Many studies have found that males, on average, perform better than females in mathematics, although the size of this gender gap is small and varies considerably across countries. Stereotype threat has been proposed as a principal cause of this gender gap. From this perspective, females' performance is affected by fear of confirming a negative…

Decision-making impairments during emerging adulthood confer risk for challenges in social and occupational roles and may increase the odds of developing health problems. Childhood maltreatment is related to maladaptation in cognitive and affective domains (e.g., executive functioning, emotion regulation) implicated in the development of…

This research examined a cultural socialization model in which differences in Chinese and American parents' goals for children foster differences in children's emotional distress via parents' responses to children's performance. Chinese and American mothers and their children (N = 397; M[subscript age] = 13.19 years) participated in a 2-wave study…

In a predominantly low-income, population-based longitudinal sample of 1,259 children followed from birth, results suggest that chronic exposure to poverty and the strains of financial hardship were each uniquely predictive of young children's performance on measures of executive functioning. Results suggest that temperament-based vulnerability…

Although Eriksonian theory suggests that adolescents' sense of fidelity is a key component of healthy development, research on this psychosocial construct has been limited. The current study developed an index of youth fidelity, examined the developmental course of this construct, explored the influence of contextual factors on different fidelity…

These experiments explored the role of prior experience in 12- to 18-month-old infants' tool-directed actions. In Experiment 1, infants' use of a familiar tool (spoon) to accomplish a novel task (turning on lights inside a box) was examined. Infants tended to grasp the spoon by its handle even when doing so made solving the task impossible (the…

Two experiments replicated Flavell et al.'s (1978) finding that 2.5-year-olds can hide an object behind a screen but cannot achieve the same result placing the screen in front. Move-screen performance related to judgment of what a person in a picture was looking at. Move-object task remained easier than the move-screen task even with an…

Two experiments used error-detection to determine the reason for 3-year olds' perseverative errors on the postswitch phase of the Dimensional Change Card Sort. Results implied that perseveration cannot be attributed to difficulty inhibiting prepotent motor responses, but that changes in rule use between 3 and 5 years are more likely to increase…

Examined effect of suggestive questions on 3- to 5-year-olds' and 6- to 8-year-olds' recall of the final occurrence of repeated event. Found that relative to reports of children experiencing single occurrence, reports about fixed items of repeated events were less contaminated by false suggestions. Children's age and delay of interview were…

Three experiments examined effects of age and task interruption on children's prospective memory (PM), remembering to carry out a future task. Age explained a small portion of variance in performance. Children who did not have to interrupt their ongoing activity to complete the PM tasks performed significantly better than children who had to…

Investigated in three studies were responses of 18- and 24-month-old children to a series of commands. Results suggest that a potent incentive for obeying commands lies in the pleasure very young children take in fitting their actions to the words of others. This pleasure sustains subsequent reenactment of the actions without commands. (Author/RH)

Kim (1985) found that both English-speaking and Korean-speaking children find true negative sentences more difficult to verify than false negative sentences. A closer examination of the findings reveals that the difficulty is greater among Korean-speaking children. (Author/RH)

Replies to Akiyama's critique, pointing out areas of agreement between the Kim and Akiyama studies and areas of disagreement. Concludes that, contrary to Akiyama's argument, the Kim (1985) data would not directly challenge the cognition primacy hypothesis in any serious manner. (RH)

Data provides evidence that the inconsistent reinforcement histories of lower socioeconomic children contribute to their typical ineffectual performance. (Author/WY)

A total of 45 3-month-olds were observed for stability in forming visual expectations. Findings indicate that infant performance in the Visual Expectation Paradigm is reliable as early as 3 months. Individual differences exist in infants' tendency to form visual expectations. (RH)