Describes observer-based technique for assessing auditory capacities of infants from three to 12 months of age. This technique, referred to as the Observation-based Psychoacoustic Procedure (OPP), combines features of the Forced-choice Preferential Looking Technique and of the Visual Reinforcement Audiometry. Pure-tone detection and frequency…

Study looks at pigtailed macaque in the context of visual recognition problems adapted from a standardized test developed for use with human infants. Results demonstrate that the low-risk group easily differentiated novel from previously seen targets; the high-risk group gave no evidence of recognition. (Author/RWB)

Investigates the underlying reasons for the fundamental shift in Benjamin Franklin's portrayals of the British colonies in America. Explores the hypothesis that "Magna Britannia" was both a deliberative work directed toward the British Parliament and an apologetic work directed toward conservatives in the colonial public. Also discusses…

Examines whether young children, aged four to nine years old, are satisfied with their own method of drawing a familiar object, or whether they would ideally like to draw in a more advanced way but are hampered by production differences from achieving this aim. (HOD)

Examines how certain human brow and mouth gestures influence the attributions of social dominance made by children. Hypothesizes that stimulus photographs depicting adults with lowered-brow expressions or without smiles appear to be more dominant relative to photographs showing adults with raised-brow expressions or with smiles, respectively. (HOD)

Studies the ability of 5-month-old infants to recall temporal information and use temporal organization by training them to fixate a hierarchically structured or unstructured sequence of stimuli which appeared in four spatial positions. Results are interpreted within a temporal organizational framework; infants appear to use organization within…

Focusing on the brain's natural functions, this article discusses specific teacher characteristics, teaching methods, and peripheral stimuli helping to activate appropriate learning behavior. Also identifies particular events and teacher behaviors that block learning and frustrate the brain's efforts to harmonize conflicts and admit new…

Examines whether kindergarteners, second-graders, fourth-graders, and adults can extract relative weight information from observing collisions and lifting events, and if they can judge whether or not collisions are momentum-conserving. Subjects saw either videotapes of events or sequences of static images; younger children appeared to be…

Investigated the differential effect of two kinds of behavior simulation (role-playing) interventions: spontaneous and mimetic-pretend, on the readiness and the responsibility attributions associated with delivering electric shocks to others (N=25). Results showed that the spontaneous subjects were more ego-oriented and inhibited in administering…

Verbal contextual information affected photography and nonphotography students' performance on semantic retention tests. For example, correct titles aided the formation and retention of accurate memories, while erroneous titles misled students into remembering meanings that had relatively little to do with what was actually pictured in the…

Children (n=36), originally tested for visual novelty preferences at age seven months and intelligence estimates at age three, were tested for intellectual functioning and for visual recognition performance at age five. Results indicate that novelty preferences were more highly related to later intelligence quotients than to later recognition…

Infant novelty scores correlated significantly with measures of cognitive outcome beginning at 24 months of age and continuing at 34, 40, and 72 months of age. Parental education was strongly correlated with cognitive outcome beginning at about two years of age. (RH)

In a study of elementary children required to read factual or fictitious passages with or without relevant pictures, recall performance revealed a pictorial facilitation effect which differed according to passage type. Pictures with story passages enhanced recall of illustrated text while pictures with factual passages enhanced illustrated and…

Argues that the real problem in English education has nothing to do with its definitional scheme; instead the crisis is how to discriminate among practices that may be offered in the name of such a scheme. (HOD)

To examine changes in phonetic coding two age groups of 40 preschoolers were shown rhyming and nonrhyming letter sets. Recall was measured by oral free recall (testing item memory) and serial reconstruction (testing order memory). A large phonetic similarity effect was present in both groups with no developmental changes in the effect magnitude.…