There is a change in false belief task performance across the 3-5 year age range, as confirmed in a recent meta-analysis [Wellman, H. M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory mind development: The truth about false-belief. "Child Development," 72, 655-684]. This meta-analysis identified several performance factors influencing…

Young children reliably distinguish reality from fantasy; they know that their friends are real and that Batman is not. But it is an open question whether they appreciate, as adults do, that there are multiple fantasy worlds. We test this by asking children and adults about fictional characters' beliefs about other characters who exist either…

The main purposes of the study were to investigate: (a) the development of two at-risk students' selected cognitions and strategies as they initially appeared in Reading Recovery reading and writing; and (b) whether such development was simultaneously evident in Reading Recovery reading and writing. The study employed case methodology. Main…

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is experienced by a significant proportion of youth today, occurring at an earlier age than found in previous generations. Major Depressive Disorder can produce long-lasting detrimental effects on a child's life, which raises the question of etiology. Three areas were examined for evidence identifying specific…

This article examines the process of graphic representational development in paint in the context of the theoretical assumptions of traditional developmental stage theory. Consistent with current theory and research in art education and cognitive psychology, a model of painting development is proposed that is multidimensional rather than unitary,…

Learning of class inclusion by 5-year-olds in response to empirical and logical explanations of an adult's answers was examined. Contrary to the view that young children possess an empirical bias, 5-year-olds learned more, and continued learning for longer, when given logical explanations of correct answers than when given empirical explanations.…

In this article, the authors report on the Operation Houndstooth Intervention Theory (OHIT), which fosters social awareness and utilizes the talents of the gifted to build social capital, that is, a program in which gifted students with high potential use their ability to help others. The six approaches of OHIT are described: (1) The…

Many teachers of higher education wish to provide instruction that supports student learning while not always finding it easy to implement the desire. The model for a unit of instruction described here provides a mental map to overlay decisions about instructional strategies in order to assess the extent to which they align with theories of…

We present the results of multivariate normal mixture modeling of Piagetian data. The sample consists of 101 children, who carried out a (pseudo-)conservation computer task on four occasions. We fitted both cross-sectional mixture models, and longitudinal models based on a Markovian transition model. Piagetian theory of cognitive development…

Participants were interviewed about the biological and psychological functioning of a dead agent. In Experiment 1, even 4- to 6-year-olds stated that biological processes ceased at death, although this trend was more apparent among 6- to 8-year-olds. In Experiment 2, 4- to 12-year-olds were asked about psychological functioning. The youngest…

The authors asked whether there is evidence to support the existence of the vocabulary spurt, an increase in the rate of word learning that is thought to occur during the 2nd year of life. Using longitudinal data from 38 children, they modeled the rate of word learning with two functions, one with an inflection point (logistic), which would…

The current study sought to determine the age at which children first engage in Level 1 visual perspective-taking, in which they understand that the content of what another person sees in a situation may sometimes differ from what they see. An adult entered the room searching for an object. One candidate object was out in the open, whereas another…

"Little by little, the child develops," wrote an undergraduate in a friend's cognitive development class, and so, for the most part, it is. But what explains the U's of cognitive development? Namy, Campbell, and Tomasello and Cashon and Cohen take a standard approach to understanding U-shaped curves: as the product of a mix of different cognitive…

Gerstadt, Hong, and Diamond (1994) investigated the development of inhibitory control in children aged 3 1/2 - 7 years using the day-night task. In two studies we build on Gerstadt et al.'s findings with a measure of inhibitory control that can be used throughout childhood. In Study 1 (twenty-four 3 1/2-year-olds and sixteen 5-year-olds) we…

The neuropsychological bases of cognitive, social, and moral development are minimally understood, with a seemingly wide chasm between developmental theories and brain maturation models. As one approach to bridging ideas in these areas, we review 10 cases of early prefrontal cortex damage from the clinical literature, highlighting overall clinical…