Results indicate that children who witness teachers' appraisal actions interpret some of them differently at different ages. Participants were 136 first through sixth graders who were assessed on measures of perceptions of target children and perceptions of teacher's opinions of target children. (RH)

Outlines some of the errors and biases in thinking that psychologists have documented in recent years, including the eyewitness fallacy, underutilization of statistics, confirmation bias, misperceptions of risk, sample errors and biases, and misunderstanding of regression. Argues that journalism educators need to bring these to the attention of…

The perceptions of parents and teachers of 24 children with learning disabilities regarding their children's or students' locus of control (LC) orientation were compared to the LC orientation held by the children themselves. While no significant differences were found between parents and children, teachers perceived students as more internally…

Teachers were asked whether they gave higher ratings on liking, praising, and helping, and lower ratings on expectancy of success when student failure was attributed to low ability, illness, or low effort. Respondents indicated they would be most willing to help students with low ability, with low expectation of success. (JD)

Examines mock jurors processing testimony under impression-set and memory-set conditions to determine under which condition they rate a witness to be more deceptive. Finds that under impression-set objectives subjects formed stronger judgments of the witness's deceptiveness, while the pattern was reversed under memory-set conditions. (MS)

Mothers and caregivers responded to hypothetical incidents in which a four-year-old child misbehaved. Mothers and caregivers differed in their causal attributions for children's misbehavior and their affective and behavioral responses to children's failures to be altruistic. Assertions of power were likely when respondents believed misbehavior was…

This study of 27 couples with preschool children with disabilities found that mothers who continue over 3-5 years to ask why their child is disabled experience lower levels of well-being and that fathers who do not externalize blame to someone else or to fate experience higher levels of well-being. (Author/JDD)

The immediate verbal imitations (IVIs) of a boy (age five) with autism and echolalia were studied, with variables of linguistic familiarity and instructor's style of directiveness being manipulated. The occurrence of IVIs was related to uncertain or informative events, and was significantly greater when lexical stimuli were unknown and presented…

Learning-disabled and average readers (n=120) from grades four through six completed comprehension questions under one of four treatment conditions. Results indicated that computer-mediated text was no better than off-line conditions in improving learning-disabled readers' comprehension. Attribution and metacognitive sophistication were…

Investigated the causal explanations children use to account for common experiences. In the study, 60 preschoolers watched videotaped puppet shows designed to elicit causal attributions. Most children predominantly used internal, unstable, and specific attributions. (CB)

This study investigated the theories people hold concerning sexual abuse of deaf children, through document review, observation, interviews, and a staff survey at a residential school for the deaf. Theories that blame the victim or the culture are contrasted with those that recognize the power inequities inherent in sexual abuse. (Author/DB)

Explores the influence of attributional style on women's persistence in engineering majors after controlling for academic ability. Female students (n=255) previously or currently enrolled in an engineering program completed measures assessing their attributions for science, mathematics, and engineering academic events, and thoughts of changing…

Observed 18- to 30-month-olds' use of force against peers. Found no sex differences in average aggression levels or in mothers' aggression ratings. Rate of hitting peers and mothers' ratings were stable over 6 months for girls only. Toddlers especially sensitive to peers' possible intentions hit peers more and were more likely than to use force…

Investigates children's development of causal explanations of success and failure. Compares two measures of causal attribution to show that the use of unipolar scales best depicts differences in causal factors used by children. Explores two hypotheses about the impact of normative context on the development of causal differentiation. (DSK)

Discusses the Brain Power Program, an attribution retraining intervention to reduce peer-directed aggression. Results suggest that improvements in behavior are related to changes in subjects' attributions. Intervention effects are moderate to strong for many students but not evident at all for some students. Treatment effects diminished over time.…