bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Interpersonal problems among patients suffering from panic disorder with agoraphobia before and after treatment
Authors: Hoffart Asle
Published: July 2011

The aim of this study was to examine interpersonal problems among panic disorder with agoraphobia patients before and after treatment. Patients (N = 46) suffering from panic disorder with moderate or severe agoraphobia and considering agoraphobia as their main problem were randomly assigned to receive either cognitive therapy or guided mastery therapy in a six‐week in‐patient group programme. The Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP) and various symptom measures were administered at pre‐treatment and at one‐year follow‐up. Two IIP subscales were derived from factor analysis of the present data: affiliation problems and power problems. The overall pattern of results supported a state model of interpersonal problems. At pre‐treatment, the scores on the affiliation problems subscale were clearly related to non‐specific state characteristics, that is, to depression and general anxiety. From pre‐treatment to follow‐up, levels of interpersonal problems decreased significantly. Pre‐treatment depression was a powerful predictor of change in interpersonal problems from pre‐treatment to one‐year follow‐up. On the other hand, interpersonal problems at pre‐treatment failed to predict the change in levels on various symptom scales.
Signs and voices: Joining a conversation in progress
Authors: Stiles William B.
Published: July 2011

This commentary joins a conversation between Ryle and Leiman, which represents a larger conversation among theories of psychotherapy, semiotics and linguistics. The emerging collaborative understanding involves viewing people not as separate, unitary individuals but as mosaics or communities of different voices. The voices share their experiences by sign‐mediated communication and engage in joint action. Projective identification may be considered as joint action mediated by non‐verbal signs exchanged without awareness, in which the dyad becomes an effector for voices within both participants. The concepts of active voices and meaning‐accumulating signs overcome the cognitive fallacy—the misleading notion that information in people is passive.
Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia)
Authors: Grady Brian , Loewenthal Kate Miriam
Published: July 2011

Reports of the frequency, context, associated behaviours, feelings and meaning associated with glossolalia were collected from three groups of informants: speakers (N = 14, who practised glossolalia), witnesses (N = 15, who had witnessed but had never practised glossolalia), and controls (N = 16, who had neither witnessed nor practised glossolalia). All informants were practising Christians. Speakers reported glossolalia as a regular, daily, private activity, usually accompanying mundane activities, as a special form of prayer associated with calm, pleasant emotions. By contrast, witnesses and controls were more likely to describe glossolalia as an exceptional activity, usually occurring in the religious group, and associated with excitement. The views of witnesses were closer to those of speakers than were the views of controls. It is suggested that there may be two types of glossolalia, of which one is more likely to be associated with psychopathology.
Attachment and psychoanalysis
Authors: Eagle M.
Published: July 2011

This paper examines the relationship between certain aspects of attachment theory and psychoanalytic theories and practice. The specific issues discussed include the relative roles of ‘real’ external events ‘versus’ an individual's constitution and temperament in shaping an individual's internal working model; the relationship between attachment and sexuality; conceptions of factors that maintain maladaptive behaviour, including the intergenerational transmission of maladaptive patterns; assessment of attachment status as determined by responses to the Adult Attachment Interview; an understanding of the therapeutic situation in terms of the attachment concepts of secure base and exploration; the relative roles of secure base and exploration in dealing with different kinds of pathology; and finally, the degree to which attachment research and theory serves as a model for the meaningful study of complex human behaviour in a relatively rigorous manner.
Attachment, autonomy, intimacy: Some clinical implications of attachment theory
Authors: Holmes Jeremy
Published: July 2011

This paper reviews the origins and current state of attachment theory, especially as relevant to the practice of psychotherapy. It is suggested that attachment experience becomes internalized as self‐narrative around the age 3–5, and that these self‐narratives form the basis of reflexive self‐function and autobiographical competence in later life, as revealed by the Adult Attachment Interview. It proposes that the fundamental aims of psychotherapy can be characterized as the search for intimacy and autonomy, arising on the basis of parental attunement and containment of healthy protest, of which analogues are to be found in adult psychotherapy. A ‘triangle of attachment’ is introduced at whose apices are attachment, detachment and ‘non‐attachment’ respectively. Attachment, which arises out of a secure base, provides the starting point for intimacy; the capacity for healthy protest and therefore detachment is the basis of autonomy; from non‐attachment comes the capacity to reflect on oneself and so to disidentify with painful or traumatic experience.
Psychodynamic perspectives on psychosis and psychotherapy I: Theory
Authors: Hingley Susan M.
Published: July 2011

Psychotherapy with sufferers of psychosis may usefully draw on both cognitive‐behavioural and psychodynamic theory. The latter has a long history with fluctuating popularity, whilst cognitive‐behavioural approaches are currently attracting the attention of clinicians. Some of the factors which may reduce interest in psychodynamic approaches are reviewed, followed by an overview of core psychodynamic theories of psychosis under the major headings of vulnerability of defence and vulnerability of the ego. A vulnerability‐stress formulation of psychodynamic theory is then considered together with implications for intervention.
Hypochondriacal concerns, symptom reporting and secondary gain mechanisms
Authors: Ferguson Eamonn
Published: July 2011

Hypochondriacal concerns (HCs) and somatic symptom reporting (SSR) are associated. However, HCs are believed to be linked to the ego‐defence coping strategy of avoiding help and SSR is believed to be linked to secondary gain. One hundred and twenty undergraduate students completed measures of HCs, SSR and the Desire for Control (DC) Scale. Subscales of the DC scale were used as indices of help avoidance and secondary gain. Both hierarchical multiple linear regression and LISREL structural modelling were used to control for the confound between HCs and SSR and explore the links with help avoidance and secondary gain. HCs were found to be primarily associated with an increased desire to strive for independence (avoid help) and levels of SSR were associated with the desire to have others make decisions (secondary gain).
Evolutionary psychopathology: Why isn't the mind designed better than it is?
Authors: Gilbert Paul
Published: July 2011

This paper outlines some of the basic issues in evolutionary thinking when applied to psychopathology. It aims to give some background and context to the papers that follow. Particular attention is given to the way evolution is constrained by previous design features, the importance of trade offs between advantages and disadvantages of different traits, the way social dilemmas and conflicts have shaped the evolution of human motivational systems, and the psychology that supports them. The paper concludes with a plea to avoid thinking of evolutionary approaches as a reductionist science, when the focus needs to be on the way evolution theory informs the study of the social‐biological interface.
The evolved basis and adaptive functions of cognitive distortions
Authors: Gilbert Paul
Published: July 2011

This paper explores common cognitive distortions from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. It is suggested that cognitive distortions are natural consequences of using fast track defensive algorithms that are sensitive to threat. In various contexts, especially those of threat, humans evolved to think adaptively rather than logically. Hence cognitive distortions are not strictly errors in brain functioning and it can be useful to inform patients that ‘negative thinking’ may be dysfunctional but is a reflection of basic brain design and not personal irrationality. The evolved nature of cognitive distortions has been implicit in cognitive therapy from its early days (Beck, 1963; Ellis, 1962) but has not been fully articulated in what is now known about evolved mental processes. Many forms of cognitive distortion can be seen to use the (previously) adaptive heuristic of better safe than sorry.
The adaptive function of mood change
Authors: Price John
Published: July 2011

It is useful to imagine an ‘agonistic strategy set’, containing the two alternative and mutually incompatible strategies of escalation and de‐escalation. The strategy set is accessed by loss, threat or some other form of ‘ranking stress’. It is further suggested that ranking stress is dealt with relatively independently at three levels of the brain/mind, so that an agonistic strategy set is deployed at each of the three levels. Normally, all three levels escalate or de‐escalate in unison, but sometimes lower level de‐escalation is associated with middle or higher level escalation, and then the resolution of agonistic situations is delayed and psychopathology may be recognized.
The sexual competition hypothesis for eating disorders
Authors: Abed Riadh T.
Published: July 2011

A hypothesis is presented for eating disorders, based on Darwinian theory, that contends that these syndromes together with the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness are manifestations of female intra‐sexual competition. It is suggested that eating disorders originate in the human female's psychological adaptation of concern about physical attractiveness which is an important component of female ‘mate attraction’ and ‘mate retention’ strategies. It is argued that present‐day environment of Western countries presents a range of conditions which have led to the overactivation or the disruption of the archaic female sexual strategy of maximizing ‘mate value’. The present hypothesis deals with the ultimate level of causation and is therefore compatible with a range of theories of proximate causation. Although the present hypothesis is not directly testable, it makes predictions that are testable and refutable. Finally it is suggested that the sexual competition hypothesis has more explanatory power than existing evolutionary theories of eating disorders.
The role of personal therapy for therapists: A review
Authors: Macran Susan , Shapiro David A.
Published: July 2011

This paper reviews the research literature on personal therapy and makes some recommendations for how future work in this area may be improved. Despite the general acceptance of the importance of personal therapy amongst therapists, there has been relatively little research to evaluate its effectiveness. The vast majority of studies have consisted of surveys of therapists' opinions and experiences of therapy or naturalistic comparisons across therapists who have or have not had therapy. The interpretation of most findings is compromised because of small sample sizes and confounding variables, nevertheless some conclusions can be made. Whilst the majority of therapists feel that they have benefited professionally from personal therapy there is very little empirical evidence that it has any measurable effect on client outcome. However, there is some evidence that personal therapy has a positive effect on those therapist qualities often cited as constructive to client change (e.g. empathy, warmth, genuineness). What is evident is that there is a need for more methodologically sound research as well as a more theoretical understanding of how personal therapy affects clinical practice, before any firm conclusions can be drawn about its usefulness. It is suggested that it may be more useful for future research in this area to focus on therapy process rather than client outcome.
A current psychodynamic understanding of panic disorder
Authors: Vukŝić‐Mihaljević Ẑeljka , Mandić Nikola , Barkić Jelena , Mrdenović Slobodan
Published: July 2011

While there has been burgeoning interest in the psychiatric literature about the phenomenology and biology of panic disorder, there is little new information about the psychodynamics of this condition. The reintroduction of a psychodynamic perspective could be useful in guiding research strategies to identify traits which predispose to panic and in designing treatments to address such traits. A psychodynamic model hypothesizes a relationship between current psychological functioning, early experiences, and ongoing psychological traits. Recent published reports about the nature of underlying psychodynamics and psychological characteristics of panic disorder are discussed.
The contribution of depression and denial towards understanding the unawareness of symptoms in schizophrenic out‐patients
Authors: Dixon Mike , King Suzanne , Steiger Howard
Published: July 2011

Objectives. Unawareness of schizophrenic symptoms was postulated to be partially attributable to patients denying symptoms in order to avoid depression.

Method. The 24‐item version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was administered to 41 schizophrenic patients (chart diagnoses were validated by a DSM‐III‐R checklist). The first 14 of these items were then used to gather information about patients' symptomatology from 5 5 relatives of patients. Unawareness of symptoms was calculated by subtracting patients' total for these 14 items from parents' totals. Two measures of depression were obtained. Subjective depression was the score on the depression item based on patients responses to interview questions, objective depression was the score based on interviews with relatives about their ill family member. Family functioning was also assessed by administering patients' relatives the Camberwell Family Interview and the FACES III.

Results. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both subjective and objective measures of depression were significantly related to unawareness; subjective depression was negatively related, and objective depression was positively related. The employed measures of family functioning were unrelated to unawareness of symptomatology.

Conclusion. This opposing pattern of subjective and objective depression was interpreted as evidence of the self‐deception which characterizes all defence mechanisms including denial.
Psychological functioning in primary progressive versus secondary progressive multiple sclerosis
Authors: Vleugels Luc , Pfennings Lilian , Pouwer Frans , Cohen Leo , Ketelaer Pierre , Polman Chris , Lankhorst Gustaaf , van der Ploeg Henk
Published: July 2011

Psychological functioning in two types of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients is assessed: primary progressive (PP) and secondary progressive (SP) patients. On the basis of differences in clinical course and underlying pathology we hypothesized that primary progressive patients and secondary progressive patients might have different psychological functioning. Seventy patients treated in an MS centre were examined cross‐sectionally. Forty had an SP course of MS and 30 a PP course. The 33 male and 37 female patients had a mean age of 48.4 years (SD 11.2) and mean age of onset of MS of 30.7 years (SD 11.1). Patients completed questionnaires measuring among others the following aspects of psychological functioning: depression (BDI, SCL‐90), anxiety (STAI, SCL‐90), agoraphobia (SCL‐90), somatic complaints (SCL‐90), hostility (SCL‐90) and attitude towards handicap (GHAS). Patients with a PP‐MS scored significantly better on 5 out of 14 subscales than patients with SP‐MS (p<.05). On the basis of our operationalizations of psychological functioning, the findings support the conclusion that on average 18 years after diagnosis of MS, amongst patients attending an MS unit, primary progressive patients were found to have better psychological functioning.
On facing facts: What kinds of information do pre‐assessment psychotherapy questionnaires provide?
Authors: Mace Chris
Published: July 2011

More than two‐thirds of NHS psychotherapy departments now use questionnaires in assessment of new patients. Their content is described for the first time. Most are primarily designed to gather biographical information but salient questions are frequently omitted. These questionnaires have suffered from being designed and used in isolation. Psychotherapy service providers need to consider how collaboration will enable questionnaires to be more effective during their assessments and to assist research into which historical factors are of greatest prognostic significance among newly referred patients.
Denial and its reasoning
Authors: Miceli Maria , Castelfranchi Cristiano
Published: July 2011

This work is aimed at analysing the motivated reasoning underlying denial of some piece of information. Denial is first distinguished from both repression and biased interpretation; then an analysis is provided of the reasoning devices typical of denial. The rules on which reasoned denial is based are similar to those governing the individual's normal cognitive activity. Reasoned denial is here represented in the form of if‐then implications, where the to‐be‐denied belief plays the role of a consequence drawn from a given premise. So, in order to deny such a consequence one may either deny its premise, or search an alternative consequence, or search an alternative premise, or deny the very relation of implication, and so on. Each type of reasoning is logically biased, while at the same time psychologically plausible and convincing. A typical feature shared by all the reasoning strategies considered is the identification of ‘unproven’ with ‘false’.
Personality disorders in pulmonary patients
Authors: Bauer Hende , Duijsens Inge J.
Published: July 2011

A sample of 59 patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) was compared to matched samples of psychiatric patients and normal individuals with respect to personality disorders (PDs) assessed by a self‐report measure (VKP) (Duijsens, Eurelings‐Bontekoe, Diekstra & Ouwersloot, 1993a, b). The number of PDs differed significantly between pulmonary and psychiatric patients, while there was no significant difference between pulmonary patients and normal individuals. Comparison of the number of diagnosis criteria yielded significant contrasts between psychiatric patients versus the normal individuals and the pulmonary patients. Pulmonary patients and normal individuals showed significantly lower mean number of criteria met than matched psychiatric patients for nearly all of the diagnoses. It is concluded that PDs are no more prevalent in asthma and COPD patients than in the general population.
The role of anxiety and depression in fatigue and patterns of pain among subgroups of fibromyalgia patients
Authors: Kurtze Nanna , Gundersen Kjell Terje , Svebak Sven
Published: July 2011

This study explored the relationship of anxiety and depression with two major symptoms of fibromyalgia, pain and fatigue, among fibromyalgia patients (N = 322). Due to collinearity between anxiety and depression scores, extreme groups were defined according to high versus low anxiety and depression scores. Two‐thirds of the initial sample were excluded by this approach, which permitted a two by two factorial split‐plot ANOVA for the assessment of main effects and the interaction of anxiety and depression upon pain and fatigue. Results stated independent, additive, effects of anxiety and depression upon levels of pain and fatigue, whereas interaction between anxiety and depression failed to significantly explain symptom differences among the participants. Correlational analyses indicated widespread pain among the low anxiety subgroups. In contrast, widespread pain was not indicated among anxious patients with low scores on depression. The findings support the hypothesis that (1) anxiety and depression are independently associated with severity of pain symptoms in fibromyalgia, and that (2) patients with high anxiety and low depression may communicate to the medical doctor in ways that involve a risk of diagnosing fibromyalgia when the criterion of widespread pain is not supported. These conclusions were confirmed by results from ANCOVAs that permitted more extensive control of collinearity among variables.
Children's understanding of the relation between expressions (what was said) and intentions (what was meant)
Authors: Robinson Elizabeth , Goelman Hillel , Olson David R.
Published: July 2011

Three studies were carried out to examine young children's skill at handling the distinction between what a speaker means, and what is actually said. It was found that young children tended to confuse what was meant with what was said, and that children who made such confusions also tended to judge that ambiguous verbal messages were in fact adequate. Suggestions are offered as to how social interaction with adults may help children to perfect the distinction between a speaker's intended meaning and how that meaning is conveyed in a message, and it is further suggested that the perfection of this distinction may promote the development of understanding about ambiguity as a cause of communication failure.
On the codes and processes involved in identity judgements of oblique lines
Authors: Scher Anat , Unruh W. R.
Published: July 2011

Young children organize spatial information in terms of a contextually bound reference system, while adults, presumably, rely on an abstract system of coordinates. The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of the spatial codes and the mental operations which are used by older children and adults when processing spatial displays. To investigate these questions, the Orientation Judgement test, which consisted of identity judgements of successively presented oblique lines, was presented to 95 subjects: 35 10‐year‐olds, 30 14‐year‐olds and 30 adult university students. Subjects were tachistoscopically shown, in a Reaction Time paradigm, obliques which varied in respect to (1) their position within a square display and (2) their relations to the diagonal axis of the display. The results supported the conclusion that orientation was coded in terms of a set of pattern features such as position and axis, on which a match/mismatch analysis was carried out. The optional nature of the adult's spatial processing is discussed. The conclusion is that while framework features are mandatory for the young child's strategy, older perceivers can choose between optional strategies for the processing of space.
European ‘lag’ in the development of an economic concept: A study in Zimbabwe
Authors: Jahoda Gustav
Published: July 2011

Most Piagetian‐type studies of cognitive development conducted with non‐European children have found a ‘cultural lag’ in the achievement of concrete operations relating to physical or logico‐mathematical concepts. It is contended that such relative backwardness is likely to be a function of lack of familiarity, so that it could be reversed in a domain where non‐European children have the advantage of greater experience. This was tested with a sample of African children in Harare with varying experience of parental or personal involvement in small trading, whose understanding of the concept of ‘profit’ was assessed in a role‐playing situation. Results indicate that being active in trading makes for earlier grasp of the concept; moreover, the sample as a whole was shown to be significantly in advance of British children within the same age range.
Telling it as it isn't: Children's understanding of figurative language
Authors: Demorest Amy , Silberstein Lisa , Gardner Howard , Winner Ellen
Published: July 2011

The comprehension of five common forms of figurative language, differing both in degree of discrepancy from the truth and in communicative purpose, was examined in six‐, eight‐, and 11‐year‐olds. Children heard a series of brief stories each ending with one of five types of figurative remark (sarcasm, metaphor, understatement, hyperbole, irony) or a literal remark. A straight‐explication task assessed understanding of discrepancy and communicative purpose. A humour‐explication task assessed whether understanding is facilitated by considering the utterance as funny. A memory task assessed recall errors as clues to comprehension.

Six‐year‐olds usually recognized neither the discrepancy of the utterances nor the speaker's purpose. Eight‐year‐olds recognized the utterances' discrepancy from the truth. However, they offered few attributions of purpose, and those given were wrong as often as not. Eleven‐year‐olds recognized the discrepancy of the utterances and were also able to identify the communicative purpose. Results of humour‐explication yielded a similar pattern, but interpretations were somewhat more advanced on this task, suggesting that a humour context facilitates comprehension of these figurative utterances.

Irony was most difficult to recognize as discrepant, followed in order by hyperbole, understatement, metaphor and sarcasm. With regard to recognizing communicative purpose, irony was least well understood, followed in order by metaphor, understatement, hyperbole and sarcasm. Recall errors in the memory condition supported the explication findings. Results are discussed in terms of the two tasks involved in understanding figurative language: the logical task of recognizing the statement as discrepant from the facts; and the social‐cognitive task of identifying the speaker's communicative purpose.
Measurement of developmental susceptibility to the horizontal‐vertical illusion
Authors: Grieve Robert , Hogben John , Williams Aileen
Published: July 2011

Previous attempts to estimate developmental susceptibility to the horizontal‐vertical illusion have produced contradictory results. When susceptibility to the illusion is measured using a procedure appropriate to work with both adults and young children—namely, Pollack's rules for Taylor & Creelman's (1967) Parametric Estimation by Sequential Testing (PEST) procedure—it is found that susceptibility to the illusion does not significantly change in development from age three years to adulthood.
The effect of instructions upon children's drawings
Authors: Barrett M. D. , Bridson A.
Published: July 2011

In order to investigate whether verbal instructions can affect the drawings produced by children, 71 subjects between the ages of 4 years 7 months and 7 years 5 months were asked, using three different levels of explicitness of instruction, to draw a model house. It was found that the drawings which the subjects produced were systematically affected by the instructions, with the most explicit instructions resulting in the production of the most accurate representations of the subjects' own view of the model house.
Visual laterality in two reading‐related tasks
Authors: Campbell Ruth , Watson David
Published: July 2011

Nineteen English nine‐year‐olds from a single mixed‐ability school class were given two reading‐related tasks: a task which required spelling nonsense words to dictation (phonic spelling) and a written sentence classification task. Visual laterality (unilateral letter naming) was also tested.

Significant intercorrelations emerged between performance on the phonic spelling task, susceptibility to homophones in the reading task and RVF letter naming. Reading ability also correlated with these scores. However, when reading ability was partialled out of the correlations, the significant relation between laterality and phonic spelling persisted. Performance on a (control) sentence classification task, while correlating with reading ability, failed to correlate with phonic spelling, or with susceptibility to homophones in the reading task or with RVF scores.

We conclude that the mastery of reading involves a multiplicity of skills, only one of which (phonic skill) can be reliably related to cerebral lateralization: this may go some way towards resolving conflicting proposals on the relation between lateralization and reading skill.
Infant recognition memory following brief stimulus exposure
Authors: Rose David H. , Slater Alan M.
Published: July 2011

Three experiments are described in which three‐ and five‐month‐old infants' novelty preferences following brief familiarization (of 10 or 20 s dependent on age) or more lengthy habituation to a stimulus were compared. The results suggest that novelty preferences can be readily obtained even when it is clear that the familiarized stimulus has not been fully encoded. In Expt 1 it was found that novelty preferences could be equally strong following the two familiarization procedures when the stimuli were complex, coloured photographs. However Expts 2 and 3 suggest that only parts of a multidimensional stimulus are encoded during a brief exposure to the stimulus, and that the memories formed from a brief familiarization period are highly susceptible to decay. The implications of the results for models of infant habituation and memory are discussed.
Brain size and ‘intelligence’
Authors: Stott Denis H.
Published: July 2011

This review was prompted by recent claims—made in the search for a biological basis to ‘intelligence’—of a relationship between the latter and brain size. Attention is drawn to the methodological deficiencies of the early studies which found such a relationship, and the carelessness and bias which have marked some of the earlier reviews. A recent—and by far the most satisfactory—study found no correlation between brain size and IQ.

It is naïve to extrapolate from infrahuman to the human species since the evolved capabilities of all are ecologically conditioned and incomparable; and Homo sapiens has apparently shown no increase in brain size since its emergence as a species.

Apart from its interest for present controversies over ‘intelligence’, the history of work on brain size and its review are a lesson in the devices of bias. They also point to the need to refer to original sources rather than rely on possibly biased middlepersons.
A longitudinal study of the acquisition of word knowledge: Evidence against gradual learning
Authors: Cromer Richard F.
Published: July 2011

Earlier studies of the acquisition of adult comprehension of the structure ‘John is eager/easy to please’ have revealed three stages of acquisition. Two types of learning appear to be involved—the first being the awareness that this linguistic frame has two differing interpretations, and the second being the learning of the particular lexical items (e.g. ‘eager’ and ‘easy’) that indicate which of those abstract representations is to be recovered in order to interpret a particular instance of use. The current study examined longitudinally the processes occurring during the second type of acquisition by 48 children.

Most theories of word meaning assume some kind of gradual acquisition process, whether consisting of the addition of features or of the growing awareness or differentiation of prototypical core meanings. Longitudinally, such theories imply a decreasing number of errors and a consistency of answers over time showing the acquisition of the correct subcategorizations of an increasing number of the lexical items examined. However, the results, while showing a slight but significant decrease in errors, gave evidence of great inconsistency on the various lexical items by each individual child. It would appear that a simple notion of gradual acquisition is inadequate and that some kind of reorganizational process must be hypothesized during lexical acquisition.
The role of sensory modality for the reproduction of shape by the severely retarded
Authors: Anwar Feriha
Published: July 2011

Down's syndrome and non‐Down's syndrome subjects, matched for mental and chronological age, were compared on a drawing task. The stimulus shape had to be remembered and reproduced after either multimodal visual‐kinaesthetic stimulation or unimodal visual or kinaesthetic input only. Drawing took place either with or without visual guidance of the drawing hand. Drawing skill was assessed according to the dimensions of shape, size and orientation as well as movement control.

It was found that in general the presence of visual input information was more helpful for those without than for those with Down's syndrome in shape approximation. In contrast, Down's syndrome subjects tended to make better use of kinaesthetically derived information, especially in regard to orientation and movement control.
Reading for meaning and reading for sound in autistic and dyslexic children
Authors: Frith Uta , Snowling Maggie
Published: July 2011

Autistic, dyslexic and normal readers matched for reading age (RA) were compared on a large range of oral reading tasks. In terms of single word reading autistic children demonstrated intact processing strategies, entirely in keeping with their RA level, while dyslexic children failed on phonological, but not on lexical or semantic processing. With connected prose, the autistic children showed failure in reading for meaning. This failure was traced to a difficulty in using semantic context in the absence of syntactic cues. Dyslexic children showed superior ability in using semantic context relative to their RA level. The reading problems in the two groups can thus be seen as complementary.
Deaf children's short‐term memory for lip‐read, graphic and signed stimuli
Authors: Dodd Barbara , Hobson P. , Brasher J. , Campbell Ruth
Published: July 2011

Orally trained, profoundly deaf children's short‐term memory for lip‐read, signed and graphic stimuli was investigated using the serial ordered recall paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that both deaf and normally hearing boys exhibited more recency in their recall of lip‐read lists of digits than in their recall of graphically presented lists, indicating that such recency effects are not restricted to auditory perception or processing. Experiment 2 studied the effects of phonological and non‐phonological suffixes on good and poor deaf speakers' recall of lip‐read lists. The two groups performed identically, and whereas the phonological suffix impaired end‐of‐list recall, the non‐phonological suffix did not affect recency. Experiment 3 showed that both deaf and hearing subjects exhibited enhanced accuracy of end‐of‐list recall for moving, as compared with static, hand signs. It was concluded that deaf and hearing subjects did not differ in the way they remembered the visual stimuli presented, and that lip‐read information was coded phonologically by deaf subjects, irrespective of their articulatory skill. Further, movement of stimulus features makes an important contribution to enhanced recency effects in the recall of visually presented lists for both deaf and hearing subjects.
Neil O'Connor and the MRC Developmental Psychology Unit
Authors: Sloboda John A.
Published: July 2011

The MRC Developmental Psychology Unit existed for 15 years from 1967 to 1982 under the direction of Neil O'Connor. I recently visited him and was able to record an extended conversation with him. This brief history is based on that conversation and on a series of internal progress reports which the Unit published from time to time.
Localization of events in space: Young infants are not always egocentric
Authors: McKenzie B. E. , Day R. H. , Ihsen E.
Published: July 2011

Factors associated with spatial reference in a small‐scale space were investigated in three experiments. Subjects were first trained to anticipate an event at one specific location from two different directions of facing. They were then required to locate this event from a novel direction. Both 6‐ and 8‐month infants visually anticipated the whereabouts of the event from the novel direction and displayed persistent visual fixation towards the place where it had previously appeared. For 8‐month infants, successful anticipation was dependent neither on the distinctiveness of landmarks at the event position nor on the angle of their change in direction of facing. It was concluded that, at least for the space in front of the body, young infants are not exclusively limited to a fixed egocentric reference system for determining object or event location.
Reasons for the attribution of intent in 7‐ and 9‐year‐old children
Authors: Millar Stuart
Published: July 2011

Seven‐ and 9‐year‐old children were presented with drawings which depicted two ambiguous action‐outcome sequences and asked to make judgements about the intention of an actor towards another, and then to provide an explanation for the judgement. The design incorporated two levels of actor valence (nice, bad) with two types of outcome quality (good, bad). Judgements were influenced by both valence and outcome factors, but no age effect emerged. Content analysis of the explanations did reveal an age difference in reasoning about social judgements which was associated with the bad outcome. Nine‐year‐olds used more inference‐based explanations which reflected a more objective appraisal of the incident. The explanations of the younger children tended to be dominated by the immediacy of the situation. The findings further highlighted the importance of consistency between actor valence and outcome information relative to the direction of the child's judgement. Inconsistency arising in the context of a bad outcome situation elicited more rigorous explanations from the 9‐year‐olds.
Development of concrete operational thought and information coding in schooled and unschooled children
Authors: Dash Udaya N. , Das J. P.
Published: July 2011

In this study, we examine the influence of schooling and age on the development of concrete and operational thought and information processing as measured by non‐Piagetian tasks. One hundred schooled and 100 non‐schooled children in the age brackets of 6–8 and 10–12, and 50 4–6‐year‐old preschool children from a relatively homogeneous socio‐demographic background in a rural part of India were given four tests for information‐coding processes. Half of the subjects in each group were also given four Piagetian concrete operational tasks. As predicted, performance on Piagetian tasks increased as a function of age only, whereas the effects of schooling, age, and their interaction were clearly observed for coding processes. It is concluded that information‐processing modes rather than concrete operational skills are more sensitive to cognitive consequences of schooling.
Young children's coordination of motive and outcome in judgements of satisfaction and morality
Authors: Yuill Nicola
Published: July 2011

Three‐ to seven‐year‐old children judged a story‐character's satisfaction. Their comprehension of the relationship between motives and outcomes of action was tested by presenting them with matching and with mismatching outcomes. For example, one character's motive, depicted in a ‘thinks’ bubble, was to throw a ball to one of two children. In a matching outcome, the intended child caught the ball, whereas in a mismatching outcome, the other child caught it. Even the youngest children judged the character more pleased when the outcome matched his motive than when it did not. This suggests that children from three years old can integrate motive and outcome information. Children under seven years failed to judge satisfaction appropriately when motives and outcomes were bad. Comparisons of children's satisfaction judgements with their moral judgements of the story‐characters suggested possible reasons for this failure. The implications of the results for social cognition and information integration are discussed.
Cognitive style and moral judgement in mentally handicapped and non‐handicapped children of equal mental age*
Authors: Gargiulo Richard M.
Published: July 2011

Forty‐seven mentally handicapped and 47 non‐handicapped children matched on mental age were assessed with Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) and a Piagetian measure designed to elicit moral judgements. No significant differences were observed in the error and latency scores between the two groups nor in the proportion of reflective, impulsive, fast/accurate or slow/inaccurate individuals. The results also indicated that the subjects did not differ in their level of moral judgement; although reflectives made moral judgements on the basis of intention rather than consequence. Moral judgement was not significantly correlated with performance on the MFFT. The findings were interpreted as being consistent with Zigler's developmental concept of cultural‐familial retardation and suggesting that the ability to solve moral dilemmas appears to involve cognitive capacities.
Less obscure? Pragmatics and 3–4‐year‐old children's semantics
Authors: Grieve Robert , Stanley Susan
Published: July 2011

Young children's understanding of the terms more and less is considered. In a context where a response bias operates in favour of appropriate responses to more, 3–4‐year‐old children respond to less as they do to more, apparently indicating assimilation of meaning. However, in a context where there is an absence of any response bias, children respond to less at random. Further, young children can respond appropriately to an alternative expression for the concept of lesser amount, doesn't have many. These results suggest that young children's observed difficulties with the term less do not arise from assimilating the meaning of less to that of more. Rather, difficulties with less stem from young children's failure to understand the meaning of that particular term, responses to instructions containing less being determined by pragmatic rather than semantic factors. When the context exhibits a response bias, children's responses to less are in accord with it. When there is no response bias, children guess and respond to less at random.
Young children's comprehension of number markers
Authors: Nicolaci‐da‐Costa Ana , Harris Margaret
Published: July 2011

Young children's comprehension of four number markers (demonstratives, regular nouns, third person of the auxiliary be, and regular present tense verbs) was investigated through their presentation in sentences conveying non‐redundant information about number. Comprehension of each sentence was tested in two tasks: pointing to one of a pair of line drawings and acting out with toys the action described by a sentence. The results indicated that, firstly, the number information carried by the verb is rarely attended to or mastered before some component of the noun phrase; and, secondly, that the is/are allomorphs of the auxiliary be are mastered much earlier than the singular and plural forms of third‐person regular present tense verbs. Both the overall order of difficulty in understanding the four number markers investigated and the analysis of individual data were consistent with the developmental sequence reported by several authors for the acquisition of grammatical morphemes in spontaneous speech production.
Children's different use of alignment cues when encoding and when producing a match‐to‐target
Authors: Freeman N. H. , Chen M. J. , Hambly M.
Published: July 2011

Young children are frequently inaccurate in a simultaneous alignment task in which a square has to be laid down in alignment with a spatially discontiguous square, or a diamond with a diamond. The size of the inaccuracy can be manipulated by providing congruent or incongruent contextual cues. Three new results are reported here. First, accuracy at aligning the context itself seemed to obey grossly similar rules to those governing alignment to targets within the context. Secondly, the major determinant of contextual effects seemed to operate at the level of organizing the response rather than at encoding the display. Thirdly, whilst congruent cues on the response plane aided performance, they did not when they were located in the stimulus plane. Two suggestions are made to explain these effects. Firstly, children do not distribute their available orientation‐encoding resources economically when forming a mental representation of the stimulus; secondly, they attempt the simultaneous matching task by using a sequential strategy. The observed alignment error may be a product of their inefficient collation of evidence from the perceptual cues monitored during the two earlier stages of the sequential strategy.
Intrinsic motivation and delay of gratification in preschoolers: The variables of reward salience and length of expected delay
Authors: Sarafino Edward P.
Published: July 2011

The undermining effect of reward on the intrinsic motivation of 100 preschool children was tested under six reward conditions and a control. The reward conditions varied the children's attention to rewards (salience) and length of expected reward delay to test predictions derived from the delay of gratification hypothesis. The results disconfirmed the prediction of greater decrements in intrinsic interest with increases in length of expected reward delay and, in fact, showed the opposite trend. The pattern of significant effects supported the role of reward salience. Cognitive script theory is discussed as an explanation of these results and elaborated to incorporate developmental changes in cognitive processes. The combination of attribution theory and the elaborated version of cognitive scripts is proposed to account for the undermining effect in young children and adults.
Will infants search when ‘no toy’ is hidden? A study of implicit assumptions about the development of object permanence
Authors: Appel Kenneth J. , Gratch Gerald
Published: July 2011

In the Piagetian tradition, presence or absence of a sense of object permanence is inferred from whether an infant does or does not search when an object is occluded. This line of reasoning entails an implicit assumption, i.e. an infant will not search if no object is seen to disappear. This assumption was evaluated in three studies of 9‐ and 12‐month‐old infants' responses to ‘hiding’ toy and ‘no toy’ in different orders in one and two positions. The infants did not search for ‘no toy’ when it preceded toy hiding, but they did search for ‘no toy’ when it followed ‘toy’ under some conditions.
Pocket money: A study of economic education
Authors: Furnham Adrian , Thomas Paul
Published: July 2011

Despite the fact that some work had been done on children's conceptions of economic affairs, very little work appears to have been done on children's use of money. This study set out to examine sex, age and class differences in 7–12‐year‐old children's pocket money/allowances. Males and females, from middle‐ and working‐class backgrounds in three age groups (7/8, 9/10, 11/12), completed a questionnaire which sought to establish such things as the amount of pocket money children received; other sources of income; whether they were required to work for their pocket money; whether and how they were encouraged to save it, etc. The results showed that, whereas there were few sex or class differences, there were a large number of significant age differences. The results are discussed in terms of the children's socialization and experience of money. Limitations of this research and suggestions for further work in this field are noted.