Developmental and intellectual differences in frequency processing.

Criteria for defining event-frequency encoding as automatic were assessed in two experiments. Children, college students, elderly, and mentally retarded persons were compared on an on-line word-frequency task in order to evaluate the developmental-invariance and intelligence-invariance hypotheses of Hasher and Zacks (1979). There were small but significant developmental trends in remembering frequency. Practice and feedback had no effects. Consistent individual differences over the three daily tests were found. The retarded were deficient in frequency processing. A second experiment compared kindergarten through college groups, elderly, and retarded persons, using a study–test method with pictures as stimuli. Other than kindergartners there were no developmental differences, nor was the retarded group different. The differences found in Experiment 1 were attributed to differences in language skills and not frequency processing per se. The data were interpreted as supporting Hasher and Zacks' (1979, 1984) developmental- and intelligence-invariance hypotheses and meeting their criteria regarding an absence of feedback and practice effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental and individual differences in the use of the control-of-variables strategy.

48 6th and 8th graders were given 2 successive presentations of a standard Piagetian control-of-variables (COV) task. Between the 2 presentations, Ss in 4 conditions took part in an activity designed to elicit the COV strategy or to serve as a control. In a 2nd session, Ss were administered a different task requiring use of the COV strategy, a task requiring use of a different formal operations scheme (proportionality), and a measure of field independence. For older Ss, strategy use increased equally from the 1st to the 2nd presentation in all 4 conditions; for the younger Ss, strategy use increased only for 2 conditions containing a set of intervening probe questions. At both ages, "spontaneous" (i.e., 1st presentation) COV strategy users outperformed their "latent" (2nd presentation only) peers on all 3 Session 2 tasks. Latent strategy users outperformed strategy-absent Ss on the COV transfer task and on the proportionality task. Data clarify the distinction between spontaneous and latent levels of availability of a formal operations strategy. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the use of recognition memory rejection mechanisms.

The current experiment examined the use of plausibility judgments by children to reject distractors presented on yes/no recognition memory tests. Participants studied two lists of word pairs that shared either a categorical or rhyme association, which constituted the global nature of the two study conditions. During the recognition memory tests, participants were presented with distractors that were either consistent or inconsistent with the global nature of the study environment. Five-year-old children did not engage in plausibility-based rejections in either the rhyme or category condition, whereas children 7 years of age and older engaged in plausibility-based rejections in the rhyme condition. However, it was not until children were 12 years old that they engaged in plausibility-based rejections in the category condition. Such data demonstrate global gist to be necessary but insufficient for children to reject recognition test items on the basis of their plausibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in first-grade mathematics strategy use: Social and metacognitive influences.

Social and metacognitive contributors to gender differences in 1st grader's mathematics strategy use were explored. Fifty-eight children solved addition and subtraction problems individually and in groups of 3 in October, January, and May. The children's strategy use was assessed individually, as well as their metacognitive knowledge for mathematics strategies and their rationales for the use of different mathematics strategies. The children also solved addition and subtraction problems in groups. Gender differences were found: Girls were more likely to count on fingers or use counters (overt strategies); boys were more likely to use retrieval (from memory) to solve addition and subtraction problems. All children were less likely to use overt strategies and more likely to use covert strategies and retrieval in the group session. Metacognition was a significant predictor of strategy use. Social rationales for strategy use emerged at the end of the year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in study behavior.

This study is a developmental examination of strategy instruction and the context that promotes when and how strategy instruction is maximized. The 4 experimental manipulations included comparisons between 2 strategy conditions, familiar and unfamiliar text, dyad versus individual study, and 4 age groups (M?=?10.5, 14.7, 19.9, and 21.9 yrs). The 486 students from Grades 5–6, and 9–10 and 1st- and 4th-yr university were assigned randomly to 1 strategy condition (self-study or elaborative interrogation) and 1 study context (dyad or individual). Participants studied and recalled 60 facts about familiar and unfamiliar animals. Explicit instruction in elaborative interrogation promoted memory performance, especially in the younger population. Studying in dyads enhanced memory and quality of study across age. To enhance text learning performance, students should be given explicit strategy instruction and should study interactively with their peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in organization and recall: Training in the use of organizational techniques.

Used an alternating sort-recall procedure in 3 experiments to train 204 elementary school children in the use of organizational techniques as memory aids. All Ss sorted a group of words into 2–7 categories, and some Ss were required to learn the sorting patterns generated by adults. In Exp I, the semantic sophistication of a S's sorting style predicted recall performance. Further, the tendency to improve memory performance as a result of being constrained to adult sorting patterns varied with age; constrained 5th graders significantly improved their recall, whereas the recall of 3rd and 7th grade Ss was not affected by this training. However, more detailed organizational training in Exp II facilitated the recall of 3rd graders. In Exp II, it was found that the constraining procedure was not necessary for facilitation to be observed. Rather, instructions to group words on the basis of meaning were sufficient to produce improved recall. Further, improvements in sorting style accompanied all significant changes in recall. Findings are discussed in terms of a discrepancy between the information which a child has in permanent memory and that which he uses spontaneously in the context of a memorization task. The importance of input organization as a mediating factor in memory performance and development is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences and self-report of fear: A psychophysiological assessment.

Hypothesized that, because of differential social learning, females would report fear of spiders more frequently than males would but that males selected for equal self-report of fear would show greater autonomic responsivity than females to slides of spiders. Four groups of 10 undergraduates each (male and female fearful and nonfearful) were assembled. They were told to wait quietly for 10 min, after which they would see slides of tarantulas. Skin conductance level was measured during the anticipatory period and in response to each of the slides. Results confirm the hypothesis that more women would report fear than men but failed to confirm the hypothesis that there would be differential autonomic responding. Fearful Ss, irrespective of sex, showed prolonged autonomic arousal during the entire anticipatory period, whereas nonfearful Ss showed increasing autonomic arousal as the time for the 1st slide presentation approached. This finding is discussed in terms of coping theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical memory in poor and normal readers: Developmental differences in the use of category cues.

Examined whether differences between poor and normal reading children on lexical memory tasks may be attributed to semantic development, using 80 2nd and 6th graders. Ss were presented with 4 lists of taxonomic categories and were asked to recall items under (a) noncued and random conditions, with Ss instructed to recall as many items as possible and (b) cued and blocked conditions, with Ss told to recall items in a category. All Ss performed better with category cues. Group differences on category recall were more reliable at Grade 6, suggesting that facility in accessing taxonomic categories may differentiate poor and normal readers more reliably at older age levels. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the use of an abstract reference frame to infer spatial relationships.

16 2nd and 3rd graders, 16 5th and 6th graders, and 16 undergraduates were exposed to a very large, unfamiliar neighborhood. Half the Ss at each age level were shown the perimeter and then interior of the environment (P-I), and the other half were shown the interior and then perimeter (I-P). Results of subsequent testing indicate that children recalled spatial locations more accurately in the P-I condition than they did in the I-P condition, whereas younger children performed with equivalent accuracy across conditions; adults were very accurate in both conditions. These results suggest that age 11 yrs may be a critical point in development at which children benefit from perimeter knowledge of a large environment. This beneficial aspect of perimeter knowledge coincides with the onset of formal operational thought and children's ability to code and coordinate an environment in relation to abstract axes or directions defining a grid as described by Piaget and Inhelder (1967). (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental and individual differences in pure numerical estimation.

The authors examined developmental and individual differences in pure numerical estimation, the type of estimation that depends solely on knowledge of numbers. Children between kindergarten and 4th grade were asked to solve 4 types of numerical estimation problems: computational, numerosity, measurement, and number line. In Experiment 1, kindergartners and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders were presented problems involving the numbers 0-100; in Experiment 2, 2nd and 4th graders were presented problems involving the numbers 0-1,000. Parallel developmental trends, involving increasing reliance on linear representations of numbers and decreasing reliance on logarithmic ones, emerged across different types of estimation. Consistent individual differences across tasks were also apparent, and all types of estimation skill were positively related to math achievement test scores. Implications for understanding of mathematics learning in general are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in strategy use on division problems: Mental versus written computation.

Individual differences in strategy use (choice and accuracy) were analyzed. A sample of 362 Grade 6 students solved complex division problems under 2 different conditions. In the choice condition students were allowed to use either a mental or a written strategy. In the subsequent no-choice condition, they were required to use a written strategy. Latent class analysis showed that there were 3 subgroups of students with respect to pattern of strategy choices: primarily using a written strategy (more girls than boys); primarily using a mental strategy (more boys than girls); and using a written strategy on more difficult items but a mental strategy on the easier ones (almost no weak mathematical achievers). Strategy accuracies were analyzed with explanatory item response theory modeling. A between-subjects comparison in the choice condition showed that written strategies were usually more accurate than mental strategies, especially for the weak achievers. A within-subject comparison showed that the performance of students who used mental calculation on a particular item in the choice condition improved if they were required to use a written strategy in the no-choice condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the attribution of responsibility.

Investigated possible developmental differences in attributions of responsibility and causality for an interpersonal event. The procedure involved 240 male and female students from Grades 1, 3, 6, 8, and 65 college students watching videotaped scenes of a young female actress breaking a chair. Each S saw one scene from a set of 5 scenes, designed to represent F. Heider's (1958) levels of increasingly internal causation. After viewing the videotaped scene, each S was asked to make attributions of causality and "naughtiness" to the chair breaker. It was predicted that overall, Ss' attributions would show effects for Ss' grade, the level of the videotaped event, and the interaction of these 2 factors. These 3 effects were significant for the measure of causality, while for the measure of moral attribution, the 2 main effects were significant and the interaction approached significance (p?     

Developmental sex differences in global-local perceptual bias.

Previous developmental studies have indicated that boys tend to perform better than girls on tasks associated with the right hemisphere (e.g., spatial tasks), whereas girls perform better on tasks associated with the left hemisphere (e.g., verbal tasks). Extending this body of literature to what is known about hemispheric specialization of visuospatial processing, we predicted that boys would be more global than girls in their perception of visual hierarchical stimuli. Forty girls and 39 boys between the ages of 4 and 12 years were administered a perceptual judgment task previously used by Kimchi and Palmer (see record 1983-02534-001). Boys were significantly more global in their perceptual judgments than girls at all ages. Younger children of both sexes were less global than older children. Results were consistent with developmental models that suggest an early left-hemisphere advantage for girls and a right-hemisphere advantage for boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the use of distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency information for making causal attributions.

Examined developmental differences in the use of distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency information for making causal attributions. 144 1st, 3rd and 6th graders and college students were presented with brief story pairs consisting of an act manifested by an agent toward a target person. Each story in a pair was accompanied by a different level of a particular type of information (e.g., high consensus for one and low consensus for the other). Ss were asked to make causal inferences about both the agents and the targets. Results reveal significant age-related differences in the ability to use each type of information. Young children's use of distinctiveness information yielded the predicted agent attributions significantly more often than it yielded the predicted target attributions, while the reverse was true for consensus information. Findings are interpreted in terms of causal principles: Information was used in the predicted manner at a younger age when a covariation principle was required than when a discounting principle was required. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in implicit learning of spatial context.

The authors examined whether a form of implicit memory that has been unambiguously dissociated from conscious awareness--learning of spatial context on the contextual cuing task introduced by M. M. Chun and Y. Jiang (1998)--is mature in childhood as predicted by an evolutionary view of cognition. School-aged children did not show reliable learning relative to adults who performed the same version of the task or another version that slowed responses to match those of children. Thus, unreliable learning in childhood was mediated by immature implicit representations of spatial context rather than by slower baseline response speed. The present finding is inconsistent with the prediction of the evolutionary view of cognition but consistent with incomplete maturation of medial temporal lobes known to mediate contextual learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in the suppressive effects of punishment.

Used 3 levels of shock intensity (1, 2, or 3 ma.), 3 test delay periods (0, 5, or 25 days), and 25- and 100-day-old male Long-Evans hooded rats (N = 104) in a study of developmental differences in recovery from the suppressive effects of punishment. The apparatus was a Y maze with 3 discriminably different arms. After 10-14 sessions of positive reinforcement, Ss were shocked for 2 sessions each time they responded in 1 arm. Following these shock sessions, a delay was given prior to the recovery sessions. Results from the shock days indicate that the number of shocks to suppression was a function of age, intensity, and shock days. The recovery data showed that (a) recovery was an inverse function of intensity, (b) the suppressive effects of punishment were much greater for the adults than the infants at all intensities, and (c) recovery was not a function of delay periods. Results support the hypothesis that younger organisms have greater difficulty than older ones in inhibiting a response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in children's recognition memory for faces.

Tested 108 White, upper-middle-class children at 3 age levels for recognition memory of adult male faces following 3 different orienting activities at encoding. One group received standard intentional learning instructions, another group judged whether each face had a big nose, and a 3rd group judged whether each face appeared "nice." Memory improved with age, and judgments of niceness facilitated memory equally at all ages. The results pose difficulties for A. L. Brown's (1975) model of memory development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class differences in intellectual development: A Neo-Piagetian investigation.

According to a recently developed neo-Piagetian theory by J. Pascual-Leone (1969), performance on Piagetian tasks depends on 4 distinct factors: (a) the S's repertoire of task-related schemes, (b) the S's repertoire of general executive schemes, (c) the S's mental space (a maturational variable which determines the maximum number of schemes he can coordinate simultaneously), and (d) the S's degree of field independence. The present article describes 3 studies with a total of 217 upper- and lower-class 6-12 yr olds which suggest that significant social class differences exist only with regard to the 1st 2 factors. The relevance of the data for both information processing and Piagetian views of social class differences is discussed, and a neo-Piagetian interpretation of A. R. Jensen's Level I-Level II distinction is advanced. (French summary) (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)