Cognitive scientists have long endeavored to clarify the process by which human beings classify or categorize information. The study discussed here attempts to uncover the underlying nature of the categorization process in children and adults by examining access to information at retrieval. Previous work has suggested that two separate memory systems, memory for the category itself and memory for the specific instance of the category, may exist. This study attempts to further investigate the nature of these two memory systems, their relationship to each other, and their contribution to the process of categorization in children and adults. Using the prototype plus distractor paradigm, children and adults were asked to categorize a set of visual stimuli, and give confidence ratings for their judgments. The findings in this study suggest that memory for category and memory for specific instance are separate and distinct, and can be selectively accessed according to the demands of the task across age groups. Developmental differences are in the form of a U-shaped, non-monotonic path. Findings are consistent with a portrayal of memory as a continuum, with age as one factor in freedom of movement along such a continuum.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether Spanish-speaking language minority children develop conceptual knowledge (Cummins, 1981) that is common to their two languages alongside development of proficiency in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Seventy-three first and second grade children completed two semantic priming tasks (i.e., a lexical decision task and a preferential looking paradigm) that were designed to examine children's sensitivity to the semantic relations between words within and across languages. It was hypothesized that within- and cross-language semantic priming effects would occur but that translation priming effects would not occur. Overall, results did not support hypotheses, as consistent semantic priming effects were not observed across the two tasks. However, limited evidence for semantic priming effects within English and from English to Spanish did emerge on the preferential looking paradigm. Substantial evidence for translation priming effects from Spanish-to-English was observed on the preferential looking paradigm. Children's Spanish vocabulary knowledge moderated translation priming effects on the lexical decision task. Although this pattern of results was not consistent with hypotheses, it was similar to the pattern of relations between bilingual individuals' L1 and L2 proposed by the revised hierarchical model (Kroll and Stewart, 1994). The results of this study indicated that Spanish-speaking language minority children rely on translation from their non-dominant to their dominant language to access meaning. Additionally, results provided limited evidence that information in the dominant and non-dominant language is activated simultaneously, indicating that children have conceptual knowledge that is common to both their L1 and L2. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / September 1, 2015. / language minority, semantic priming / Includes bibliographical references. / Christopher J. Lonigan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carla Wood, University Representative; Arielle Borovsky, Committee Member; Michael Kaschak, Committee Member; Rick Wagner, Committee Member.

This study investigated maternal supportiveness of infants at 1, 2, and 3 years of age in low-income families. Maternal supportiveness over time was categorized as stably low, stably medium, stably high, increasing, or decreasing. The study determined associations between supportiveness group and (a) maternal characteristics, (b) child characteristics, and (c) child-development outcomes at age 5 years. The child-development outcomes were cognitive and social-emotional outcomes as measured by the Leiter-R, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition, Woodcock-Johnson® III Tests of Achievement, Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist Aggressive Behavior subtest, and various measures from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey. The study's data derived from the nationally representative Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, in which maternal supportiveness was assessed by means of observations of mother-infant play interactions. The current study's sample consisted of 1,019 mother-infant dyads. Findings differed from those of previous studies that investigated higher income, less ethnically diverse samples. Maternal-supportiveness groups significantly differed with respect to the child characteristic of emotion regulation and the following maternal characteristics: ethnicity, level of education, marital status, parenting stress, and knowledge of infant development. They also significantly differed with regard to the following child outcomes: sustained attention, receptive language, preliteracy, math skills, prosocial skills, and aggression. Stably high supportiveness was associated with the best cognitive and social-emotional outcomes, and stably low supportiveness was associated with the worst outcomes. Timing of maternal supportiveness was less predictive of child outcomes than level of maternal supportiveness, suggesting that mothers may benefit from intervention to improve supportiveness at any point during their child's first 3 years.

Research in developmental psychology suggests that economic hardship affects youth indirectly via its negative impact on several family processes. Specifically, parents' mental well-being, family relations, and ultimately parenting, can be adversely affected by the strain of economic hardship and can lead to deleterious consequences on adolescent well-being. While considerable progress has been made in documenting whether these processes account for the adverse effects of economic hardship on family functioning in European American and African American families, less is known about the processes mediating the effects of economic hardship on Latino families. The lack of research on the applicability of the family process model to Latino families is surprising as Latinos are disproportionately affected by economic disadvantage. This study addresses these limitations in the literature by examining the applicability of the family process model to a large sample of Mexican heritage youth and families. Specifically, path models were used to test whether the family process model (where low income-to-needs ratio is negatively associated with maternal mental well-being and more family conflict, which are in turn associated with less warmth and more aggressive parenting, and ultimately child internalizing and externalizing behaviors) fit equally well across Mexican American, African American, and European American families. In addition, a test of the direct influence of family conflict on youth internalizing and externalizing behaviors was conducted. Further, this study examined whether lack of social support from families, lack of social support from friends, fear for safety, and discrimination helped explain the association between income and family conflict. Finally, this study considered whether neighborhood concentrated poverty, immigrant concentration, and residential stability helped explain the association between income-to-needs ratio and maternal mental stress. These questions were answered using data from 2,025 participants in the Project in Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Specifically, information from 787 Mexican American, 881 African American, and 357 European American mothers and their children informed the findings of this study. The family process model fit equally well across first generation Mexican American, second generation Mexican American, African American, and European American households. Further, there was a positive direct association between family conflict and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors across all groups. Lack of social support from families, lack of social support from friends, fear for safety, and discrimination helped explain the association between income and family conflict across all groups. Inclusion of neighborhood characteristics did not fit the data well. We were thus unable to test whether neighborhood concentrated poverty, immigrant concentration, and residential stability helped explain the association between income-to-needs ratio and maternal mental stress.

There may be a cumulative effect of social and environmental risk factors which lead to chronic, elevated levels of stress. Constant elevations of maternal stress hormones during pregnancy disrupt developing fetal brain chemistry and architecture, resulting in later memory and learning deficiencies. While we know that the quality of the fetal environment and the timing of exposure to a variety of substances are critical for developmental and health outcomes, little is known about the consequences of maternal cumulative risk on the fetus and later cognitive development. With data from the Nurse Family Partnership Elmira Sample, this work investigates whether maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy predicts IQ in 3 and 4 year olds, without and with postnatal influences. The role that birth outcomes play as mediators of this relationship is also explored. Finally, moderation effects and cumulative genetic risk of five polymorphisms of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene are examined. Increased maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy was negatively associated with IQ at ages 3 and 4 with and without the inclusion of postnatal controls. Birth outcomes partially mediated this relationship to a small extent. GR rs6198 G and rs6190 G alleles infer risk while rs6198 A alleles serve as protective factors with respect to the association of maternal cumulative risk during pregnancy and IQ in young children. This study contributes insights on the cumulative effects of chronic social and environmental stressors that may lead to increased levels of maternal stress hormones during pregnancy and poor cognitive outcomes in young children in the presence of specific glucocorticoid receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms. Application of findings to early intervention programming and policy is discussed.

American kindergartners enter schools with varying levels of emergent literacy skills. The present study examined the nature of variation of these skills through the lens of distinct literacy skill groups. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten (ECLS-K) data set, the literacy skill sets of over 10,000 children were examined at kindergarten and third grade. Latent class cluster analysis was used to demonstrate the presence of these groups through the analysis of proficiency probabilities of mastery of the following skills: 1) letter recognition; 2) beginning sound recognition; 3) ending sound recognition; 4) sight word recognition; 5) reading words in context; 6) literal inference; 7) extrapolation; and 8) evaluation. Three groups emerged for kindergarten based on skills 1-5, and three groups for third grade based on skills 4-8. Latent class multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the influence of contextual factors on determining group membership at both time points. Findings indicate that phonological awareness skills have the largest influence on determining literacy skill sets at kindergarten, most children enter kindergarten without mastery of the skills to be ready to learn to read, ethnicity does not have a significant effect once a comprehensive set of contextual factors (i.e., child, family, maternal, school, and family environment characteristics) are considered, and the family literacy environment has one of the strongest effects above and beyond the rest. By third grade, comprehension skills have the largest influence on determining skill sets. As for contextual factors, the patterns of influence appear to be lasting with consistency in group membership over time. Taken together these results have the potential implications supporting parents throughout the nation.

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In 1984, The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded a grant to The Eastern Virginia Medical School and The Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters to study the IVF children conceived a The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Virginia. The purpose of the study was to assess the children comprehensively using a multi-disciplinary team to determine whether the IVF process resulted in higher than average physical and/or behavioral deficits. The children were psychologically tested on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development; they also received pediatric, neurological, cardiac, and ultrasound examinations of their internal organs. 83 of 105 eligible IVF children were examined. These children were matched on the following criteria: maternal age, child's age, race, gender, births/pregnancy, and socioeconomic status. The controls were obtained from a 100 mile radius of Norfolk, Virginia. Ninety-three children served as controls. All were between 12 and 30 months of age.;The results indicate that these families are different from the general population in several respects: they are older, better educated, more affluent, almost all white, and have a higher rate of multiple births. The groups did not differ in their rate of congenital defects. While prematurity was common, the children demonstrated no adverse effects from their prematurity.;The psychological results indicated that both groups were above the national norms for the Bayley Scales on both their MDIs and PDIs; they did not differ significantly, but the IVF group was higher on both scores. Two IVF children with physical handicaps were cognitively normal. Behaviorally the groups did not differ at the p =.01 level on any of the Behavioral Record variables.;The NICHHD study concludes that the risk of the IVF process is acceptable from a medical viewpoint. The children who are born do not demonstrate a higher rate of physical or psychological abnormalities based on current information.

No description available.