Grammatical awareness in the spoken and written language of language-disabled children.

Two experiments examined judgment, revision, and error-identification deficits in relation to expressive language skills and morphemic errors in writing. 12 language-disabled (LND) children (aged 8 yrs 2 mo to 12 yrs 4 mo) and 11 controls (aged 6 yrs 3 mo to 6 yrs 11 mo) matched for language ability participated in Exp 1. 11 LND children (aged 9 yrs 1 mo to 12 yrs 2 mo), 11 age-matched children with no language disability, and 11 children (aged 6 yrs 2 mo to 8 yrs 0 mo) matched to LND Ss for language ability participated in Exp 2. LND Ss who did not lack expressive use of target morphemes also did not differ from language-matched Ss in their ability to (1) judge the grammaticality of spoken sentences, (2) revise them, and (3) identify errors. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition memory development in two- to four-year-olds.

Tested 32 preschool children on 2 36-item recognition lists. 8 boys and 8 girls were in each of 2 age groups; mean ages of the 2 groups were 4 yrs and 2 yrs 11 mo. No sex differences were observed. The younger Ss responded correctly 81% of the time, and the older Ss 92% of the time. A signal detection analysis revealed that this developmental difference was due to retention components, not decision components. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age- and sex-related differences in left- and right-hemisphere processing by learning disabled children.

Age and sex differences in left- and right-hemisphere processing were assessed with 2 dichotic listening tasks in a sample of 48 control and 48 learning-disabled (LD) children ranging in age from 6 yrs 9 mo to 12 yrs 4 mo. Children were presented with consonant–vowel syllables (CVs) and simple square-wave and complex square-wave tones. Neither age nor sex differences in response accuracy or lateralized processing of CV stimuli were evident for control children. Borderline significance was obtained for tonal stimuli. In contrast, CV stimuli elicited a bilateral response in younger LD children, and tonal stimuli elicited a bilateral response in all LD children. Furthermore, control children were oppositely lateralized for verbal and nonverbal stimuli, whereas LD Ss exhibited a general processing bias to the same hemisphere. These data support the theory that LD children may lack the necessary functional specialization required for lateralized processing of such stimuli. In addition, these data do not fully support the developmental invariance hypothesis and may even suggest a putative right-hemisphere or bilateral processing deficiency in LD children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential memory changes with age: Exact retrieval versus plausible inference.

Conducted 2 experiments on the use of direct retrieval and plausibility memory strategies in elderly and college-age adults. In Exp I, which used an episodic memory task, data were obtained from 49 65–80 yr old college alumni and from 58 college students who had served in a previous study by the 1st author (see record 1983-02731-001). Findings indicate that older Ss effectively used the plausibility strategy but performed more poorly than younger Ss when the direct retrieval strategy was required. Results of Exp II, using 18 college alumni (8 Ss aged 20–31 yrs, 10 Ss aged 64–75 yrs) with a semantic memory task, show that older Ss' accuracy was essentially undistinguishable from that of younger Ss as long as a plausibility judgment process produced the correct response. It is argued that careful inspection is a much more costly process for older adults than it is for young adults but that plausibility judgments and feature overlap processes are equally easy for both age groups. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's concepts of volume and flotation.

Conducted a pilot study in which children (aged 7–9 yrs and 11–13 yrs) were asked to judge which 1 out of 3 wooden blocks would float (or sink), given weight and volume information for each block relative to a block that was known to float (or sink). Analysis of explanations indicated that judgments may have been based on the size–weight illusion. An experiment exploring the basis of flotation judgments was conducted with 14 children aged 7 yrs 1 mo to 9 yrs 6 mo and 16 children aged 11 yrs 4 mo to 14 yrs 11 mo that involved a test for judgment of volume based on information integration theory. Results show that Ss aged 7–24 yrs accurately judged volume by integrating 3 dimensions—width, depth, and height—according to the multiplicative rule. A rule assessment of their flotation judgments showed no age differences in initial rule, with weight rules being most popular. However, after feedback there were marked age effects; the 7–9 yr olds abandoned their initial rule without finding an alternative, and the 11–24 yr olds were generally able to find the correct flotation rule. It is concluded that children aged 7–24 yrs can judge volume but 7–9 yr olds have difficulty with the concept of flotation, possibly because it requires mental comparison of 2 ratios, a task known to be difficult for 7–9 yr olds. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory processes in children with reading and arithmetic learning disabilities.

Examined the role of phonemic coding in short-term memory in 45 children with a reading disability, 38 children with a specific arithmetic disability, and 89 normal children, as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test. Ss, aged 7–13 yrs, were administered a series of tasks that involved the visual or auditory presentation of rhyming and nonrhyming letters and either an oral or a written response. Younger Ss (7–8 yrs) with a reading disability did not show any difference between the recall of nonrhyming and rhyming letters, whereas normal Ss of the same age did. Older reading-disabled Ss (aged 9–23 yrs), like their normal counterparts, had significantly poorer recall of rhyming as opposed to nonrhyming letters. However, their overall levels of performance were significantly lower than normals. The same pattern was found with Ss with arithmetic disabilities for the visual presentation of stimuli. For the auditory presentation of stimuli, the performance of Ss with arithmetic disabilities resembled that of normals, except at the youngest ages. Whereas a deficiency in phonological coding may characterize younger children with learning disabilities, older children with learning disabilities appear to use a phonemic code but have a more general deficit in short-term memory. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging and illusory correlation in judgments of co-occurrence.

Examined the influence of aging on illusory correlation in judgments of co-occurrence. Ten older (aged 60–76 yrs) and 10 younger (aged 17–29 yrs) Ss judged the probability of co-occurrence for events associated with preexisting expectancies after receiving nonsalient or salient information about the true probabilities of co-occurrence of the events. Results showed that when current information on event co-occurrence was not salient, preexisting expectancies strongly influenced the judgments of both younger and older Ss. However, when this information was salient, younger Ss' judgments reflected more accurate adjustment to the probabilistic relationships in the information than did older Ss' judgments. This age difference may be related to changes in memory processes that accompany increasing age and to differences in judgment processes necessitated by these changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial and verbal abilities in children's crossmodal recognition: A dual coding approach.

Conducted 2 experiments to study the relative importance of visuospatial (VSAs) and verbal referential abilities (VRAs) to 184 English-speaking children's (aged 4 yrs 11 mo to 8 yrs) crossmodal performance under imagery, naming, and control instructions. Using the Minnesota Paper Form(s) Board Test Revised, imagery instructions induced Ss to implement a visual imagery strategy that depended primarily on VSA, whereas naming instructions promoted use of a naming strategy that depended relatively more on VRA. No instructions resulted in use of a verbal/naming strategy similar to that used by naming Ss. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect and age: Cross-sectional comparisons of structure and prevalence.

The self-reports of 207 young-adult (aged 18–30 yrs), 231 middle-aged (aged 31–59 yrs), and 828 older-adult (aged 60 yrs and over) Ss were used to study the structure of affect. Affects were represented by terms included in various circumplex arrays of emotions as presented by previous investigators. A set of 46 affects was subjected to exploratory analysis, and a final set of 38 affects was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. The goodness of fit of each group's factor loadings to the hypothesized factors of positive affect, depression, anxiety–guilt, contentment, hostility, and shyness was not up to the desired .90 level, and some significant differences in factor structure were observed for each age-group comparison. There were few age differences in levels of positive affect. Depression was most frequent among younger Ss and least frequent among older Ss. Younger Ss were most often anxious and shy. Older Ss were most often content and least often hostile. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Egocentrism, empathy, and altruistic behavior in young children.

In a study with 41 children aged 3 yrs 6 mo to 8 yrs 11 mo, Ss who exhibited altruistic behavior in an experimental situation with a peer had significantly higher scores on measures of perspective taking and empathy than did Ss who did not display altruistic behavior. Results suggest that there is a significant cognitive component of altruistic behavior, specifically the ability to understand another's perspective. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inferential problem solving in young children.

Children younger than 7–8 yrs of age have been considered incapable of inferential problem solving, defined as the combination of separately acquired behavior segments in order to solve a novel problem. This lack of inferential ability has been attributed to a deficit in spontaneous mediation. The present paper reports an experiment which demonstrates that 5–6-yr-olds are capable of inferential problem solving. Ss were 40 children, aged 5 yrs, 0 mo to 5 yrs, 11 mo, who had a mean score of 105.72 on the English Picture Vocabulary Test. The finding cannot be explained by the mediation-deficit hypothesis. An alternative interpretation is offered which argues that young children's inferential performance is constrained not by an inability to integrate separate or past experiences, but by their understanding of the separate elements involved. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension-monitoring skills in learning-disabled children.

Compared comprehension-monitoring skills of learning disabled (LD) and normal elementary school children. Comprehension monitoring, the ability to evaluate one's level of understanding incoming messages, was assessed in the context of a game-learning task. Ss were 12 younger LD boys (7–8 yrs old), 12 older LD boys (9–10 yrs old), and 12 younger and 10 older normal boys matched on age and IQ. No age effects were observed. The major finding was that relative to the matched normal Ss, LD Ss were deficient in comprehension-monitoring skills. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and secondary reinforcement in 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the 1st author's cognitive theory of secondary reinforcement effects, which predicts that Ss of a preoperational age (i.e., younger than 7 yrs) should not necessarily learn responses followed by a stimulus object previously instrumental in obtaining a reward, while Ss of a postoperational age should do so. Using 24 1st and 24 5th graders in 2 learning tasks, the prediction was confirmed. Furthermore, verbal responses indicated that the logical operations that presumably influenced the behavior of the older children actually did occur. In Exp II, using 28 2nd and 15 6th graders, the training task was simplified in order to try to facilitate logical reasoning, but the behavior of the younger Ss was not affected. It is concluded that secondary reinforcement of a stimulus–response associative type has yet to be demonstrated, and that secondary reinforcement of a cognitive type is heavily dependent on reasoning ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of speech motor development in children.

Pulsed ultrasound was used to study tongue movements in the speech of 11 children, aged 3 yrs 3 mo to 11 yrs 6 mo. The stimuli were CV syllables that were produced at a normal speech rate with alternate vowels stressed. In Ss over 6 yrs of age, the pattern of tongue dorsum movement was identical to that observed in adults. For all Ss, the maximum velocity of tongue dorsum raising and lowering was correlated with the extent of the gesture. The slope of the relationship differed for stressed and unstressed vowels, although the differences were not consistent prior to age 6 yrs. For all Ss, the correlation between displacement and peak velocity was accompanied by a relatively constant interval from the initiation of the movement to the point of maximum velocity. The similarity in the tongue dorsum kinematics of children and adults is consistent with the idea that speech motor development involves a refinement of basic modes of motor operation rather than any significant change in the control of the speech apparatus. The speech data obtained are characteristic of systems that can be described by 2nd-order differential equations. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age segregation in children's social interactions.

436 children, aged 1–12 yrs, were observed at home or outdoors in a middle-income neighborhood. Across all age groups, strict age segregation was less common than was expected. Ss were with same-age peers in only 6% of the observations, with child companions who differed from them in age by at least 1 yr in 55% of the observations, with adult companions in 28% of the observations (including observations in which child companions were also present), and alone 26% of the time. Companionship with same-age peers increased with age, whereas contact with children within 2 yrs of the S's age did not vary significantly between age groups. Companionship with children more than 2 yrs younger or older than S increased until ages 7–8 yrs and then declined. Contact with adults decreased across age groups. Contrary to expectation, information obtained from adult-organized summer programs did not show more segregation by age than did that from children's spontaneous groups. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison, multiple reference groups, and the self-concepts of academically handicapped children before and after mainstreaming.

Predictions adduced from social comparison theory and group reference theory were tested in 2 experiments that assessed the impact of half-day integration into the educational mainstream on the self-concepts of academically handicapped children. In Exp I (50 Ss, 6 yrs 2 mo to 10 yrs 10 mo old), mainstreamed Ss exhibited significantly augmented self-concepts, a result attributed to the availability of multiple comparative reference groups. In Exp II (20 Ss, 8 yrs 3 mo to 11 yrs), a manipulation designed to restrict self-concept-relevant social comparisons to Ss in the academic mainstream produced decreased self-regard, while unrestricted utilization of multiple comparative reference groups produced increased self-regard. Results are interpreted as supportive of the theoretical viability of social comparison theory and group reference theory in educational settings. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of normal aging on rate of forgetting.

Used a verbal paired associate paradigm to examine rate of forgetting in 181 normal adults (aged 18–91 yrs). Ss were administered the Expanded Paired Associate Test (EPAT) derived from a related subscale of the Wechsler Memory Scale and which includes both acquisition and delayed-recall tasks. Older Ss performed below the levels obtained by younger Ss on both phases of the EPAT. However, analysis revealed no differences among age groups in rate of forgetting. Lower scores for older Ss on the delayed-recall task appeared to reflect differences in initial learning, not an accelerated rate of forgetting. Normative data for rate of forgetting are provided for Ss in all age groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of imitation in nonimitative, severely retarded children: Contribution of reinforcement and instruction.

Determined the relative contribution of instruction and reinforcement to the development of simple motoric imitation in 12 nonimitative, severely retarded children (CAs 9 yrs 5 mo to 20 yrs 2 mo). Reinforcement was varied across 3 conditions (contingent reinforcement, noncontingent reinforcement, and no reinforcement), and instructions were varied across 2 conditions (presence and absence). Two Ss were assigned to each of the conditions, and an ABAB experimental design was employed. Results indicate that the most effective procedures were those that contingently reinforced Ss for each correct imitation with or without instructions to imitate. Ss who received various combinations of noncontingent reinforcement and/or instructions did not show any consistent increase in their imitative behavior. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hypnotic age regression and the occurrence of transitional object relationships.

Object relations theory and subsequent empirical investigations have established the characteristic ways in which children aged 2–6 yrs utilize transitional objects (e.g., teddy bears or blankets). Three of these characteristics—spontaneity, specificity, and intensity—were used as the primary criteria to investigate the genuineness of hypnotic age regression when Ss were regressed to age 3 and placed in emotional situations typical of those reported clinically. Two groups of college students (16 highly susceptible, as "reals," and 15 low susceptible, as simulators; Ss were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and a version of the Stanford Profile Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility) behaved differentially on all 3 measures, with reals behaving in a generally more childlike manner, thus suggesting an effect attributable to the hypnotic condition. Further, the behavior of these Ss was compared to that of 77 children aged 1–6 yrs; reals and children were statistically indistinguishable on the 2 criteria on which they were compared, but simulators differed significantly from both groups. This pattern of results, along with real–simulator differences, suggests a more complete reproduction of an earlier affective process as a function of meaningful hypnotic age regression. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)