bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The study of play and problem solving in preschool children: Have experimenter effects been responsible for previous results?
Authors: Simon Tony , Smith Peter K.
Published: July 2011

Several studies have suggested that, so far as lure‐retrieval tasks are concerned, previous ‘play’ and ‘training’ experiences are roughly comparable in facilitating subsequent problem‐solving performance. In certain circumstances, ‘play’ experience has proved superior. However, Cheyne (1982) has criticized all these studies for poor or absent controls for possible experimenter bias.

The present study carried out a close replication of the Smith & Dutton (1979) experiment, but incorporated manipulations of and controls for experimenter bias. Even when the experimenter giving the problem task was unaware of the previous experience of the child, and when scoring was done blindly, it was found that the effects of the ‘play’ experience were equivalent to those of a ‘training’ experience directly related to the problem to be given. This replicated previous results but excludes experimenter bias as a possible explanation. However, the second finding of the Smith & Dutton (1979) study, that ‘play’ experience was markedly superior to the ‘raining’ experience for a problem task more innovative with respect to the training, was not replicated. It is hypothesized that a combination of procedural differences and possible experimenter bias as suggested by Cheyne (1982) was responsible for this latter result.
Adult‐child interaction under dyadic and polyadic conditions
Authors: Schaffer H. R. , Liddell Christine
Published: July 2011

The nature of adult‐child interaction was examined under two conditions: dyadic (adult with one child) and polyadic (adult with four children). The subjects were staff and children in day nurseries, who were observed in a specially set‐up task situation. In certain respects the interaction assumed different forms depending on group condition. The effects may be seen in stylistic differences in the adults' behaviour: thus in polyads individual children had not only less speech directed to them but also speech that tended to be more directive and prohibitive. While the total number of bids the adults received from children in polyads was considerably greater than in dyads, the increase was a selective one, referring only to requests for help and not to less urgent demands. The main strategy adopted by adults to cope with the increase in demand was by ignoring, the incidence of which was very much greater under polyadic than under dyadic conditions. Joint involvement of adult and child was also much reduced in the former setting. The implications of these findings for children reared under group care conditions are discussed, and attention is drawn to the importance of situational factors in determining caretaker responsiveness.
Ageing and the misplacing of objects
Authors: Tenney Yvette J.
Published: July 2011

A lost and found questionnaire was administered to 281 young and 153 old subjects to examine incidents in which objects were misplaced and recovered. Incidents were reported by 31·3 per cent of the young and 26·1 per cent of the old subjects, a difference that was not significant. Subjects reporting an incident rated themselves as more absentminded than subjects not reporting an incident. The roles of absentmindedness and perceptual problems in creating these incidents were examined. Only the latter showed significant differences with age. More old than young subjects reported finding the object in plain sight, in its proper place, and in a place already searched, suggesting a tendency with age to overlook objects in obvious places.
The control of training and transfer effects in the Minnesota Spatial Relations and other tasks
Authors: Morgan M. , Bartram D. , Clarke A. D. B.
Published: July 2011

An experiment was carried out to demonstrate transfer of training in preschool children on tasks where transfer had previously been demonstrated in different populations. No evidence for transfer was found in any of the three tasks employed. The possibility that this finding was due to the lack of appropriate controls for the effects of specific training was examined using three groups to provide base‐lines for the effects of practice, cognitive stimulation and social intervention. No significant differences were found either at post‐test or follow‐up between the specific training group and the control groups. A second experiment controlled for the effects of pre‐testing. It was found that considerable transfer occurred from the pre‐test trial to the first training trial. It appeared that one trial was sufficient to allow subjects to develop a strategy which was appropriate for both the training and transfer materials. Experiments of this type can clearly indicate whether or not some basic processes can be modified by means of short‐term intervention and have implications for inducing longer‐term benefits.
Long‐term follow‐up of women institutionalized in childhood: Factors promoting good functioning in adult life*
Authors: Rutter Michael , Quinton David
Published: July 2011

The early adult functioning of 89 women from inner London who had been reared in residential Children's Homes was compared with that of 41 women sampled from the general population of the same area. The behaviour of both groups had previously been studied in middle childhood by means of standardized questionnaires. The adult assessment comprised detailed standardized interviews with the women and with their spouses, together with systematic observations of mother‐child interaction in the home for those with 2–3 1/2‐year‐old children. The adult outcome of the institution‐reared women as a whole was substantially worse than that for the comparison group, but the course of their personality development had been greatly modified by positive school experiences in childhood and by the characteristics of their spouse and marriage in adult life. The institution‐reared women in good psychosocial circumstances in adulthood functioned as well as the comparison group women. The findings are interpreted in terms of direct and indirect effects of experiences leading to both continuities and discontinuities in social development.
Why children have difficulty reasoning with three‐term series problems
Authors: Oakhill Jane
Published: July 2011

This study examined a number of hypotheses as to why children have difficulty in solving three‐term series problems. No support was found for the hypothesis that their difficulties arise because of their inability to understand transitive relations. In addition, the problems were present throughout the task, so that poor memory for the premises was ruled out as a contributory factor in reasoning difficulty. The children's performance was found to improve, however, when they were provided with an aid to reduce the demands of the task on working memory, although this advantage was not maintained in a later test without a memory aid. There was also evidence that, overall, the children had greater difficulty in solving problems that imposed a higher load on working memory.
New‐born infants' perception of similarities and differences between two‐ and three‐dimensional stimuli
Authors: Slater Alan , Morison Victoria , Rose David
Published: July 2011

The new‐born baby' ability to detect similarities and differences between three‐dimensional stimuli and their two‐dimensional representations is investigated in three experiments, using both visual preference and habituation procedures. In Expt 1 new‐borns strongly preferred (looked more at) complex objects to their photographs. This preference was found with monocular viewing, and suggests that motion parallax is a salient cue in the detection of the differences between the two‐ and three‐dimensional stimuli.

The results from Expt 2 support the view that, for the new‐born, the differences between objects and their two‐dimensional representations are more detectable or salient than their similarities. These conclusions were further supported by the results from the last experiment, using simpler stimuli, although the preference was for the two‐ rather than the three‐dimensional stimuli. The results suggest that studies which use only two‐dimensional stimuli may provide only limited information about the course of perceptual development, at least in the first few months from birth.
Logical searches of young children in hiding and finding tasks
Authors: Somerville Susan C. , Capuani‐Shumaker Annette
Published: July 2011

Thirty‐two 3 and 32 4‐year‐olds were tested on two tasks which required them to infer the location of a concealed object. In the hiding tusk the child watched while an object was hidden and then attempted to find it; in the finding tusk the child watched while one object was found and then attempted to find a duplicate of it in the same place. Each sequence of events that the child watched ruled out two of the four locations in a linear array as possible hiding places for the object, but did not specify which of the remaining two contained it.

The children did use the information conveyed by the sequences of events to decide where to search. Older children generally did better than younger children both in their first choices and in their second choices when the first, although correct, did not locate the object. However, neither age group made the correct choice of a second location consistently. This suggested that the children encountered mnemonic or logical difficulties, or both, because of the fact that two locations were equally compatible with a given sequence of events.
The symmetry hypothesis and the perpendicular error: Evidence from discrimination and copying tasks
Authors: Pigram John S.
Published: July 2011

The interpretation by Breniner & Taylor (1982) that the tendency by children to increase oblique line angle size when copying line drawings (the ‘perpendicular error’) is one of ‘symmetry’ is examined using a discrimination and a copying task. Using single right‐angled triangles as stimuli, errors by older children in a discrimination task are found to be in the direction of ‘symmetry’. Evidence from a copying task using similar stimuli favours a simpler interpretation of oblique line errors in terms of a ‘vertical effect’. Strategies for copying remaining lines in such figures are analysed in terms of directional ‘rules’, the usage of which increases with subject age.
The social representation of gender and young children's play
Authors: Lloyd Barbara , Smith Caroline
Published: July 2011

Toy choice and vigorous play with toys were observed in 60 pairs of children aged 19 to 42 months playing with gender stereotyped toys, first with their mothers and then with a familiar same or opposite gender peer. Choice of opposite gender toys was greater in the action play of mixed pairs. In pretend play, only girls in the oldest age group chose girls' toys more frequently and used opposite gender toys less in mixed pairs. Boys engaged in significantly more vigorous play with toys but the difference between the play of boys and girls was not statistically significant in the peer condition. The ability of girls to access social representations of gender was invoked to account for their more mature, gender differentiated behaviour.
Provoked use of height in picture as a depth cue in young children's drawings
Authors: Bremner J. Gavin
Published: July 2011

Young children frequently draw a depth relationship as a left‐right relationship on the page. However, this is not a rigid habit, since they use height in picture if the depth relationship is stressed before they make their drawing. A group of 4–6‐year‐olds was asked to draw an array of two bricks, arranged one behind the other, and an array of three bricks containing both a depth relationship and a left‐right relationship. Most 4‐year‐olds drew the two‐item array horizontally, and there was a limited tendency to shift to vertical portrayal of depth in the three‐item array. Again, most 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds drew the two‐brick array horizontally, but a clear majority used vertical portrayal for the three‐item array. In addition, there was significant carry‐over of the vertical method from the three‐item array to a subsequent drawing of the two‐item array. It is concluded that, when faced with more complex draftsmanship problems, children spontaneously adopt height in picture as a depth cue.
Adult‐child and peer interaction during brief separations
Authors: Rossetti‐Ferreira Maria Clotilde , Secaf Regina E. , Blurton‐Jones Nicholas G. , Farquhar‐Brown Marilyn , MacDonald‐Moore Lynne
Published: July 2011

First‐born children, 34 boys and 25 girls, were observed during separation from their mother and for 5 min after reunion. The separation occurred at the end of a playgroup session of about two hours in which three other M‐C pairs and a nursery nurse were also present and could interact freely with the separating and separated child. There was a baseline period of 10 min observation before the mother left the room. The separation was repeated every six months, beginning when the children were 15 months old and continuing until 39 months. The percentage of children showing distress was lower than that reported by other authors, although the same age change was observed, with a peak at 15 and 21 months, decreasing at 27 and becoming unusual at 33 and 39 months. The nursery nurse and the other mothers initiated and maintained more interactions with the separated child. This was particularly significant with regard to verbal and toy‐mediated interactions. Individual differences in the styles of maternal departure and in the reaction of the children and other adults were observed. There was a significant increase in the frequency of child‐child interactions when compared with the preceding baseline period and with reunion. The results suggest that in a closed, low stress situation the absence of the mother leads to more peer interactions.
Developmental changes in speech rate and memory span: A causal relationship?
Authors: Hulme Charles , Muir Clare
Published: July 2011

Previous experiments concerned with the development of serial recall have shown a close relationship between increases in speech rate and increases in recall. The same linear function relating recall to speech rate fits the results of subjects of widely differing ages, increases in recall being accompanied by corresponding increases in speech rate. To test the idea that increases in speech rate are a cause of increases in recall two experiments were conducted in which children were trained to increase their speech rate. Small increases in speech rate were accompanied by corresponding increases in recall, but these changes were not reliably greater than those found in children exposed to the words involved but not explicitly trained to speak faster.
Children's representation of economic inequalities: The effects of social class
Authors: Emler Nicholas , Dickinson Julie
Published: July 2011

Children aged 7 to 12 and drawn from contrasting social backgrounds made estimates of the incomes of people in different occupations and made judgements about the fairness of income differences. Middle‐class children, as compared to working‐class children, not only made higher overall estimates of income for all the occupations considered but also perceived a greater spread in incomes and a clearer division between manual and non‐manual occupations. Irrespective of their own social class background, a majority of children regarded differences in income as justified on grounds of equity. However, the middle‐class children appeared to possess a more extensive rationale for inequality and to be more committed to it. They also seemed more sensitive to other consequences of income differences. The results are discussed in terms of alternative theories of socio‐cognitive development.
Aesthetic perception of faces during infancy*
Authors: Samuels Curtis A. , Ewy Richard
Published: July 2011

This study explores the visual preferences of young infants for faces that differ with respect to their perceived attractiveness, as evaluated by adult raters. Black‐and‐white slides were presented to infants in 12 paired comparisons. Both 3‐month‐old (n = 26) and 6‐month‐old (n = 35) infants looked longer at the faces rated attractive. Pairs were constructed so that members of each pair were as similar as possible in gross physical appearance, differing only in rated attractiveness. The implications of an aesthetic sensitivity in such young infants are briefly explored.
A longitudinal study of the development of the object concept
Authors: Wishart Jennifer G. , Bower T. G. R.
Published: July 2011

Object concept development was studied longitudinally in a group of 24 infants from 12 weeks until achievement of Stage 6. Infants were tested between 12 and 28 weeks on four visual tracking tasks: a simple, unoccluded tracking task and three others, each involving a different spatial relationship in mid‐track between the object and an occluder (a screen, tunnel, or platform). Competence on manual search tasks was monitored from the age at which reaching first appeared. Understanding of the same three spatial relationships between object and occluder (behind, in and on) was tested. Early exposure to the visual tracking tasks turned out to have a substantial accelerative effect on object concept development. Both the visual and manual data collected lend more support to a three‐advance identity model of object concept development than to the traditional six‐stage Piagetian model.
Factor analyses of Bayley's Infant Behavior Record: A Dutch replication and extension
Authors: van der Meulen Bieuwe F. , Smrkovsky Miloslav
Published: July 2011

Adaptation of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development for the Dutch population has led to an examination of the ‘global dimension’ in the Infant Behavior Record (IBR). Complete protocols of the IBR were obtained for 1211 Dutch infants aged 2–30 months. Principal components analyses with rotated factors of IBR ratings for 14 ages over the entire range indicated that five factors recurred: task orientation, test affect—extraversion, activity, auditory—visual awareness and motor coordination. In addition, a sixth factor, exploration, was also prominent during the first months of life. A factor analysis of the IBR ratings pooled for all 14 ages produced the same uniformity. It is suggested that cluster scores from the IBR have clinical utility, particularly for assessing infant temperament.
The effect of travel effort on children's distance estimations
Authors: Herman James F. , Klein Christine A.
Published: July 2011

Second (mean age = 8:2), fourth (mean age = 10:2), and sixth graders (mean age = 12:2) were tested in two experiments. In Expt 1 children in the effort condition traversed a distance between two locations by walking up a hill while children in the non‐effort condition walked the same distance along level ground. They were then asked to estimate the walked distance. The condition effect was marginally significant, with the mean estimate in the non‐effort condition larger than in the effort condition. In Expt 2 children in the effort condition traversed the distance between two locations by walking and stepping through an obstacle course while children in the non‐effort condition walked the same distance without the course. They were then asked to estimate the distance and duration of the walk. There was a significant condition effect on the distance estimation task (non‐effort > effort) and this effect was more marked at younger age levels. The time estimation data suggested that only fourth and sixth graders used their perception of travel time to estimate distance. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies examining travel effort and the time—distance relationship.
Reaching in the dark to an object's remembered position: Evidence for object permanence in 5‐month‐old infants
Authors: Hood Bruce , Willatts Peter
Published: July 2011

Five‐month‐old infants were restrained from reaching for an object that was presented to the side within reaching distance. The room lights were switched off, the object was removed and the infant's hands were released. Significantly more reaches were directed towards the object's previously seen location than to a corresponding control location where no object had been presented. This finding supports the claim of Bower & Wishart that young infants show a form of object permanence, and challenges the Piagetian view that young infants are unable to represent objects that are no longer perceptually available.
Judging causal priority
Authors: Shultz Thomas R. , Altmann Esther , Asselin Jennifer
Published: July 2011

Three experiments investigated rules for judging causal priority—the determination of which of two coincident events caused the other. Results indicated that children utilized a direction of generative transmission rule from 3–4 years and rules based on temporal priority of cause and human intervention with respect to the cause from 7–8 years. Attributions of causal priority were justified primarily on the basis of generative transmission, even when no such information was perceptually available. These experiments strengthen earlier conclusions regarding the centrality of the notion of generative transmission in the child's causal reasoning.
Individual consistency in infant‐stranger encounters
Authors: Smith Peter K. , Sloboda Judith
Published: July 2011

The consistency of infant wariness to strangers was examined by arranging for each of eight infants to experience two encounters with each of eight strangers. The encounters were filmed and scored. The behaviour of the infants varied from predominantly positive to predominantly negative, but was significantly consistent across strangers, for individual infants. This consistency was present for measures of both positive and negative affect, and was taken as supportive of the ‘wariness of strangers’ construct. Male strangers produced significantly more negative affect in infants than female strangers.
Determinants of maternal behaviour towards 3‐year‐old siblings
Authors: Dunn Judy , Plomin Robert
Published: July 2011

The marked differences between siblings brought up together within the same family have been attributed to differential maternal treatment of the children. In a study of 44 sibling pairs from the Colorado Adoption Project, mothers' behaviour towards each of two siblings was videotaped in their home at 36 months of age. Mothers were found to be consistent in affectionate, verbal and controlling behaviour to the siblings, but there was no stability in mothers' verbal or controlling behaviour to the same child between 24 and 36 months. The relative consistency of the mothers towards their two children was related to maternal personality factors, child temperament, and the biological or adoptive status of the siblings. The importance of a child's developmental stage as an influence on maternal behaviour is discussed in relation to the development of differences between the siblings.
Context, conservation and the meanings of more
Authors: Moore Chris , Frye Douglas
Published: July 2011

Three experiments analysed children's performance on quantity tasks in relation to the context of the tasks and the children's understanding of the term more. The first two experiments compared the performance of 74 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds on conservation tasks in the standard context and in a modified context in which the children were led to interpret more to mean an addition rather than the observably larger of the two quantities. The children were significantly more likely to conserve in the modified context than in the standard and to focus on addition vs. appearance. Experiment 3 examined the developmental changes in the understanding of more. A total of 144 children of 4, 6 and 8 years were tested on four quantity tasks in which more could be understood in different ways. The youngest group understood more to mean an addition and were less likely to judge on the basis of appearance. Non‐conserving children at the middle and oldest ages judged according to appearance, while conservers understood more in a more flexible way. It is concluded that conservation can be best understood by examining the child's construal of the social and linguistic context.
A longitudinal semi‐cross‐sectional study of the development of mother‐child interaction
Authors: Halliday Sabrina , Leslie Julian C.
Published: July 2011

Twelve mother‐child dyads were videotaped during fortnightly 30‐minute play sessions in a playroom within the psychology laboratories. At the outset of the project the children were aged 9–29 months and they took part in the study for an average of 7.5 months. A comprehensive 42‐category coding system was developed to transcribe potentially communicative behaviour. Changes in individual category usage over the age range were identified and subjected to further analysis to discern common patterns of mother‐child interaction which coincided with changes in child category usage. Frequent paired behaviours were isolated using conditional probabilities within a transition matrix and used as a basis for a further transition matrix. This analysis was carried out cross‐sectionally across mother‐child pairs within consecutive two‐month blocks from 9 to 36 months. Common patterns of interaction were identified as those used by most mother‐child pairs within any two‐month block. Certain patterns were found to be used across the entire age range, whilst others were used only at particular ages. The majority of the more stable patterns of interaction involved imitation by the mother or child, or both, and the child's non‐verbal compliance with the mother's orders. Those interactions which showed change with age involved the child behaviours of looking, pointing, labelling, giving information, denying and affirming. Mothers' behaviours within these latter interactions included labelling, giving information, questioning, imitation with questioning, pointing and direct imitation. Interaction patterns are discussed with reference to the child's language acquisition and their usefulness as possible teaching strategies.
The influence of older siblings on the language environment of young children
Authors: Woollett Anne
Published: July 2011

The language environment of 1–2‐year‐old children was examined (i) with mothers alone and (ii) with mothers and older siblings. The presence of older siblings reduced the amount of language mothers used, their responsiveness to younger children, and younger children's verbal contribution. More verbally able children were less affected. The presence of older siblings did not influence the linguistic interaction between mothers and younger children as measured by mean length of utterance and discourse functions. Nonetheless, there was more talk between mothers and older children than between mothers and younger children. Their language was more complex, more social/interactive, with more questions, answers and feedback and less commentary on behaviour, and made greater reference to people and events beyond those immediately present. These results indicate the extent to which aspects of mothers' and children's language are dependent on their context, raising problems when generalizing about the influence of a maternal register (motherese) on children's linguistic development. They also point to the need to consider second‐order effects; the presence of older siblings creates directly and indirectly an environment which is less sensitive but is also more stimulating and provides salient models of language which are developmentally more complex.
The social and linguistic context of early number word use
Authors: Durkin Kevin , Shire Beatrice , Riem Roland , Crowther Robert D. , Rutter D. R.
Published: July 2011

Most recent studies of the emergence of counting have focused primarily on the cognitive/perceptual attainments involved. It is argued here that study of the interactive and linguistic context in which the child first experiences and uses number words is equally important to an understanding of early development in this domain. It is proposed that the overt pedagogical strategies of the parent with respect to counting, together with the inherent ambiguities and complexities of the relationship between the number lexicon and other aspects of language, present the child with potential difficulties. A longitudinal study of the spontaneous reference to numbers and counting by mothers and children (aged 9 to 36 months) reveals many uses of number words and many ambiguities in parental input, which can be seen to lead to short‐term mismatches of behaviour between participants. The data are discussed in relation to issues in the study of caregivers' speech and the mathematics‐language relationship, and it is argued that parental simplifications in different domains can lead to conflicts and contradictions in children's early linguistic and number experiences. It is speculated that conflict promotes development.
How should a cube be drawn?
Authors: Freeman N. H.
Published: July 2011

Asking children to draw a cube generates an enormous variety of types of drawing. The inference is that the task poses a severe puzzle in pictorial logic. Three problems in the way of theoretical advance are identified. Research by Cox, Moore and Deregowski & Strang is related to those problems. The conclusion is that we have genuinely new analytic techniques at our disposal for diagnosing the nature of the children's puzzlement.
Latent inhibition: A developmental study
Authors: Kaniel Sholomo , Lubow R. E.
Published: July 2011

Two latent inhibition experiments were conducted with children aged between 4.6 and 11.8 years. Experiment I sampled a middle socio‐economic class population. Within each age, there were four experimental groups which varied in the number of pre‐exposures to the stimulus that was later used as the reinforced stimulus in a discrimination learning test. Latent inhibition, i.e. poorer learning in the group pre‐exposed to the stimulus as compared with the non‐pre‐exposed group, was found to decrease with age. In Expt 2, children from a low socio‐economic level were presented with a similar design. The results were the same as in Expt 1 except that latent inhibition decreased, as a function of age, at a slower rate. In addition, when the stimulus which is subsequently used as the negative item is pre‐exposed there is no significant effect on subsequent learning in the discrimination test. The data are discussed in terms of Kendler's multi‐stage model of development and Lubow's conditioned attention theory.
Localization of an event by young infants: The effects of visual and body movement information
Authors: Meuwissen I. , McKenzie B. E.
Published: July 2011

Infants aged 8 months were trained to anticipate the occurrence of an event at a fixed spatial location that was indicated by a visual landmark. During training they were rotated from one direction of facing to another on the opposite side of the event site, so that its localization required a turn in the reverse direction. The effects of the landmark and body movement information were assessed on test trials from a third direction of facing. Looking first towards the event site and duration of looking at it were controlled by the presence of the landmark both when its localization required a turn in the opposite direction from body reorientation and in the same direction. At this age infants rely primarily on visual cues for spatial orientation.
Adult heart‐rate responses to infant cry sounds
Authors: Zeskind Philip Sanford
Published: July 2011

Thirty male and female adults who had no children of their own nor any professional experience with children listened to tape‐recorded pain cries of newborn infants who varied in their biomedical risk status. Heart‐rate responses to the cries were classified as predominantly acceleratory, deceleratory or flat in character. Whereas the pain cries of ‘normal’ low risk infants mostly elicited heart‐rate accelerations, the unusually high pitched pain cries of infants at increased risk for non‐optimal development elicited either heart‐rate accelerations or decelerations, depending on the individual listener. Independent of the direction of the cardiac response, the cries of high risk infants elicited greater absolute heart‐rate change from baseline than the cry sounds of low risk infants. These results support the findings of previous studies in which ‘normal’ pain cries were rated along one perceptual dimension describing the aversive nature of the cry sound, and the unusually high pitched pain cries were perceived along two orthogonal dimensions‐one indicating that the cry was aversive, the other that the infant sounded sick. The different heart‐rate reactions may provide the basis for differences in adult responses which influence the infant' developmental pathway.
Joint picturebook interactions of mothers and 1‐year‐old children
Authors: DeLoache Judy S. , DeMendoza Olga A. P.
Published: July 2011

One of the most common forms of interaction between parents and young children is picturebook reading. This study examined both the structure and content of picturebook interactions of 30 mothers and their 12‐, 15‐, or 18‐month‐old infants. Structural aspects of the interaction were relatively constant over the age range studied: For all three age groups the mothers controlled the interactions and took responsibility for determining which of the pictures would be talked about. The content of the interactions varied as a function of the age of the child. More active participation was demanded of older children. They were asked more questions by their mothers, and the information provided to them was more complex. For all age groups, maternal questioning was related to the mother's beliefs about her child's word knowledge; the mother was more likely to ask the child to label a picture if she thought the child knew that label. The results are interpreted in terms of the scaffolding construct. They reveal a general maternal orientation to elicit the best possible performance from the child. Several forms of maternal support are discussed.
Autism and symbolic play
Authors: Baron‐Cohen Simon
Published: July 2011

Recent work suggests autistic children are impaired in their symbolic (or pretend) play. However, such studies have either used inadequate definitions of ‘pretend’, or have not examined spontaneous play. An experiment is reported which attempts to overcome these difficulties This confirms that autistic children are severely impaired in their ability to produce pretend play, in contrast to non‐autistic retarded and normal controls. This is discussed in terms of the symbolic deficit theory (Ricks & Wing, 1975). It is argued that when a ‘symbol’ is defined as being a ‘second‐order representation’, this theory has the potential to link both the social and pretend impairments in autism. The theory awaits more adequate testing.
Cognitive processes used by children writing Logo programs
Authors: Chambers S. M.
Published: July 2011

Sternberg's (1984, 1985) componential theory was used as a theoretical framework for investigating the cognitive processes used by children of varying levels of expertise as they write Logo programs. Three kinds of processing are proposed by Sternberg: meta‐component (M), performance component (P) and knowledge acquisition component (K) processing. Sternberg proposes that M processing mediates P and K processing in novel tasks. With increasing expertise local processing systems are constructed and M processing becomes less dominant, relative to P and K processing. The subjects were 312 primary school children from levels 1 to 7 who were introduced for the first time to Logo programming during two school years. Performance measures were based on two programming tasks, a computer knowledge test, four cognitive tasks and several psychometric tests. The measures of M, P and K processing used while programming were based on planning and style of programming (M), accuracy of programming (P) and mode of programming (K). The interrelationship for M, P and K processing proposed by Sternberg was given empirical support. There was evidence of local processing by children with more expertise. The use of M, P and K processing was found to depend on the nature of the programming task and the level of programming expertise. General non‐programming skills were found to predict M processing rather than P or K processing, although the relative contribution of non‐programming skills and domain‐specific knowledge and skill was dependent on the nature of the task and the child's level of expertise. There was some evidence of enhancement of the use of the general skills due to Logo experience.
The influence of experience on children's drawings of a familiar and unfamiliar object
Authors: Moore Vanessa
Published: July 2011

It has been suggested that children copy pictures of objects less accurately than non‐object patterns of equal complexity because they are concerned to preserve properties of the object known to them in drawing (Phillips et al., 1978). This suggestion was investigated further by examining the accuracy of children's copies of outline drawings of a familiar object (a cube) and an unfamiliar nonsense object before and after controlled exposure to a three‐dimensional model of each object. Thirty 7‐year‐olds and 30 9‐year‐olds were assigned to one of two exposure conditions: VISUAL, in which the models were viewed in a standard orientation, or MANIPULATIVE, in which the models were explored manually, or to a control condition in which no models were presented. It was found that initial copies of the cube drawings were less accurate than initial copies of the nonsense object, and that children of both ages copied less accurately following exposure to both models, with no difference between the two exposure conditions. These findings suggest that minimal exposure to the properties of an object is sufficient to induce children to represent this information in drawing, even if the result is a less accurate depiction than they are capable of producing.
Effects of sex stereotypes on young children's memories, predictions and liking
Authors: Nesdale Andrew R. , McLaughlin Kari
Published: July 2011

To investigate the effect of sex stereotypes on children's memories, predictions and liking, 56 5‐year‐old and 56 10‐year‐old children were given preliminary information about a boy and girl story character indicating that the two were sex stereotype‐consistent and/or ‐inconsistent. The children then heard a story in which the two characters each displayed an equal number of sex stereotype‐consistent and ‐inconsistent traits and behaviours. The children's memory for sex‐consistent and ‐inconsistent information was then assessed, together with their predictions of future sex‐consistent behaviour and their liking for the two story characters. The results indicated that the preliminary information produced selective memory for story content consistent with each advance description. In contrast, the prediction and liking findings failed to reveal preliminary information effects. Instead, predictions and liking were influenced by the children's age and sex and the story characters' sex. The possible basis for this difference in the findings is discussed.
The role of context in young children's memory performance: Istomina revisited
Authors: Schneider Wolfgang , Brun Hedwig
Published: July 2011

According to more recent studies on memory development in young children, preschoolers and kindergarteners are able to demonstrate surprisingly good memory skills in natural as well as in laboratory‐type settings. This finding is not consistent with the results of a study by Istomina (1975), conducted in 1948, leading to the conclusion that (a) preschoolers do not use voluntary remembering, and (b) children generally recall better in play situations than in typical experimental settings. In this study, two experiments were conducted to replicate Istomina's research. In the first, it was shown that Istomina's findings were replicable when methodological problems in the procedure were ignored. Experiment 2 improved methodologically upon Istomina's experimental methods and did not produce results to support her conclusions. Four‐ and 6‐year‐olds showed voluntary memory in play activities as well as in laboratory‐type settings, and remembered equally well in both contexts. The results did not support the assumption that memory performance in young children can be substantially facilitated by motivating contexts.
Class inclusion performance: Effect of intermingling the subsets
Authors: Gold Ron
Published: July 2011

Many findings in the literature on Piaget's class inclusion task are consistent with the proposal that children's performance on the task improves if their attention is drawn to the superset and/or away from the contrast between the subsets. It would also be consistent with this proposal if intermingling the subsets improved class inclusion performance. Previous studies, however, found no such improvement. It was hypothesized that intermingling the subsets does indeed facilitate performance, and that the contrary findings were obtained because the authors concerned relied exclusively on within‐subjects analyses when comparing performance on class inclusion tasks with separated and intermingled subsets; this approach ignores the dangers posed by order effects that bring performance on similar Piagetian tasks closer together than they would otherwise be. The hypothesis was tested on a sample of 80 children (mean age 7 years 3 months) and was supported. A possible explanation for the order effects that were found is presented and the implications for other types of Piagetian studies are noted.
Perception of objects and object boundaries by 3‐month‐old infants
Authors: Kestenbaum Roberta , Termine Nancy , Spelke Elizabeth S.
Published: July 2011

Perception of object boundaries was tested by habituating infants to an arrangement of two objects and then presenting test displays in which either one object appeared in a new position, changing the two‐object configuration, or both objects appeared in new positions, preserving the two‐object configuration. If infants perceived the objects as distinct units, they were expected to look equally at the two test displays, since both displays consisted of the same units in new positions. If infants perceived each two‐object configuration as a single unit, in contrast, they were expected to look longer at the display that changed this configuration, since that display would present the infants with a unit that was new or altered. Two experiments provided evidence that objects were perceived as distinct units when they were spatially separated in depth, even if their images overlapped fully in the visual field. In contrast, objects were perceived as a single unit when they were adjacent in depth, even if the objects differed in colour, texture, and form and if both objects were stably and independently supported. Unlike adults, young infants do not appear to perceive object boundaries in accord with the Gestalt principles of similarity, good continuation, and good form, or in accord with implicit knowledge about gravity and relations of support. Infants do appear to perceive object boundaries by detecting information for the arrangement of surfaces in the three‐dimensional layout.
Visual perception and drawing ability in clumsy and normal children
Authors: Lord Richard , Hulme Charles
Published: July 2011

A previous study (Lord & Hulme, 1987) demonstrated wide‐ranging deficits in visuo‐spatial perception in clumsy children. The present study sought to examine the relationship between visual perception and drawing ability in groups of clumsy and normal children, and also to compare drawing performance in the two groups under conditions in which the availability of vision was varied. It was found that the clumsy children performed more poorly than the controls on the visual discrimination, and several measures of drawing performance, and that perceptual performance was related to drawing ability in the clumsy children, but not in the control children.
Parental mediators of the genetic relationship between home environment and infant mental development
Authors: Bergeman C. S. , Plomin Robert
Published: July 2011

Correlations between environmental measures and infant development have been shown to involve genetic as well as environmental components, as indicated by environment‐development correlations in non‐adoptive families that are greater than correlations in adoptive families. The goal of the present analysis was to search for aspects of parental behaviour that underlie genetic mediation of environment‐development relationships. Analyses focused on Bayley MDI scores at 2 years of age as a measure of developmental outcome, and the HOME as an environmental measure in a study of 233 adoptive families and 227 matched non‐adoptive families. Surprisingly, the results indicated that partialling out parental SES, education, IQ, specific cognitive abilities, and major dimensions of personality had little effect on the HOME‐Bayley relationship in either non‐adoptive or adoptive families. From these analyses we conclude that the parental factor which genetically mediates this relationship must be a genetically influenced factor which is not related to these traditional measures. Criteria are offered to guide the search for parental factors that can explain genetic mediation of the HOME‐Bayley relationship.
Children's use of analogy in learning to spell
Authors: Goswami Usha
Published: July 2011

While recent work has shown that young children can use analogies to read new words from an early age (e.g. using ‘beak’ to read ‘peak’ Goswami, 1986), it has been suggested that orthographic analogies are not made in spelling until later in development (Campbell, 1985; Marsh & Desberg, 1983). Exp 1 showed that this was not the case, as children at the beginning stages of learning to spell (7 years) could make analogies from a clue word to new words. Exp 2 examined whether analogies in spelling could also be made from stored spelling knowledge. Two subsidiary questions were also considered: whether spelling‐sound consistency would affect children's use of analogy, as it does in reading (Goswami, 1987, in press), and how children decide whether an analogy in spelling is appropriate: while an analogy from ‘beak’ to ‘peak’ is valid in spelling, one from ‘beak’ to ‘meek’ is not. It is suggested that children may use their reading knowledge to decide whether an analogy is appropriate in spelling.
Moral and cognitive reasoning features in cogenitally blind children: Comparisons with the sighted
Authors: Markoulis Diomides
Published: July 2011

Moral and cognitive reasoning (within the Piagetian theory) aspects of congenitally blind children ranging in age from 6 to 12 years were examined and compared with those of a sighted sample, matched in age and socio‐economic background. The results of the study show that moral and cognitive development in the congenitally blind proceeds at a slower rate, but the developmental lag in the moral domain does not apply to all moral reasoning features examined. The dimension of retributive vs. distributive justice, for example, seems to develop in the same manner in the two samples. Regarding the prerequisite relationships between cognitive and moral development, the reciprocal interaction prediction was the more powerful for the sighted children, whereas for their blind counterparts, cognitive capacity seemed to exert greater influence on moral development. Possible explanations of the findings are discussed.