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Research into practice: perception and instruction.

Article Excerpt
Five studies are highlighted in this issue. Four of the studies focus on examining participant perceptions of their learning, involvement in comprehensive intervention, mental health, and strategies for recall. The first study on perceptions is an investigation into children's ability to accurately recall information when presented with an examiner's mental state. The second study is a unique glimpse of children who are identified as socially withdrawn and the implications for mental health programming. The third study documents the full-day service provision of a Head Start program and the successes and challenges that parents and providers perceive as they implement the program. The fourth study provides a rich look into how middle school students utilize humor and characterization to understand literature. The last study included in this issue focuses on the mode of instruction that maximizes the use of alphabet books in kindergarten classrooms. This column briefly summarizes the content of the articles and suggests implications for practice as well as areas for future research.

Resisting Suggestive Questions: Can Theory of Mind Help?

--Chan & Okamoto

Much has been written about young children's perspective-taking abilities, as well as their capabilities to discern their own competence in a given area. Outside influences that affect skills such as these are important to understand, as young children's recall of specific events can be high-stakes in nature, such as in testimony in court cases. The current study assesses children's understanding of mental states of those who question them and how knowing those mental states may provide them with resistance to suggestive questioning. This study examined the two specific mental states of false belief and intention. Research with children who can demonstrate an understanding of false belief has shown that these children are resistant to suggested misinformation. Other research suggests that children are able to utilize mental states to understand a person's behavior; thus, knowledge of one's intention allows the child to predict and understand another's behavior. While there is a great deal of research on older children and adults who have more strategies to resist influence, younger children are more likely to incorporate adult beliefs into their recall if adults whom children perceive as more knowledgeable question their recall.

The participants for the current study were a group of 40 kindergarten children (22 boys and 18 girls). Children were shown a short video clip and then interviewed via a pre-recorded process...

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