Four studies determined when first, second, and third graders recognize that they make inferences to understand text, and the effect of this recognition on their ability to revise text and monitor its informativeness. Younger children tended to attribute inferred information to the text, while older children clearly distinguished inferred and…

Investigated graduate students' (n=291) perceptions of graduate student role and how they perceive faculty to define that role; traditional- and nontraditional-aged masters students' definitions of graduate student role; and differences in perceptions based on respondents' sex, age, and Holland type. Results suggest that traditional- and…

White college students (n=234) completed White Racial Identity Attitude Scale and New Racism Scale. Found white racial identity attitudes predictive of racism. Found age and gender differences in white racial identity attitudes. Men had higher levels of Disintegration and Reintegration attitudes than women, whereas women had higher levels of…

Conducted meta-analysis of studies concerning social skills of children with learning disabled (LD). Children with LD were less liked and more likely to be rejected than normal achieving children. Children with LD were more likely to be rated as aggressive, immature, suffering personality problems, and having difficulty attending. Variations were…

A study of simple reaction time (SRT) and choice reaction time (CRT) in 71 Chicano adolescents suggests that Hick's model is appropriate for studying cognitive information processing in Chicanos. No age or sex differences were found for SRT or CRT, although there were some differences in SRT by family income level. (KS)

Ten learning-disabled adolescents (LDs) performed a reading comprehension task below the level of same-age nondisabled students (NLDs) but at the same level as younger NLDs (YNDs). On a measure of incipient awareness of theme, LDs scored below YNDs. Why LDs have difficulty getting the point is discussed. (SLD)

Presents findings concerning conflict management and coping behavior of homeless adolescents. Interviews with 176 families (mother-adolescent dyads) indicate peer conflict was the worst problem of the previous month. Homeless adolescents demonstrated conflict management and coping patterns differing in certain aspects from that described in the…

Three to five-year-olds' visual discrimination and phonetic sound awareness were assessed, their knowledge about storybook reading and writing was investigated, and their play with blocks was observed. Found that children's reading and writing behaviors advanced with age, and that children at different reading and writing levels showed different…

Recent work on memory independence and memory interference in cognitive development has been conducted under fuzzy trace theory. Both memory-to-reasoning and reasoning-to-memory interferences were detected in 3 studies of inferences from stories by 94 4- and 5-year olds and 94 7- and 8-year olds. (SLD)

Examined the effects of narrative statements used to evoke imaginal elaborations on children's recall. Found that children generated images that involved multiple referents and that children's memory performance was facilitated when their imaginal constructions were based on material created by themselves rather than on descriptions provided by…

Self-reports of 250 persons over age 50 confirmed increasing bias toward reporting more youthful age as one ages. Optimistic perceptions of health were maintained in older subjects. Results from two subsets of sample (n=48) indicated that youthful and optimistic bias occurred both in older persons with poorer/failing health and in persons in…

Assessed continuity and change at multiple levels of adolescent friendship networks over the school year. Continuity and change were characterized for individuals' friendships, friendship groups, network type, and the school network as a whole, covering both subjective and consensus-based networks. Found moderate stability and continuity at all…

Development of the concept of division was studied in two experiments involving a total of 124 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old students in England. Partitive tasks, more similar to sharing, were easier than quotitive tasks, suggesting that children's initial understanding of division might be based on the action schema of sharing. (SLD)

Data on the placement of over 3,389 English and Welsh children with Down syndrome (born between 1980 and 1992) were collected over the 12-year period studied. Analysis showed an increase in the proportion of children attending mainstream schools and a disproportionate number of boys in special schools. (Author/CR)

Reviews literature on human fetal behavior. Includes descriptions of coupling of body movements and fetal heart rate and behavior maturation from conception to term. Discusses use of stimulus-induced behavior to examine sensory and cognitive development, and spontaneous and stimulus-induced behavior to assess fetal well-being. Notes research focus…