There has been a rise in anxiety amongst typically developing children in recent years. Existing research has suggested a link between the increase of television viewing, and the increase in childhood anxiety. This thesis confirms the plausibility of this hypothesis; a meta-analysis found a small but consistent effect of viewing “scary” television on children's internalizing responses. Existing cognitive models of emotional processing in anxious individuals identify attention, interpretation, and memory preferences towards emotionally negative materials as potential mediators. Whilst attention and interpretation preferences have been well evidenced, the link between anxiety and negativity preferences in memory is more tenuous, particularly in typically developing children. A positive-negative asymmetry in memory is well established in adults; however, the extent to which children process and remember positive, negative and neutral stimuli differentially is relatively unexplored. The Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm has been utilised to allow analysis of memory accuracy and response bias. There were several key findings within this thesis. In line with previous research, a preference away from negatively valenced material was found when simple word list stimuli was used. When narratives were used as a richer source of material, memory performance was greater for negatively, than positively valenced stimuli. However, when two sources differing on richness of information (visual vs narrative stimuli), and valence (positive vs negative) were presented simultaneously, the modality effect became dominant; the richer source of material was discriminated with higher accuracy, regardless of valence. When this effect was followed up, no evidence of a mood interaction within emotional memory was found. Semantic elaboration was explored as a potential mechanism behind valence effects in memory. However, no positive findings were identified. Age, gender and trait anxiety did not reliably moderate valence effects on memory. This thesis adds to the small body of knowledge focusing on children's emotional memory, particularly by including response bias analyses. It highlights the complex nature of emotional processing in children and some of the factors contributing to accuracy. Further research should explore in greater depth how valence effects differ for various types of stimuli, and under which circumstances these effects can be overridden. Mechanisms behind these valence effects are also yet to be unpicked.

For many children, storybooks are ubiquitous, forming a unique and special part of their childhood. Storybooks are a critical aspect of young children's emerging literacy. Exposing them to phoneme word sounds, a rich varied vocabulary and print knowledge. This thesis explores one aspect of the amazing relationship children have with storybooks. Specifically, how do children learn new words from books, and it further discusses the best ways to use storybooks to facilitate this learning. Through the use of purpose-made storybooks, which help to control for all the different book elements (e.g. ensuring the story plot and the words that children were learning were novel). This thesis presents an empirical examination of the cognitive processes that help children learn new words through shared storybook reading. A series of experiments investigate the relationship between repetition of words, sleep consolidation and book formats - and their effects on vocabulary acquisition in 3.5-year-old children. These experiments have allowed us to isolate factors that increase the likelihood of children learning more words, and knowledge that can be used to support children's vocabulary development. Importantly, we have discovered that children benefit from the same contextually cueing effects as adults supporting Horst, Parsons, and Bryan (2011) theory for repeated effects during repeated book readings. In addition, children demonstrate similar memory consolidation effects as adults when learning immediately proceeds sleep (Stickgold & Walker, 2005a). By examining the effects of rhyme books, we can further contribute to Hayes, Chemelski, and Palmer (1982) levels of processing theory for memory function in children. Overall, this thesis examines how understanding the cognitive processes supported by regular storybook reading can provide benefits for all preschool children, and outlines accessible and feasible techniques to help children's emergent literacy.

Parents are the first source of a child's learning of her or his gender. In fact, sex-role stereotyping of infants by parents may occur within the first 24 hours of birth. This study examined the nature of parental stereotyping on the basis of their infant's sex by obtaining parents' descriptions of their newborn and toy and clothing preferences for their newborn. In 1974, Rubin found that parents responded stereotypically to their infants on the basis of sex. Following Rubin's interview approach, 50 parent pairs from two urban hospitals were asked to participate in a parent-infant study and were subsequently interviewed 24 hours postpartum. Parents were asked open-ended descriptive questions about their newborn, given a semantic differential scale of 18 bi-polar objectives, asked about the importance of others recognizing their baby's sex, and asked a set of questions relating to the preference of clothing and toy choices for their newborn. Findings suggest that parents do stereotype their infants on the basis of biological sex. Sons were more likely to be described as strong, perfect, big or big-featured and energetic,--while daughters received more descriptions that mentioned their eyes, skin, or facial features and were also more likely to be described as small, tiny, or weak. Parents of boys were also more likely to state a preference for gender-specific toys and clothing. Infant sex did not make a notable difference on the importance that parents attributed to others recognizing their baby's sex. Fathers were more likely to perceive and describe their daughters more stereotypically than were mothers of either daughters or sons. Further studies to investigate gender stereotyping and its consequences as well as the interplay between the macro and micro levels of gender relations in society are suggested.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1987.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 12, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-58)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 12, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-48)

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1995.