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Previous research on the development of distributive justice decisions, by centering largely on situations in which rewards for work productivity are to be allocated, has shed little light on the child's developing ability to select the justice norm most appropriate to the situation. Children 5, 9, and 13 years of age were asked to allocate resources and judge the fairness of alternative decision rules in situations to which either equity, equality, or need norms were especially applicable. As predicted, young children were insensitive to contextual information, generally preferring to allocate resources equally, whereas older children tailored their decisions appropriately to the situation. The fact that developmental trends differed from situation to situation points to the importance of adopting a contextual perspective on the development of distributive justice orientations.

The validity of responses by individuals with mental retardation during interviews is threatened by a number of biases. Acquiescence (the disposition to answer 'yes' regardless of the question asked) is a commonly observed response bias committed by respondents to questionnaires and interviews, and this disposition is significantly more pronounced when persons of low status are questioned by high-status interviewers. Research on the acquiescence bias suggests that it can be reduced in mentally retarded respondents by replacing the usual 'yes/no' question format with an 'either/or' format. Enhancing the either/or choices with accompanying picture representations of each choice is beneficial in increasing mentally retarded subjects' responding and in reducing their tendency to choose the latter of two either/or choices. 'Nay-saying' (the disposition to say 'no' regardless of the question asked), while less common than 'yea-saying' (i.e. than acquiescence), has also been noted in response to certain question formats and taboo topics. This review implies that the validity of an interview with respondents of limited intelligence depends greatly on the format of its questions.

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