledge and research base of Extension 4-H Youth Development education and to abstract/compile the foundation materials to strengthen research-based 4-H youth development education throughout the United States. The resources…

The study reported here investigates the role of pre-school education as a protective factor in the development of children who are at risk due to environmental and individual factors. This investigation builds upon earlier research by examining different kinds of "quality" in early education and tests the hypothesis that pre-schools of…

Purpose: The main aim of the present investigation was to examine the role of teacher, peer, and parental academic and emotional support in predicting adolescent cognitive engagement, especially within the context of ESL classrooms. Method: The present study examined the availability of academic and emotional support from teachers, classmates and…

The main purpose of this paper is to present an ongoing research study on the evolution of pre-numerical and pre-inductive levels of ordinal thought in students from three to seven years old. Our methodology is based on multimedia technology, an automatic and objective record of the data and minimal interaction between students and researcher. A…

Objectives: To outline the prevalence and disparities of physical activity among school-aged urban minority youth, causal pathways through which low levels of physical activity and fitness adversely affects academic achievement, and proven or promising approaches for schools to increase physical activity and physical fitness among youth. Methods:…