Cultural background can influence cognition, including executive functions (EFs), abilities that encompass skills responsible for self-regulation of thoughts and behavior. The seminal unity and diversity model of EFs proposes the existence, in adulthood, of at least three correlated but separable EF latent (shared variance in more than one…

An important issue regarding developmental changes in cue weighting is whether children weight the dynamic cue of vowel formant transitions relatively more than do adults, whereas adults depend more on the static cue of the fricative noise level. We investigated this issue in Brazilian Portuguese. Additionally, we inserted the segment to be…

This study aims to analyse the reasoning that children and adults with the same school level use to assess and justify the fairness of games, considering aspects of probability such as randomness, sample space, and comparison of probabilities. Data collection included a Piagetian clinical interview based on games of chance. The results showed that…

This study investigated children and adolescents' school performance over time focusing on two variables that may influence it: developmental context and gender. The sample comprised 627 participants (M[subscript age]?=?11.13, SD?=?1.8), 51% of them female, from grade one to eight, living either with family (n?=?474) or in care institutions…

Aim: To investigate the relation between head growth at different periods and IQ at 8 years, and to identify factors associated with more rapid head growth. Method: Two parallel cohorts of term low birthweight (LBW) and appropriate birthweight (ABW) infants were enrolled at birth in northeast Brazil. Anthropometric measurements were made at birth,…

This study used the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) with the aim of characterizing motor acquisition rate in 70 healthy 0-6-month-old Brazilian infants, as well as comparing both emergence (initial age) and establishment (final age) of each skill between the study sample and the AIMS normative data. New motor skills were continuously acquired…

Early morning school schedules are in the opposite direction to the sleep-wake cycle in adolescence and early adulthood. This conflict leads to sleep deprivation and irregular patterns whose consequences are scarcely explored. This article discusses the effects of three educational experiences with high school students, parents, teachers, and…

The Speech Fluency Profile of fluent adolescent speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, were examined with respect to gender and neurolinguistic variations. Speech samples of 130 male and female adolescents, aged between 12;0 and 17;11 years were gathered. They were analysed according to type of speech disruption; speech rate; and frequency of speech…

Male freshmen (n=268) in Brazil responded to a questionnaire concerning aspects of their sexuality from the onset of adolescence, including physical changes and attitudes. The quality of the relationship established with parents and the possibilities for dialogue about sex in the family circle were also surveyed. (JPS)

Focuses on an area within pragmatics, that of speech acts, considers the underlying performance of such speech acts, and looks at the effects of explicit instruction in this area. The article makes distinctions in the description of speech acts, such as between sociocultural and sociolinguistic ability. (47 references) (Author/CK)

Shows how, among the cultures of the indigenous peoples of tropical South America, the human body offers a language and mechanism central to the process of production, elaboration, and transmission, of knowledge, skills, and emotions. Discusses recent anthropological debates and describes a new discipline known as "anthropology of the…

Thirty-six children (half 6-8 years old and half 10-12) in Northeast Brazil heard three hypothetical dilemmas featuring a choice between telling the truth and keeping a promise. Each dilemma was initiated by a different kind of lie: an exculpable pro-social lie (teasing), a lie in the personal domain (hiding) and a lie in the service of an…

A study evaluated the world view of children from a third world low-income family setting. A secondary aim of the study was to see if the developmental stages of world concept formation, first described by Piaget in 1929, were present in the children studied. Ten 5- to 12-year-old Brazilian children were interviewed concerning the origins of the…

The education system is a failure and must be reexamined. Student teacher relationships and teaching methods must change. In the future, instead of learning by rote, students will have recourse to data banks to obtain the materials to be used as content for the exercise of what Piaget calls operativity. (RM)

This document contains the second volume of the proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Conference presentations are centered around the theme "Mathematics at the Centre." This volume features 60 research reports by presenters with last names beginning between Abr…