Children between ages 9 and 13 were tested for recognizing and remembering words from 6- and 12-word lists. Developmental functions showed different growth patterns for remembering the items in a short list than for remembering order, and different patterns for storing items from a long list, than for retrieving them. (Author)

Two experiments examined theory of mind in middle childhood by examining changes in the organization of mental verbs of knowing. Found that older children and comprehension monitors placed greater emphasis on the certainty aspects of mental activity than did younger children and comprehension nonmonitors, suggesting that important aspects of a…

Four- to 11-year-olds made duration, distance, and speed judgments on Piagetian tasks where cars ran on parallel tracks. Among younger children, duration and distance judgments had approximately the same difficulty. Among older children, distance judgments were easier than duration judgments, and symmetry of effects of temporal and spatial…

Predictions about reaction times (RT) from Siegler's model were tested for the balance scale task with 6- to 22-year-olds. Regression analyses provided additional knowledge of the rules. Rule II was reformulated as a rule that always involves the encoding but not always the correct application of the distance rule. RTs provided evidence for use of…

Eight-, 10-, and 19-year-olds performed a verbal or spatial domain primary memory task. The task was performed alone or in conjunction with a verbal or spatial secondary memory task. In their performance of the primary task, only 8-year-olds showed interference by a secondary task that was based on a different domain from the primary task. (BC)

Provided 2- and 2.5-year-olds with partial visual information about a ball's path as it moved toward a hiding place. Found that both age groups were equally proficient at tracking the ball as it rolled behind a transparent screen with 4 opaque doors, but 2.5-year-olds were more likely to reach to the correct door when asked to find the ball.…

To assess children's understanding of intentions as distinct from desires, this study presented 3- to 7-year-olds and adults with situations in which intentions were satisfied but desires were not, or vice versa, in a story-comprehension task and target-hitting game. Findings indicated that younger children were unable to differentiate desires and…

Two studies investigated the maintenance of focused attention in the first five years of life. Findings revealed changes over age in the way children concentrate and sustain attention spontaneously during free play. Results point to possible developments underlying the increasing duration of focused attention. (RH)

Explored mechanisms responsible for improvements in short-term memory in early to middle childhood. Recall and speech rate for acoustically similar and dissimilar words and words of differing lengths were assessed in three groups of children of 4 to 10 years. (RH)

Three studies looked at kindergarten, third and sixth grade students' and adults' comprehension of different types of adaptation or contrast effects for weight and temperature. Results showed improvement up to college age and revealed the importance of using older children in studies of developing theories of the mind. (SAK)

Contrasts Fodor's theory of children's Very Simple Theory of Mind, with the view that children's concepts cross-cut the adult conceptual system: young children do not distinguish between the state of affairs a belief is about and how this state of affairs is thought of, which puts a severe limit on their understanding of belief as distinct from…

Spatial capacities of 36 children ages 5-6 were tested in 3 experiments involving an electronic maze, map training and testing, and finding the way out of a cave using a map. All subjects could use simple maps; this ability improved with age. However, no subject navigated the cave without help, perhaps because of stress or task complexity. (SV)