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Variability In Word Learning: Phonological Sensitivity And Phonological Memory, Marnie E. Arkenberg

Student Work

Presently, investigators believe that variability in children’s word learning results from individual differences in one of two separate processes thought to underlie word learning: phonological sensitivity or phonological memory. Traditionally, researchers have viewed differences in children’s vocabularies as being the result of differences in either phonological memory or phonological sensitivity. However, there is reason to believe that a different type of relation exists among phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, and vocabulaiy. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the nature of these relations in preschoolers. Three hypotheses were presented: either phonological memory or phonological sensitivity plays a larger role in …

Development Of Commitment In Young Children's Best Friendships, Andrea L. Kelp

Student Work

Although the amount of research conducted on children’s friendships is large, the specific characteristic of friendship commitment has received little attention to date. At what age and to what extent commitment is present in children’s friendships is the main focus of this study. Students in grades 2 through 7 completed a demographic questionnaire, the Commitment and Satisfaction Scale, the Children’s Self-Efficacy for Peer Interaction Scale, The Network of Relationships Inventory, and they also responded to hypothetical vignettes. Of particular interest were the effects of children’s age, gender, friendship reciprocity, self-efficacy and friendship satisfaction on their friendship commitment levels. Analyses of …

Developmental Changes In Verbal And Imaginal Mnemonic Techniques For Serial Recall, Michelle L. Rupiper

Student Work

Children’s ability to use mnemonic techniques was investigated in first, fourth and sixth graders. Children in each age group were assigned to one of three conditions: method of loci, story mnemonic or elaborative control group. Subjects were given three recall tests. Each test was scored with and without regard to the order in which subjects recalled the words presented. Relative to the control group, both mnemonic conditions showed an advantage in memorizing lists of 20 words. However, all conditions, including the elaborative control group showed significant increases in the number of words recalled between the baseline test and recall Test …

A Comparison Of The Ways That Teachers, Parents And Preschool Children Classify Toys Into Gender Categories, Linda Schneider

Student Work

This study compared the ways that teachers, parents and children classified toys according to gender categories. Fifty-eight teachers and seventy-eight parents completed a toy survey in which they were to sort a list of 49 preschool classroom toys into gender categories. The six toys most often rated masculine and the six toys most often rated feminine by the teachers were used in a toy sorting task for preschool children. Seventy-four preschool children were asked to sort pictures of the twelve toys into gender categories.

One-way analyses of variance, t-tests, and Least Significant Difference multiple comparison procedures were used to examine …

Black Children, White Bias, Victoria J. Porter

Student Work

Empirical studies of young children’s racial attitudes and identity extend over more than five decades. The pioneering work of Clark and Clark in the 1930’s involved the use of brown and white dolls to study racial preferences, awareness, and identity o f African American children. On items that were designed to measure racial preferences and attitudes, most African American children attributed the positive characteristics to the white doll and the negative characteristics to the darker skinned doll. The current study investigated the racial identity and attitudes of African American and Caucasian children. The effects of socio-economic status (SES), as well …

The Perceptual Weighting Of Speech-Related Acoustic Cues For 3 & 1/2-Year-Old Children Differs From That Of Adults: Results Using Natural And Synthetic Stimuli, Carol J. Manning

Student Work

Previous studies have found that children’s judgments of syllable-initial /s/ and / ∫ / are more related to the vocalic F2 transition and less related to the fricative-noise spectrum than are adults’ judgments [Nittrouer & Studdert- Kennedy, JSHR, 30 (1987); Nittrouer, J. Phon., 20 1992]. These results have been taken as evidence that young children organize linguistic input in units more closely approximating syllable size than phoneme size. Furthermore, such results have led to a model of speech development proposing that children’s weighting of the acoustic cues for phonemic categories changes as they gain linguistic experience, with a general shift …

Acceptability Of Treatment: The Effects Of Socioeconomic Status And Intellectual Level On Teachers' Ratings Of Interventions, Kathryn L. Welch

Student Work

The study examined the effects of a child's socioeconomic status and intellectual level on classroom teachers' ratings of positive and negative interventions. Ninety urban kindergarten through sixth grade classroom teachers participated in the study. The teachers varied according to age, sex, race, number of years taught, and years of experience with low socioeconomic children, as well as grade level currently teaching. A vignette was constructed varying the socioeconomic status and intellectual level of an elementary school age boy who was displaying inattention during instructional time. The inattention (token economy) paired with it. The teacher were asked to read one of …

Gender Constancy In 3 To 6 Year Old Children: A Methodological Analysis, Rhoda Andrews

Student Work

Previous research on gender constancy with 3- to 6-year old children has produced conflicting findings regarding the age at which children are gender constant. Slaby and Frey (1075), and Thompson and Bentler (1973) indicate the presence of gender constancy at age 4, while DeVries (1969) has found that gender constancy is not present until age 6. The aim of this study was to compare the three gender constancy measures using the same population of children. The subjects were 63 white, middle-class 3- to 6-year old children whose IQ's were 100 or greater. The data analyses generally supported' previous findings for …

The Effectiveness Of Information Feedback On The Conformity Behavior Of Children, John Jay Wicks

Student Work

This paper summarizes a developmental study concerning the effects of correctness feedback on the conformity behavior of children. Specifically, the study proposes to test the following assumption: (1) that conformity is a positive function of age on ambiguous stimulus tasks and (2) that the effectiveness of correctness feedback is greater for older than younger Ss. To test these assumptions, the Ss were divided, at each grade level, into three groups: (1) a reward conformity group where the Ss received a "correct” signal for agreeing with the group and a "wrong" signal for disagreeing, (2) a reward nonconformity group where Ss …