Examined changes from age 7 to 82 years in processes responsible for preparation and interference control underlying alternation between two tasks. Found a U-shaped function for switch costs, with larger costs for young children and older adults. Age-related variance in task-switching performance was partially independent from age-related variance…

Tested in two studies 4- to 7-year-olds' face recognition by manipulating the faces' configural and featural information. Found that even with only a single 5-second exposure, most children could use configural and featural cues to make identity judgments. Repeated exposure and feedback improved others' performance. Even proficient memories were…

Investigated 4-month-olds' responsiveness to others' affective expressions in the context of a peekaboo game. Found differential patterns of visual attention and affective responsiveness to happiness/surprise, anger, fear, and sadness. Findings underscore importance of contextual information for facilitating recognition of emotion expressions and…

Highlights connections between recent findings in brain research and principles of Developmentally Appropriate Practices, discussing implications for early childhood education practice. Explores the similarities between brain research findings and a constructivist approach in which environments are designed to gain the learner's attention, foster…

When and in what ways do infants recognize humans as intentional actors? An important aspect of this larger question concerns when infants recognize specific human actions (e.g. a reach) as object-directed (i.e. as acting toward goal-objects). In two studies using a visual habituation technique, 12-month-old infants were tested to assess their…

'Intelligence' has long been a problematic concept for educational policy-makers. Sociologists of education concerned to explain social inequalities in educational attainment have suggested that, despite the through-going criticism of the classical IQ concept, teachers continue to maintain practices which ensure that their taken-for-granted ideas…

Complex complements are clausal objects containing tensed verbs (e.g., that she cried) or infinitives (e.g., to cry), following main verbs of communication or mental activities (e.g., say, want). This research examined whether English- and Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds' complement understanding uniquely predicts their representation of other…

This study examined the extent to which continuities and discontinuities in cognitive performance between ages 5 and 10 predicted adult income, educational success, household worklessness, criminality, teen parenthood, smoking, and depression. Assessed were the degree of this change during middle childhood, the influence of socioeconomic status…

This article reports two studies on teacher confirmation. The first examined (1) students' feelings of confirmation or disconfirmation as a function of perceived teacher behaviors, and (2) whether teacher confirmation behaviors occur in hierarchically arranged clusters. Sixty-one percent of the variance in students' feelings of confirmation was…

This chapter describes a model for continuous development of adaptive expertise, including growth along the dimensions of innovation and knowledge, examined in the context of a biotransport course in biomedical engineering. Students improved on both knowledge and innovation, moving along a continuum toward adaptive expertise. (Contains 5 figures.)

Charles Lockett is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at James Madison University, where he teaches developmental psychology as well as advanced topic courses in cultural psychology and the psychology of race and racism. A graduate of Howard University, Lockett credits Howard's Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship Program for his…

This article describes how children build increasingly abstract knowledge of linear measurement, emphasizing ways they relate space and number. Assessments indicate children struggle to understand measurement, especially concepts related to complex paths as in perimeter tasks. This article draws on developmental accounts of children's knowledge of…

In this chapter, we argue that deeper insight into the social nature of self-development can be gained by adopting a dual focus on social relationships and meaning making. A key challenge for future scholarship will be to investigate the role of semiotic mediation in self-construction during the early years of life.

In this article, the authors discuss the important role of dramatic ("pretend") play in early childhood with increasing emphasis at school on developing academic skills in children at younger and younger ages. Play is especially beneficial to children's learning when it reaches a certain degree of sophistication. In other words, "unproductive"…

Neuroscience and developmental psychology can give useful insight into adolescent behavior that is believed to be the result of the interplay between body chemistry, brain development and cognitive growth. The new findings offer guidance to educators on how to channel adolescent energy into healthy directions.