Describes a methodology of behavior genetics in the context of twin and sibling/adoption design. This model was applied to cross-sectional data on cognitive development throughout the lifespan. Results from a twin and adoption study of general intelligence are presented to illustrate the use of the basic behavior genetic model in studying causes…

Focuses on the impact of severe visual impairment on the development of play skills that facilitate concept development and discusses interventions that can enhance play experiences for infants and young children with severe visual impairments. Strategies encourage intrinsic motivation, spontaneity, active engagement, positive effect,…

Asserts that this book, drawn from a 1993 conference on memory development, accurately reflects the contemporary status of the field in two ways: (1) its research is matured and specialized; and (2) there are no major theoretical disputes, nor a widely shared new approach, although using microgenetic designs to study cognitive strategy choice…

Pointing and gestures in 47 infants was investigated in 2 experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication, and another study of 7 infants examined prepointing transitional phenomena. Results show gestures are produced differently in experimental conditions: reaching is only produced in…

Investigated the proposition that two distinct factors involved in life span cognitive development are mental speed and coordination efficiency. Results show dissociable speed of processing and working memory functioning over the life span and age-related differential effects of coordinative demands. (ET)

Discusses creativity, play, and nonconformity in children, including the illusion of thought disorder or abnormality, and aspects of everyday creativity, health, and survival. Describes creative divergence, chaotic amplification, the evolution of information, and primitive cognitive processes. Concludes with a discussion of cognitive styles,…

Examined whether young children can identify breaches of a permission rule and their sensitivity to the implications of such rules. Found that preschool children show considerable facility in reasoning about permission rules and can justify their choices. Results suggest that, when children violate a permission rule, they do so knowingly. (MOK)

Asserts the rationale for personal development work in counselor training stems directly from Rogers' claim of a selective constructive tendency. The basis for this belief and its implementation in experiential learning shows a number of paradoxes, however. As a result, this article states the Rogerian rationale for personal development work is…

Cognitive and family data on 82 children with developmental delays were collected in an eight-year longitudinal study. Examination of change scores (at ages 3, 6, and 11) identified increasing, stable, and decreasing patterns of change. There were significant correlations between change in intelligence quotient, entering developmental quotient,…

Archaeology and cultural anthropology show that humans developed many discrete skills (social, technological, natural history, and language intelligence) over the past million years, but only recently have combined these into "broad" intelligence. Understanding learning is a key issue. Metacognition, the ability to consider one's…

Results of 3 sentence-interpretation experiments involving 180 preschoolers suggest that very little explicit syntactic knowledge is needed to give children some structural clues to verb meaning. Sentence structure appears to have a meaning of its own that can be applied by analogy to the child's conceptual representation. (SLD)

Explores developing a concept image of functions. Includes assessment items, describes students' responses to these items, and interprets those responses. (KHR)

Links between theory of mind and episodic memory involving autonoetic consciousness were investigated in Japanese 4- to 6-year-olds. After age was controlled for, most theory of mind abilities showed no interrelations. Own and others' belief understandings on deceptive appearance tasks were solely related to source memory. Results suggest that…

Argues that effective moral education must address roadblocks in moral thinking, not merely urging moral development forward. Examines Lawrence Kohlberg's moral stages as immoral judgement marked by bias and manipulation. Views the Defining Issues Test (DIT) as a useful glimpse into the nefarious, focused on ideological content and commitment.…

Two studies examined whether preschoolers use whole-part juxtaposition to accurately interpret novel part terms. Results confirmed that children do use juxtaposition to guide learning of novel part terms and that such use was not due to memory effects nor to recognition of the grammatical frame accompanying juxtaposition. Children readily used…