Three experiments tested 3- and 4-year-olds' use of abstract principles to classify and label objects by shape or function. Findings indicated that 4-year-olds readily adopted either rule when instructed to match objects by shape or function, but 3-year-olds followed only the shape rule. Without a rule, 4-year-olds tended to match by shape unless…

Investigated: (1) influence of maternal context on frequency and types of conflicts of sibling dyads in middle childhood, and (2) the stability of maternal and sibling interaction over 4 years. Found that maternal presence depressed conflict frequency and aggression. Earlier patterns of family interaction were related to later indices of sibling…

Examines ways in which the North American experience has influenced youth mentoring programs in the United Kingdom and focuses on the theoretical assumptions about young people which have underpinned mentoring interventions. Suggests that alternative theoretical frameworks which address the complexity and multiplicity of youth transitions hold…

Notes that when making requests, speakers often pursue an influence goal and a secondary goal. Examines whether effects of situation features on the importance of secondary goals depend on the kind of request being made. Finds the effect of situation features on the importance of secondary goals often depends on request type. Suggests implications…

Tracks the language preferences of three French/English bilingual children, twin girls aged 13 and a boy aged 15, over a 72-month period. Using weekly tape recorded conversations of family dinnertime conversations both in the children's Louisiana home, and a summer residence in French-speaking Quebec, the bilingual authors--who are also the…

Using Erikson's theories on identity development as a framework, this paper examines the motives for and contexts of suicide among preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults, identifies specific school-age populations that are vulnerable to suicide, and discusses implications. (Contains 45 references.) (GCP)

Mezirow's theory of transformational learning--extraction of meaning from experience--fails to account for context. Locating perspective transformation in the individual and basing it on a decontextualized concept of rationality ignores the relationship between individuals and the sociocultural, political, and historical contexts in which they are…

Findings indicated that: (1) 10- and 13-year-olds had difficulty accepting contrary-to-fact premises as a basis for reasoning; (2) 15- and 18-year-olds found reasoning correctly more difficult with contrary-to-fact premises; and (3) among 5- and 7-year-olds, a fantasy context decreased the extent to which empirical knowledge interfered with…

Results of three studies suggested that children's play was mediated by their age, playmates' sex, and play props. Children's behavior seemed to change with age and with the children's consideration of the sex-role appropriateness of interacting in particular play areas and with particular peers. (RH)

Argues that the world view of contemporary behavior analysis, especially behavior analysis of child development, is contextualistic, not mechanistic. The history of behavior analysis is presented in a revised account that focuses on philosophic movements. Contextualism of behavior analysis is contrasted with mechanism with respect to five core…

Observed mothers playing with their 40-month-old children and eliciting their children's memories of shared experiences. Cluster analysis found two distinct maternal interaction styles in each of these contexts. Individual mothers' styles varied across the contexts, suggesting that infant-mother dyads must be observed in multiple contexts to…

Children and adults were tested on their beliefs about whether visual processes involved intromissions (visual input) or extramissions (visual output) across a variety of situations. Results were inconsistent with the idea that simple experiences increase or reinforce a coherent theory of vision and have implications for understanding the nature…

Two experiments involving 65 college students support the hypothesis that, when students read about a familiar topic, they use a reinstatement-and-integration strategy in which familiar knowledge is retrieved from long-term memory along with some information about the original context in which facts were learned. (SLD)

Supports the hypothesis that literal and metaphorical interpretations can result from similar contextual constraints. Finds that a metaphorical interpretation may be selected because a literal interpretation would have been inappropriate and that likewise a literal interpretation may be selected because a metaphorical interpretation would have…

Children ages five, seven, and nine years named objects with multiple names in a neutral context and in a biased context. Children selected names in accord with nonlinguistic constraints, but at the cost of longer naming times. Both name selection success and associated cost were more evident in older children than in younger children. (TJQ)