A wealth of research suggests that youth whose parents use corporal punishment are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior during childhood and adolescence. Questions remain, however, about: (a) whether this relationship extends reliably to samples outside the US and Canada; (b) whether corporal punishment is associated with antisocial…

The study explored how Chinese children spontaneously explained the causes of illness. Two groups of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children from different socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds were recruited, with 30 children in each age group. A group of 30 college students were also recruited and their responses compared to those produced by the…

Reported are two studies which describe the early development in children of the ability to consider every one of an array of instances. Taken together with other recent studies, the data reveal early development in preschool children of a fundamental, general problem solving skill. (PCB)

Explores 96 preschool children's utilization of complementary and taxonomic relations under varying task demands. Results indicated that, as task demands increased, (1) complementary intrusions produced systematic error in the taxonomic condition and (2) performance decreased in both conditions. Complementary pairs were maintained at progressively…

Two studies examined the development of children's knowledge of the situations that provoke emotion. English and Dutch (Study 1) and Nepalese (Study 2) children were presented common emotional terms and asked to describe situations likely to provoke each emotion. In both cases, the determinants suggested by the children indicated that children…

In two experiments, five year olds produced more instances in slot-filler categories than taxonomic categories, and eight year olds produced more instances in taxonomic categories than slot-filler categories; for five year olds, slot-filler categories led to superior recall and shorter response latencies than did taxonomic categories. (BB)

Describes two studies investigating the development of recursive thinking in 60 Dutch children five, seven, and nine years of age. The first study replicated earlier research employing a verbal production procedure. The second study used verbal comprehension procedures and concluded that development appears two years earlier than indicated by the…

Filmed 30 infants monthly between one and seven months of age where mothers or unfamiliar women responded to their cries by picking up or talking to the infants. Results suggest that infants develop conditioned associations among distress-relief patterns by one month, and cognitive expectations by four or five months. (Author/BB)

Assessed Indian children's perception of control in the cognitive, social, and physical domains of school functioning by using the multidimensional measure of children's perception of control. Data analyses indicated a significant developmental difference in children's perception of the source of control, and this varied with their success or…