Children's Approaches to Tasks, Self-perceptions, and Use of Relevant External Cues

A proposed study of the differences in the way children perceive, approach, and behave in problem-solving situations is described. The behavioral measure to be used is *glancing,* which has been related to outerdirectedness. Children will be given two sets of two puzzles to put together. On the basis of the number of glances and the situation in which glancing occurs, the subjects will be assigned to three categories: (A) innerdirected--task oriented and nonattentive to external stimuli; (B) outerd!lected for information seeking purposes; and (c) outerdirected for non-information seeking purposes. The effectiveness of the children's performance on a concept-identification task under cue relevant and cue irrelevant conditions will be assessed, and differences in certain self-perceptions of the children in the three categories will be examined. The study will examine differences in the ways the three categories of children react to an outcome in terms of pride and shame. In addition, two self-perception variables hypothesized to mediate the outcome/affect relationship will be observed. Children will be given tasks to perform in which the outcome is ambiguous and success/failure can be manipulated. Three developmental levels will be represented in the sample of children: children just below (ages 5 and 6) and just above (ages 7 and 8) the shift from intuitive to concrete operational stages will comprise the youngest two development levels, and children age 10 will represent the third developmental level. (For related document, see PS 006 451.) (DB) I