Effects of an advance organizer lesson (containing high-order science concepts relating to the law of capillary attraction, and an elementary problem-solving strategy for determining causal relations) were evaluated for a sample of 80 urban 6- and 10-year-old children. Significant sequential transfer effects were established from the lesson.…

In an investigation of children's spatial knowledge of a large-scale environment, forty-eight 3- to 6-year-old children (an approximately equal number of boys and girls of each age) were taken through an environment by a specified route. Once the route and landmarks along the route were learned, children were tested on their ability to (1) travel…

Sixty-two white middle class subjects forming two age groups (6 and 11 years) were given information about hypothetical peers who were described as hitting the subject child. Children indicated how much they thought the peer should be punished (spanked). Older subjects put more emphasis on situational or personal information about the peer…

This study attempted to assess how very young children respond to discrepant social communications. Forty children, ages 12 to 42 months, with their mothers were exposed to four trial situations: two discrepant, two nondiscrepant communication episodes. Two observers recorded each child's movement and behavior. Results indicated a significant…

Clinical depression is on the increase in adolescence and young adulthood. Reasons for this are: (1) an increase in the number of people in this age group; and (2) the sheer number of people which creates stress. The author speculates whether reactive depression in youth will lead to more depression in adulthood. (Author/EJT)

Persons from high-ranked colleges are found to be consistently more liberal than those from low and unranked institutions. Most variance in attitudes by education lies between three major educational strata rather than within college educated group. (Author/AM)

Kindergarten and first grade children participated in a training program designed to facilitate moral development. Stories that stimulated discussion of solutions to moral issues were read to children in the treatment group. Children in the treatment group, compared to controls, improved significantly in three of four specific areas tested.…

Eleven to fourteen year olds judged the size of eight angles. Subjects were grouped according to reading ability and their nonverbal intelligence was measured. Significant differences in performance were found in relation to age and ability variables, and between the angle-size ranges of 0 to 90 degrees and 90 to 180 degrees. (Author/RD)

The author reviews the advantages and disadvantages of homework in secondary schools. He argues for a policy of clear assignments geared to the developmental levels of the students: brief, structured tasks for younger students moving toward self-directed projects in the higher grades. (SJL)

In both cued and noncued conditions, young adult and middle aged females were presented with immediate and delayed free recall tasks using historical prose passages. Results indicated there were no significant age differences and that having lived through an era helped slightly recall of that era's events. (Author/RD)

Four groups of 10- to 16-year-old educable mental retardates listened to a 20-sentence story; subjects (1) viewed pictures; (2) generated mental pictures; (3) heard each sentence twice; or (4) listened to the story once. Recall of story information was highest for those who viewed pictures. (Author/GDC)

Investigates the relationship between memory for prose and the structural characteristics of the semantic representation proposed by Kintsch. Results extend the generality of Kintsch's model across a wide range of ages, and indicate that a proposition is more likely to be recalled when its superordinate is also recalled. (EJS)

An incidental memory paradigm was used to study involuntary encoding processes and voluntary retrieval strategies in children's memory. Subjects were 16 preschool children and 16 kindergarten children. (Author/MP)

The purpose of this questionnaire survey of more than 1500 Soviet adolescents, aged 14 to 20, was to clarify the important and meaningful criteria for teenage friendships and to describe actual forms and psychosocial functions of these friendships. Results suggest adolescent friendship is not losing its significance or its exclusiveness. (Author)