No description available.

Perceptual and response processes must usually be considered as sequences of integrated events, involving both spatial organization, or the integration of simultaneously occurring parts of a pattern, and temporal organization, which requires sorne holding mechanism or immediate memory. Though the infant's behavior is organized, the sequences are short, and ability to perceive, remember, and respond to relations between external events develops gradually. The developmental changes in organization are both quantitative and qualitative, and depend on general as well as specific experience. [...]

Over the past 25 years, there has been tremendous interest in the development of children’s ability to reason about others’ mental states, or “theory of mind”. Much research has explored children's understanding of situational cues that lead to knowledge, but only recently has research begun to assess children's understanding of person-specific differences in knowledge. A number of studies (Birch, Vauthier & Bloom, 2008; Jaswal & Neely, 2006; Koenig, Clément & Harris, 2004) have recently demonstrated that at least by age 3 children pay attention to others' history of accuracy and use it as a cue when deciding from whom to learn. However, the nature and scope of children's interpretations of other's prior accuracy remains unclear. Experiment 1 assessed whether 4- and 5-year-olds interpret prior accuracy as indicative of knowledge, as opposed to two other accounts that do not involve epistemic attributions. This experiment revealed that preschool children can revise their tendency to prefer to learn from a previously accurate informant over an inaccurate one when presented with evidence regarding each informant's current knowledge state. Experiment 2 investigated how broadly a person's history of accuracy influences children's subsequent inferences, and showed that 5-year-olds (but not 4-year-olds) use information about an individual's past accuracy to predict her knowledge in other related domains as well as her propensity for prosocial or antisocial behaviour. Overall, children's performance in these experiments suggests that both 4- and 5-year-olds interpret others' history of accuracy as indicative of knowledge; however, 4-year-olds make a more restricted attribution of knowledge while 5-year-olds make a more stable, trait-like attribution. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research on theory of mind and more broadly on children's social and cognitive development.

Hyperactivity is a common presenting symptom among children seen in psychiatric clinics, and refers to an excessive level of activity which is sufficiently sustained to become a serious source of complaint. Until recently interest in the hyperactive child was confined to the psychiatric literature. As a result, most of the information currently available deals with questions of diagnosis and treatment. The psychological functioning of the hyperactive child has received little attention, although some information on it has been presented in the form of incidental findings. In order to meet this need for objective, controlled data, a research project, in which the writer participated, was designed to study the behaviour of hyperactive children in a variety of test situations. The specific concern of the experiment reported in the present thesis was the behaviour of hyperactive children in a controlled learning situation, using a concept formation task.

No description available.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The purpose of this thesis is to show the development of certain personality traits, such as cooperativeness, kindness, reliability, making wise choices, and worthwhile use of leisure time, in fourth grade elementary pupils. These traits will be developed within the classroom, under control of the teacher, by means of conferences, activities, the use and study of subject matter, particularly reading, and play at recess periods. The research made by the writer will be from close observations, anecdotal records, sociograms, rating scales, interest inventories, personality tests, a general intelligence test, and achievement tests.Personality traits begin to be quite clearly evident by the time boys and girls enter the fourth grade in the elementary school. Many habits have been formed by their experiences in previous classrooms, on the playground, in their small social groups, and in their homes. These are caused by their work and play associations in the classrooms with former teachers and pupils, by home training, and out-of-school activities.Most children eight or nine years of age enjoy going to school, they like to play with each other, and look forward to being more grownup by having been promoted to the fourth grade. They feel they are no longer babies, because with the added fourth-grade subject matter, such as Social Studies or Geography and History, Science, and Health, they are getting to be "big" boys and girls.

The purpose of the study was to determine if differences exist in scores on reading achievement subtests and ratings on social development subscales for children exposed to four reported patterns of child care practice.The sample consisted of 143 children that experienced different patterns of child care practices between ages of three to five and who were presently enrolled in grade two in four elementary schools in Muncie, Indiana.Three assessment instruments including a parent questionnaire, subtests from the, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and social development subscales adapted from Preschool Attainment Record (PAR) were employed in this study.A two way (2x4) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted for testing the equality of vectors for the mean scores on reading achievement subtests and mean ratings on social development subscales. The two independent factors considered were patterns of child care practice and sex of the child. For purposes of the analysis, a testing sequence of effects was conducted since unequal cell sizes obtained produced a nonorthogonal design. The interaction effect between the two factors was obtained following the tests of the two main effects within the sequence. Preliminary to testing the hypotheses it was necessary to first test for a significant interaction between the factors of patterns of child care practice and sex. Although no hypothesis was specified for sex factor, this factor was used to eliminate any possible unexplained variance from the within variability.No significant differences were found between vectors of mean scores on the basis of patterns of child care practice. Consequently, the first null hypothesis that there is no difference among vectors of mean scores on reading achievement subtests could not be rejected. The second null hypothesis that there is no difference among the vectors of mean ratings on social development subscales, too, could not be rejected. There seems to be little influence exerted by pattern of child care practice on reading achievement and social development of children in this sample.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of preschoolers' perceptions of parental attributes to the behaviors exhibited in nursery school. The study was designed to test the following hypotheses:I. Preschool children who perceive their parents as controlling and accepting exhibit positive socializing and independent behaviors in nursery school.II. Preschool children who perceive their parents as punitive and/or overindulgent exhibit negative socializing and dependent behaviors in nursery school.A pilot study, using a semi-structured doll play instrument constructed by the researcher, was conducted to determine significant scenes which would evoke necessary information for the categories of the research study. Twelve scenes were selected on the basis of highest scoring averages as the most reliable scenes. Instructions to the child and order of the scenes to coincide with normal home activity were established.Forty-two preschool children, ages four and five, were administered The Doll Play Technique to determine their perceptions of parental attributes. The attributes measured were categorized as 1) control, 2) acceptance, 3) punitiveness, and 4) overindulgence. The subjects were thirty-two males and ten females of normal intelligence. They were Caucasian, from nuclear type family structure, and represented lower middle class socio-economic status.The subjects were tested and observed in two east central Indiana nursery schools during the Fall of 1969. Twelve three-minute behavioral observations on each subject were gathered and coded into the following basic categories: a) positive socializing, b) independent behavior, c) negative behavior, and d) dependent behavior.The Pearson product-moment correlation statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The level of significance was determined by use of the t test. Inter correlations of the variables were determined along with multiple regression correlations indicating greater variable significance.Findings on the hypotheses indicated a significant relationship between preschoolers' perceptions of their parents as controlling and accepting and their exhibition of positive socializing and independent behaviors in nursery school. There was a probable relationship between preschoolers' perceptions of their parents as punitive and/or overindulgent and their exhibition of negative socializing and dependent behaviors in nursery school. Other findings indicated that: control and acceptance, which were posited as positively related, had an inverse relationshipcontrol and overindulgence, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshipacceptance and punitiveness, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshipoverindulgence and independent behavior, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshipacceptance and independent behavior, which were posited as positively related, had a positive relationshipacceptance and dependent behavior, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshippunitiveness and negative socializing, which were posited as positively related, had a positive relationshippositive socializing and dependent behavior, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshipindependent behavior and dependent behavior, which were posited diversely, had an inverse relationshipnegative socializing and dependent behavior, which were posited as positively related, had a positive relationship.Greater predictability of the dependent variables in the hypotheses occurred when the independent variables were considered in combination rather than separately.Beyond support for the hypotheses, the study indicated that preschool children's perceptions of parental attributes appear to be antecedent to socializing and independent behaviors in nursery school. The Doll Play Technique gave indication of effectively obtaining preschoolers' perceptions of parental attributes in the rearing process.