The current study examined color constancy in infants using a familiarization paradigm. We first obtained isoluminance in each infant as defined by the minimum motion paradigm and used these data to control the luminance of stimuli in the main experiments. In the familiarization phase of the main experiment, two identical smiling face patterns…

Preschoolers persistently predict that they will perform better than they actually can perform on a picture recall task. The current investigation sought to explore a condition under which young children might be able to improve their predictive accuracy. Namely, children were asked to predict their recall twice for the same set of items.…

The objective of this study was to examine why rapid automatized naming (RAN) is related to reading by manipulating processes involved at the input, processing, and output stages of its production. In total, 65 children in Grade 2 and 65 in Grade 6 were assessed on serial and discrete RAN (Digits and Objects), Cancellation, RAN Yes/No, and oral…

Infants and young children often perseverate despite apparent knowledge of the correct response. Two Experiments addressed questions concerning the status of such knowledge in the context of a card-sorting task. In Experiment 1, three groups of 3-year-olds sorted bivalent cards one way and then were instructed to switch and sort the same cards…

This study examined whether 3- to 7-year-old African American and European American children's assessment of emotion in face-only, face + body, and body-only photographic stimuli was affected by in-group emotion recognition effects and racial or gender stereotyping of emotion. Evidence for racial in-group effects was found, with European American…

This study set out to investigate developmental differences in the ability to switch between choice tasks and to shift between Go/NoGo and choice tasks. Three age groups (7-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and young adults) were asked to consider the shape or color of a bivalued target stimulus. The participants performed a switch task in which a cue…

In three experiments, we investigated the role of automatic and controlled inhibitory retrieval processes in true and false memory development in children and adults. Experiment 1 incorporated a directed forgetting task to examine controlled retrieval inhibition. Experiments 2 and 3 used a part-set cue and retrieval practice task to examine…

In the Dimension Change Card Sort (DCCS) task, 3-year-olds can sort cards well by one dimension but have difficulty in switching to sort the same cards by another dimension when asked; that is, they perseverate on the first relevant information. What is the information that children perseverate on? Using a new version of the DCCS, the experiments…

Although the consolidation of several memory systems is enhanced by sleep in adults, recent studies suggest that sleep supports declarative memory but not procedural memory in children. In the current study, the influence of sleep on emotional declarative memory (recognition task) and procedural memory (mirror tracing task) in 20 healthy children…

Findings concerning the relation between dyslexia and speech perception deficits are inconsistent in the literature. This study examined the relation in Chinese children using a more homogeneous sample--children with phonological dyslexia. Two experimental tasks were administered to a group of Chinese children with phonological dyslexia, a group…

Performance of reaction time (RT) tasks was investigated in young children and adults to test the hypothesis that age-related differences in processing speed supersede a "global" mechanism and are a function of specific differences in task demands and processing requirements. The sample consisted of 54 4-year-olds, 53 5-year-olds, 59…

Children's recognition of familiar own-age peers was investigated. Chinese children (4-, 8-, and 14-year-olds) were asked to identify their classmates from photographs showing the entire face, the internal facial features only, the external facial features only, or the eyes, nose, or mouth only. Participants from all age groups were familiar with…

Tactile perception depends on the contributions of four psychophysical tactile channels mediated by four corresponding receptor systems. The sensitivity of the tactile channels is determined by detection thresholds that vary as a function of the stimulus frequency. It has been widely reported that tactile thresholds increase (i.e., sensitivity…

Recent studies have supported the intriguing hypothesis that highly reactive infants are most susceptible to the effect of parenting. This study replicates and extends an earlier study on 4-year-olds concerning higher susceptibility of more fearful children to the quality of their relationships with their mothers, as shown by their physiological…