bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The diachronic approach and solutions to interpersonal conflicts
Authors: Montangero Jacques , Pons Francisco , Cattin Jean‐Pierre
Published: February 2003

The diachronic approach consists of considering a phenomenon as a stage in an evolutive process. The authors postulate that this approach plays a role at the level of everyday thinking in the discovery of solutions to problems. The present experiment aims at studying the relationships between levels of the diachronic approach in children and their ability to imagine solutions to a conflict between children. Sixty children aged 8 to 12 years were presented first with tasks assessing their level of diachronic tendency (propensity to evoke past or future stages of a present situation), of dissociation of two temporal sequences (absence of covariation of a cause and its delayed effect) and of dynamic synthesis (ability to describe a set of pictures representing the successive steps of an event by a single noun phrase). During a second session, the participants were presented with a drawing representing two boys fighting in the playground and they were asked to explain the reasons for the fight. Participants then had to imagine several solutions to prevent the two boys fighting. Results showed a development in the ability to imagine solutions to a conflict and a significant correlation between the levels of this development and the levels of two aspects of the diachronic approach.
Factors influencing the development of a theory of mind in blind children
Authors: Peterson Candida C. , Peterson James L. , Webb Julie
Published: February 2003

This study explored the development of a theory of mind in blind children aged 5 to 12 years. A total of 23 children with severe visual impairment or total blindness in three age groups (6, 8 and 12 years) were tested on a battery of four false belief tests involving changed locations and misleading appearances. They also took a standard test of Level 2 visual perspective‐taking. A majority of 6‐year‐old blind children failed the false belief tests, and though performance improved with age, significant difficulties persisted in the 8‐year‐olds whose performance did not exceed chance on most tasks. However, the 12‐year‐olds displayed an understanding of mental states that was near ceiling with 70% of them passing all four tests of false belief and 90% passing at least three. The results of a multiple regression analysis confirmed that whereas increasing age significantly predicted gains in false belief understanding, the child's level of visual impairment (totally blind or severely visually impaired) did not influence false belief performance. Accurate Level 2 visual perspective‐taking was present in the vast majority of these children from the age of 6 years, so that the difficulties observed with theory of mind concepts could not be attributed to an inability to understand other people's perceptions. In contrast to previous research, the blind children in the present sample found false belief tests involving the changed location of objects just as difficult as those involving misleading containers. There were similarly no significant effects of gender, or of the presence or absence of a physical or learning disability, upon false belief performance.
The consequences of visual impairment for children's symbolic and functional play
Authors: Lewis V. , Norgate S. , Collis G. , Reynolds R.
Published: February 2003

Children with visual impairments are reported to be delayed in producing pretend play in naturalistic settings. This study examined the play of 18 children with visual impairments aged between 21 and 86 months on two structured tests of play. Appropriate functional play with miniature versions of everyday objects was distinguished from symbolic play involving substituting one object for another, pretending something has a property it does not have, or referring to something as if it were present. As a group, the children showed impaired functional and symbolic play. However, four children met the diagnostic criteria for autism and engaged in little or no play. When these children were excluded, the remaining children had lower functional play test scores than expected for their chronological age, but symbolic play test scores which were at the appropriate level for their chronological age. The functional and symbolic play of children with no vision or only light perception did not differ significantly from children with some vision. The production of symbolic play was strongly related to language ability, although functional play was not related to language ability. It is argued that children with visual impairment, but no behaviours characteristic of autism, can develop the ability to play both functionally and symbolically, but that lack of visual access to play materials may limit their ability to demonstrate these skills.
The role of context in preschoolers’ judgments of emotion in art
Authors: Callaghan Tara C.
Published: February 2003

Preschool aged children (3 and 5 years) were asked to judge the emotion expressed in museum art under two situations; one where they observed an adult conspicuously make judgments of the emotion portrayed in paintings and a second where they were not exposed to adult judgments. In the experimental condition, children were presented with five paintings (four portraying a target emotion and one an alternate emotion) and watched as an adult chose three paintings that expressed one of four target emotions (happy, sad, excited or calm). Children were asked to pick the fourth from the remaining pair of paintings. In the control condition, children were asked to choose the painting portraying the target emotion from the pair without watching an adult make choices. All stimuli had been previously rated by artists to be good exemplars of each of the emotion categories. The results indicated that 3‐year‐olds were at chance in the control condition, but matched art to emotion in a manner that was consistent with artists’ norms in the experimental condition. Five‐year‐olds showed better than chance performance in the control condition, and even higher levels of performance in the experimental condition. These findings suggest that children's judgments of expressiveness in art may be facilitated by social interaction with others who take an aesthetic stance toward paintings.
Infants’ visual preference for sex‐congruent babies, children, toys and activities: A longitudinal study
Authors: Campbell Anne , Shirley Louisa , Heywood Charles , Crook Charles
Published: February 2003

Sex differences in social behaviour emerge as early as 2 years of age and gender schema theorists have suggested that preverbal infants possess ‘tacit’ knowledge of gender which informs their behaviour. This study examined sex‐congruent preferences using a visual preference paradigm in four domains (babies, children, toys, activities) in a longitudinal study of infants aged 3, 9 and 18 months. At 3 months, infants showed a marginally significant preference for same‐sex babies driven principally by males. Sex‐congruent toy preference was found among males at ages 9 and 18 months. Both sexes preferred masculine activity styles but this effect was significantly stronger among males than females. Gender schema theory requires gendered self‐concept as a precursor to sex‐congruent preference. Infants did not recognize themselves from photographs at any of the ages tested. By 18 months approximately two thirds of infants showed self‐recognition on the rouge test. However, at none of the ages and in none of the domains tested was self‐recognition related to sex‐congruent preference. Cross‐domain consistency of preference was not found. There was evidence of some stability of preference within domains between the ages of 9 and 18 months and this stability was very marked for activity preference.
The development of an understanding of modesty
Authors: Banerjee Robin
Published: February 2003

Previous research has shown that children's understanding of how others evaluate them improves during primary school. Modesty reflects a complex form of this understanding, since one must appreciate that a self‐deprecating presentation of the self can lead to enhanced social evaluation. The present research examines the understanding of modesty in children aged between 6 and 10 years. In Expt 1, 179 children were asked to choose between modest and immodest responses to praise in hypothetical situations, and then to justify their choices. Children from age 8 onwards not only showed a preference for the modest responses but also justified this preference in terms of the negative impact of immodesty on social evaluation. In Expt 2, 60 children judged modest and immodest responses, and also completed two social cognition tasks tapping second‐order mental‐state reasoning. A teacherassessed measure of self‐monitoring was also administered. As in the first experiment, children from age 8 viewed modest responses more positively than immodest responses. Furthermore, attitudes towards modesty were associated with individual differences in self‐monitoring and social cognition, such that children with greater sensitivity to the interpersonal dynamics of social situations were more likely than others to rate modest responses positively. Implications for understanding children's social behaviour are discussed.
Two‐year‐olds’ sensitivity to a parent's knowledge state: Mind reading or contextual cues?
Authors: Dunham Philip , Dunham Frances , O'Keefe Colleen
Published: February 2003

Two experiments were designed to determine if children at 27 and 33 months of age tailor their communicative behaviours to the knowledge states of their social partners. In each study, an experimenter placed a desirable object into one of two opaque containers. The child was then required to ask for a parent's assistance in retrieving the object. In one condition, the parent covered her eyes during sticker placement (parent ignorant condition); in a second condition, the parent's eyes were open during sticker placement (parent knowledgeable condition); and in a third condition, the parent first covered her eyes but then opened them during placement of the sticker (sham ignorant condition). The results indicated that children at both ages were appropriately employing a pointing gesture more often in the parent ignorant condition than in the parent knowledgeable condition. However, children responded to the sham hiding condition differently at the two ages. In the sham condition, older children appropriately gestured less than in the parent ignorant condition. However, the younger children were equally likely to use gestures in the sham condition and the parent ignorant condition. Considered together, the data suggest that different factors are controlling the selective use of gestures in these two age groups.
Development of phonological recoding and literacy acquisition: A four‐year cross‐sequential study
Authors: Palmer Sue
Published: February 2003

This cross‐sequential study investigated the development of phonological recoding in working memory in relation to literacy acquisition in children between the ages of 5 and 8 years. Using a paradigm which manipulates visual and phonological similarity of visual stimuli, it has shown that phonological recoding consists not only of the ability to access the phonological representation of the visual stimuli, but also the capacity to inhibit the visual representation which might cause interference. In relation to literacy acquisition, the ability to access the phonological representation is a unique predictor of literacy acquisition over and above that accounted for by age, intelligence and working memory capacity. It accounts for up to 25% of the variance on a Neale Analysis of Reading test and up to 18% of the variance on the WRAT single word reading test. However, from the age of 7 years and above, the capacity to inhibit the visual response also plays a major role, accounting for a further 10% of the variance. Children of this age who are still relying on visual strategies in working memory have significantly lower literacy attainment levels. There was no significant relation between phonological recoding and maths scores until the age of 8 years, showing that a separable cognitive processing component has been isolated.
The relationship between children's production and comprehension of realism in drawing
Authors: Jolley Richard P. , Knox Emma L. , Foster Sharon G.
Published: February 2003

Two studies compared 2‐ to 14‐year‐olds’ production and comprehension of realism in human figure drawings. In the comprehension task, children were asked to choose from an array of children's drawings the (1) most realistic drawing, (2) one they liked the best, and (3) one most similar to their own human figure drawings. Both studies reported that children of all drawing levels typically selected a more advanced drawing than shown in their own productions for all three questions, except that the most advanced drawers consistently estimated their drawing level appropriately. In Study 2, children were also asked to place the drawings in an age‐related developmental sequence. Performance on this task was positively related to the child's production level, independently of the child's age. It is concluded that production lags comprehension in drawing development, but that production level may have an influence on children's knowledge of the developmental sequence in drawing.
Parents’ estimates of their own and their children's multiple intelligences
Authors: Furnham Adrian
Published: February 2003

Previous studies have shown that when parents estimate their own and their children's overall IQ (general intelligence), fathers estimate their own scores significantly higher than mothers estimate their own scores, and both parents estimate their sons’ IQ higher than their daughters’ (Furnham & Gasson, 1998). This study looks at differences in parental estimation of children's multiple intelligences based on Gardner's (1983) seven‐dimensional model. In all, 112 parents estimated their own and their sons’ and daughters’ ability on each of seven specific dimensions (verbal, mathematical, spatial, musical, body‐kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal). As before, males (fathers) rated themselves as more intelligent on mathematical and spatial intelligence than females (mothers) rated themselves on these intelligences. Results indicated that differences in perception of children's intelligence lay only in the areas of mathematical and spatial intelligence, which may be conflated with lay concepts of overall intelligence. Overall, mothers rated their children higher on mathematical and spatial intelligence than did fathers, and both parents indicated that they thought their sons more numerate than their daughters. This result was stronger for the first child than for the second, suggesting the cultural significance attached to first‐born sons (primogeniture).
Visual signals and children's communication: Negative effects on task outcome
Authors: Doherty‐Sneddon G. , McAuley S. , Bruce V. , Langton S. , Blokland A. , Anderson A. H.
Published: February 2003

Previous research has found that young children fail to adapt to audio‐only interaction (e.g. Doherty‐Sneddon & Kent, 1996), and perform difficult communication tasks better face‐to‐face. In this study, children aged 6 and 10 years old were compared in face‐to‐face and audio‐only interaction. A problem‐solving communication task involving description of abstract stimuli was employed. When describing the abstract stimuli both groups of children showed evidence of face‐to‐face interference rather than facilitation. It is concluded that, contrary to previous research, for some communication tasks access to visual signals (such as facial expression and eye gaze) may hinder rather than help children's communication.
An investigation of pretend play, mental state terms and false belief understanding: In search of a metarepresentational link
Authors: Nielsen Mark , Dissanayake Cheryl
Published: February 2003

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between false belief comprehension, the exhibition of pretend play and the use of mental state terms in pre‐school children. Forty children, aged between 36 and 54 months were videotaped engaging in free play with each parent. The exhibition of six distinct acts of pretend play and the expression of 16 mental state terms were coded during play. Each child was also administered a pantomime task and three standard false belief tasks. Reliable associations were also found between false belief performance and the pretence categories of object substitution and role assignment, and the exhibition of imaginary object pantomimes. Moreover, the use of mental state terms was positively correlated with false belief and the pretence categories of object substitution, imaginary play and role assignment, and negatively correlated with the exhibition of body part object pantomimes. These findings indicate that the development of a mental state lexicon and some, but not all, components of pretend play are dependent on the capacity for metarepresentational cognition.
Conceptual change in biology: Group interaction and the understanding of inheritance
Authors: Williams J. M. , Tolmie A.
Published: February 2003

Conceptual conflict, especially that generated by group discussion, has been shown to advance children's understanding of physics. The present study assessed whether this effect holds for biology, and more specifically concepts of inheritance, despite apparent differences between the characteristics of knowledge in the two domains. Pre‐test interviews gauged 8‐ to 12‐year‐olds’ initial ideas of heritable characteristics and inheritance mechanisms in animals. On the basis of these interviews, children were placed in one of three intervention conditions: individuals, groups holding similar ideas, or groups holding different ideas. They then completed a task designed to engender conceptual conflict via feedback, and either reflection on ideas (individuals) or group discussion. Post‐test interviews revealed greatest advance among children in groups with different initial concepts. The lower levels of progress in the individual condition indicated that group discussion was more effective than feedback alone in promoting change. Dialogue analysis showed the impact of discussion to be attributable to resolutions of conflict within the groups with differing concepts. During discussions regarding physics, such resolutions have previously been found to occur spontaneously only among older students. The results are discussed in relation to the nature of naïve biological concepts and domain‐specific development.
Use of an auditory looming task to test infants’ sensitivity to sound pressure level as an auditory distance cue
Authors: Freiberg Kate , Tually Kim , Crassini Boris
Published: February 2003

This study describes how an auditory looming technique was used to investigate 4‐to 6‐month‐old infants’ sensitivity to sound pressure level (SPL) as an auditory distance cue. Thirty‐two infants were tested in complete darkness and presented with auditory stimuli that underwent unidirectional variations in SPL (40–70dB). The rate at which SPL was varied during the course of trials (past vs. slow) was manipulated by varying trial length (5s vs. 10s). During stimulus presentation, measures were taken of the amount of backward body pressure infants exerted in response to increasing SPL trials (i.e. illusory approach) compared to decreasing SPL trials (i.e. illusory recede). Analysis of the pattern of backward body movements made during the course of experimental trials support the argument that infants responded to the directionally specific spatial information afforded by changing SPL. Avoidance behaviour was associated with SPL increase but not SPL decrease conditions. However, within the SPL increase condition infants engaged in more defensive leaning back in fast change trials compared to slow change trials. The overall pattern of results indicates that under certain conditions infants detect information for changing object distance primarily on the basis of SPL variation.
Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children
Authors: Augoustinos Martha , Rosewarne Dana Louise
Published: February 2003

The present research applies Devine's (1989) distinction between stereotype knowledge and personal beliefs to the early development of racial bias in young children. The responses of 110 South Australian children (66 girls and 44 boys) toward white and black stimuli were examined across the 5–6 and 8–9 age groups. Analyses revealed that both age groups were knowledgeable about the cultural stereotypes associated with black and white skin colour. Negative adjectives were more strongly endorsed for black stimuli than were positive adjectives (the reverse was true for white stimuli). For 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds, knowledge of stereotypes and personal beliefs for black stimuli were highly congruent. In contrast, children aged 8–9 years were significantly more likely to report personal beliefs which diverged from their knowledge of pervasive cultural stereotypes, i.e. to endorse negative adjectives as stereotype knowledge rather than personal beliefs. It is tentatively concluded that the concordance of personal beliefs and stereotype knowledge found among very young children is not prejudice as typically conceived, but rather a function of their inability to make personal judgments that diverge from dominant stereotypes. In contrast, older children have an increasing ability to base evaluations on personal beliefs that may be inconsistent with collective societal representations of social groups. Various explanations accounting for the differentiation between personal beliefs and stereotype knowledge in older children are discussed.
Can 6‐month‐old infants process causality in different types of causal events?
Authors: Bélanger Nancy Daigle , Desrochers Stéphan
Published: February 2003

Two experiments investigated 6‐month‐old infants’ processing of causal and noncausal events with the habituation/dishabituation technique. Experiment 1 was carried out with the usual launching events. Results showed that 6‐month‐old infants can recognize the presence of causality embedded in a direct launching event. Experiment 2 was carried out with a previously univestigated type of causal event: the entraining event. Results showed that 6‐month‐old infants could not process causality through a direct entraining event. Findings are discussed in terms of compatibility with a modular or an information‐processing framework.
Causal explanations of events by children and adults: Can alternative causal modes coexist in one mind?
Authors: Subbotsky Eugene
Published: February 2003

Unusual phenomena (spontaneous destruction of objects in an empty wooden box) were demonstrated to 6‐ and 9‐year‐old children and to adults. These were accompaniedby actionswhichhadno physicallinktothedestroyedobject butcould suggest either scientifically based (the effect of an unknownphysical device) or nonscientifically based(the effect of a parapsychological ‘effort of will’ or a ‘magic spell’) causal explanations of the event. Contrary to the expectation that scientifically based explanation would prevail in older children's and adults’ judgments and behaviours, the prevalence was only shown in participants’ verbal judgments and not in their actions. In their actions, 9‐year‐olds showed a higher credulity towards the magical effect than towards the effect of a physical device. Adult participants showed an equal degree of credulity towards the effect of both the device and magic in both high‐ and low‐risk conditions. However, when the risk of disregarding the possible causal effect of accompanying actions was high, the overall degree of credulity towards possible effects of the device and magic spell, as judged by specific behavioural patterns, was significantly higher than when the risk was low. The replacement of non‐scientific causal explanations by scientific ones does indeed take place with age. However, the replacement model only captures the development of verbal judgments. In participants’ actual behaviour the coexistence of alternative causal modes was observed.
Children's understanding of false beliefs in different domains: Affective vs. physical
Authors: Davis Teresa L.
Published: February 2003

This study compared the development of other false belief and representational change knowledge in the affective and physical domains. Pre‐school children (ages 3–4 years) participated in unexpected contents types of physical tasks and similar affective tasks. There were no domain differences in the children's performance; however, a marginal interaction with age was noted with older children performing better on the physical tasks than younger ones, but no age difference was found for the affective tasks. Children's knowledge of other false belief and representational change was also similar. Controlling for age, partial correlations between the representational change and other false belief questions were significant in the affective and physical domains. Partial correlations investigating the relationships across domains indicated a significant relationship for representational change, but not for other false belief. These results suggest that other false belief knowledge and representational change knowledge develop concurrently in the affective and physical domains.
Children's inferences from ‘knowing’ to ‘pretending’ and ‘believing’
Authors: German Tim P. , Leslie Alan M.
Published: February 2003

Three studies investigatedchildren's ability to drawinferences fromtheproperties of one mental state to the properties of another. Inferences from knowledge/ignorance to the possible contents of pretends and beliefs are crucial to developing a representational theory of mental states. In Experiment 1, we replicated Lillard's (1993) finding that 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds fail to appreciate that a character who does not know about an entity cannot pretend to be that entity. We show that these children also fail a similar task in which the inference to be made is from not knowing to thinking (false belief). Lillard's inference tasks may be difficult because of their performance demands—specifically, children are not offered a plausible alternative content for the agent's pretence or belief state. In a second experiment, children were presented with know‐pretend and know‐think inference tasks which offered two options for the content of a character's mental state. One option was consistent with that character's knowledge state, while the other was not. Under these conditions, 4‐ and 6‐year‐oldchildren's performance improved significantly on both pretend and think. A third experiment investigated the role of the salience of the character's ignorance and the possible use of an association strategy in producing successful performance in Experiment 2. When the salience of the character's ignorance was reduced, children still succeeded on know‐pretend inferences but failed on know‐think inferences. These results suggest that children do not really grasp the theory of mental representation. The results better support the ToMM‐SP model of ‘theory of mind’ development. Accordingto this model, conceptpossession is prior to, and therefore does not depend upon, knowledge of theories, and task success depends upon the control of salience.
The impact of fantasy and action on young children's understanding of pretence
Authors: Sobel David M. , Lillard Angeline S.
Published: February 2003

Theorists examining children's understanding of the mind have been particularly interested in pretence as it may be a marker for early understanding of mental representation (Leslie, 1987). Although Lillard (1993a, 1996) found that children appeared not to understand that pretence involves mental representation or even the mind, Lillard and Sobel (1999) showed that for certain types of pretence, in particular, pretence involving fantasy characters, children's understanding might be more advanced. The twoexperiments here replicate andextend this finding. In both experiments, children performed better on fantasy items than items that did not involve fantasy. This was true regardless of the amount of action the pretence involved.
The ability of children with imaginary companions to differentiate between fantasy and reality
Authors: Bouldin Paula , Pratt Chris
Published: February 2003

This study investigated the ability of children with and without imaginary companions (N = 80) aged 4‐8 years to differentiate fantasy from reality. Following children's descriptions of a monster, a monster‐shaped silhouette was unexpectedly projected in the room. Video‐recordings of each child's reaction to the silhouette and responses to a subsequent series of questions indicated that a significantly larger number of imaginary companion than non‐imaginary companion children thought that an imaginary entity could be reflected in reality. However, as a number of nonimaginary companion children also thought that an imaginary entity could be reflected in reality, differences in children's level of credulity, rather than the presence or absence of the imaginary companion, was considered to account for the fantasy‐ reality confusion.
Children's play narrative responses to hypothetical dilemmas and their awareness of moral emotions
Authors: Woolgar Matthew , Steele Howard , Steele Miriam , Yabsley Susan , Fonagy Peter
Published: February 2003

Five‐year‐old children's moral development was assessed using a projective doll‐play technique (the MacArthur Story Stem Battery; MSSB), an emotion‐understanding task, concurrent maternal reports of behaviour problems and child performance in a cheating task. Three narrative scales were derived from the children's MSSB play themes: a non‐physical punishment scale, a prosocial scale and an antisocial scale. Thechildren's use of non‐physical discipliningthemes was related to their awareness of moral emotions. The antisocial and prosocial narrative scales were related to concurrent maternal ratings of externalizing and internalizing problems, respectively. Although the emotions children anticipated in the emotion‐understanding task did not predict behaviour in the cheating task, their justifications for the different emotions tended to do so, as did the prosocial play narrative scale. The findings suggest a degree of coherence across the assessments of moral development, and are discussed with reference to children's script‐based understanding.
Retrospective reports of school bullying: Stability of recall and its implications for research
Authors: Rivers Ian
Published: February 2003

In this article a non‐probability sample of 60 lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women, who had all been bullied at school for a period of 5 years or more, were asked to complete a self‐report style questionnaire at two time points (12–14 months apart) to assess the stability of their recollections of bullying. Three particular types of recollection were explored: (1) age factors and calendar reference points, (2) incident or event recall, and (3) recall for peripheral factors (e.g. ramificationsandconsequences). The results suggested that participants were able to recallkey events intheirlivesandplace themwithina generalchronologywhichwas not found to vary greatly across the 12–14‐month period. They were also able to recall specific types of bullying occurring in specific locations with relative constancy. However, recollections of subsequent outcomes (e.g. telling a teacher) were recalled less well. It is argued that this study lends some support to the idea that retrospective studies have a role to play in applied research and that memory stability may be a useful indicator of reliability where prospective studies are difficult to conduct. However, they should not be seen as an alternative to longitudinalresearch.
Attachment‐based intervention in adoptive families in infancy and children's development at age 7: Two follow‐up studies
Authors: Stams Geert‐Jan J. M. , Juffer Femmie , Van Ijzendoorn Marinus H. , Hoksbergen Renéa. C.
Published: February 2003

In the present study we examined the longitudinal effects of an early attachmentbased intervention on children's social development, personality development, and incidence of behaviour problems at age 7. The behaviourally focused intervention was carried out in families with internationally, transracially adopted children placed before 6 months of age. The intervention was implemented during the child's first year of life in mixed families (i.e. adoptive families with biological children) and in all‐adoptive families (i.e. adoptive families without biological children). In the small sample of mixed families (N = 35), we found delayed positive intervention effects at age 7 on ego‐resiliency and optimal ego‐control in girls, and on internalizing behaviour problems in both boys and girls. In all‐adoptive families (N = 112), the intervention had been effective in changing maternal sensitive responsiveness, security of attachment, and infant exploratory competence in early childhood, but enduring intervention effects could not be traced at the child's age of 7.
Developmental and individual differences in fluid intelligence: Evidence against the unidimensional hypothesis
Authors: Davis Helen , Anderson Mike
Published: February 2003

The Brinley plot and partial correlation methods are used to investigate conjointly the theories that increasing speed of processing is responsible for changes in mental age (MA) and that speed of processing gives rise to within‐age differences in fluid intelligence (IQ). A group of 107 children ranging in age from 4 to 9 years completed three reaction time (RT) tasks (spatial, verbal and selective attention). Children were grouped first by chronological age then by fluid IQ, and Brinley plots of RT and RT difference scores (argued to give a purer measure of cognitive speed) were produced for each grouping. Two Brinley methods were compared: fixing the intercept of the line of best fit at the origin, and allowing it to vary. These produced quite different functions with correspondingly different implications for the speed theory. It is argued that previous findings of developmental speed increases (as measured by Brinley slope) may be an artifact of the fixed‐intercept method. When intercept was allowed to vary, findings indicated that speed did not change developmentally. Furthermore, when absolute RT and RT difference score findings were compared, partial correlations indicated that RT was related primarily to age rather than MA or IQ, whereas RT difference scores were related directly to IQ, but not to age or MA. We argue that the results are best accommodated by the theory that speed underlies stable IQ differences but not increases in MA. Instead, we argue that MA change may be better accounted for by children's increasing attentional ability.
Developmental change in form categorization in early infancy
Authors: Quinn Paul C. , Slater Alan M. , Brown Elizabeth , Hayes Rachel A.
Published: February 2003

Three experiments utilizing the familiarization/novelty‐preference procedure were conducted to examine the form categorization abilities of newborn and 3‐ to 4‐ month‐old infants. In the first two experiments, newborn infants discriminated between individual exemplars chosen from different form categories (Expt 1) and from within a form category (Expt 2). In Expt 3, older infants provided evidence of having formed individuated categorical representations for circles, crosses, squares and triangles, whereas newborn infants did not. However, newborn performance was consistent with the formation of broader categorical representations for open versus closed classes of form (i.e. crosses vs. circles, squares and triangles). The results are discussed in terms of a possible differentiation‐based developmental change from broad‐to‐narrow (or global‐to‐basic) in the perceptual category representations formed by young infants.
Responses to mother's face in 3‐week to 5‐month‐old infants
Authors: Bartrip Jon , Morton John , de Schonen Scania
Published: February 2003

Pascalis, de Schonen, Morton, Deruelle, and Fabre‐Grenet (1995) showed that while 4‐day‐old infants looked longer at their mother's face than at a stranger's, they did not do so if both women were wearing headscarves. In the present experiment, we obtained similar results for infants of 19–25 days. In contrast, a group of 35‐ to 40‐ day‐old infants was able to make the discrimination with mother and stranger wearing headscarves. When both women wore masks, so that only hair and chin lines were visible, the discrimination was not made earlier than 120 days. There was also a developmental trend from interest in the mother for 19‐ to 25‐day‐old infants, to interest in the stranger for the 145‐ to 155‐day‐old infants. Further investigation showed that the main contribution toward this trend was from the male infants.
Judgments of personal autonomy and interpersonal responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships: An examination of young people's reasoning in Mysore, India
Authors: Neff Kristin D.
Published: February 2003

This study examined social judgments of autonomy and responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships. The sample included 72 Hindu Indian children, adolescents and young adults (M ages = 10.2, 15.1 and 19.8 years) from Mysore, India. Participants were presented with a series of vignettes in which the needs and desires of spouses conflicted, designed so that the protagonist in each situation was either a husband or wife. Participants were asked to decide what the actor should do and why, indicating whether personal autonomy or interpersonal responsibility concerns were dominant. A repeated measures MANOVA found a main effect of spousal condition, indicating that judgments were influenced by norms of patriarchy: autonomy was emphasized more often for husbands, responsibility more often for wives (particularly among male children). However, participants also went against cultural norms, with 58% of participants supporting autonomy for wives when their personal concerns were relatively important. Although Hindu India is often described as a collectivistic culture in which personal concerns are subordinated to interpersonal concerns, the Hindu Indian participants in this study displayed concern with both autonomy and responsibility, and gender hierarchy played a role in the manifestation of these concerns.
Preschoolers' appreciation of uncommon desires and subsequent emotions
Authors: Rieffe Carolien , Terwogt Mark Meerum , Koops Willem , Stegge Hedy , Oomen Annemiek
Published: February 2003

Many theory of mind researchers have argued that even preschoolers understand the causal relationship between desires and emotions: the fulfilment of a desire results in a positive emotion, whereas its frustration elicits a negative emotion. Children can acknowledge this simple link between desires and emotions, even when their own desire differs from that of the story protagonist. However, in this paper we argue that under some conditions preschool children will not base their emotion predictions for another person on the basis of the other person's desires. In the first experiment, 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children were tested for their understanding of desires, when the protagonist's desire for a snack increasingly conflicted with their own preference for a snack. Only the 4‐year‐olds performed as expected: they gave more accurate emotion predictions when the distance between their own preference and the protagonist's desire was reduced. When the snacks were replaced by toys, however, preschool children showed a bias in their emotion predictions that seemed gender related. The second experiment confirmed that sex‐stereotyped beliefs about desirability biased children's predictions of others' emotions: 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children were more accurate in their predictions when the protagonist had a traditional desire (a girl wanting to play with a doll), than when the protagonist had a non‐traditional desire (a boy wanting to play with a doll), irrespective of children's own preferences for one toy over the other. In sum, evidence was found for two biasing influences in children's understanding of others' emotions: (1) an increased distance between the protagonist's desire and participants' own desires, and (2) beliefs about desirability based on, for example, cultural‐norms for gender related preferences, which increases with age.
Children's human figure drawings in the UK and Japan: The effects of age, sex and culture
Authors: Cox Maureen V. , Koyasu Masuo , Hiranuma Hiromasa , Perara Julian
Published: February 2003

The participants were 120 UK and 120 Japanese children. There were two age groups (7‐year‐olds and 11‐year‐olds) with equal numbers of boys and girls in each. Each child drew three figures: a man standing and facing the viewer, a man running towards the right, and a man running towards the viewer. The older children's figures were rated more highly than those of younger children, supporting previous research findings. Girls' figures received higher ratings than those of boys, contradicting previous claims that boys are more flexible in their drawings of figures in action. Japanese children's figures received higher ratings than those in the UK, suggesting that Japanese children are influenced by a greater exposure to graphic images in their school art curriculum and the widespread popularity of manga comics. The prediction that Japanese boys would make the greatest adaptations to their figures (since manga comics for boys contain more action figures) was not supported. As well as gaining higher ratings, the older children also constructed their figures in more complex ways than did the younger children. The figures drawn by girls and by the Japanese children were not constructed differently from those of boys or UK children; their higher ratings were attributed to their greater facility in the execution of their constructions.
Executive function and reading impairments in children reported by their teachers as ‘hyperactive’
Authors: Adams John W. , Snowling Margaret J.
Published: February 2003

Twenty‐one 8‐ to 11‐year‐olds identified by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) as ‘Hyperactive’ were compared with controls matched for gender, age, and non‐verbal reasoning on a battery of cognitive tasks. Significant group differences were found on literacy measures, tasks of inhibition and executive function, but not verbal working memory measures. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that children with hyperactivity have difficulty in behavioural inhibition, and the previously reported high incidence of comorbidity between reading impairment and attention disorders. However, the data suggest that the core cognitive deficits in executive function that are associated with hyperactivity in children are independent of the phonological deficits associated with reading impairment.
Peer assistance in children's problem solving
Authors: Garton Alison F. , Pratt Chris
Published: February 2003

The current study aimed to investigate the extent to which the creation of a context which facilitates conversation and communication would enhance the cognitive capacities of children working on recognized problems. Using a collaborative problem‐solving paradigm, the communication patterns of pairs of 4‐ and 7‐year‐old children were analysed. It was found that collaborative problem solving facilitated lower ability children's subsequent individual problem solving when they were paired with higher ability children. In addition, it was found that older children used more language during collaboration. Holding number of utterances as a covariate, older children used more procedural language and more descriptive language than younger children and lower ability children used more language for checking with their partner. These uses of language were interpreted as demonstrating awareness on the part of older children of the other person in the collaboration although the extent to which this assisted subsequent problem‐solving ability in less able children of either age is not clear and requires further theoretical explication.
Combining representations in working memory: A brief report
Authors: Towse John N. , Houston‐Price Carmel M. T.
Published: February 2003

A task combining both digit and Corsi memory tests was administered to a group of 75 children. The task is shown to share variance with standardized reading and maths attainments, even after partialling out performance on component tasks separately assessed. The emergent task property may reflect coordination skills, although several different refinements can be made to this general conclusion.
Spatial representation in the drawings of children with Down's syndrome and its relationship to language and motor development: A preliminary investigation
Authors: Laws Glynis , Lawrence Laura
Published: February 2003

The drawings of 17 children with Down's syndrome were compared to those produced by 17 typically developing children matched for receptive vocabulary. The children drew six arrays involving a toy bear with either a transparent or an opaque pot in three spatial arrangement: the bear was placed inside, behind or beside the pot. There was a wide variation in the children's drawings of the bear in both groups. In the Down's syndrome group, this was unrelated to chronological age, verbal mental age, language comprehension or to fine motor skills, but these measures were significantly related in the control group. Many of the children with Down's syndrome showed poor understanding of spatial concepts which was strongly related to grammar comprehension. Those with very poor understanding adopted inconsistent strategies to represent the different spatial arrays. Strategies were not related to the maturity of the bear drawings nor to most other variables, except that children using a developmentally more advanced strategy demonstrated superior pencil control. The research supported the possibility of a different pattern to drawing development in Down's syndrome rather than a delayed version of typical development.
Working memory function in attention deficit hyperactivity disordered and reading disabled children
Authors: Roodenrys Steven , Koloski Natasha , Grainger Jessica
Published: February 2003

The aim of the current study was to examine the nature of executive processing in working memory as a core deficit in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as distinct from deficits associated with reading disability (RD). This involved examination of the working memory processes of the phonological loop and central executive (Baddeley, 1986) as a potential means of differentiating ADHD from RD. The participants were 16 ADHD/RD, 16 RD and 16 normal control children, matched for sex, age and IQ, who performed tasks tapping phonological loop function, a combination of phonological loop and central executive functioning, and tasks relying on central executive functioning. Analysis revealed that as the involvement of the central executive in tasks increased, ADHD/RD children performed worse than the other groups. This was on measures of controlled information processing, modifying and accommodating new input and supervisory capacity. These findings reflect the potential utility of the central executive in working memory in understanding the nature of executive processing deficits in ADHD. They also support the efficacy of these tasks in discriminating ADHD from RD.