This study adds to the growing research on school outcomes associated with individual differences in preschoolers' theory of mind skills by considering whether "costs" of theory of mind (e.g., sensitivity to criticism) actually help to foster children's academic achievement. A group of 60 Italian children was tested during the last year…

The aim of this study was to clarify the features of mental development and autistic behavior in children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) from the viewpoint of remedial therapy. The Tokyo Child Development Schedule (TCDS) and the Tokyo Autistic Behavior Scale (TABS), designed to be completed by children's caregivers, were used. A…

The author traced an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher's professional development by examining her narrative and identifying the transformation of her awareness or "kizuki". "Kizuki," which is unique to Japanese culture, implies a sudden feeling of inner understanding of a phenomenon and can be roughly translated as…

This article examines the socio-cultural context of early childhood socialization in Hungary. Using a macroscopic lens, we describe the national demographic situation and the social organization of early childhood education and care. Our analysis then shifts to a microscopic focus on parental values and beliefs about the substance of what young…

The purposes of this study were to investigate students' conceptual learning outcomes and the effect of motivation on students' conceptual learning outcomes in two different contexts: a Web-based and a classroom-based instruction, which incorporated the Dual Situation Learning Model (DSLM). Nine classes of Grade eight students (N = 190) were…

This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship between students' sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and satisfaction in an e-learning course. Additionally, the relationship of these variables with Internet self-efficacy and final examination scores is investigated. The participants were 88 students enrolled in…

A broad array of infant studies are reviewed that appear to be consistent with the idea that belief understanding specifically, and mental attribution generally, emerge much earlier than previously acknowledged. We first examine existing false-belief research, which, while confirming that children under 4 years perform poorly on standard tests,…

In adults, a salient tone embedded in a sequence of nonsalient tones improves detection of a synchronously and briefly presented visual target in a rapid, visually distracting sequence. This phenomenon indicates that perception from one sensory modality can be influenced by another one even when the latter modality provides no information about…

Behavioral studies show that infants are capable of discriminating the number of objects or events in their environment, while also suggesting that number discrimination in infancy may be ratio-dependent. However, due to limitations of the dependent measures used with infant behavioral studies, the evidence for ratio dependence falls short of the…

This article discusses the importance of good primal splitting as the basis for the child's emotional and cognitive development. A theoretical introduction analyses the possible pathologies of primal splitting, as they were first pointed out by Melanie Klein and then by some post-Kleinian authors, in particular Donald Meltzer. This is followed by…

Comments on a article by Blass (January 2009) who pointed out his historical perspective on human welfare problems facing a democratic society. The author would like to add some information from the cognitive-developmental framework that seems most pertinent to these larger issues of obedience and disobedience. It is relevant to note that a number…

An account of episodic memories is developed that focuses on the types of knowledge they represent, their properties, and the functions they might serve. It is proposed that episodic memories consist of "episodic elements," summary records of experience often in the form of visual images, associated to a "conceptual frame" that provides a…

What factors determine whether a young child will learn a new word? Although there are surely numerous contributors, the current investigation highlights the role of causal information. Three-year-old children (N = 36) were taught 6 new words for unfamiliar objects or animals. Items were described in terms of their causal or noncausal properties.…

Recent studies have shown that after partial spinal-cord lesion at the mid-cervical segment, the remaining pathways compensate for restoring finger dexterity; however, how they control hand/arm muscles has remained unclear. To elucidate the changes in dynamic properties of neural circuits connecting the motor cortex and hand/arm muscles, we…

A number of authors have proposed models of cognitive development that explain improvements in intelligence over the course of childhood via changes in the efficiency of inhibitory processes (Anderson, 2001; Bjorklund & Harnishfeger, 1990; Dempster, 1991, 1992; Dempster & Corkill, 1999a; Harnishfeger, 1995; Harnishfeger & Bjorklund, 1993). A…