Thirty institutionalized "predelinquent" preadolescents and 30 public school nondelinquent preadolescents were compared on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF) of cognitive impulsivity. Contrary to predictions, the former group was more reflective than the nondelinquents on both the latency and error dimensions of the MFF. Possible interpretations of the results are offered, as are suggestions for research on the impact of environmental factors on cognitive style.
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