development of the concept of self as measured by a cognitive task

The development of the concept of self was measured in second, fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Recall of psychological and physical adjectives were used as a cognitive measure of the concept of self. The adjectives were presented under three conditions (self referent, semantic, and control). The children also asked to rate the adjectives for similarity or dissimilarity to themselves. Differences between grades for levels of recall for physical versus psychological adjectives were examined. In contrast to earlier research, a developmental trend was not discovered. Increased recall was found for adjectives presented under the self referent condition for all grades.