A recognition memory experiment with 8-, 11- and 20-year-olds investigated the hypothesis that, with age, semantic encoding becomes increasingly important relative to acoustic encoding. (CM)

Utilizing data from the WISC-R standardization sample, Gutkin presented formulae to calculate factorially pure verbal comprehension, perceptual organization, and freedom from distractibility deviation quotients. Data are presented concerning standard errors of measurement and score discrepancies that are required for statistical significance…

This study investigates age differences in children's semantic expectations regarding causal relations in stories about three realistic goal situations (being friendly, getting a dog, and doing chores). Twenty children at each of three age levels (ages 6, 9, and 12) were asked to produce stories and answer probe questions about wanting and not…

A cued recall procedure was employed to assess the effectiveness of implicit and explicit word prompts for sentence memory in children. The implicit cues were much less effective than the explicit cues for 6-7 year olds while the cue types did not differ for 11-12 year olds. (Author/DEP)

Investigates the development sequence of children's comprehension of riddles. In Study I riddles and jokes were collected and classified from children of grades 1 through 10. In Study II, students of grades 1, 3, 6, 10, and college were given selected riddles from three categories determined in Study I to test the predicted comprehension sequence.…

Two tasks were used to choose between two rival accounts--cognitive vs. pragmatic--of children's failure to comprehend metaphors. A total of 120 children, in three age groups (6, 7, and 9 years) were given either an explication or a multiple choice task to assess comprehension of 15 novel comparisons expressed in five alternative forms varying in…

Studies the development of children's understanding of the multiple determination underlying human behavior. Subjects were kindergarten children, fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders. (CM)

Childrens' understanding of motives for behavior was investigated by showing interpersonal situations on silent films to 6- to 14-year-old children from middle- and working-class backgrounds. (CM)

Swedes in four different age groups (9, 12, 15 and 18 years) judged written words which varied in three dimensions: syntactic category, objective frequency, and polysemy (multiple meaning). The subjects judged ease of comprehension of 24 words in a factorial arrangement. The method used was Thurstone's paired comparisons. A predicted complex…

Reports research which reveals the difficulty children have in understanding (1) the real purpose of written language and (2) the abstract, technical vocabulary of language study and reading. (SW)

The purpose of this research was to determine young children's comprehension of selected TV program content. The subjects were 210 children in grades K-2. All subjects in groups of five, were shown segments from four TV programs: a scalloped potatoes commercial, a "Batman" and Robin episode, a news story on the MIG-25 and a segment of the…

In order to investigate the development of word-formation abilities, 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds were asked to act out with toys, judge, and make up sentences containing instances of class extension. Some sample sentences are "Can you upside-down the clown?" and "Broom the spoon." Children dealt with such sentences in much the same…

This paper describes the process of constructing a measure of a new construct called Parental Awareness. Parental Awareness (PA) can be thought of as an organized knowledge system with which the parent makes sense out of the child's responses and behavior and formulates policies to guide parental action. A clinical method of data collection,…

Research evidence currently indicates that young children's communication skills for both the speaker and the listener roles are often ineffective. The accuracy of children's communication improves gradually over the elementary school years. Current thinking in the area of metacognition may be very useful in understanding the development of…

Comprehension of the quantifiers "some" and "all" was studied with 202 children, three to nine years old. Thirty-two quantifier sentences dealing with descriptions of circles and squares were presented to the children. Wooden objects were presented to some children to see if results were affected by the choice of abstract objects, but no…