bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Adult Outcome of Early Behavioural Abnormalities
Authors: Clarke Ann M. , Clarke Alan D. B.
Published: March 2013

Greater constancies across time are to be expected in seriously deviant conditions compared with less abnormal development. Selective reviews are offered on adult outcomes of severe mental retardation, autism, conduct disorders, mild retardation and adjustment disorders of childhood. In the first category, a highly dependent life path is inevitable. For autism there is a small "escape rate". With conduct disorders, around half have a very poor outcome. An important prospective study of mild retardation, supported by other findings, indicated that two-thirds of those who were administratively classified as retarded in childhood, were as young adults, no longer in need of special services. Finally, adjustment disorders of childhood only rarely show continuities into adult life. Each category is heterogeneous in aetiology, and multifactorial influences commonly operate in individual cases. The presence of an organic component appears to narrow the range of reaction between constitution and environment. It seems probable that, with increasingly common social and familial disruptions, conduct disorders, mild retardation and adjustment problems will become increasingly prevalent, whereas biomedical advances are likely to reduce the incidence of severe retardation.
Very Low Birthweight: A Long-term Developmental Impairment?
Authors: Hoy Elizabeth A. , Bill John M. , Sykes Donald H.
Published: March 2013

Research with very low birthweight (VLBW) infants (≤isoog) may be broadly categorised into product and process studies. Recent product-oriented outcome studies are reviewed from the perspective of whether VLBW infants born since 1975 (when intensive care methods became relatively stabilised in effectiveness) show behavioural problems, intellectual impairment, linguistic or social deficits.

Process studies examining cognitive, social and contextual variables, differentiating VLBW and normal birthweight infants, and thought to compromise long-term outcome are then discussed.

It is argued, in the light of the conflicting evidence, that future studies need to: (1) exert greater control over the medical and psychological variables confounded with low birthweight, including the variable of social class; (2) study outcome from a life-span perspective, examining the possibility of an intergenerational cycle for at least some families; and; (3) incorporate both systems-oriented and transactional models into their designs, for the purpose not only of predicting outcome, but also ultimately for providing the most appropriate types of support for these infants.
The Origin and Development of Cognitive Abilities in Preschool Children
Authors: Venger L. A.
Published: March 2013

Abilities to use sensory standards and to construct and use model images are argued to be primary cognitive abilities, which develop in preschool children and to be based on the acquisition of different forms of socially elaborated cognitive means. Special intervention programs have been designed to enhance the development of these abilities. The results demonstrate not only a considerable improvement in the solution of different cognitive tasks but significant positive changes in neurophysiological activity.
Appearance versus Reality in Dyadic Interaction: Evidence for a Lingering Phenomenism
Authors: Russell James , Haworth Harriet M.
Published: March 2013

We investigated the strength of children's tendency to give phenomenist readings of neutral questions about object properties (e.g. "What colour are these things?") in illusory contexts. The question was whether two kinds of social pressure to produce a realist reading would mitigate this tendency. In the experimental groups, pairs of children between 4½ and 7½ years of age were presented with visual illusions. In the symmetrical conflict condition each child had an equally illusory view which contradicted the view of the partner; and in the asymmetrical conflict condition one child had an illusory view and the partner had a non-illusory view. In the first case the realist answer provided a way out of an impasse and in the second case it was in direct opposition to the phenomenist answer. The number of agreed phenomenist readings was very similar to the number of phenomenist answers given in three solo conditions, and it steadily decreased with age. However, examination of videotapes of the interactions showed that the nature of the agreed answer was not unaffected by what the children said to each other and not unaffected by (separately assessed) social dominance. The data were interpreted as evidence for a lingering phenomenism.
Psychometric Strategies of Measures of Temperament: A Methodological Critique
Authors: Windle Michael
Published: March 2013

The test construction strategies used in the development of a large number of current questionnaire measures of temperament were reviewed. The review detailed the procedures that various researchers selected to construct their measures, including the specification of the content domain of interest, the method and sequence of item selection and evaluation, and efforts to determine the dimensionality of respective measures. A critique of these temperament measures was then provided, with reference to several central concepts in psychometric theory and multivariate developmental correlational research. The selection by some test constructors of coefficient alpha as the sole criterion for inferring unidimensionality was shown to be insufficient. Differences were discussed regarding the usefulness of the principal components and common factor models to represent multivariate item response data. Conceptual clarity and empirical inter-inventory studies were suggested to assist in the identification of similarity/dissimilarity among temperament constructs proposed by different investigators. A final recommendation was that greater attention be given to cross-validation as a component in the construction process of temperament measures.
Friendship among Preschool Children
Authors: Werebe Maria José Garcia , Baudonniere Pierre Marie
Published: March 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the privileged character of interactions between preschool friends and to attempt to define the features entering into their specificity. Eighteen same-sex triads (9 male and 9 female) aged 4.0 to 5.0 were videotaped without their knowledge in a familiar room of their school without adult presence. Each triad was composed of a dyad of friends plus a third partner, all three classmates. They were observed with two sets of ten categories of matching objects. Six indices were defined: (1) holding and appropriation of objects; (2) competition to hold objects; (3) offering of objects; (4) physical proximity between partners; (5) frequency of verbalisations; (6) expressions of satisfaction. The findings confirm the principal hypothesis that the privileged character of interactions between friends is maintained in a triadic situation when a third partner is present.
Maternal Education and Cognitive Processing at Three Months as Shown by the Infants' Vocal Response to Mother vs. Stranger
Authors: Roe Kiki V. , Bronstein Robin
Published: March 2013

The main objective of this study was to examine whether infants of high education mothers show higher cognitive processing than infants of lower education mothers at age three months. Cognitive processing was assessed by the infants' differential vocal responsiveness (DVR) to mother vs. stranger, a behaviour that has been shown to relate to later intelligence. The subjects were 14 infants from highly educated mothers and 21 infants from less educated mothers. When the infants were 3 months old a female experimenter visited them in their home where the mother and the experimenterstranger each talked to the baby for three minutes. The infants' vocalisations were recorded and subsequently an independent coder assigned a DVR score to each infant by subtracting its non-distress vocal output in response to the stranger from its vocal output in response to the mother. Infants of higher education mothers were found to have significantly higher DVR scores than infants of less educated mothers.
Mothers, Fathers, and Siblings: A Comparison of Play Styles and their Influence upon Infant Cognitive Level
Authors: Teti Douglas M. , Bond Lynne A. , Gibbs Elizabeth D.
Published: March 2013

This study compared mothers, fathers, and firstborn siblings on several types of experiences created for infants during dyadic play, and examined the relationship of these experiences to infant cognitive level. Seven experiences were coded from videotapes of 69 infants in dyadic play with mothers and firstborns at 12 months, and with mothers, fathers, and firstborns at 18 months. Mothers and fathers were more alike than different in the amounts of play experiences they created, and infants experienced a more linguistically and intellectually enriched environment with parents than with firstborns. Predictive, bidirectional relationships from 12 to 18 months were found between mother-created object play and infants' sophistication of solitary object play. In addition, infants' level of play at 12 months related to firstborn-created language mastery experiences at 18 months. No predictive relationships were found for infant cognitive level as measured by the Bayley MDI. Results are discussed in light of sample characteristics.
False Beliefs About Emotion: Children's Understanding of Misleading Emotional Displays
Authors: Gross Dana , Harris Paul L.
Published: March 2013

The major goal of this study was to determine whether young children appreciate that one effect of using a display rule may be to create a false belief in another person. Fourand 6-year-old children listened to stories in which it would be appropriate for the protagonist to really feel a negative emotion. In half of the stories a reason was given for the protagonist to hide the way he or she really felt (the discrepant condition) from the other story characters; the other half contained a reason for the protagonist to show the other story characters how he or she really felt (the nondiscrepant condition). Subjects were asked to say how the main character would really feel, how the main character would look on his or her face, and how other characters in the story would think the protagonist felt, and to justify their answers. The results indicated that 6-year-old children were more accurate than 4-year-old children in judging that real and apparent emotion would not coincide in the discrepant condition and that other story characters would be misled as a result. Six-year-olds also offered more correct justifications of their responses in both story conditions. The findings are related to recent investigations of children's understanding of the appearance-reality distinction and the development of children's knowledge about how to create a false belief in another person.
Emotion and Cognition in Infancy: Facial Expressions during Contingency Learning
Authors: Sullivan Margaret Wolan , Lewis Michael
Published: March 2013

Facial expressions of 4and 6-month-old infants were coded at several points during contingency learning and contrasted with those of control subjects. Many different emotional expressions were observed and distinctive patterns of expression characterised contingent but not control subjects. Results indicated that emotion and contingency learning are closely linked in young infants and support a model of emotion and cognition as interdependent processes. Facial behaviours during learning may be valuable in conceptualising the relationship between emotional and cognitive processes in infancy.
Structural and Affective Dimensions of Play Development in Young Children with Down Syndrome
Authors: Beeghly Marjorie , Perry Bedonna Weiss , Cicchetti Dante
Published: March 2013

A comparative developmental approach was undertaken to study the play development of young children with Down syndrome and non-handicapped children during the transition from sensorimotor to representational functioning. Age-related trends in the structure of object and social play development as well as interrelationships among play maturity, cognitive functioning, and affective-social dimensions of play behaviour were considered. Although children with Down syndrome were significantly delayed in the maturity of their object and social play when compared to normal agemates, the quantity and complexity of play behaviour did not differ significantly from that of cognitively comparable non-retarded children. For both groups of children, similar developmental trends in play development were observed. Simple manipulative object play declined linearly in prevalence, whereas decontextualised symbolic play and structured social turntaking games showed a reverse trend. Despite significant differences in certain aspects of social play and interactive behaviour between groups, similar patterns of correlations among children's overall cognitive functioning and their play maturity, affective dimensions of play (quality of exploration, play engagement, positive affect), and social interactive behaviours (e.g. initiating) were observed in all children. Results attest to the coherence of play development and the organisation of symbolic behaviour during early childhood for children with Down syndrome. Implications for the use of play as a potential tool for intervention and assessment are discussed.
Models of Behaviour and the Behaviour of Models
Authors: Loehlin John C.
Published: March 2013

A model proposed by Bateson suggests that the discrepancy between an adopted child's genotype for I.0. and the adoptive parents' I.Q. should contribute negatively to the child's intellectual development. In support, he cited evidence from an adoption study that the absolute difference between birth mothers' and adoptive mothers' I.Qs is negatively correlated with adopted child's I.Q. Further confirmation of the empirical relationship is reported; however, it is pointed out that such a correlation may artefactually result from a difference in parental means, and that the formal model presents other problems as well.
Cognitive and Exemplary Modelling of Horizontality Representation on the Piagetian Water-level Task
Authors: Robert Michele , Chaperon Helene
Published: March 2013

For women who fail on the Piagetian water-level task, visual inspection and/ or verbal provision training procedures have either had no effect or led to only low to moderate improvement. The present experiment involved training within the observational learning paradigm and assessed its impact through multiple measurement. College women who failed a water-level item were selected as subjects. Pretested with different containers, they also supplied justifications to their answers and rated the certainty they associated with them. In the cognitive modelling group, a model performed part of the pretest series of horizontal water-line problems. In each first problem, she also verbalised her strategy, stressing the horizontality of the water surface and its parallelism with the surface on which the container rested. In the exemplary modelling group, the model acted identically, without voicing her strategy. In the no-modelling group, experimenter and subject chatted informally. There were two post-testing sessions, one followed immediately and the other 15 days later. Acquisition in the modelled series, as well as proximal generalisation in non-modelled but comparable series, occurred and persisted in modelling groups. In addition, enduring distal generalisation to non-modelled verticality was found in both groups, although it was higher in the exemplary modelling group. A similar pattern was obtained in justification production. However, positive correlations between post-test performance and certainty rating were infrequent. It appeared that exposure to modelled enactment of the rule-governed horizontality responses was the critical training component that fostered genuine improvement.
Physical and Verbal Aggression in Peer Groups Among Finnish Adolescent Boys and Girls
Authors: Wright Maijaliisa Rauste-von
Published: March 2013

A total of 396 15-16-year-old boys and girls were interviewed about their experiences of physical and verbal aggression in their peer group, the circumstances in which aggression had occurred, the perceived reasons for and functions of the aggressive behaviour, and their own responses to it. Clear-cut sex differences were found in most respects, especially in the case of physical aggression. It was assumed that girls experience more internal conflicts than boys in relation to the expression/inhibition of aggression, and that they hence analyse the function of aggressive behaviour in a more differentiated manner than boys do. The results were consistent with this assumption. The subjects were also asked how they would respond to (specified) frustrating situations. Aggressive modes of coping were associated with (self-reported) participation in peer-group fights, aggressive responses to such fights and to verbal aggression, and with the belief that aggressive actions are valued by peers.
Delay of Gratification in Native and White Children: A Cross-cultural Comparison
Authors: Rotenberg Ken J. , Mayer Elaine V.
Published: March 2013

The study was designed to assess whether the development of the delay of gratification found in White children is evident in Native children from an isolated Ojibwa band in northern Ontario. Initially, the Native children's reward values were assessed and from those an immediate small reward and a delayed larger reward were selected. A group of White children were similarly tested and a subsample of White children were selected whose reward values matched those of the Natives. In a second session, once the children's understanding of "one day later" had been determined, they were posed with the conventional delay of gratification task. It was found that both the Native and White children showed the acquisition of the delay of gratification with age and showed it at approximately the same rate. However, the Native children tended to show less delay of gratification than did the White children.
Temperament, Stress and Family Factors in Behavioural Adjustment of 3-5-Year-Old Children
Authors: Kyrios Michael , Prior Margot
Published: March 2013

In a longitudinal study, various aspects of the pre-schooler and his/her environment were assessed to delineate those factors most predictive of behavioural adjustment at 3-4 years of age, and again 12 months later. Factor analysis and a series of backwards stepwise multiple regression analyses facilitated the selection of variables to be included in a causal model that assessed predictors of behavioural adjustment in 3-4 and 4-5-year olds. A "stress resilience" model of temperamental influence on behavioural functioning was used in the construction of the causal model. Path analysis suggested that temperamental characteristics were most strongly causally related to children's overall behavioural adjustment, and could protect children from the effects of maladjustment in the parental subsystem. According to the path model, the direct effect of parental maladjustment on pre-schoolers' behavioural adjustment was outweighed by its indirect effects, particularly at follow-up. The potential contaminating influence of parental maladjustment on their perceptions of children's temperament and behaviour, as well as the content and construct overlap between temperament and behavioural measures, was considered.
From Cost-Perception to Gain-Construction: Toward a Piagetian Explanation of the Development of Altruism in Children
Authors: Lourengo Orlando M.
Published: March 2013

This study provides some data to help explain the development of altruism in children in accordance with a theoretical perspective which integrates the two micromodels Piaget used successively to account for the child's transition from intuitive or preoperational to reversible or operational thought. One of those models is guided by games theory and involves a cost-gain evaluation. The other is based on equilibration theory, and hence on the priority of affirmation over negation before the child attains the compensatory equilibrium of operational logic. On the basis of this theoretical perspective, it is hypothesised that children are more likely with age to consider altruistic acts in terms of gain-gain-construction than in terms of cost-cost-perception. Ninety children (30 5-6 years old, 30 8-9 years old, and 30 11-12 years old) were individually tested. They listened to a story describing two hypothetical actions: one altruistic (comforting), the other egoistic (not comforting). Children were then asked some questions concerning their cost-perception/ gain-construction in these actions. Results showed that children were more likely with age to consider the altruistic act in terms of gain-construction (negation) than in terms of cost-perception (affirmation). Although the findings of this research strengthen the possibility of seeing the development of altruism in children in accordance with the two aforementioned Piagetian micromodels, the paper concludes with a cautious interpretation of the results and calls for further empirical and conceptual efforts.
Interactive Problem-solving of Gifted and Non-gifted Preschoolers With Their Mothers
Authors: Moss Ellen , Strayer F. F.
Published: March 2013

This study investigated differences in the verbal interactions of 14 gifted and 14 average-ability preschoolers and their mothers during three problemsolving tasks. Results indicated that mothers of gifted children were significantly more likely to encourage metacognitive strategies such as predicting consequences of intended actions, monitoring the ongoing activity and reality testing. Mothers of average children provided more direct solutions and talked more about child non-task behaviour. Gifted children showed greater verbal fluency and focused more often on multiple problem components but their verbal behaviour did not suggest child differences in autonomous metacognitive functioning. Sequential analyses of mother-child interaction patterns indicated that gifted preschoolers primarily used metacognitive tactics after maternal modelling, but also significantly more often as responses to less direct maternal prompts, suggesting increasing skill in child use of these tactics with decreasing maternal support. In keeping with Vygotskian theory, it is argued that 4-year-olds are in a transitional phase where social factors constrain both the internalisation and the coordination of cognitive tactics necessary for the construction of more mature problemsolving strategies.
Johann Nicolas Tetens: A Forgotten Father of Developmental Psychology?
Authors: Muller-Brettel Marianne , Dixon Roger A.
Published: March 2013

After many years of apparent neglect, several recent reviews of the history of developmental psychology have identified Johann Nicolas Tetens' (1777) Philosophical Essays on Human Nature and its Development as one of the first major contributions to the field (Tetens, 1979/1777). Because Tetens has only recently re-emerged as an important figure in developmental psychology, most developmental scholars may be unaware of who he was and what he wrote about human development. In this article, we sketch Tetens' life and career, and describe his notably contemporary contributions to psychology in general, and developmental psychology in particular. We also consider the reasons that Tetens was previously forgotten. For example (a) he wrote (in German) over 200 years ago; (b) he was a contemporary of Kant, whose reputation may have overwhelmed his own; (c) he was perceived (by such influential authors as Wundt and Ebbinghaus) as a proponent of the antiquated theory of faculties; and (d) his theory was not perceived to contribute to the shift in emphasis from the study of general human capabilities to the development of concrete and practical abilities.
Development of an Ethnic Self-Definition: The Ethnic Self-Concept "Jew" Among Israeli Children
Authors: Dor-Shav Zecharia
Published: March 2013

The suggestion is made that ethnic self-definition-in this case the selfdefinition "Jew"-develops in a repeated pattern of movement from centrated to decentrated focus, according to an increasing number of units of mental capacity. It is further suggested that this identity develops according to a stagewise progression.

An original scale (JRS) for the mode of definition of the self as "Jew" is introduced, paralleling the Piagean progression from intuitive preoperations through formal operations. In a series of studies of Israeli-born children it is demonstrated that there is a correlation of 0.57 between age and the JRS, and also a correlation of 0.55 with a seven-item Piagean-type scale of cognitive tasks.

Some light is shed on the conflict, "Am I an Israeli or a Jew". Superficial differences in self-definition of religious and secular Jewish children are lessened when they are aided to eliminate logical inconsistencies in their original definitions. Implications for a theory of ethnic self-definition are explored.
Mother and Infant Activity and Interaction in France and in the United States: A Comparative Study
Authors: Bornstein Marc H. , Tamis-LeMonda Catherine S. , Pecheux Marie-Germaine , Rahn Charles W.
Published: March 2013

Infants experiences are often thought to influence social and intellectual development in the individual, and on a societal level they are sometimes credited for some of the distinctiveness that typifies cultural style. To compare and contrast the experiences of French and U.S. American infants, mother-infant dyads in Paris and in New York City were observed interacting in the natural setting of their homes. This report focuses on infants' visual attention, tactual exploration, and vocalisation and on mothers' mediated and unmediated stimulation and speech to infants. The study had two main goals: One was to identify and describe activities and interaction patterns that may be similar and different in these two Western cultures, and the other was to test the cross-cultural validity of a hypothesis that states that specific mother and infant activities relate to one another in dyadic interaction. Mothers and infants in the two cultures showed some similarities and some different emphases in their activities, and patterns of mother-infant interaction in the two cultures tended to correspond.
Existence as a Psychological Problem: Object Permanence in Adults and Preschool Children
Authors: Subbotskii E. V.
Published: March 2013

Preschool children and adults observed an instance of object discontinuity. Despite the fact that, in conversation, subjects denied the possibility of material objects that lack permanence of existence, most of them dealt with the phenomenon as if magic was involved in the transmogrification of a postage stamp. The subjective probability of belief in object discontinuity was similar to that of belief in the existence of other enigmatic phenomena, such as UFOs, parapsychological phenomena, or the Loch Ness monster. The role of adults' and children's beliefs in discontinuous objects is discussed.
Adolescent Ego Development within the Family: Family Styles and Family Sequences
Authors: Hauser Stuart T. , Houlihan John , Powers Sally I. , Jacobson Alan M. , Noam Gil G. , Weiss-Perry Bedonna , Follansbee Donna , Book Barbara K.
Published: March 2013

We describe a series of analyses that were carried out using the Constraining and Enabling Coding System (CECS). This scheme was specially constructed to identify family interactions conceptually relevant to adolescent ego development. We present results based on the application of these scales to observations of 80 families, consisting of two parents and an adolescent drawn from closely matched high school and psychiatric populations. The families are predominantly upper middle and middle class. Each family member completed the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test and then participated in a revealed-differences task, using responses to Kohlberg Moral Dilemmas as discussion stimuli. Transcripts of these audiorecorded discussions form the database for our family analyses. The family analyses were of two general types. First, we examined relations between family style and the ego development of each family member. The style analyses were based on aggregate scores for each of the enabling or constraining behaviours. After controlling for patient status, adolescent age, and family social class, adolescent and parent ego development scores contributed to explained variance in these family style behaviours. Parental style behaviours, especially of mothers, were also significantly associated with parent ego development as well as adolescent ego development. We then examined family sequences in terms of their links with adolescent ego development. Through these process-oriented analyses, we discovered that the intensity of turn taking and reciprocal enabling (mutual enabling) interactions between mothers and adolescents were significantly enhanced by the ego development of the mother. Such associations between reciprocal interactions and parental ego development were not present for mutual enabling pairings between fathers and adolescents. In our discussion we consider the importance of adding these sequence analyses to our studies, as one more way of exploring relations between family factors and adolescent development.
Intergenerational Differences in Parenting Styles and Goals
Authors: Martin Peter , Halverson Charles F. , Wampler Karen S. , Hollett-Wright Nancy
Published: March 2013

In this study we assessed intergenerational differences on parenting styles and goals. Thirty-two mothers and 28 maternal grandmothers filled out four parenting measures: The Parent Satisfaction Scale, the Childrearing Practices Report, the Parenting Goals Questionnaire, and the Self-Sufficiency Questionnaire. Although no generational differences were obtained for parenting goals, significant differences were found for self-sufficiency parenting, parent satisfaction, and on nurturance. Results indicated that grandmothers perceived children as less autonomous and placed greater emphasis on parenting as a value and on nurturance than did their daughters.
Developmental Trajectories of Substance Use in Adolescence: Differences and Predictors
Authors: Labouvie Erich W. , Pandina Robert J. , Johnson Valerie
Published: March 2013

We applied a combination of variable-centred and person-centred approaches to the analysis of data from a longitudinal study of substance use in adolescence (ages 12-18). Regression models were specified to permit a distinction between chronic differences and changes in selected risk factors. Both chronic differences and changes in risk factors were found to predict differences in use at ages 15 and 18. However, the obtained regression models were found to be least applicable to adolescents deviating most from the normative longitudinal pattern, that is, adolescents exhibiting chronically low levels of use, adolescents exhibiting chronically high levels of use, and adolescents exhibiting a sharp increase in use between the ages of 15 and 18. Furthermore, risk factors linked to small or moderate deviations and those linked to more extreme deviations from the normative pattern were only partly the same.
The Relation of Age and Social Class Factors in Children's Social Pretend Play to Cognitive and Symbolic Ability
Authors: Doyle Anna-Beth , Ceschin Flavia , Tessier Odile , Doehring Peter
Published: March 2013

The relation of social class differences in the social pretend play of five- to seven-year-old children to their cognitive skills was examined. The amount and symbolic features of social pretend play were noted in small-group freeplay sessions. Conservation, verbal symbol substitution, and role-playing skills were assessed individually as measures of cognitive symbolic skill. Middle class children engaged in more social pretend play, their pretend episodes lasted longer, and their conservation and verbal symbol substitution skills were greater. However, amount and duration of social pretend play were unrelated to conservation and verbal symbolic skills, and on the whole did not increase with age. These results provide no evidence that social class differences in social pretend play in the late preschool and early elementary school years reflect differing cognitive abilities, and have implications for pretend play training studies at this age.
Predictors of Memory in Young-old and Old-old Adults
Authors: Luszcz Mary A.
Published: March 2013

A contextualist approach was adopted to assess cognitive functioning and psychological well-being in a representative sample of young-old (60-74 years, n = 107) and old-old (75-92 years, n = 58) women and men in an effort to: (1) delineate age and gender similarities and differences within this elderly cohort; and (2) identify individual differences predictive of remembering. Measures of subjective well-being included morale, depression, and perceived control. Cognitive measures included intentional story recall and incidental symbol memory, rate of information processing, and cognitive flexibility. Health status, gender, and education were also investigated. Decrements were observed in intentional and incidental memory, rate of information processing, solution of Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, and Mini-Mental Status Examination, but not on accuracy of information processing, estimates of intelligence, well-being measures, education, or health status. The intentional story memory of women was more accurate than that of men. Education and gender, along with processing speed and mental ability, as indexed by the Raven coloured matrices, predicted story memory. These results of a representative sample validate recurrent trends seen in previous convenience samples. They extend the understanding of the relationship between ageing and cognition by identifying the role of processing resource, psychosocial, and demographic factors in modulating memory performance and highlighting methodological factors which must temper interpretation of these relationships.
Availability of Control and Preschoolers' Responses to Interadult Anger
Authors: El-Sheikh Mona , Cummings E. Mark
Published: March 2013

This study examined relations between availability of control and psychobiological and self-reported responses to interadult anger in 4-to 5 year-olds. Children heard two angry interactions between adults, followed by a reconciliation, while their heart rate, and skin conductance response, and level were monitored. Following exposure to each episode they were also interviewed regarding their responses. Control options made available to the experimental group subjects included: (1) terminating exposure to one of the arguments; and (2) proposing an intervention for an expenmenter to carry out. Children in the comparison group just listened to the interactions. The availability of control was associated with greater physiological reactivity to anger. On the other hand, children for whom control options were not available more often perceived adults as distressed and showed a decline in suggestions of control-oriented strategies over trials. The results demonstrate that, in a multi-response investigation, some dimensions of responding varied as a function of experimental manipulations of the availability of control.
The Dimensions of Peer Evaluation in Israel: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Authors: Krispin Orit , Sternberg Kathleen J. , Lamb Michael E.
Published: March 2013

The Revised Class Play (RCP), a procedure designed to assess peer evaluations, was administered to 1445 second-through seventh-grade children in Israel. Recent studies, using North American samples, revealed three reliable dimensions: Sociability-Leadership; Aggressive-Disruptive; and Sensitive-Isolated. The goal of the present study was to see whether the same three dimensions were evident when the RCP was used in Israel. The principal-components analyses revealed interesting degrees of cross-cultural convergence and divergence. The results are discussed in the context of other research on Israeli values.
Evidence for a Neo-Piagetian Stage Transition in Early Cognitive Development
Authors: Lewis Marc D. , Ash Anthony J.
Published: March 2013

Criticisms of Piaget's stage theory have led neo-Piagetians to redefine stage change as an age-related-and possibly spurt-like-shift in the level of diverse cognitive operations. This study tests a hypothesised stage shift according to this definition, using longitudinal methodology in the period of early infancy. Case's theory of development predicts a stage transition beginning at about 4 months. To test this prediction, infants' performance on a battery of six sensorimotor tasks was examined weekly as they crossed the age range between 2.5 and 5.5 months. For all tasks, a pass rate of 50% was first observed between 3.7 and 4.6 months, and task profiles showed some evidence of clustering or synchrony. In addition, onset age data indicated intra-individual synchrony in task acquisitions, suggesting discontinuous or spurt-like changes in overall development. These results are consistent with a neo-Piagetian definition of stage change, and lend support to Case's model of early cognitive development.
Social Influences on the Development of Planning in Advance and During Action
Authors: Gauvain Mary
Published: March 2013

This paper reports on a study of the development of children's planning skills with particular attention to the development of planning in advance of action as contrasted with planning during the course of action as adults and children plan together. The nature and extent of maternal assistance and child involvement during dyadic planning involving 40 mothers and their 4 or 8-year-old children, and the influence of the process of joint planning on the child's later individual planning were examined using a route planning task. In addition to planning in advance and planning-in-action, adult and child concern with the rules and organisational aspects of the task versus more strategic concerns were compared in the two ages to examine how microgenetic processes are responsive to ontogenetic development. Older children displayed more planfulness than younger children during interaction with an adult and later on their own, with the important difference being that the older children planned more during the course of action, a strategy that was related to the development of more effective plans during joint planning and to greater planfulness when children planned on their own. Mothers planning with older children were more concerned with strategy and mothers planning with younger children were more concerned with task procedures and rules, indicating that adults structure their guidance in relation to cognitive developmental needs.
Seasonal Stability and Change in Dual-earner Husbands' Psychological Responses to Work and Family Roles
Authors: Crouter Ann C. , Hawkins Alan J. , Hostetler Michelle
Published: March 2013

This short-term longitudinal study examined stability and change in dualearner husbands' psychological responses to work and family roles, as well as the correlates of these responses. A total of 104 couples, all parents of school-age children, were interviewed on three occasions: (1) during the winter months; (2) six months later, when their children were on summer vacation; and (3) the following winter. Winter and summer represent ecological contrasts in the yearly cycle of childrearing for dual-earner families with school-age children. At the group level, husbands and wives decreased their temporal involvement in work during the summer, and husbands increased their involvement in housework. Husbands' psychological responses to work and family roles, operationalised as role overload and concern with family time, were quite stable over time. Different patterns of change, however, were found for men in jobs of high vs. low prestige. Men in high prestige jobs experienced decreased overload and concern over the summer. They also decreased their involvement in work and increased their involvement in housework during the summer. Men in jobs with lower prestige remained stable on involvement in work and housework, experienced no change in role overload across the three times of measurement, and increased their concern about spending time with their families during the summer phase of measurement.
Slot-filler and Conventional Category Organisation in Young Korean Children
Authors: Yu Younoak , Nelson Katherine
Published: March 2013

Previous research has found that young English-speaking children rely on event schema knowledge in forming object categories and using them in verbal tasks. The present study examined category knowledge in young Korean children. In Experiment 1, 5and 8-year-olds produced category instances under either slot-filler or taxonomic instructions. Five-year-olds produced more instances in the slot-filler condition, whereas 8-year-olds produced more in the taxonomic condition. In Experiment 2, children were presented with a list of words composed of either slot-filler category items or taxonomic category items for either free or cued recall. For the 5-year-olds, slot-filler categories led to superior recall, higher levels of organisation, and shorter latencies than taxonomic categories in both recall conditions, and led to increased recall when script cues were provided. These findings support the view that slot-filler categories represent a closer match to the categorical structures of the young child's semantic organisation than taxonomic categories, and that slot-filler categories are combined into larger taxonomic categories as the child develops and learns.
Determinants of School Performance in Guatemala: Family Background Characteristics and Early Abilities
Authors: Gorman Kathleen S. , Pollitt Ernesto
Published: March 2013

The purpose of this study was to explore how two sets of antecedent variables contribute to variation in school enrolment and performance in four villages in rural Guatemala. Measures of preschool cognition and indicators of family socioeconomic status (maternal education level and house quality) predicted school enrolment for boys and girls. Similarly, for those who went to school, socioeconomic status and preschool abilities were associated with age-atentry, the number of grades passed and failed, and the maximum grade attained. Multivariate regression analyses indicate that preschool abilities, after controlling for indicators of family background, explain significant portions of variance in age of entry and other measures of school performance. The results are interpreted in the light of the cumulative deficit hypothesis which postulates that early environmental disadvantages increase over time. These data indicate that the school experience contributes to maintaining, rather than reducing, social class differences.
Attributions and Perceived Control over School Failure in Handicapped and Non-handicapped Children
Authors: Kunnen Saskia
Published: March 2013

Perceived control over school performances is often assessed by means of attributions of performance to "controllable" or "non-controllable" causes. We assume that this assessment method is not reliable, because it is not possible to make a general distinction between controllable and non-controllable causes. Both developmental level and experience influence the perceived controllability of the causes. Also external attributions may be perceived as controllable. Our hypotheses are: (1) that children frequently perceive failures caused by "lack of competence", "task difficulty", and "insufficient explanation by the teacher" as controllable; and (2) that children with problems in learning and concentration perceive failures caused by "effort" as non-improvable more often than control children. Both hypotheses are confirmed. This implies that assessing perceived control by assessing attributions for school performances is not a reliable method. In addition, attribution-training should not focus merely on increasing the rate of attributions to "controllable" causes, but also on the translation of these "controllable" attributions to concrete behaviour.
Planning in Context: Developmental and Situational Considerations
Authors: Scholnick Ellin Kofsky , Friedman Sarah L.
Published: March 2013

An analysis of the components of planning is presented that incorporates problem representation, goal selection, a decision to plan, strategy choice, strategy execution, and monitoring. We argue that which components are required and which developmental changes are triggered or revealed depend on the planning task. We present analyses of three tasks typically used to study planning: the Tower of Hanoi; errand scheduling; and story comprehension. We argue that the performance on the Tower of Hanoi task reflects representational and monitoring demands, and that story comprehension depends strongly on social comprehension and monitoring. Because many everyday plans like running errands have prepackaged components and take place in a less controllable environment, affective and attributional components affect most strongly the choice of goals, decision to plan, and strategy choice. We then speculate on the course of development of each processing component and the complex interplay of cognition, beliefs, attitudes, and motivation in assembling and implementing plans to handle different tasks. Finally, we consider changes across the life span in the kinds of plans that are generated.
Adapting to the Environment Across the Life Span: Different Process or Different Inputs?
Authors: Sansone Carol , Berg Cynthia A.
Published: March 2013

A model of the process through which individuals adapt to their environment across the life span is presented. The model illustrates how contextual and individual characteristics affect an individual's performance on an activity through their effects on how the individual defines the activity. Empirical support for the model is presented based on results from a life span study of everyday experiences and problems, and from a number of laboratory-based studies. The model and research emanating from the model suggests that what may appear to be developmental and individual differences in components of the problem-solving process may be explained by individual differences in activity definitions.
Adolescent Control Beliefs: Cross-cultural Variations of Primary and Secondary Orientations
Authors: Seginer Rachel , Trommsdorff Gisela , Essau Cecilia
Published: March 2013

This article reports of two studies addressing the meaning of primary and secondary control beliefs for transition to modernity and modern adolescents. Study 1 participants (N = 365) were Malaysian (transition to modernity), and German and North American (modern) adolescents. Study 2 participants ( N = 757) were Israeli Druze (transition to modernity) and Israeli Jewish (modern) adolescents. The control beliefs scales employed in the two studies drew from the primary-secondary control beliefs conceptualisation (Rothbaum, Weisz, & Snyder, 1982), shared a similar Likert-type item structure, but differed in operationalisation. Analyses tested two hypotheses: (1) the value mediation hypothesis postulated that transition to modernity adolescents will score higher on secondary control beliefs and modern adolescents will score higher on primary control beliefs; (2) the double transition hypothesis postulated that transition to modernity adolescents will score higher on both primary and secondary control beliefs. Results supported these hypotheses only partly. However, they did show clearly that transition to modernity adolescents endorsed secondary control beliefs more strongly than did modem adolescents. The discussion focuses on possible explanations of inconsistent results. It also suggests that future research should address two issues brought to light: the adaptive value of primary and secondary control beliefs; and the explanatory value of different control types. Both should be studied in historical, developmental, and cultural contexts.