bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intuitive psychological, physical and biological knowledge in typically developing preschoolers, children with autism and children with Down's syndrome
Authors: Binnie Lynne M. , Williams Joanne M.
Published: February 2003

This study investigated intuitive concepts of biology, physics and psychology in typical preschoolers (N = 23), children with autism (N = 20) and children with Down's syndrome (DS; N = 18). Three tasks from Peterson and Siegal (1997) (false belief (Baron‐Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985), false photo (Zaitchik, 1990) and innate potential (Gelman & Wellman, 1991)) were employed. A further three tasks (perception (Slaughter & Gopnik, 1996), balance (Siegler, 1976) and illness (Kalish, 1998)) were included to gain insight into the similarities and differences in understanding across groups of children and within each domain. Preschoolers performed well on both the intuitive psychology tasks, children with autism performed poorly on these tasks, and children with DS performed well on the perception task but poorly on the false belief task. By contrast, performance on the physics and biology tasks was not significantly different across groups. These findings support the argument that cognitive development is domain‐specific and highlight the need for further research in this area.
A critical look at parenting research from the mainstream: Problems uncovered while adapting Western research to non‐Western cultures
Authors: Stewart Sunita Mahtani , Bond Michael Harris
Published: February 2003

Although there is some consensus among theorists regarding attributes of parents that associate with optimal child outcomes, translation of the theory into measures has been variable and inconsistent. These inconsistencies have been surprisingly little noted in the literature and present a particular problem to researchers seeking to study parenting in little examined cultures. This article describes these inconsistencies, and suggests some practical resolutions based on the writers' recent experience of studying parenting in Islamic cultures. Some dilemmas and choice points described are: the use of typologies vs. dimensions; measures of parenting styles vs. practices; the limited number of items in most current scales of ‘style’ as opposed to ‘practice’ domains; strategies to assess the validity of parenting practices when the culture‐specific ‘meaning’ of the behaviour is not known; and the implications of the greater degree of gender differentiation in cultures studied. Steps proposed as criteria for assembling scales and determining psychometric acceptability when adapting measures to new cultures are outlined. It is the goal of this article to raise discussion both about the inconsistencies and lack of standardization of measures in the study of parenting, and about guidelines for future studies charting new territory. Such discussion is timely as developmental psychology takes on an increasingly global perspective.
The emergence of visually realistic contour in the drawing of the human figure
Authors: Lange‐Küttner Chris , Kerzmann Anne , Heckhausen Jutta
Published: February 2003

We investigated the emergence of visually realistic contour in the human figure drawing. Young children initially draw geometric and regular parts, which they combine in an additive fashion. Thus, their human figures look artificial. In one longitudinal study covering ages 6‐10 years, and two cross‐sectional studies covering ages 5‐11 years, we examined when children draw visually realistic looking shapes, which are integrated into a figure silhouette. Both aspects, drawing of parts with a visually realistic contour and integration into a whole, gradually increased but took several years to unfold. In the most prescriptive task of Study 3, analyses of growth curves indicated that mastery of drawing contour may require either of two kinds of cognitive investment: first, gradually increasing attention to perceptual detail, and/or second, more conceptual processing when attending to the spatial layout of the whole figure silhouette.
Newborns' local processing in schematic facelike configurations
Authors: Simion Francesca , Farroni Teresa , Cassia Viola Macchi , Turati Chiara , Barba Beatrice Dalla
Published: February 2003

The goal of the study was to provide a direct comparison of newborns' ability to process and store, over a 2min delay, the shape of the internal local elements of schematic facelike and non‐facelike patterns. Two experiments were carried out using a visual habituation technique with an infant control procedure. The results demonstrate that newborns discriminated between two schematic facelike and nonfacelike configurations that differed exclusively for the shape of the internal local elements (Expt 1), and they maintained this discriminative ability even when recognition was tested after a 2min retention interval (Expt 2). The results are consistent with the existence of a general pattern learning mechanism that mediates newborns' ability to acquire information about any pattern, including faces (de Schonen & Mancini, 1995; de Schonen, Mancini, & Liegeois 1998; Johnson, 1997).
Magical thinking in childhood and adolescence: Development and relation to obsessive compulsion
Authors: Bolton Derek , Dearsley Pamela , Madronal‐Luque Richard , Baron‐Cohen Simon
Published: February 2003

Magical thinking in childhood bears at least superficial similarities to obsessive compulsion, and recent cognitive models of obsessive compulsive disorder implicate forms of thinking akin to the magical. However, there has been little research on the relations between normal magical thinking in childhood and obsessive compulsion. The present study has two aims: to investigate magical thinking in young children and through to late adolescence, and to examine the relation between magical thinking and obsessive compulsion. It was found that children across the age range studied reported some magical thinking, and there was no general decline in the level of magical thinking with age. This overall pattern was complicated, however, by fluctuations in the level of magical thinking in later childhood and early adolescence, and by gender differences. There was a significant correlation between levels of magical thinking and obsessive compulsion. The results are discussed in the light of current theories.
'When I say a naughty word'. A longitudinal study of young children's accounts of anger and sadness in themselves and close others
Authors: Hughes Claire , Dunn Judy
Published: February 2003

Understanding negative emotion is important for young children's social relationships, yet there is very little research on children's perceptions of emotions in people with whom they share a close relationship. In one exception, Dunn and Hughes (1998) reported: (1) qualitative contrasts in 4‐year‐olds' accounts of the causes of emotions in self, mother and best friend (e.g. maternal anger was better understood than was friends' anger, but accounts of sadness showed the opposite pattern) and (2) significant correlations between overall response quality and both language and theory of mind performance. This study applied the same methods to a larger (N = 87) and more diverse sample of 4‐year‐olds, who were all interviewed again at age 7. Significant agerelated increases in children's accounts of anger and sadness were found in (1) reference to specific agents, especially peers and siblings; (2) themes of loss (for sadness) and interpersonal control (for anger) and (3) frequency of mental‐state reference. Seven‐year‐old girls referred more often than boys to agents and loss/control themes; mental‐state reference showed no gender difference at either time point. Our results highlight striking individual differences, a significant association between theory of mind performance and the diversity of children's emotion accounts, and the particular salience of mental states in children's accounts of sadness.
Canonical perspective and typical features in children's drawings: A neuroscientific appraisal
Authors: Hodgson Derek
Published: February 2003

Neuroscientific theories of visual perception and recognition, usually with reference to the accounts of either Gibson (1973, 1979) or Marr (1982), are often referred to by psychologists who seek to understand children's drawing strategies. This type of approach has led to some interesting speculations as to why children draw in particular ways. Notwithstanding these endeavours, there has been a considerable amount of recent progress in the neurophysiology of the visual brain which goes considerably beyond the purview of these theories. This paper seeks to demonstrate how a greater understanding of children's depictive strategies can be gained through an assessment of such neuroscientific studies.
Four and 6‐year olds' biological concept of death: The case of plants
Authors: Nguyen Simone P. , Gelman Susan A.
Published: February 2003

Three studies examined 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds' concept of death, particularly the components of universality, inevitability, finality, and causality, by focusing on plants. Experiment 1 was an interview in which participants answered questions about the death components for three plant types (a tree, a weed, and a flower). In Expt. 2, children pointed at drawings of plants and artifacts for which they believed the death components apply. Experiment 3 directly compared children's death concept of plants with that of animals. The results of Expts 1–3 showed that 6‐year‐olds and to some degree 4‐year‐olds understand the components of death and that these components apply to plants and animals, but not artifacts. However, there were significant differences in their understanding of death across the three different plant types as well as between plants and animals. These results suggest that children have a concept of death that includes plant and animal death, but that important changes take place between the ages of 4 and 6 years.
Further evidence for automatic encoding of colour by children and adults
Authors: Ling Jonathan , Blades Mark
Published: February 2003

Previous investigations of recall for colour have only examined colour recall over short delays. In the present experiments, children aged 4, 7 and 9 years and adults interacted briefly with objects in various colours under incidental conditions. Although participants were not asked to learn the colours of the objects, all age groups successfully recalled colour even after a delay of one day. In Expt 1, recall was above chance in all age groups, and in Expt 2, when preschoolers were given a non‐verbal memory aid to prompt colour recall, there were no developmental differences. These findings support and extend previous research that has found evidence for automaticity in colour encoding.
Theory of mind and peer acceptance in preschool children
Authors: Slaughter Virginia , Dennis Michelle J. , Pritchard Michelle
Published: February 2003

Two studies tested the hypothesis that preschool children's theory of mind ability is related to their levels of peer acceptance. In Study 1, 78 children between the ages of 4 and 6 provided peer nominations that allowed determination of social preference and social impact scores, and classification in one of five peer status groups (following Coie & Dodge, 1983). Children were also tested on five different theory of mind tasks. The results showed that theory of mind scores were significantly related to social preference scores in a subsample of children who were over 5 years old. Further, popular children were found to score higher on theory of mind tasks than children classified as rejected. Study 2 replicated and extended the first study with a new sample of 87 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children. Study 2 included measures of peer acceptance, theory of mind ability and verbal intelligence, as well as teacher ratings of prosocial and aggressive behaviours. The results of Study 2 showed that for the total group of children, prosocial behaviour was the best predictor of social preference scores. When the Study 2 sample was split into older and younger children, theory of mind ability was found to be the best predictor of social preference scores for the older children (over age 5), while aggressive and prosocial behaviours were the best predictors of peer acceptance in the younger children. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that the impact of theory of mind ability on peer acceptance is modest but increases with children's age.
The role of handedness in graphic production: Interactions between biomechanical and cognitive factors in drawing development
Authors: Braswell Gregory S. , Rosengren Karl S.
Published: February 2003

In this study, the interaction of biomechanical and cognitive factors in drawing development was explored. Children (4‐ to 6‐year‐olds) and adults copied four shapes (two familiar and two novel) six times alternating between their dominant and non‐dominant hands (starting hand was counterbalanced). Similarity in the production sequences within and across hands was compared. The results suggest that production sequences are influenced by specific motor experiences yet highlight the importance of cognitive constraints on the drawing process.
Parent‐child interaction and road behaviour: An exploratory study
Authors: Dunbar George , Lewis Vicky , Hill Ros
Published: February 2003

The relationship between parent‐child interaction and child pedestrian behaviour was investigated by comparing parent‐child communication to road‐crossing behaviour. Forty‐four children and their parents were observed carrying out a communication task (the Map Task), and were covertly filmed crossing roads around a university campus. The Map Task provided measures of task focus and sensitivity to another's current knowledge, which we predicted would be reflected in road‐crossing behaviour. We modelled indices of road behaviour with factor scores derived from a principal‐component analysis of communication features, and background variables including the age, sex and traffic experience of the child, and parental education. A number of variables were significantly related to road crossing, including the age and sex of the child, the length of the conversation, and specific conversational features such as the checking and clarification of uncertain information by both parent and child. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
The importance of non‐verbal skills in the acquisition of place‐value knowledge: Evidence from normally‐developing and language‐impaired children
Authors: Donlan Chris , Gourlay Sara
Published: February 2003

Children's comprehension of the Hindu‐Arabic number system was explored in relation to their ability to match spoken to Hindu‐Arabic numerals. The possible involvement of verbal processes in numeric understanding was examined by comparing a group of 8‐year olds with specific language impairments (SLI group, N = 13) to two control groups, the first matched for age and non‐verbal ability (AC group, N = 13), the second younger group matched for language comprehension level (LC group, N = 12). SLI, AC and LC children's accuracy and efficiency in choosing the greater of two single‐digit Hindu‐Arabic numerals were compared. One child from the SLI group and three from the LC group failed to reach accuracy criterion. For accurate responders there was no difference between SLI and AC groups in latency to judge: both responded faster than the LC group. When making judgments all groups showed the Symbolic Distance Effect observed by Moyer & Landauer (1967). All participants were able to match spoken numerals to Hindu‐Arabic single‐digit numerals without error. SLI and AC groups were tested on double digits. Accuracy and efficiency in judging the greater of two Hindu‐Arabic double‐digit numerals were tested. Ability to match spoken numerals to corresponding double‐digit Hindu‐Arabic numerals was also tested. All of 12 AC participants accurately matched spoken to Hindu‐Arabic symbols, but 2 of these were unable to judge accurately the greater of pairs of HinduArabic symbols. Of 13 SLI children tested, 9 accurately matched spoken to Hindu‐Arabic symbols; 2 of these were unable to judge Hindu‐Arabic symbols accurately. One further child was able to judge accurately but performed poorly when matching spoken to Hindu‐Arabic numerals. When school experience of doubledigit numbers was statistically controlled, there was no difference between SLI and AC groups in the accuracy of double‐digit judgments. No difference was found between SLI and AC groups in the speed or pattern of accurate responders’ doubledigit judgments. When group data was pooled and school experience statistically controlled, accuracy in double‐digit judgment was predicted by non‐verbal ability, but not by expressive or receptive language skills. The pattern of responses to the double‐digit judgments suggested a ‘holistic’ processing mechanism within which ‘transparent’ stimuli (those double digits which minimize conflict between ‘face’ and ‘place’ values) are most rapidly encoded. Whereas the ability to match verbal labels to Hindu‐Arabic numerals appears generally to precede single‐ and double‐digit comprehension, findings suggest that, especially in the acquisition of place‐value knowledge, there is substantial autonomy of non‐verbal systems.
The role of shape similarity in toddlers’ lexical extensions
Authors: Poulin‐Dubois Diane , Frank Ilana , Graham Susan A. , Elkin Abbie
Published: February 2003

The taxonomic assumption, or noun‐category bias, is thought to facilitate word learning by focusing children's attention on taxonomic categories as likely candidates for word meanings. Three experiments were conducted to disentangle the role of taxonomic relations and shape similarity in 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds’ responses on a noun category bias task. The relationship between vocabulary composition and performance on these tasks was also examined. Results indicated that both 18‐ and 24‐month‐old children were predominantly guided by shape similarity when extending novel labels. However, some evidence that taxonomic information can be used to guide word extension was found in the 24‐month‐old group. Those children with a larger proportion of nouns in their vocabulary were more likely to use information about category membership when extending words, even in the absence of shape similarity.
Comprehension of seeing as a referential act in young children, but not juvenile chimpanzees
Authors: Povinelli Daniel J. , Bierschwale Donna T. , Cech Claude G.
Published: February 2003

Using their previously demonstrated gaze‐following abilities, juvenile chimpanzees (and 3‐year‐old human children) were tested to determine if they interpreted seeing as the mental state of attention. The studies tested predictions generated by a low‐level model of chimpanzee gaze‐following which assumes that chimpanzees do not understand attention as an unobservable, internal mental state, and a high‐level model which assumes that they do. In Expts 1 and 2, chimpanzees were first trained to respond to a cup to which an experimenter pointed, and then tested on probe trials to determine if they could respond correctly when the experimenter either oriented his or her whole head toward the correct cup, or just looked with the eyes. In Expt 1 these cues were static, whereas in Expt 2 the experimenter actively moved his or her head and/or eyes back‐and‐forth form the subjects’ faces to the correct cup as they were attempting to make their choice. Expt 3 validated the logic of Expts 1 and 2 by demonstrating that 3‐year‐old human children responded in a manner predicted by the high‐level model. The results of the experiments converged on supporting the predictions of the low‐level model of juvenile chimpanzees’ understanding of seeing.
Precursors of formal thought: A longitudinal study
Authors: Bradmetz Joel
Published: February 2003

From 1984 to 1988, a longitudinal study was conducted with 104 children born in 1980. This study was devoted to the development of Piagetian concrete operational thought, using 25 classical Piagetian tasks. Seven years after the end of the study, 62 children from the original sample were again examined in relation to formal thought, general intelligence and spatial and verbal abilities. This paper analyses the data obtained and the relationships between concrete and formal thought. The main results show: (i) the low average attainment in formal thought among 15‐year‐old adolescents; (ii) the reliable measurement of general intelligence provided by Piagetian tasks; and (iii) the strong relationship between early competence in number manipulation and later access to combinatorial and formal thought.
Do young children use echoic information in their comprehension of sarcastic speech? A test of echoic mention theory
Authors: Keenan Thomas R. , Quigley Kathleen
Published: February 2003

This study sets out to provide a test of echoic mention theory, which predicts that irony and sarcasm are most easily comprehended by a listener when the speaker explicitly ‘echoes’ a previous utterance or some shared norm rather than when the speaker only implicitly alludes to the same information. Children aged 6‐10 years were given stories containing either a sarcastic comment that explicitly echoed an earlier remark, a sarcastic comment that only implicitly alluded to an earlier remark, or a literal comment from a speaker. Half of the children heard the stories presented with a sarcastic intonation and half heard the stories presented with an uninflected intonation. The results of the study showed that when vocal intonation was absent, children comprehended explicit stories better than implicit stories. The findings suggest that echoic mention theory is a useful theory for describing children's developing comprehension of sarcastic speech, but is only one of many factors that play a role in the comprehension process.
Infants’ haptic perception of texture in the presence and absence of visual cues
Authors: Stack Dale M. , Tsonis Mary
Published: February 2003

Seven‐month‐old infants’ haptic perception of texture was examined using visually identical smooth and rough textures. Forty‐eight infants participated in a familiarization‐novelty‐return‐to‐familiar procedure. Following familiarization, experimental infants received a novel texture (either rough or smooth) during the novelty phase and the original texture from the familiarization phase was presented in the return‐to‐familiar phase. Control infants received the same texture, either rough or smooth, throughout the three phases. For half of the infants in each of the groups the stimuli were occluded by an opaque cover. For the remaining infants, stimuli were visible through a transparent cover. Infants were allowed to freely explore the textures in each phase. Manual contact (touching and grasping), bimanual contact, scrumbling, fingering, and total visual attention and fixation were measured. The findings suggest that: (i) processing of texture may take longer than indicated in past literature; infants in both the experimental and control groups maintained high levels of manual contact throughout the three phases; (ii) 7‐month‐old infants may, nonetheless, be capable of making texture discriminations; experimental infants’ responses during the return‐to‐familiar phase were indicative of recognition memory for the familiarization texture; (iii) infants use more efficient exploratory hand strategies when texture stimuli are not visible; and (iv) while vision appears to increase total visual attention, to direct visual fixation and to direct both hands towards the stimuli, it does not facilitate haptic perception of texture.
Children's understanding of self‐presentational display rules: Associations with mental‐state understanding
Authors: Banerjee Robin , Yuill Nicola
Published: February 2003

The present research addressed children's understanding of self‐presentational display rules: putting on false facial expressions in order to manipulate others’ evaluations of the self. A sample of 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds was used to test our hypothesis that self‐presentational display rules involve recursive cognition about others’ mental states. Children completed a task measuring understanding of various display rules and additionally performed a second‐order false‐belief task. Results supported the hypothesis that an appreciation of second‐order mental representation is associated with understanding self‐presentational display rules but not with understanding prosocial display rules (designed to spare others’ feelings). We discuss the likely interaction of social processes with the observed changes in mental‐state understanding in relation to the development of self‐presentation.
Children's journey to school: Spatial skills, knowledge and perceptions of the environment
Authors: Joshi Mary Sissons , Maclean Morag , Carter Wakefield
Published: February 2003

The growth in accompanied travel to school, particularly by car, has led to speculation about the cognitive and emotional impact of this change on child development. Spatial skills, knowledge of the environment, and perceptions of the environment were assessed in 93 children aged between 7 and 12 years. Children who were accompanied to school performed as well as their unaccompanied peers on spatial ability tests and showed no greater concern with stranger danger. However, they showed a greater tendency to cite traffic danger in their responses, and a greater knowledge of the environment as indicated by the use of landmarks in their drawings of their locality. Children who had more freedom to travel without adults on nonschool journeys also showed a greater use of landmarks. Mode of transport had no effect on the study's measures. These results are discussed with reference to the nature of the journey to school and to other places.
Competence and performance in false belief understanding: A comparison of autistic and normal 3‐year‐old children
Authors: Surian Luca , Leslie Alan M.
Published: February 2003

Using a standard prediction of action task, we find that normally developing 3‐yearold children successfully take into account a protagonist's false belief when asked a ‘look first’ question. When asked this same question in a true belief scenario, 3‐yearolds also correctly predict a protagonist's action even though in this case the correct answer is the second (full) location rather than the first (empty) location. This rules out the use of a low‐level response strategy. In a second experiment, children aged 3.5 years who failed a standard ‘think’ question passed a ‘look first’ question. A control group of older children with autism, who performed at the 3.5‐year‐old level on the ‘think’ question, showed no improvement in performance on the ‘look first’ question. Taken together, the two studies confirm that a minimal modification to the standard false belief task helps normally developing preschoolers to calculate the content of a false belief. Current neuropsychological models of ‘theory of mind’ development typically contrast autistic children with normally developing 4‐year‐olds who pass standard false belief tasks. Our present results extend current models by comparing autistic children with 3‐year‐olds who also fail standard tasks. Apparently, the two groups do not fail for the same reasons. Whereas 3‐year‐olds’ difficulties on theory of mind tasks appear to be due to performance factors, autistic children's difficulties appear to be caused by a deeper metarepresentational impairment.
Implicit and explicit syntactic knowledge and reading in pre‐adolescents
Authors: Gaux C. , Gombert J. E.
Published: February 2003

This aim of this paper is to analyse the links between syntactic awareness and reading, in its recoding and comprehension aspects, in pre‐adolescent readers. The study, conducted with 83 sixth grade pupils, examined the relation between (1) seven syntactic and morpho‐syntactic tasks (repetition, judgment, correction, localization, explanation, replication and identification) and (2) several indicators of recoding and comprehension in reading. Regression analyses revealed differential contributions as a function of syntactic task, type of agrammaticality, and the aspect of reading tested, after we had controlled for the influence of reasoning, memory, and linguistic competences. Contributions resulting from the morpho‐syntactic tasks were observed more frequently for recoding, whereas those involving the inversion of word or phrase orders operated more frequently as indicators of reading comprehension. The more explicit the syntactic awareness tasks, the more frequent and greater their contribution to reading performances. Comparisons of syntactic performances as a function of three levels of reading comprehension (good, average, poor) revealed a syntactic deficit in the poor comprehenders. The poor comprehenders exhibited a deficit in the majority of the syntactic tasks. The average comprehenders achieved lower performances than the good comprehenders in the tasks assessing explicit knowledge of syntax but not in those assessing implicit knowledge.
Interpretation and construction of coordinate dimensions by 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children
Authors: Lidster Wendy , Bremner Gavin
Published: February 2003

Recent work stimulated by Piaget & Inhelder's (1956) account of spatial development indicates that children as young as 4 years of age are capable of using Euclidian coordinate reference systems. However, the exact basis for this early ability is yet to be established; specifically, although we know a good deal about the conditions under which young children are capable of interpreting spatial coordinate cues to locate an object, less is known about their ability to construct spatial coordinate cues to indicate the location of an object. The current study investigates the ability of children aged 4‐5 years to locate a hidden object by coordinating information provided by markers in orthogonal dimensions (interpretation task) and to correctly position orthogonally orientated markers to indicate the location of a hidden object (construction task). Performance was superior on the construction task, with a clear majority of children performing significantly above chance. Additionally, performance on the interpretation task improved following the construction task. The results serve to extend rather than falsify the Piagetian account, by indicating that in simple tasks 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds are capable of both interpreting and constructing coordinate dimensions. It is possible that the child's engagement in the activity of construction may have made the task principles more transparent, enhancing performance in the process. The findings have consequences as to the age and manner in which children are introduced to tasks, such as map work, which involve the use of dimensional coordination.
Culture, domain specificity and conceptual change: Natural kind and artifact concepts
Authors: Walker Sheila J.
Published: February 2003

The work reported here is a sociocultural investigation of the domain specificity of conceptual change, focusing on natural kind and artifact concepts. Participants from rural, urban and elite groups among the Yoruba of western Nigeria judged the identity of familiar natural kinds and artifacts that had undergone superficial transformations, and provided explanations for their category judgments. The social and material conditions typifying each group of participants were hypothesized to affect differentially the rate and degree of conceptual change. The results indicated that the most marked developmental change occurred in the rural group. Overall, the results support the domain specificity of conceptual change as found in studies with American participants, and underscore the need for a closer examination of sociocultural factors influencing such change.
Preschool children's understanding of the desire and knowledge constraints on intended action
Authors: Joseph Robert M. , Tager‐Flusberg Helen
Published: February 2003

In two experiments, 3‐, 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were tested on their ability to distinguish between intended and unintended actions on the basis of the agent's desire (wanting vs. not wanting the outcome) and/or the agent's knowledge state (having vs. not having the relevant knowledge to intend the outcome). Whereas all age groups had little difficulty imputing intention on the basis of desire, only about one‐half of 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds were able to impute intention on the basis of knowledge; mastery of this latter aspect of intention understanding was not in place until after the age of 5 years. Within‐subjects analyses confirmed these findings fully, and also showed that children were able to attribute ignorance and false beliefs on the basis of a lack of perceptual access before they were able to make judgments of intent on the basis of an agent's knowledge state. The relative lag in young children's appreciation of the knowledge constraints on intended actions is discussed in terms of cognitive, linguistic and social factors.
The influence of movement and outcome on young children's attributions of intention
Authors: Montgomery Derek E. , Montgomery Demaris A.
Published: February 2003

Two studies investigated preschoolers’ ability to infer an actor's intended goal based upon the perceptual properties of the actor's movement. Scenes were presented showing a computer‐generated display in which a circle persistently jumped and rebounded off wall. One of three outcomes occurred: the acting circle reached its target, it reached an outcome opposite the target of its persistent movement (non‐goal condition), or it reached neither target. Children accurately inferred the acting circle's goal in Expt 1 except for the 3‐year‐olds in the non‐goal condition. Experiment 2 modified the non‐goal condition so that the passive movements were not increasingly closer to the non‐goal, resulting in above‐chance performance for both age groups (p < .01). Taken together, these findings suggest that by age 3 children will account for how an actor is moving when identifying its intended goal and will then distinguish the inferred goal from the eventual outcome of the act. Implications of these findings for the relation between outward features of motion and the development of mental concepts are discussed.
Young children's understanding of interpretation, expectation and direct perception as sources of false belief
Authors: Pillow Bradford H. , Mash Clay
Published: February 2003

Two experiments investigated children's understanding that mistaken beliefs may arise through misinterpretation of ambiguous information. In Expt 1, 4‐ and 5‐yearolds accurately attributed false beliefs based on direct perception, but did not attribute false beliefs based on inferential or interpretive processes. Experiment 2 compared children's ability to predict another person's interpretation with children's ability to explain another person's interpretation after the fact. Although 4‐year‐olds often provided valid explanations, 7‐year‐olds were more likely than 4‐year‐olds to refer to another person's previous experiences to explain the person's interpretation. References to previous experiences were positively correlated with the ability to predict another person's interpretation. These results support the view that understanding false belief and understanding interpretive activity are distinct conceptual acquisitions.
An investigation into Karmiloff‐Smith's RR model: The effects of structured tuition
Authors: Peters Lorna , Davey Neil , Messer David , Smith Pam
Published: February 2003

Karmiloff‐Smith's model of representational redescription describes development proceeding from implicit to explicit knowledge. During part of this process, knowledge is said to be resistant to external influences. However, a study carried out by Messer, Joiner, Loveridge, Light & Littleton (1993) indicated that peer interaction can assist progress at this phase. The present study investigates whether cognitive development can also be assisted by adult interventions. The interventions involved structured tuition within a participative framework, in relation to the task of balancing a beam on a fulcrum. The study confirmed that knowledge introduced in this way assists children at all levels. It was also found that the representational redescription model did not account for the behaviour of all the children. Additional behavioural levels were identified, indicating the need for modifications to the RR model.
Ways of reading: How knowledge and use of strategies are related to reading comprehension
Authors: Cain Kate
Published: February 2003

Two studies investigated whether there is a direct relation between children's reading comprehension, their knowledge about the goals and processes of reading, and their skill in applying such knowledge. An interview revealed that less skilled comprehenders differed from same‐age skilled comprehenders in their knowledge about reading and reading strategies, but they did not differ significantly from a younger group of children of equivalent comprehension ability. In contrast, a reading task demonstrated that less skilled comprehenders were poorer than both control groups at adapting their reading style to achieve different goals. These data demonstrate that there are direct relations between comprehension skill and both knowledge about reading and reading strategies, when individual differences in word reading skill have been controlled for. Furthermore, the results of the second study rule out the possibility that the differences found between groups in their ability to set and reach suitable reading targets were simply a by‐product of reading comprehension level. The implications of these findings are discussed.
The pretend and social role play of children exposed to early severe deprivation
Authors: Kreppner Jana M. , O'Connor Thomas G. , Dunn Judy , Andersen‐Wood Lucie ,   English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) Study Team
Published: February 2003

The present study investigates whether early physical and psychological deprivation has long‐term negative effects on children's pretend play at 4 years of age. A total of 104 Romanian children from institutions adopted into UK families before the age of 2 years, one group adopted between 0 to 6 months and a second group adopted between 6 and 24 months, were compared with 50 within‐country adoptees who were all placed between 0 to 6 months. Children were assessed in a 10‐minute semistructured play session. Analysis for group differences between UK adoptees and the two Romanian adoptee groups indicated a general tendency for the UK adoptees to engage in higher frequencies of pretend play, role play and referencing others’ mental states than Romanian adoptees: they were also more positively engaged with the examiner than were the Romanian adoptees. The group differences remained significant after controlling for general cognitive and verbal ability. The results are discussed in terms of the possible impact of early social and psychological deprivation on social development as reflected in play.
Preschoolers' pretend play and theory of mind: The role of jointly constructed pretence
Authors: Schwebel David C. , Rosen Craig S. , Singer Jerome L.
Published: February 2003

As they develop, preschool children make great strides in their ability to take and understand multiple perspectives, sometimes referred to as the development of a theory of mind. Recently, the role of pretend play in that development has been investigated. In the present study, 2 experiments were conducted with 85 preschoolers. Children were observed during naturalistic spontaneous play on three independent occasions and then tested on their ability to differentiate appearance and reality and to understand false belief. Results suggest that children who displayed more jointly constructed pretence in their play better distinguished the apparent and real identity of visually deceptive objects. This was true after controlling for age and, in the second experiment, verbal intelligence. Solitary pretend play was not as strongly associated with theory of mind ability. These findings suggest that makebelieve play, particularly socially interactive role play, develops concurrently with children's understanding of multiple representational tasks.
‘If pigs could fly’: A test of counterfactual reasoning and pretence in children with autism
Authors: Scott Fiona J. , Baron‐Cohen Simon , Leslie Alan
Published: February 2003

The authors report an experiment with children with autism, using the Dias & Harris (1990) method, to test the predictions that: (i) children with autism will show intact counterfactual reasoning, and (ii) since such children are impaired in pretence, they would not then show the normal facilitation effect of pretence on counterfactual reasoning ability. Children with autism and matched verbal mental age (VMA) controls were presented with a series of counterfactual syllogisms, in two conditions. One condition (Counterfactual plus Pretence) involved prompting the child's imagination during the reasoning task, whereas the other condition (Counterfactual Only) included no such prompting. Results showed that both normal 4‐5‐year‐old children, and children with moderate learning difficulties improved in their reasoning performance when prompted to use imagination. This replicates and extends findings from Dias & Harris (1990). In children with autism, however, performance was good in the Counterfactual Only condition, but became worse when imagination was prompted. These results show that although abstract counterfactual reasoning appears intact in children with autism, their counterfactual reasoning is not facilitated by pretence in the normal way.
An exploration of random generation among children
Authors: Towse John N. , Mclachlan Amy
Published: February 2003

The generation of random sequences is known to be a complex, demanding and effortful task for adults. This study explores random generation performance among children in three experiments. Expt 1 illustrates 8‐10‐year‐olds’ sensitivity to response speed requirements. Expt 2 shows that 8‐11‐year‐olds were sensitive to the number of response alternatives, while there was equivalence in output quality over two types of instructional formats. Expt 3 reveals competencies in performance among 5‐7‐year‐olds and shows that response repetitions are partly amenable to instructional emphasis. Across comparable studies, analysis confirmed a multidimensional structure to response sets. Generally, data show the potential utility of random generation as a developmental task with substantial and multifaceted attentional requirements.
Early declarative memory for location
Authors: Mcdonough Laraine
Published: February 2003

The abilities of 7.5‐month‐old infants to recall the location of hidden objects after delays averaging 90 seconds were investigated in three experiments. Various kinds of events were introduced during the delays in order to examine the stability of early location memory. Recall, as shown by reaching towards the correct location, was most clearly found when the infants were allowed either to remain seated facing the hiding locations (Expt 1) or were turned around and immediately re‐seated (Expt 2) during the delays. In both experiments, the infants’ attention was diverted from the hiding places, but during all or most of the delay the infants were facing the locations. Recall was dampened when infants were removed from the immediate location of the hiding and engaged in other activities such as looking at a picture during the delay (Expt 3). Further analyses indicated an effect for age that coincides with other research on location memory: evidence for recall was more clearly found for the older, but not the younger, 7‐month‐olds.
The roles of perceptual and categorical similarity in colour pop‐out in infants
Authors: Gerhardstein Peter , Renner Peggy , Rovee‐Collier Carolyn
Published: February 2003

For both adults and infants, whether a unique target pops out from a background of distractors and captures attention depends on the perceived target‐distractor similarity. For adults, this similarity can be categorical as well as perceptual, but whether the same is true for infants is unknown. Here, the authors examined whether infants’ colour pop‐out is affected by categorical target‐distractor similarity using targetdistractor pairs in Munsell colours from either the same or a different category and representing different degrees of perceptual similarity. It was found that only targets that were perceptually most dissimilar from the distractor colours popped out, irrespective of category membership; target colours more perceptually similar to the distractor colour did not, even if they were from a different colour category. Although young infants are known to categorize colours in an adult‐like fashion, whether or not they preattentively detect a uniquely coloured target is determined by a noncategorical, perceptual colour metric.
Early temperament and stranger wariness as predictors of social inhibition in 2‐year‐olds
Authors: Andersson Kerstin , Bohlin Gunilla , Hagekull Berit
Published: February 2003

Forty‐five infants were followed from age 5 months to 25 months with the aim of studying the stranger wariness phenomenon from a temperamental perspective. Observations and heart rate reactions in a standardized situation of stranger approach, as well as maternal ratings of temperament at infant age 5 months and 10 months, were used for predicting inhibition in social situations at 25 months of age. Stranger wariness as reflected in heart rate measures at 10 months proved to be predictive of social inhibition in toddlerhood and both wariness at 10 months and social inhibition at 25 months were found to be related positively to reactivity to sensory stimulation and negatively to frustration at age 10 months. It was suggested that stranger wariness during the first year of life reflects individual dispositions to respond with withdrawal in response to social novelty and that there are common temperamental underpinnings, such as reactivity to sensory stimulation and to frustration, to both stranger wariness at age 10 months and social inhibition in toddlerhood.
Social cognition and bullying: Social inadequacy or skilled manipulation?
Authors: Sutton J. , Smith P. K. , Swettenham J.
Published: February 2003

In contrast to the popular stereotype and research tradition of the ‘oafish’ bully lacking in social skills and understanding, the bully may be a cold, manipulative expert in social situations, organizing gangs and using subtle, indirect methods. Performance on a set of stories designed to assess understanding of cognitions and emotions was investigated in 193 7‐10‐year‐olds in relation to role in bullying. Ringleader bullies scored higher than ‘follower’ bullies (those who helped or supported the bully), victims and defenders of the victim. Results are discussed in terms of the need for further research into cognitive skills and emotion understanding in children who bully, the possible developmental pathway of social cognition in bullying and important implications for intervention strategies.
The outsider's perspective: Young adults’ judgments of social practices of other cultures
Authors: Shaw Leigh A. , Wainryb Cecilia
Published: February 2003

In this study, judgments of social practices of other cultures were examined. Fortyeight college students judged social practices entailing potentially immoral features to be unacceptable when not culturally grounded but acceptable when they are part of long‐standing cultural traditions. Their tolerant judgments were underlain by a construal of the practices in the other cultures as beneficial and consensual. Subsequently, the same practice was presented in four hypothetical cultural contexts generated by manipulating the type of belief underlying the practice (moral or informational) and the consensual status of the belief within the culture (agreement or disagreement). Participants were tolerant of the practice and of the people engaged in the practice in some contexts but not in others, and judged some types of diversity likely and some unlikely. Their tolerant and intolerant judgments reflected the ways in which specific cultural parameters are understood to transform the meanings and moderate the effects of cultural practices.