Two experiments investigated developmental aspects of the two components of scientific reasoning: induction and deduction. In the first experiment, 98 subjects, ages 5 through 11, inductively identified four silhouetted pictures by removing, one at a time and in any sequence, as few covering pieces as possible. Results indicated that: (a) the…

To determine short-run effects of experimentally imposed leadership roles, a sample of 221 Boy Scouts (aged 10 to 17) was formed into (usually) 4-man teams that competed in 3 skill games. One member of each team was randomly designated as captain, with power to administer and reward. Captains who were leaders in their troops responded to becoming…

The purpose of this study is to test the commonly held assumption that younger children are superior to those who are older in learning to speak a second language with a good accent. Students from the elementary, junior high, and college levels are tested after receiving identical instruction in German phonemes. Post-test results indicate that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of CEMREL's Language and Thinking: New Directions Program, a broadly based early learning program in the teaching of basic language and reasoning skills. The program is a hierarchical skills oriented approach which provides a broadly based set of guidelines for teachers; a wide array…

This study was designed to investigate the effects of modeling or training with and without rule provision on the employment of strategies in solving four-dimensional, discrimination-learning problems. Subjects were 144 second and sixth-grade children from the New York City Public Schools. The blank-trial hypothesis testing paradigm was used. The…

Data collected via a Wisconsin statewide survey of randomly selected adults (N=548) were used to test the hypothesis that size of place is inversely related to community attachment in an ideational sense and that size of place has no clear association with participatory measures of attachment (i.e., contrary to the "linear development"…

This study investigated some of the attitudinal and behavioral components of racial prejudice in elementary school children. It also assessed the effectiveness of various modification procedures upon children's racial attitudes and inter-group behavior at different age levels. A four-stage research design was used. The pre-test stage involved…

This study attempts to determine if individual differences in multitask performance are due in part to the cognitive competence (i.e., the consistent, rule-based strategy) the subject brings to the task. A battery of learning (discrimination shift, transposition, incidental learning and paired-associate learning), cognitive-developmental…

This research describes the attempts of 24 male and 24 female Kikuyu children (aged 2-9 years) to persuade other Kikuyu children and adults to comply to their demands. Examined was the sequence of behaviors beginning when a child encountered a noncompliant response from a target, and continuing until the child either gained compliance or gave up…

This report provides data from a larger study investigating consumer socialization of children which focused on the processes by which children acquire knowledge skills and attitudes related to consumer behavior. The research has utilized two theoretical perspectives: cognitive development and information processing theories. The data reported are…

Two studies are reported: one examines stereotypes about only children and the other examines stereotypes about mothers of only children. A sample of 150 college students were the subjects for the first study which utilized the Prisoner's Dilemma Game, the NASA exercise, and a questionnaire to test the hypotheses that only children are selfish,…

This review and critique examines cognitive developmental theory and research concerning the development of gender knowledge, and social learning theory and research concerning the development of sex-role stereotypes. A preliminary integrated model of the development of gender knowledge and sex-role stereotypes in young children is presented.…

Discusses nominal-pronominal reduplication (NPR) in the language of children ages seven and nine in four situations. Younger children produced more NPR; all children produced little NPR talking to their peers and increasing amounts talking to adults. Examples are given and analyzed. (EJS)

Examined with 254 children (grade 1 through grade 8) and 13 teachers in a rural Maine elementary school were the relationships between teachers' ratings of children's behavior on the Behavior Problem Checklist and children's self-reported personality source traits on age-appropriate Personality Questionnaires. (Author/IM)

This study compared the effects of two types of incidental learning paradigms and examined the influence of different kinds of stimulus relationships on first and sixth graders' selective learning processes. (GO)