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The authors offer observations on American developmental psychologist Ed Zigler as mentor. Topics discussed include legacies of Zigler; themes of his mentorship which includes keeping the focus on getting quality work done, engaging in multiple, collaborative projects to accomplish more, and encouraging less experienced collaborators to contribute their own ideas; and reflections on his mentoring lessons. more...

An introduction to the journal is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topics including examination of extremely low birthweight (ELBW) survivors, profiles and trajectories of executive functioning (EF) in young children with Down syndrome (DS), and myth of attention deficit. more...

Edward Zigler transformed the science and humanity of the work with persons with intellectual disability. The developmental approach is Ed's great contribution to the field of intellectual disability as it both led to more conceptually compelling and methodologically rigorous science and provided an alternative to the Zeitgeist of segregation, defect, and pathology that had prevailed for decades. In an entirely unique way, the developmental approach allowed a seamless integration of increasingly precise science with concern for the "whole child" and their family. Thus, Ed's legacy led to a discipline in which scholarship and compassion prevail hand in hand as the integrity of science and of the person are mutually informative and interdependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) are more vulnerable to abuse compared to individuals without disabilities yet have limited access to the legal system. This study examined perceived credibility of youth with mild intellectual disability (MID) who provide courtroom testimony.Participants, 187 undergraduates, were asked general questions about credibility. They also read eyewitness testimony and answered questions about a particular witness's credibility. Half the participants were informed that the youth has MID[chronological age (CA) 15 years, mental age (MA) 10 years] and the others were informed that the youth is a typically developing 10-year-old.When participants were asked general questions about credibility they rated 15-year-olds with MID (MA 10 years) as less credible than typically developing 15-year-olds and as less credible than typically developing 10-year-olds. However, when participants read eyewitness testimony and answered questions about a particular witness's credibility, no statistically significant differences were found between participants who were informed that the witness was a 15-year-old with MID (MA 10 years) and those who were informed that the witness was a typically developing 10-year-old.The present study provided a preliminary investigation of perceived credibility of witnesses with MID and suggests directions for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The development of reflexive and voluntary shifts of visual attention, as well as relations between the two forms of shifting, were examined in three groups of children (5, 7, and 9 years old), one group of young adults (24 years old), and two groups of senior adults (young seniors with an average age of 69 years, and old seniors with an average age of 81 years). The task entailed response to the detection of a target (black dot) in one of four possible locations in the visual field. Relations between reflexive and voluntary shifts of attention were gauged by the degree to which flash and arrow facilitation and inhibition were observed in response to the presentation of both arrow and flash cues together in one trial. All age groups oriented reflexively in response to a flash cue and utilized the arrow cue to orient attention strategically. When flash and arrow cues were presented in quick succession and thereby competed for attention, the youngest children and oldest seniors were least efficient and flexible in their approach to the orienting task as they had difficulty modulating visual reflexes. more...