Examines the creative writing of 180 elementary school children for gender and age differences. Stories were analyzed for assignment of physical actions and problem-solver roles to characters as well as for story theme. Findings support conclusions that stereotypic attitudes toward sex-roles prevail and are evident in children's stories.…

A study investigated the effect of scholastic level, teacher orientation on a control/autonomy continuum, and pupil gender on 459 elementary school students' intrinsic motivation to engage in school work. Results indicated that teacher orientation toward autonomy enhanced the intrinsic motivation of girls on two of three dimensions, and that of…

Tests two hypotheses concerning developmental change in the speed of cognitive processes: (1) age differences in processing time reflect changes that are specific to particular tasks, and (2) age differences in processing speed do not reflect task-specific change but are due instead to more general developmental change. (HOD)

Measurement of voice onset time productions associated with three bilabial, three alveolar, and two velar stops in 3- to 7-year-olds and adults indicated that, by five years of age, children have acquired all voicing contrasts; however, not all sounds are produced in an adult-like manner. (Author/CB)

Analysis of the use of the connective "but" by 3- to 9-year-olds indicated that all most commonly used the word to signal semantic relationships and for pragmatic functions. Younger children most frequently used "but" when causal or precausal relationships existed, and older children used "but" more to encode complex contrast. (Author/CB)

Younger (6- to 8-year-old) and older (9- to 11-year-old) children took a multiple-choice test that yielded comparable performances at the two age levels. When subjects estimated their overall performance at the end of the entire test, older children were more accurate and less variable than younger children. (Author)

Examined age differences and age changes in leisure involvement within framework of abandoment, liberation, and continuity. Data from the 1982-1983 Nationwide Recreation survey of 6,720 persons revealed that neither abandonment nor liberation perspectives were accurate reflections of what happens with aging. A pattern of continuity occurred more…

Examines alert newborn and five-month-old infants' responsivity to variations in spectral composition of a rattle sound. Head orientation and cardiac responses to sound were recorded. Heart rate change did not vary as a function of frequency at either age, suggesting that all stimuli were equally effective in eliciting the infant's attention.…

Research into return migration of Blacks to four urban communities in North Carolina suggests that differences in motivation existed between older, female and younger, male return migrants. The former returned for personal social reasons mainly, the latter for economic reasons. (RDN)

Provides evidence for the utility of schema-based frameworks which assume that schemas and scripts organize information, aid in comprehension, and guide information retrieval. (FL)

This study examined the effects of pictorial changes on recall of spoken text in a television news broadcast viewed by adolescents and adults. Adult recall of spoken text was impaired by mid-sentence picture editing while adolescents' recall was enhanced so long as accompanying pictures were relevant to verbal text. (MBR)

This study tested 142 youth 12 through 16 years of age with a special percept-genetic creativity test, a creativity-fantasy scale, and a percept-genetic personality test. Creativity was defined as the inclination to transgress the confines of an established perceptual context. Results are discussed and the development of creativity from preschool…

The Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (DIAL) test was used to evaluate 610 children, aged 2-1/2 to 5-1/2. Performance varied by race, sex and age,leading to the conclusion that our understanding of basic characteristics of movement performance in preschool children is far from complete. (Author/MT)

Examines children's posters about alcohol and its effect, to gain insight into children's attitudes and values to alcohol. Results focus upon themes and age and sex differences. Implications for alcohol education programs are given. (Author/BL)

Studies the reliability of eyewitness testimony for shoplifting in terms of age, prior knowledge/expectations, and type of memory test. Fifth graders, college students, and older adults participated in two studies. All subjects had expectations concerning common and unusual aspects of shoplifting. Age differences were greatest for recall…