Four experiments confirmed the widely accepted hypothesis that, although children as young as two engage in pretend play, even four and five year olds do not understand that pretending requires mental representation. Children appear to misconstrue pretense as its common external manifestations, such as actions, until at least age six. (MDM)

Investigated extent to which cognitions mediate relationship between negative life events and depression. College students and their same-sex parents and grandparents (n=171) completed measures of stressful life events, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression. Found interaction between negative life events and cognition for…

A study of simple reaction time (SRT) and choice reaction time (CRT) in 71 Chicano adolescents suggests that Hick's model is appropriate for studying cognitive information processing in Chicanos. No age or sex differences were found for SRT or CRT, although there were some differences in SRT by family income level. (KS)

Examined the effects of narrative statements used to evoke imaginal elaborations on children's recall. Found that children generated images that involved multiple referents and that children's memory performance was facilitated when their imaginal constructions were based on material created by themselves rather than on descriptions provided by…

This study evaluated descriptions, either from memory or by using a map (print or tactile), of 12 visually impaired and 12 sighted elementary grade children of two routes around their schools. Descriptions from maps were generally poorer than those from memory. Qualitative differences were also found between descriptions of visually impaired and…

Three experiments explored change toward more flexible reliance on combinations of spatial and nonspatial landmark information to reorient oneself. Identified 5-7 years as age for this developmental change. Results suggest that language production skills play a causal role in allowing humans to construct novel representations rapidly, which can…

Performance on mathematics word problems was compared for 197 students (grades 3-8) with mild disabilities and 210 nondisabled students. Students with disabilities performed at significantly lower levels than typical students. Significant effects were also evident for grade and type of mathematical operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication,…

This study examined effects of individual differences in speak-span scores and variations in memory demands on class-inclusion performance of 10-, 13-, and 15-year-olds. Results from regression analyses and the mathematical model indicated that differences in age, speak span, and memory load affected performance. Effects of speak span and memory…

Suggests an account of transitivity and transitive inferential reasoning differing from classic Piagetian and current information processing accounts. Postulates a three-component psychological system, with components relying on perceptual, linguistic, and conceptual subprocesses and sensitivity to simple cues. Maintains that the framework is…

Children from grades 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 made speeded, bimanual parity (odd/even) judgments of numerals. Response times indicated that from fourth grade on, parity information was retrieved directly from memory. By grade 3, children represented magnitude information as a left-to-right number line which was accessed obligatorily and, by grades 6 and…

Three studies investigated the role of surface attributes in infants' identification of agents, using a habituation paradigm designed to tap infants' interpretation of grasping as goal directed (Woodward, 1998). When they viewed a bare human hand grasping objects, 7- and 12-month-old infants focused on the relation between the hand and its goal.…

Magnitude is assumed to be represented along a holistic mental number line in adults. However, the authors recently observed a unit-decade compatibility effect for 2-digit numbers that is inconsistent with this "holisticness" assumption (H.-C. Nuerk, U. Weger, & K. Willmes, 2001). This study used the compatibility effect to examine whether the…

This experiment investigated relational complexity and relational shift in judgments of auditory patterns. Pitch and duration values were used to construct two-note perceptually similar sequences (unary relations) and four-note relationally similar sequences (binary relations). It was hypothesized that 5-, 8- and 11-year-old children would perform…

A sample of 315 children aged between 6 and 9 years participated in a 5-month longitudinal study aimed at investigating constraints on representational flexibility as observed in drawing behaviour. The study specifically looked at how external interventions affected children's representations over time. The intervention involved showing children…

Infants' understanding of "toy model-real exemplar" relations was assessed through preferential looking and habituation tasks. Results from the preferential looking task suggest that 18-month toddlers are just beginning to demonstrate comprehension of symbolic relations between iconic models and their real object counterparts. Performance of 10-…