Considers the work of developmental scholar William Kessen (1925-1999) in light of James Mark Baldwin, one of the founders and principal architects of developmental psychology. Traces Kessen's interest in Baldwin's thought and examines Baldwin's legacy for developmental psychologists. Asserts that Baldwin's theory sought to integrate the role of…

To assess children's understanding of intentions as distinct from desires, this study presented 3- to 7-year-olds and adults with situations in which intentions were satisfied but desires were not, or vice versa, in a story-comprehension task and target-hitting game. Findings indicated that younger children were unable to differentiate desires and…

This study investigated whether attention to either physical or social entities is linked to autistic development. Comparison of 15 children with autism with normally developing children matched for mental age found a strong correlation between joint attention and set-shifting in typically developing children but not those with autism. (Contains…

Explores the influence of student development and year-in-program on the improvement of affective/trait-based empathy and cognitive/skill-based empathy. Results revealed mixed findings on the relationship between cognitive development and empathy levels. (Contains 40 references.) (GCP)

Studied gender effects on false belief development among children ages 2 to 6 years. Found a slight advantage for girls on false belief task performance in both datasets that was apparent in younger but not older children. Language ability could be controlled only in a small subsample and cannot be ruled out as a mediator to this effect. (JPB)

Children (2;10 to 4;7 years) taught passive sentences with forms employing animate patients could produce and comprehend passives better than children taught with forms employing inanimate patients. This indicates that "perspective" is the cognitive counterpart to the formal category of subject and that language acquisition is connected…

Examines gender stereotyping in children's picture books. A survey of current material indicates only a small increase in the number and prominence of female characters. Discusses the history of gender stereotypes in children's literature and their effect on cognitive development. (DM)

Guidelines are given for teaching basic concepts (such as "above,""least," and "different") to students who are educable mentally handicapped. Stressed is direct and systematic instruction in basic concepts as an integral part of the curriculum with concrete, representative, and abstract applications. (DB)

Two studies investigated the maintenance of focused attention in the first five years of life. Findings revealed changes over age in the way children concentrate and sustain attention spontaneously during free play. Results point to possible developments underlying the increasing duration of focused attention. (RH)

Discusses domain-specificity with regard to social and cognitive development. General epistemological and theoretic considerations of the study of cognitive development are discussed. Included is a consideration of the intersection of the interactional model and a classification of systems of knowledge. (RH)

Suggests that the invention and construction of traditional American Indian string figures possess elements associated with mathematical thought: logic-intuition, generality-individuality, and analysis-synthesis. Contains 16 references and several historical observations of string figures. (SV)

Reviews genetic influences on learning disabilities, discussing recent advances in molecular genetics that have made linkage analysis a more powerful tool for studying the genetics of behavioral phenotypes. Also examines what is known about genetic influences in two familial disorders, developmental dyslexia and Tourette syndrome. (Author/NB)

Findings on 20 children who passed an area conservation task and 20 who didn't suggested that conserving children applied an additive rule, while nonconserving children presented patterns suggesting centration on one of the two dimensions. Implications for Anderson's and Piaget's conceptions of conservation development are discussed. (RH)

Compares and synthesizes past decade of research into facets of wisdom, searching for a unified definition. Concludes that factors relating to wisdom (age, experience, intelligence, knowledge, intuition, common sense, and personality) can be unified theoretically if wisdom is viewed as the recognition of and response to human limitation.…

Investigated the ability of 56 children of 2-4 years to deceptively lead others into false beliefs. Results show that 2 1/2-year-olds already practice a variety of deceptive strategies that presuppose an operative theory of mind. (RJC)