title: Child past and future thinking: What children remember and imagine, and the role of parental mind-mindedness and elaboration

authors: Cuttance-Dunne, Demi

subjects: episodic memory

abstract: Thinking about memories and possible future events allows us to prepare for the future. Whilst we are beginning to understand how past and future thinking develops in early childhood, little is known about these processes in middle childhood and how parental factors, like mind-mindedness and elaborations, influence them. This study examined the content of past and future thoughts in 11- to 13-year-olds and the role of these parental factors. We collected data from 21 parent-child dyads in three different phases: a) parents completed an online survey involving a measure of mind-mindedness; b) parents and children completed a joint Zoom session measuring parental elaborations; c) children completed an independent Zoom session measuring past and future thoughts. Children generated more relevant details for past thoughts than future thoughts, while the amount of off-topic details was similar between past and future thoughts. This pattern indicates that children are proficient at retrieving relevant information, but they are more proficient at this retrieval when thinking about memories than imagining the future. Children subjectively rated past and future thoughts as similarly important and vivid but reported thinking more frequently about future thoughts than past thoughts. This pattern illustrates that, for children, memories and future events are equally important and visualised equally. However, children imagine the future more often than they reminisce about the past. These findings enhance our understanding of the functioning of past and future thinking in middle childhood. No relationship was found between parents’ understanding of their children, parents’ elaborations, and children’s past and future thoughts. We replicated and extended previous findings with a novel age group, thereby contributing to a lifespan overview of past and future thinking. Our research has practical implications for parents, teachers, and clinicians. A longitudinal design in future research would further assist in understanding past and future thinking across childhood.

text: Child past and future thinking: What children remember and imagine, and the role of parental mind-mindedness and elaboration Thinking about memories and possible future events allows us to prepare for the future. Whilst we are beginning to understand how past and future thinking develops in early childhood, little is known about these processes in middle childhood and how parental factors, like mind-mindedness and elaborations, influence them. This study examined the content of past and future thoughts in 11- to 13-year-olds and the role of these parental factors. We collected data from 21 parent-child dyads in three different phases: a) parents completed an online survey involving a measure of mind-mindedness; b) parents and children completed a joint Zoom session measuring parental elaborations; c) children completed an independent Zoom session measuring past and future thoughts. Children generated more relevant details for past thoughts than future thoughts, while the amount of off-topic details was similar between past and future thoughts. This pattern indicates that children are proficient at retrieving relevant information, but they are more proficient at this retrieval when thinking about memories than imagining the future. Children subjectively rated past and future thoughts as similarly important and vivid but reported thinking more frequently about future thoughts than past thoughts. This pattern illustrates that, for children, memories and future events are equally important and visualised equally. However, children imagine the future more often than they reminisce about the past. These findings enhance our understanding of the functioning of past and future thinking in middle childhood. No relationship was found between parents’ understanding of their children, parents’ elaborations, and children’s past and future thoughts. We replicated and extended previous findings with a novel age group, thereby contributing to a lifespan overview of past and future thinking. Our research has practical implications for parents, teachers, and clinicians. A longitudinal design in future research would further assist in understanding past and future thinking across childhood.

year: 2024

title: Generating group agreement in cooperative computer-mediated groups: Towards an integrative model of group interaction

authors: Whitworth, Brian

abstract: This study addresses the problem of generating agreement in computer-mediated groups.
The key entities of group interaction are proposed to be the task, the other individuals, and the group. Extending this three way categorisation across the input-process-output framework suggests an integrative model with three processes (task resolution, interpersonal relating, and group representation), three levels of social influence (informational influence, personal influence, and normative influence), and three types of output (task results, relationships, and agreement).
The background upon which these processes operate is the communication setting. A proposed taxonomy of communication settings suggests the natural setting for generating electronic group agreement is asynchronous, many-to-many interaction.
Describing non-task group activities as "process losses" denies group combining behaviour, and raises the "group effectiveness paradox", where groups expend more effort to produce less. The integrative model accounts for group activities without paradox.
The generation of agreement in cooperative groups is attributed to the "identification" of individuals with the group. Members who identify with a group, tend to accept the group's decisions as their own. This process may use relatively simple position information embedded within multi-threaded communications, rather than complex "social" information. If so, computer-mediated groups can enact agreement across plain text networks.
Software was written to simulate asynchronous, many-to-many exchange of position information. Anonymous computer-mediated groups sat multi-choice tests under blind, group aware and confidence aware conditions. The exchange of position information alone produced a significant change in agreement, although neither medium nor exchanged information were "rich", no reasons were given, and there was no personal "presence" or discussion.
It was concluded that computer-mediated groups can enact agreement. The method adopted, of isolating one process within a single communication setting, is recommended for research. However for practical implementation, a balance of all three processes is suggested, as all have a role in group interaction.

text: Generating group agreement in cooperative computer-mediated groups: Towards an integrative model of group interaction This study addresses the problem of generating agreement in computer-mediated groups.
The key entities of group interaction are proposed to be the task, the other individuals, and the group. Extending this three way categorisation across the input-process-output framework suggests an integrative model with three processes (task resolution, interpersonal relating, and group representation), three levels of social influence (informational influence, personal influence, and normative influence), and three types of output (task results, relationships, and agreement).
The background upon which these processes operate is the communication setting. A proposed taxonomy of communication settings suggests the natural setting for generating electronic group agreement is asynchronous, many-to-many interaction.
Describing non-task group activities as "process losses" denies group combining behaviour, and raises the "group effectiveness paradox", where groups expend more effort to produce less. The integrative model accounts for group activities without paradox.
The generation of agreement in cooperative groups is attributed to the "identification" of individuals with the group. Members who identify with a group, tend to accept the group's decisions as their own. This process may use relatively simple position information embedded within multi-threaded communications, rather than complex "social" information. If so, computer-mediated groups can enact agreement across plain text networks.
Software was written to simulate asynchronous, many-to-many exchange of position information. Anonymous computer-mediated groups sat multi-choice tests under blind, group aware and confidence aware conditions. The exchange of position information alone produced a significant change in agreement, although neither medium nor exchanged information were "rich", no reasons were given, and there was no personal "presence" or discussion.
It was concluded that computer-mediated groups can enact agreement. The method adopted, of isolating one process within a single communication setting, is recommended for research. However for practical implementation, a balance of all three processes is suggested, as all have a role in group interaction.

year: 1997

title: Maori and psychology: Research and practice (full conference proceedings)

authors: Robertson, Neville

subjects: Maori

abstract: This is the full proceedings of the symposium sponsored by the Maori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato: Maori and psychology: Research and practice. The publication of the proceedings of this symposium marks a significant milestone for the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU). Since its inception in 1997, the unit has played an important role in nurturing and supporting students to engage in Maori-focussed research. They have played, and continue to play, an important part in our research activities as interviewers, analysts, coordinators and writers. 
The MPRU symposium was organised to serve as a platform to profile the work of our students, to disseminate research results and to invite other researchers to witness the nature of the MPRU’s work.

text: Maori and psychology: Research and practice (full conference proceedings) This is the full proceedings of the symposium sponsored by the Maori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato: Maori and psychology: Research and practice. The publication of the proceedings of this symposium marks a significant milestone for the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU). Since its inception in 1997, the unit has played an important role in nurturing and supporting students to engage in Maori-focussed research. They have played, and continue to play, an important part in our research activities as interviewers, analysts, coordinators and writers. 
The MPRU symposium was organised to serve as a platform to profile the work of our students, to disseminate research results and to invite other researchers to witness the nature of the MPRU’s work.

year: 1999