We argue for the importance of processes of shared intentionality in children's early cognitive development. We look briefly at four important social-cognitive skills and how they are transformed by shared intentionality. In each case, we look first at a kind of individualistic version of the skill--as exemplified most clearly in the behavior of…

Pictures are often used by cognitive psychologists to investigate the development of cognitive functions. Different attributes of the picture, such as object or picture familiarity, word frequency, and age of acquisition, are known to correlate with naming latency and to affect memory, particularly retrieval processes. But without the use of…

This paper discusses a theory of the formation of social stereotyping and prejudice in children. This intergroup-developmental theory of prejudice has three primary goals: to account for the development of stereotyping and prejudice across multiple domains; to provide a developmental account of social stereotyping, outlining how developmental…

This study examined the development of cognitive perspective taking skills and the lack of consistency across perspective taking measures in earlier studies. Four perspective taking measures were administered to 56 children between 4 and 10 years of age under two testing conditions. The high structure condition included multiple presentation of…

Since E.L. Thorndike's landmark 1917 study of the complexity of reading comprehension, inferential research has generally focused on either inference as a developmental process or the nature of inferences made during reading. In his 1930 study, R. W. Tyler established that inference could be objectively measured. S. G. Paris conducted several…

Forty-four middle and 44 lower SES children were given Piaget's provoked and spontaneous correspondence tests to see: (1) how they made correspondence, (2) if the idea of equivalent sets, once achieved, was retained after objects were regrouped destroying visible equivalence, and (3) if age, sex, and SES differences existed. Results indicated that…

Uses the transposition paradigm to compare the influence of the adjectives "same" and "different" on the test choice of 5- and 9-year-old children. (Author/SDH)

Two experiments were conducted to assess the nature and extent of children's knowledge about the density of objects. In the first experiment, 18 children 3- to 5-years-old were shown 8 objects which were placed in water 1 at a time. The children were later asked to judge whether the objects would sink or float when placed in water. Findings…

The effects of age-relevance of content material on reasoning were systematically studied in 120 adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults. Subjects were presented with either an adolescent, young adult, middle-aged, or older adult interpersonal dilemma and asked a series of structured questions assessing relativistic and…

Although many studies have described adolescents' sexual behavior and attitudes, there are little data available on the nature of the questions that occur to adolescents as they move toward maturity. A study was conducted to determine whether the questions children and adolescents ask reflect developmental differences in cognitive abilities and…

Recently, young children have been allowed to testify as competent witnesses in courts of law and the testimony of a single child can be very important in sexual abuse cases. A study was conducted to examine the accuracy of nursery school children's eyewitness accounts in a naturalistic setting. Nursery school students (N=31) viewed two women, one…

Age and sex effects in multiple dimensions of self-concept were examined in responses by 3,562 preadolescent students (grades 2 to 6) to the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ). A factor analysis of responses clearly identified the seven facets of self-concept which the SDQ is designed to measure: physical ability, physical appearance, peer…

The study examined the effectiveness of two psychoeducational treatment approaches and drug therapy on the impulsivity of 120 hyperactive emotionally disturbed children in two age groups (mean ages 13 and 8 years old). The psychoeducational approaches tested were modeling of reflective behavior and a specific instructional procedure to increase…

The relationship between interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) skills and the behavioral adjustment of 30 hyperactive boys (from 5.5 to 12.5 years of age) was examined. Each S was individually administered two problem solving measures to assess alternative thinking and means-end thinking. The childrens' self-concept was also assessed and…