bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Intelligence, Self-Concept, and Attributional Style on Metamemory and Memory Behaviour
Authors: Schneider Wolfgang , Kérkel Joachim , Weinert Franz
Published: March 2013

The influence of intelligence, self-concept, and causal attributions on metamemory and the metamemory-memory behaviour relationship in grade-school children was studied. Following the assessment of intelligence, self-concept, and causal attributions, 150 children from each of grades 3 and 5 were given a metamemory interview and a sort-recall task. Metamemory, strategy, and recall scores increased with age. Causal modelling (LISREL) analyses using latent variables were conducted to assess the effects of the constructs intelligence and "hope of success" (i.e., the attributional and self-concept variables) on metamemory and memory behaviour. Hope of success significantly influenced metamemory and memory performance in the older children, but not in third graders. However, intelligence had an impact on metamemory in all age groups. But since metamemory still had a significant direct effect on memory behaviour, the study provides support for the assumption that metamemory remains an important predictor of memory behaviour even after the influence of conceptually related constructs has been taken into account.
Considering Every Available Instance: The Early Development of a Fundamental Problem Solving Skill
Authors: Wellman Henry M. , Fabricius William V. , Chuan-Wen Wan
Published: March 2013

Two studies are reported describing the early development in two-and three-year-old children of an ability to consider every one of an array of instances. Children were tested on several tasks unlike either counting or searching tasks. Young children, by about three years of age, attempted to consider each item once and only once. They did so by employing a strategy of sequencing the instances so as to consider each in turn. Employment of this strategy became increasingly skilful over the ages studied, so that with increasing age larger problem sizes and more difficult problems were accomplished successfully. Taken together with recent studies of children's ability to count every item or search all locations for a hidden object, the data reveal early development in preschool children of a fundamental, general problemsolving skill.
Motor and Cognitive Functions of the Hand in Infancy and Childhood
Authors: Hatwell Yvette
Published: March 2013

This paper reviews recent work on the development of the perceptual information-seeking function of the hand in relation to its motor-executive function. The general argument is that from five to six months of age, i.e. when the movements of the hand begin to be systematically controlled by vision, manual haptic competences are consistently under-used and are obscured by a strong visual dominance. Although intramodal haptic discrimination and visual-tactual cross modal transfer take place very early in infancy, infants and children make poor use of their manual perceptual abilities. Consequently, their observed performance on bimodal visual-haptic tasks and in cross modal tasks do not fully support Gibson's hypothesis of amodal processing of perceptual information.
Sibling Relationships of Handicapped Children: A Review of Conceptual and Methodological Issues
Authors: Senapati Roshni , Hayes Alan
Published: March 2013

This paper reviews the literature in two areas of research on the social development of siblings. Specifically it compares and contrasts studies of sibling relationships of handicapped children with the wider literature on non-handicapped siblings. The focus is on the methodological and conceptual features which characterise research in each area, with a particular emphasis on identifying the unique contributions each can make to the advance of knowledge in developmental psychology. For the purpose of clarity in this review, the term "siblings" will refer to the non-handicapped brothers and sisters of a handicapped child, unless otherwise specified.
Interaction Between Mothers and Preschool Children when Reading a Novel and Familiar Book
Authors: Goodsitt Jan , Raitan Jayne Grady , Perlmutter Marion
Published: March 2013

Interaction between mothers and their 2-, 31/2-, and 5-year old children was examined during book reading sessions. Sixteen dyads at each age level read a novel and familiar book. Formal reading and interchange about story content increased with age and book familiarity, while labelling decreased with age and book familiarity. The results highlighted the informal teaching that takes place during early reading activity, and provide evidence that mothers adjust verbal input to their child in accord with the child's general cognitive and linguistic competence.
Leadership in Mixed-Age Children's Groups
Authors: Stright Anne L. , French Doran C.
Published: March 2013

The decision-reaching behaviour of children in mixed-age four child groups were investigated in this study of leadership. A total of 120 children were assigned to mixed-age groups that were composed of either two 7 and two 9-year-olds, or two 9 and two 11-year-old children. Children were observed as they attempted to reach consensus regarding the ordering of a set of pictures. They were videotaped, and their utterances were subsequently coded. Familiarity and developmental level were controlled by comparing 9-year-old children who were interacting with either 7 or 11-year-old children. Nine-year-old children in groups with younger peers exhibited more organisation statements, solicitations of preference, group choice suggestions, and recording, and less following than did 9-year-olds grouped with older peers. These results are consistent with previous findings and demonstrate that findings of leadership asymmetries in mixed-age groups are not artifacts of familiarity confounds. Using within group analyses it also found that older children in the mixed-age groups engaged in more organisation behaviour, solicitations of preference, and recording than did younger group members. These results are consistent with the argument that mixed-age peer interaction may be a particularly important context for the learning and practice of leadership skills.
Mothers' Interactional Style and Children's Competence at 3 Years
Authors: Jennings Kay Donahue , Connors Robin E.
Published: March 2013

This study asked how mothers' style of interaction related to their children's competence-both competence on traditional cognitive tests and competence during play. Forty-four mothers and their 3-year-old children were observed in their homes while engaged in structured and unstructured tasks and unstructured play. Maternal directiveness and affective tone were assessed, as well as maternal perceptions of their children's intrinsic motivation. At school the children were given the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and their play was observed. Results indicated that both maternal directiveness and affective tone related to children's cognition, particularly nonverbal cognition; in addition, maternal affective tone related to children's play. Theoretical models of the development of children's competence were evaluated by means of path analysis. For perceptual performance ability, direct paths of influence were found for maternal directiveness and socioeconomic status (SES); whereas for children's verbal ability, direct paths were found for maternal affective tone, maternal perceptions, and SES. Direct paths of influence were also found from maternal affective tone and directiveness to children's play.
Toddlers' Everyday Experiences as Related to Preceding Mental and Emotional Disposition and Their Relationship to Subsequent Mental and Motivational Development: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study
Authors: Spangler Gottfried
Published: March 2013

The aims of the study were (1) to assess the relationship between children's everyday experiences and preceding mental and emotional disposition; (2) to describe the relationships between children's experiences and the children's mental and motivational development; (3) to derive hypotheses about the transactional connections between individual disposition, quality of experience, and mental and motivational development. Mental development and emotional disposition of 24 children were assessed at 12 months. During the second year type and quality of children's everyday experiences were repeatedly observed at home. At 24 months mental development was assessed again. In addition, children's motivation was observed during free play. The results reveal a transactional process for the mental and motivational development during the second year. Type and quality of children's everyday experiences were related to their individual mental and emotional disposition. In addition, level and quality of experiences were associated with subsequent mental and motivational development.
Social Change and Equilibration of Cognitive Structures: The Role of Schooling and Urbanisation
Authors: Lalo A.
Published: March 2013

Two different strategies of cognitive development are proposed. Sevento thirteen-year-old Senegalese children who do not attend school are argued to have a mode of thinking which emphasises "pseudo-empirical abstraction", whereas schooling would encourage a more operational way of thinking which emphasises "reflective abstraction". For school children the acquisition of the different physical quantities is dissociated and gradual, hence the emergence of horizontal decalage. For unschooled children the differentiation of these notions does not appear to depend on generalisation of the conservation of quantity of matter to the areas of weight and volume; there seems to occur a simultaneous differentiation and finally isomorphism between the mechanisms responsible for these different conservations.
Consistency-based Compliance in Children: When and Why Do Consistency Procedures Have Immediate Effects?
Authors: Eisenberg Nancy , Cialdini Robert B. , McCreath Heather , Shell Rita
Published: March 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and development of behavioural consistency pressures in children. Specifically, the effectiveness of the foot-in-the-door procedure on subsequent verbally reported prosocial intentions and enacted intentions was examined with preschoolers/kindergarters, second, and fifth graders. Children were either induced to comply with a request to share prize coupons or were not given this initial prosocial experience. Those who were induced to comply either were or were not labelled as helpful by an adult. Immediately, after, children were asked to indicate how they would behave in a number of situations in which prosocial behaviour was an option, and to enact two such situations behaviourally. Moreover, children's understanding of trait stability, their internal preference for consistent behaviour, and their belief that adults prefer behavioural consistency were assessed. The foot-in-the-door procedure resulted in consistent responding for children with a basic understanding of traits. Further, for girls, its strength was significantly affected by the children's internal preference for consistency. In addition, the ability to label traits was positively associated with young children's verbally reported prosocial behaviour and young girls' enacted behaviour. The findings are interpreted as supporting the view that both socio-cognitive and motivational factors moderate the immediate effects of the foot-in-the-door procedure on the report and enactment of positive behaviours.
Temperament and the Developing Relationship Between Siblings
Authors: Munn Penny , Dunn Judy
Published: March 2013

Developmental changes in the relationship between young siblings were studied by examining the changing contributions of first and second-born children to sibling interactions. The contribution of temperament was examined by analysing the relations between dyadic sibling interactions and both individual and comparative measures of the children's temperament. Observational measures of sibling conflict and play interactions, and mothers' ratings of temperament were collected when the younger children were 2 years old, and again a year later. Dyadic measures of sibling interaction showed little change over time, whereas individual measures of behaviour showed changes in the nature of interactions consistent with developments in the younger child during this time. Dyadic measures of interaction showed no sex differences, and no associations with sibling age difference, whereas the temperament ratings at both times showed associations with these measures. Furthermore, differences in temperament scores (the comparative measure) were strongly associated with conflict. The role of conflict and the changing nature of sibling relationships is discussed.
A Transitional Period in the Development of the Appearance-Reality Distinction
Authors: Flavell John H. , Flavell Eleanor R. , Green Frances L.
Published: March 2013

In this study we tested two related hypotheses about 5-year-olds' competencies concerning the appearance-reality distinction: (a) although they clearly have developed some understanding of the distinction by this age, they are not as sensitive to it as adults are, and consequently require more prompting to access and use it; (b) they are more apt than adults to construe an object currently viewed under illusory conditions non-hierarchically and successively as A (how it presently appears) now and R (how it really is) at other times, rather than hierarchically and simultaneously as A in appearance now and R in reality now. Five-year-olds and adults watched the experimenter change the apparent shape, colour, and size of different objects; for example, she caused a straight stick to look bent by displaying it behind a prism. Consistent with the first hypothesis, the children were more apt than the adults to say, prior to any mention of appearance vs. reality, that the displayed stick "is" bent and "is" a different shape from before. Consistent with the second hypothesis, they were also likelier to think that "right now, for real" the stick "is" bent, even after having previously given correct answers to appearance questions and to similar reality questions that did not contain the "right now" phrase. These results suggest that there is a transitional period in the development of the appearance-reality distinction that begins around 5 years of age.
Rethinking the Acquisition of Kinship Terms
Authors: Hirschfeld Lawrence A.
Published: March 2013

This paper reconsiders the predominant views on the acquisition of kinship terms and challenges the argument that the ontogenesis of these terms reflects global processes of semantic development in which weakly constrained initial representations evolve in discreet stages toward mature representations. Instead, through a re-examination of existing experimental data, an alternative account of kinship acquisition is offered which attributes to the child a significantly greater native conceptual sophistication and argues that age-dependent advances in kinship semantics are constrained by a priori hypotheses the child maintains about human beings in groups rather than through changes in the capacity to handle logical relations or semantic features.
Getting Mad at Mom and Dad: Children's Changing Views of Family Conflict
Authors: Fisher Celia B. , Johnson Barbara Lisa
Published: March 2013

Family conflict is an inevitable outgrowth of the social and psychological differences intrinsic to lineage relationships. The present work demonstrates that a blending of family sociology and social cognitive perspectives leads to a fuller understanding of developmental changes in children's reports of intergenerational conflict. Statements from stories on family conflict told by 192 children from grades 2, 5, 8, 10, and freshman college were coded using six conflict categories derived from Bengtson's model of intergenerational solidarity and Selman and Youniss' work on the development of interpersonal understanding. In general, family conflict themes of childhood were concerned with failure of children to fulfil social obligations, the inadequacy of parental helping behaviours and, to a lesser degree, children's disappointment in the frequency of parent-child association. In adolescence, family conflict themes emerged that reflected concern with failure of parents to provide affectional support, the inadequate fulfilment of both filial and parental role expectations, and lack of consensus on familial and societal values.
Young Children's Painting of the Sky and the Ground
Authors: Lewis Vicky
Published: March 2013

Young children often leave a gap between the sky and the horizon in their drawings and paintings. Study 1 examined the landscape paintings of a group of 45 7-10-year-old children and found the children leaving an air gap to be significantly younger than those painting the sky to the horizon. In addition the omission of the air gap was associated with the use of devices to represent three-dimensional space in two dimensions. In Study 2 a group of 7-8-year old chldren painted landscapes on two occasions separated by 7-7.5 months. This study suggested that there are a series of stages between leaving a gap and painting the sky to meet the horizon. It is concluded that painting the sky to meet the horizon may be one of several strategies for representing three-dimensional space, which develops over the age range studied.
Gender Stereotyping in Singaporean Children
Authors: Ward Colleen
Published: March 2013

To examine the pattern of gender stereotyping in Singaporean children, 40 5year-old and 40 8-year-old subjects were administered the Sex Stereotype Measurement II (SSMII). Although a 2 (subject sex) x 2 (stereotype sex) x 2 (age) analysis of variance revealed that overall the male stereotype was better recognised than the female stereotype and that own-sex rather than opposite-sex stereotypes were more familiar, these findings were qualified by a third-order interaction with age. These data were also compared with SSMII children's data from 24 countries, indicating that Singaporean 5-yearolds produced high stereotype scores but that 8-year-olds fell within a median range.
The Role of Peers' Gender in Children's Naturally Occurring Interest in Toys
Authors: Shell Rita , Eisenberg Nancy
Published: March 2013

The purpose of the present study was to examine naturalistically the role of same-sex and other-sex peers' contemporaneous and prior attention to toys in preschoolers' subsequent engagement with, and disengagement from, non-gender-typed toys. Contemporaneous peer involvement was significantly associated with children's toy adoption; cumulative peer involvement was not significantly related to attention to toys once the effects of contemporaneous peer involvement were controlled. Both the proportion and the absolute number of same-sex peers were higher when children initially became engaged with the toys than when they were close to the toys but did not attend to them. Moreover, for boys, there were more other-sex peers attending to the toys when children ceased involvement with the toys than when they initially became interested in the toy. The implications of the data for understanding the role of peer interaction in gender-stereotypic interest in toys are discussed.
On Metamemory-Memory Relationship: Strategy Availability and Training
Authors: Cornoldi Cesare , Gobbo Camilla , Mazzoni Giuliana
Published: March 2013

In the present study, a metamemory assessment procedure measuring a general level of metamemory was proposed. The procedure used a storyplot type of structure. On the basis of the metamemory score, different age group children were divided into high and low metamemory subgroups. In Experiment 1, the performance of high metamemory and low metamemory children differed significantly when the demand of the memory task fell within children's knowledge of memory, supporting the validity of the procedure. It did not differ in Experiment 2, when the memory task required the use of a more sophisticated strategy, where knowledge was not tapped through the metamemory task. Moreover, while telling children which strategy had to be used did not differentiate the performance of the two metamemory groups, giving children a practice training on the use of the strategy (Experiment 3) differentiated high and low metamemory children in terms of their ability to generalise the use of the strategy through a near-transfer memory task.
Multimethod Assessment of Infant Temperament: Mother Questionnaire and Mother and Observer Reports evaluated and compared at Five Months using the Infant Temperament Measure
Authors: Bornstein Marc H. , Gaughran Jane M. , Segul Ivelisse
Published: March 2013

This study of infant temperament had two goals. The first was to develop a design that allowed comparisons of global maternal opinion assessed via questionnaire, maternal report on direct observation, and observer report on direct observation of the same infant temperament behaviours. The second goal was to evaluate a common set of behaviours consensually thought to index temperament from these diverse perspectives. To meet these goals, individual variation, short-term stability, and convergence between mother and observer for a single series of temperament items were examined. On two home visits spaced six days apart, observers recorded infant behaviours during a structured series of vignettes, and mothers reported on those behaviours. Mothers also completed questionnaires corresponding to these assessments before the first and after the second home visit. Infants were five months old. Items were collected in the Infant Temperament Measure. Behavioural items in observational forms of the ITM proved psychometrically adequate; they showed both individual variation and short-term stability. No agreement between mother ratings made before and after the home visits with observer assessments was found, but mother-observer agreement for assessments based on the home visits was significant, if moderate. Mother and observer each showed overall reliability between the two home visits, and mothers showed moderate to high agreement in global ratings across the assessment series.
Change and Stability in Self during the Transition to Retirement: An Intraindividual Study using P-technique Factor Analysis
Authors: Hooker Karen
Published: March 2013

This study determined the extent to which there was intraindividual change and stability in the self during the retirement transition, and examined the extent to which dimensions of variability were replicable across older adults. This study employed a single-subject design with multiple replications in order to examine interindividual similarities and differences in intraindividual change patterns. Data were collected from four people daily, beginning approximately one month prior to the retirement event and continuing until three months after the event. For each individual P-technique factor analyses showed three to four dimensions of variability. Stability in the self was also manifested, although there were large individual differences in the amount of stability exhibited. Although similar factors could be identified across individuals, the factors did not appear to be identical. The discussion focuses on the nature of change and stability in self when conceptualised and measured from an intraindividual perspective.
Political Socialisation and Parental Values in the People's Republic of China
Authors: Lee Lee C. , Zhan Ginny Q.
Published: March 2013

The present research addresses the question of whether the political socialisation of one's youth is related to personal values during adulthood and how such acquired values in turn influence one's socialisation ideals for the next generation. Specifically, it examines the content of societal mandates of the People's Republic of China as conveyed in the mass media during the 1950s and early 1960s and the expressed values of a group of parents who grew up during that period, experienced the Cultural Revolution during their late teens and early twenties, married during the post-Cultural Revolution period, and had a child in daycare or preschool in 1981 and 1982. The mandates of political socialisation was assessed by content analyses of an official youth magazine published during the 1950s and early 1960s. Parental values were attained from responses to a 1981-82 parent questionnaire. The results were examined within the societal contexts of the two periods under study. The findings indicate that parents of this study, on the whole, expressed values that differentially reflect the content of political socialisation of their youth. Moral and work/study values, particularly those that are rooted in traditional China and those that were apolitical appeared in the lexicon of values during adulthood, whereas the political values mandated by the leadership of their youth were absent from the parents' lexicon of values. Included in the lexicon of parental values were items that were not linked to any of the values of the 1950s and early 1960s era but appear to reflect the changing context of contemporary China. The societal changes in the 1980s People's Republic of China appear to have also influenced parents' expectations for their children.
Language and Play at One Year: A Comparison of Toddlers and Mothers in the United States and Japan
Authors: Tamis-LeMonda Catherine S. , Bornstein Marc H. , Cyphers Lisa , Toda Sueko , Ogino Misako
Published: March 2013

The present study compared American and Japanese toddlers and their mothers on dimensions of language and play when the toddlers were 13 months of age. In both cultures and in both domains, individual variation in toddlers was associated with individual variation in mothers. In general, the frequency and variance of language and play activities were similar in the two groups. However, two notable cultural differences emerged. American toddlers were more advanced in both their productive and receptive vocabularies, and this cultural difference was matched by the tendency for American mothers to label and desciibe properties, objects, and events in the environment more frequently. In contrast, Japanese toddlers were more advanced on symbolic play, and their advanced play was matched by more advanced play in Japanese mothers, particularly for "other-directed" acts of pretence. These findings suggest that during this early period of symbolic development, as expressed through language and play, American and Japanese dyads emphasise different modes of representation and do so in ways that accord with traditional cultural concerns.
Childrearing Patterns in Japan and the United States: A Cluster Analytic Study
Authors: Power Thomas G. , Kobayashi-Winata Hiroko , Kelley Michelle L.
Published: March 2013

To investigate cultural and individual differences in early socialisation patterns, middle class mothers of 3-to 6-year-old children from Japan and the United States (n = 282) completed a recently developed and validated parenting questionnaire. Results showed that mothers from the United States expected their children to follow more rules than did Japanese mothers, but also reported giving children more input into the socialisation process. Mothers from the United States reported responding more often to child misbehaviour with material/social consequences. Japanese mothers made many fewer demands at this early age, reported being less nurturant, and were more likely to report reasoning with and scolding their child. However, Japanese were more likely than U.S. mothers to report using physical punishment in situations where the child showed disrespect for adult authority. Cluster analyses revealed childrearing patterns similar to Baumrind's (1967) authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian styles among the mothers from the United States and predominantly indulgent and strict styles among the Japanese. The Westernisation of Japanese childrearing practices was evident upon inspection of the cultural make-up of the parenting clusters. Although less than 5% of U.S. mothers showed a Japanese child-rearing style, nearly one-quarter of the Japanese mothers showed a "U.S." style—generally either permissive or authoritative.
Children's Judgements of Emotion Following Moral Transgression
Authors: Murgatroyd S. J. , Robinson E. J.
Published: March 2013

The aim of this research was to examine contradictions between three published accounts of age-related changes in children's judgements of the emotion experienced by a wrongdoer: accounts by Barden, Zelco, Duncan, and Masters (1980), Nunner-Winkler and Sodian (1988), and Harter and Whitesell (1989). We report three studies involving children aged between 4 and 10 years who watched dolls enacting scenes involving a wrongdoer and then judged how that doll felt, and one involving adults who made an emotion attribution for story characters. Contrary to Harter and Whitesell, many children did judge a wrongdoer to feel happy, but contrary to Barden et al. and to Nunner-Winkler and Sodian, the incidence of happy judgements did not decline with age, and they remained even among adults. Contrary to Barden et al., "happy" judgements were no less common when children believed their teacher was going to see their answers. Contrary to Harter and Whitesell and to Barden et al., judgements of "sad" rather than "scared" were given by some young children. The developmental picture remains unclear.
Individual Change in Perceived Control over 20 Years
Authors: Gatz Margaret , Karel Michele J.
Published: March 2013

Perceptions of personal control were studied in 1267 individuals who represented four generations of families participating in a large longitudinal study spanning 1971 to 1991. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential analytic strategies were employed. Over 20 years, mean levels of personal control became more internal in the 560 respondents who participated at all four times of measurement, probably as a reflection of contextual factors in the culture. Developmental changes toward greater internality were indicated for young adults as they progressed into middle age. Cross-sectional differences in middle-aged and older adults did not appear to represent developmental differences. The oldest generation of women was consistently the most external subgroup, suggesting a cohort effect reflective of their socio-historical reality.
Maternal Education and Maternal Behaviour in Mexico: Implications for the Changing Characteristics of Mexican Immigrants to the United States
Authors: Uribe F. Medardo Tapia , LeVine Robert A. , LeVine Sarah E.
Published: March 2013

This article summarises findings of research designed to shed light on the mechanisms by which female schooling changes atttitudes to childbearing and childrearing in Mexico. The data reported come primarily from a 1987 survey in the rural Mexican town of Tilzapotla in the state of Morelos. Subsidiary data come from a later survey in 1990 and from a survey and home observations carried out in 1983 in the urban area of Cuernavaca. Conditions of childbearing and childrearing in Tilzapotla and Cuernavaca are relevant to these issues among Mexican immigrants in the United States because these communities are among many in Mexico from which Mexican immigrants to the United States originate. Together the results indicate that increases in maternal schooling lead to more prenatal care, more use of contraception, and smaller family size. The studies indicate that the pathways by which these effects are achieved relate to the emphasis that schools place on verbal interaction and decontextualised language use. This communication model presented in school by the teacher subsequently influences the way the schooled mother deals with her own children, with mass media, and with the health care system. The overall level of education in Tilzapotla, as in the rest of Mexico, has been rising over the last two decades. Current Mexican immigrants to the United States therefore arrive with higher levels of education than was the case 20 or 30 years ago. As a consequence, findings concerning the effects of maternal education on childbearing and childrearing imply that mothers currently immigrating from Mexico will more frequently have the childbearing and childrearing attitudes, skills, and practices of the more highly educated Mexican mothers in our studies than was the case in past decades of immigration.
Work and Love: Their Relationship in Adulthood
Authors: Merriam Sharan B. , Clark M. Carolyn
Published: March 2013

The ability to work and to love, according to Freud, is what defines a healthy adult. Work and love have been studied extensively, but usually separately, although recent attention has been given to how to balance the two. There has been little research, however, that focuses on the relationship of one domain to the other. The purpose of this study was to uncover the ways in which work and love relate in adult life. Qualitative data were collected from 405 adults who charted their assessment, by year, of their work and loverelated life events. These data were augmented with data from 19 in-depth interviews. Three distinct relational patterns (parallel, steady/fluctuating, and divergent) of work and love were uncovered.
Developmental Change in a Spatial Task of Attentional Capacity: An Essay Toward an Integration of Two Working Memory Models
Authors: de Ribaupierre Anik , Bailleux Christine
Published: March 2013

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the complementarity of two lines of studies on Working Memory, the neo-Piagetian models of Pascual-Leone and Case on the one hand, and Baddeley's model, on the other. After a brief summary of each model, their similarities and differences are reviewed. An empirical longitudinal study is then presented as an illustration. Four cohorts of children, aged 5, 6, 8, and 10 years on the first assessment, were examined once a year over five years, with a short-term memory task (Mr Peanut), asking for the recall of the location of coloured spots in a clown figure. Two versions were used: a unicoloured task (Peanut-P) and a multicoloured task (Peanut-C), in which subjects had to recall both positions and colours. Three aspects of the results are emphasised. First, it was found that performances in Peanut-C increased with item complexity up to a certain level, beyond which they tended to remain stable; this stability was interpreted as reflecting the limits in processing resources which are postulated by neo-Piagetian models. Secondly, a drastic diminution in the performances was observed on the fourth year, corresponding to a change in the way of responding: The task was computerised, and subjects had to answer, using a computer mouse. It is argued that the monitoring of the mouse disrupts performances because it draws on the same limited resources as the memory task. Finally, results showed that the monitoring of the mouse interferes more with the recall of positions than with the recall of colours, as could be expected if monitoring a computer mouse represents a spatial interference task. Methodological drawbacks of the studies are also discussed, and suggestions for further research indicated.
The Relationship between Speech Rate and Memory Span in Children
Authors: Henry Lucy A.
Published: March 2013

Evidence of a linear relationship between speech rate and memory span in children has been obtained in several studies (e.g. Hulme, Thomson, Muir, & Lawrence, 1984). This evidence is used to support an explanation of the development of memory span based on the working memory model (Baddeley, 1990). The model argues that speech rate is related to the amount recalled and that developmental increases in speech rate allow faster rehearsal with age and, hence, greater recall. However, the linear relationship between speech rate and memory span has generally been reported in terms of group means for speech rate and memory span rather than individual level correlations between the two variables. The present studies replicate the group relationship, but find that correlations between individual subject's speech rates and memory spans, when the effects of age are partialled out, are no longer significant. Nor was the size of the word length effect related to the difference in speech rate between short and long words. It is argued that the group mean relationship between speech rate and memory span is clear and replicable, but that the speech rates of individual children are not good predictors of those children's memory spans. The implications of these results for the working memory explanation of span development are discussed.
Working Memory and Reading: A Life-span Perspective
Authors: Siegel Linda S.
Published: March 2013

The relationships among working memory, memory span, and reading skills were studied in 1266 individuals, aged 6-49. They were administered tests of word recognition, pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, a working memory (listening span) task that required the simultaneous processing of syntax and the recall of linguistic information, and a short-term memory task that required the recall of rhyming or nonrhyming letters presented visually. The results indicated that there is a gradual growth in the development of working memory skills from ages 6 to 19 and a gradual decline after adolescence. The short-term memory task did not show a decline in performance among older individuals. On both of these memory tasks and at most of the age levels, individuals with a reading disability performed at significantly lower levels than individuals with normal reading skills. An important component of the development of reading skills appears to be memory for verbal information. Age-related declines in memory appear to be related to the processing demands of the task, which may affect the degree to which rehearsal strategies are possible within the task.
Do Children acquire Concepts for Complex Emotions Abruptly?
Authors: Russell James A. , Paris Faye A.
Published: March 2013

Two studies are reported on the question of whether children acquire concepts for more complex emotions, such as jealousy and pride, in an all-or-nothing manner rather than feature by feature. In the first study, 96 children between 4 and 7 years of age were asked to describe situations that would evoke happiness, pride, gratitude, shame, worry, and jealousy. Children were also asked whether each emotion felt good or bad. In the second study, 4 and 5-year-olds rated the same emotions for feelings of pleasure and arousal. Together, the results suggested that before a complete concept, children attain a partial conceptualisation of each complex emotion: They understand the pleasure and arousal associated with the emotion, but have no knowledge of the kind of situation that evokes it. Even 4-year-olds knew the pleasure and arousal associated with pride, gratitude, shame, worry, and jealousy-thus demonstrating that children's understanding quickly moves beyond the simpler emotions.
Only Children and Sibling Children in Urban China: A Re-examination
Authors: Chen Xinyin , Rubin Kenneth H. , Li Bo-shu
Published: March 2013

Four hundred and ninety-eight only children and 67 sibling children, aged 8 and 10 years of old, residing in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, were administered a peer assessment measure of social behaviour and a sociometric nomination measure of peer acceptance. Teachers were requested to complete a behavioural rating scale for each participant. Data concerning children's academic achievement, normative school behaviour, and excellent scholarship (honourship) were obtained from the school administrative records. Unlike previous reports (e.g. Jiao, Ji, & Jing, 1986; Tao & Chiu, 1985), the results of the present study indicated that there were nonsignificant differences between only children and sibling children in urban China in the areas of social behaviour, peer relationships, school-related social competence, and academic achievement. The difference in results reported in the present and earlier studies may be the result of social-historical changes in recent years.
The Psychological State of Holocaust Survivors' Offspring: An Epidemiological and Psychodiagnostic Study
Authors: Rieck Miriam
Published: March 2013

A review of the psychological literature dealing with the emotional state of Holocaust survivors' offspring (HSO) has yielded conflicting evidence. Whereas clinicians describe HSO as emotionally scarred, and tend to generalise their findings to the population of HSO at large, controlled studies do not lend support to these generalisations, and do not demonstrate widespread psychopathology among HSO. However, the relative frequency of psychological problems among HSO has not been systematically investigated. Nor has the possible existence of a latent vulnerability been investigated. In the present study, the frequency of emotional problems among Holocaust survivors' offspring and their psychodiagnostic patterns were investigated. Holocaust survivors' off spring, aged 5-16 years, did not demonstrate more emotional, behavioural or learning problems than did controls. Moreover, HSO of fathers with low levels of education were referred to a psychoeducational service significantly less frequently than were comparable controls. On psychodiagnostic tests HSO did not show more signs of emotional vulnerability than did controls. Generally, HSO were indistinguishable from controls on all measures, demonstrating good adaptation.
Children's and Adolescents' Response to the Prospect of Nuclear War: A Review
Authors: Boyd Brenda J. , Wallinga Charlotte , Skeen Patsy , Paguio Ligaya P.
Published: March 2013

A review of research examining the response of children and adolescents to the potential of nuclear war is presented. The dearth of research studying young children is discussed and the large body of research focusing on adolescents is reviewed, utilising the following major categories: (a) the early studies of the response to nuclear war; (b) knowledge of nuclear developments; (c) effect of knowledge on fear about nuclear war; (d) fears/worries about the threat of nuclear war; and (e) the effect of fear about nuclear war. Finally, the few studies which have examined the response to the threat of nuclear war within the family context are reviewed. In the final section of the paper, a critique of the existing research is presented, and recommendations for future research are offered, including methodological concerns and a theoretical approach to understanding the response to the threat of nuclear war.
Teacher, Mother, and Peer Support in the Elementary School as Protective Factors against Juvenile Delinquency
Authors: Charlebois Pierre , LeBlanc Marc , Tremblay Richard E. , Gagnon Claud , Larivée Serge
Published: March 2013

This longitudinal research was designed to study protective factors in a group of boys at risk with extreme scores of aggressiveness-hyperactivity-distractibility in kindergarten. We attempted to identify schoolrelated protective factors in the elementary school against the occurrence of delinquent acts at age 12. Previous studies had shown that teacher's and mother's teaching style, pupils' involvement in the classroom activities, and popularity in the peer group were factors with good protective potential, but the concurrent contribution to protection of all four factors in the same study has never been verified. Fifty-three boys were observed at age 8-9 and at age 10-11 during regular classroom activities. In addition, observations were carried out, subject by subject, on three pupils from the same class for control purposes and on the class teacher. Each boy was also observed during problem-solving tasks in the laboratory with his mother. Peer assessments of the boys' popularity in the peer group were available at age 8-9 and age 10-11 for 48 of the boys. Self-reported delinquency at age 12 was used as the outcome variable. A unique contribution to the protection against juvenile delinquency was found only for the teachers' interaction style. Improvement in the protective ability was a function of the cumulative effect of two years of expos re to a well-balanced interaction style. Evaluation of the combined effect of multiple protective factors showed that boys with at least three protective factors engaged less in delinquent acts than those with one or less protective factor.
Maternal Control and Two-year-olds' Compliance and Defiance
Authors: Rothbaum Fred , Crockenberg Susan
Published: March 2013

Studies of parental caregiving and child compliance/defiance have yielded inconsistent and often weak findings. In this study, we investigated whether differences in the predictive power of maternal control in relation to child behaviour varied as a function of the type of measure employed. We hypothesised that ratings of maternal behaviour would predict child behaviour better than would maternal frequencies because ratings take the child's needs into account in assessing maternal behaviour. A sample of 95 mothers and their 2-year-old children were observed in laboratory and home settings. It was found that maternal ratings and frequency counts predicted child defiance equally well within the laboratory setting. Across settings, only maternal ratings correlated with child defiance, and this correlation was significantly greater than that between maternal frequencies and child defiance. The frequencies and ratings provided evidence of convergent validity for one another as measures of quality of maternal control.
Parental Attitudes and Children's Experiences in Soccer: Correlates of Effort and Enjoyment
Authors: Averill Patricia M. , Power Thomas G.
Published: March 2013

To examine the relation between parental childrearing attitudes and children's experiences in sport, 49 families of 6-to 8-year-old male soccer players were studied. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires about their childrearing practices; children, coaches, fathers, and mothers provided information on the child's enjoyment, effort, ability, competitiveness, and/or co-operativeness. Mothers and fathers showed very different patterns of involvement in their child's soccer experience: Whereas maternal support and expectations were positively associated with the level of child enjoyment, paternal expectations and directiveness were highest when child ability or effort was low. Moreover, regardless of the actual nature of reported parental behaviour, mothers and fathers showing the highest levels of involvement had children showing the lowest level of co-operation with the coach. The findings suggest that fathers and mothers differ in the responsibility that they feel for helping the child who is experiencing difficulty in sport, and that, in some cases, fathers' attempts to help may actually undermine the child's effort and enjoyment.
The Effects of Environmentally Modulated Visual Accessibility to Caregivers on Early Peer Interactions
Authors: Legendre Alain
Published: March 2013

This study focuses on the influence of the degree of visual connections in playrooms on peer interaction between children 21 to 36 months old. In two day care centres, the arrangement of the furniture inside the playrooms were manipulated in order to compare the influence of two contrasting spatial arrangements: a visually open arrangement providing children with a high degree of visual connection within the playroom; and an arrangement with major visual boundaries partitioning the playroom. The findings show that the latter type of spatial arrangement had a negative impact on peer interactions. Conversely, when the spatial arrangement was visually open, children spent more time interacting with peers, and these peer interactions were more affiliative and less conflictual. Furthermore, the positive interactions occurred in longer episodes. These results are discussed as a function of the adaptive flexibility of 2-year-old children's competence in interacting with peers, when they have to cope with an environmental constraint that restricts the visual accessibility to adult caregivers.