Students of high intellectual ability and their parents were tested on a battery of cognitive tests. Vernon's model of intelligence best fit results. A verbal-educational and a practical-spatial-mechanical factor explained most performance variance. Among children, age related to verbal but not spatial or mechanical abilities. (Author/RD)

Investigates both the reading and writing behaviors of eight good readers and writers in order to identify shared cognitive-linguistic patterns that might mark both processes, developmental differences between the age groups, and patterns of academic and nonacademic influences on the writing. (HOD)

Six experiments investigated the informational value of praise and criticism. Praise after success and neutral feedback after failure led to perceptions that an acting person's ability was viewed as low. Neutral feedback after success and criticism after failure led to perceptions that an acting person's ability was viewed as high. (Author/RD)

Reactions to praise, blame, and reward received by two children were studied among 79 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Findings suggest an alternate and less differentiated cognitive mechanism for the paradoxical effects of praise and blame. Older children showed an increasing preference to be like the nonpraised, nonrewarded, or blamed child.…

Summarizes the conduct and results of the Seattle Longitudinal Study, an investigation that has assessed mental abilities in more than 5,000 adults and has followed some for as long as 35 years. Integrative findings are presented on age changes, cohort differences, factor structure, individual differences, and interventions. (SLD)

Presents a study of the acquisition and development of information coordination ability. Examines students' composition of texts comparing two cultural groups after reading either one text describing both or a separate text on each. Concludes that older students used more complex information integration levels, whereas all subjects performed…

Analysis of a large corpus (80 pairs of speakers) of 7-12 year olds suggests that 2 principles underlie the development of dialogue coordination skills. The seven to eight year olds establish a limited common dialogue lexicon, whereas older speakers show evidence of deep coordination processes aimed at establishing mutual intelligibility of a…

Examines development of the concept of commitment in relation to adolescents' choice of a career and romantic partner. Subjects were 163 male and female ninth graders, twelfth graders, and college juniors from public and private schools. Findings support the proposition that the concept of commitment is affected by grade, gender, and type of…

The traditional view of development is stage-like progress toward increasing complexity of form. However, the literature cites many examples in which children do worse before they do better. A major challenge for developmental theory, therefore, is to explain both global progress and apparent regression. In this article, we situate U-shaped…

The aim of this study was to show how general models of text production can account for argumentative text planning. It focuses in particular on retrieval process in 11- to 18-year-old children. Various experimental situations were designed to promote different ways of retrieving ideas from long-term memory. Essays written by students were…

A study of young children's art and representational thought investigated the order in which representational concepts emerge in children's modeling in clay. It was predicted that children's three-dimensional representations of simple, symmetrical, and balanced familiar objects would be superior to their representations of complex, asymmetrical,…

Sixty children, 20 from each of grades 1, 3, and 5 served as subjects in a study that examined how elementary school age children realize the intent of directives embedded within written and picture book narratives. Directives were defined as the range of language forms used to direct actions (imperative statement, need/want statement, permission…

Analysis of 165 studies (representing the testing of 1,418,899 subjects) that reported data on gender differences in verbal ability indicated a slight female superiority in performance. The difference is so small that it appears that gender differences in verbal ability no longer exist. A major goal was also to define age trends in the pattern of…

In both within-network and between-network analyses of the self, research results have indicated internal consistency, construct and discriminant validity in terms of multitrait-multimethod techniques, with discriminating weights for gender and age. Factor analyses have yielded a variety of clusters, including most often a self concept of ability.…

Doctors annually treat between approximately four and eight million Americans for depression. Behavioral changes in depressed individuals are characterized by sadness, loneliness, and apathy. Other symptoms include fatigue, early morning insomnia, loss of appetite, and suicide attempts. Underlying depression may mask itself in physical symptoms,…