Revisiting preschoolers' living things concept: a microgenetic analysis of conceptual change in basic biology

Many preschoolers know that plants and animals share basic biological properties, but this knowledge does not usually lead them to conclude that plants, like animals, are living things. To resolve this seeming paradox, we hypothesized that preschoolers largely base their judgments of life status on a biological property, capacity for teleological action, but that few preschoolers realize that plants possess this capacity. To test the hypothesis, we taught 5-year-olds one of four biological facts and examined the children's subsequent categorization of life status for numerous animals, plants, and artifacts. As predicted, a large majority of 5-year-olds who learned that both plants and animals, but not artifacts, move in goal-directed ways inferred that both plants and animals, but not artifacts, are alive. These children were considerably more likely to draw this inference than peers who learned that the same plants and animals grow or need water and almost as likely to do so as children who were explicitly told that animals and plants are living things and that artifacts are not. Results also indicated that not all biological properties are extended from familiar animals to plants; some biological properties are first attributed to plants and then extended to animals.     

Processing of perceptual information is more robust than processing of conceptual information in preschool-age children: evidence from costs of switching

Is processing of conceptual information as robust as processing of perceptual information early in development? Existing empirical evidence is insufficient to answer this question. To examine this issue, 3- to 5-year-old children were presented with a flexible categorization task, in which target items (e.g., an open red umbrella) shared category membership with one test item (e.g., a folded umbrella) and perceptual characteristics with another test item (e.g., a red mushroom). Participants were instructed to either categorize stimuli by the same dimension (i.e., perceptual similarity or category membership) in both phases of the task, or switch from categorizing by one dimension to categorizing by the other dimension. Results pointed to a strong asymmetry in switch costs: conceptual switch costs were higher than perceptual switch costs. These results suggest that processing of perceptual information remains more robust than processing of conceptual information at least until 5 years of age.     

Differences in preschoolers’ and adults’ use of generics about novel animals and artifacts: A window onto a conceptual divide

Children and adults commonly produce more generic noun phrases (e.g., birds fly) about animals than artifacts. This may reflect differences in participants’ generic knowledge about specific animals/artifacts (e.g., dogs/chairs), or it may reflect a more general distinction. To test this, the current experiments asked adults and preschoolers to generate properties about novel animals and artifacts (Experiment 1: real animals/artifacts; Experiments 2 and 3: matched pairs of maximally similar, novel animals/artifacts). Data demonstrate that even without prior knowledge about these items, the likelihood of producing a generic is significantly greater for animals than artifacts. These results leave open the question of whether this pattern is the product of experience and learned associations or instead a set of early-developing theories about animals and artifacts.     

Intuitive biological thought: Developmental changes and effects of biology education in late adolescence

A large body of cognitive research has shown that people intuitively and effortlessly reason about the biological world in complex and systematic ways. We addressed two questions about the nature of intuitive biological reasoning: How does intuitive biological thinking change during adolescence and early adulthood? How does increasing biology education influence intuitive biological thinking? To do so, we developed a battery of measures to systematically test three components of intuitive biological thought: anthropocentric thinking, teleological thinking and essentialist thinking, and tested 8th graders and university students (both biology majors, and non-biology majors). Results reveal clear evidence of persistent intuitive reasoning among all populations studied, consistent but surprisingly small differences between 8th graders and college students on measures of intuitive biological thought, and consistent but again surprisingly small influence of increasing biology education on intuitive biological reasoning. Results speak to the persistence of intuitive reasoning, the importance of taking intuitive knowledge into account in science classrooms, and the necessity of interdisciplinary research to advance biology education. Further studies are necessary to investigate how cultural context and continued acquisition of expertise impact intuitive biology thinking.     

A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts

Previous research indicates that the ontological status that adults attribute to categories varies systematically by domain. For example, adults view distinctions between different animal species as natural and objective, but view distinctions between different kinds of furniture as more conventionalized and subjective. The present work (N = 435; ages 5-18) examined the effects of domain, age, and cultural context on beliefs about the naturalness vs. conventionality of categories. Results demonstrate that young children, like adults, view animal categories as natural kinds, but artifact categories as more conventionalized. For human social categories (gender and race), beliefs about naturalness and conventionality were predicted by interactions between cultural context and age. Implications for the origins of social categories and theories of conceptual development will be discussed.     

The role of experience in children's developing folk epistemology: review and analysis from the theory–theory perspective

The role of experience in children's developing folk epistemology, specifically in their acquisition of an understanding of belief, is explored from the theory–theory perspective (i.e., the perspective claiming that children's conceptual development can be viewed as analogous to scientific theory development) through a selective review and analysis of extant empirical literature. Three types of investigations are identified: examinations of observed relationships between social experiences and belief understanding, attempts to facilitate the reasoning of children on the verge of belief understanding through experiences intended to compel children to face reasoning inconsistencies; and training studies demonstrating that children can be trained to understand belief over time through specific feedback experiences. A comparison of these studies reveals that experience is defined differently across them, resulting in varying and sometimes ambiguous implications for a theory–theory perspective on development. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The role of movement leaders in building intergroup solidarity for social change: A case of the electoral reform movement in Malaysia

Leaders of social movements play a critical role in mobilizing broader society for social change. However, we know little about how movement leaders strategize to build a movement. To examine this issue, we interviewed the central leadership team of the electoral reform movement (Bersih) in Malaysia, before and after a mass protest organized by the movement. We then used thematic analysis to provide theoretically derived insights into how the leaders fostered intergroup solidarity among multiple racial groups. Specifically, they (a) expanded the movement's boundaries to include new groups within its support base, (b) shared the demands of the movement with multiple groups, and (c) highlighted leaders that were representative of different groups the movement sought to unite. These findings demonstrate how leaders attempt to craft an inclusive movement identity (i.e., who we are, what we do, who stands for us) to mobilize a diverse society for social change.     

Discerning the Division of Cognitive Labor: An Emerging Understanding of How Knowledge Is Clustered in Other Minds

The division of cognitive labor is fundamental to all cultures. Adults have a strong sense of how knowledge is clustered in the world around them and use that sense to access additional information, defer to relevant experts, and ground their own incomplete understandings. One prominent way of clustering knowledge is by disciplines similar to those that comprise the natural and social sciences. Seven studies explored an emerging sense of these discipline-based ways of clustering of knowledge. Even 5-year-olds could cluster knowledge in a manner roughly corresponding to the departments of natural and social sciences in a university, doing so without any explicit awareness of those academic disciplines. But this awareness is fragile early on and competes with other ways of clustering knowledge. Over the next few years, children come to see discipline-based clusters as having a privileged status, one that may be linked to increasingly sophisticated assumptions about essences for natural kinds. Possible mechanisms for this developmental shift are examined.     

Developmental effects of economic and educational change: Cognitive representation in three generations across 43 years in a Maya community

We studied the implications of social change for cognitive development in a Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico, over 43 years. The same procedures were used to collect data in 1969–1970, 1991, and 2012—once in each generation. The goal was to understand the implications of weaving, schooling and participation in a commercial economy for the development of visual pattern representation. In 2012, our participants consisted of 133 boys and girls descended from participants in the prior two generations. Procedures consisted of placing colored sticks in a wooden frame to make striped patterns, some familiar (Zinacantec woven patterns) and some novel (created by the investigators). Following Greenfield (2009), we hypothesised that the development of commerce and the expansion of formal schooling would influence children's representations. Her theory postulates that these factors move human development towards cognitive abstraction and skill in dealing with novelty. Furthermore, the theory posits that whatever sociodemographic variable is changing most rapidly functions as the primary motor for developmental change. From 1969 to 1991, the rapid development of a commercial economy drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions. From 1991 to 2012, the rapid expansion of schooling drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions.     

Introducing systems change in the schools: the case of school luncheons and vending machines

A major public health crisis facing America’s society is the increase in child and youth obesity, which has seen a fourfold increase in the last four decades. Major concerns include what children eat for school lunch and what other foods are available in schools. This paper illustrates efforts towards systems change in the luncheon program and food vending machines in the Chicago Public Schools. We discuss the different factors that lead to such changes using the framework of the social ecological model and the soft systems methodology, and we analyze how the resulting innovation was implemented and evaluated. First, we present a theoretical perspective to explain factors that influence children’s eating patterns from a systems approach. Second, we discuss the antecedent factors that lead to systems change. Finally, we examine challenges to systems change, such as resistance to change, different stakeholder priorities, lack of resources, institutional bureaucracy, and unrealistic funder expectations.     

民国时期乡村卫生建设中的公德教育——定县、邹平县乡建模式的异中之同

民国乡村建设运动是旧中国先进知识分子为扭转近代中国农村的衰败局势而做出的可贵探索。定县模式和邹平模式是当时最具代表性的两种乡建模式。这两个县的乡村卫生建设是共同的经验是:开展公德教育,依托新型农民,建好乡村卫生。公德教育与乡村卫生建设成为了一对“互动的盟友”。这两个县的建设提示,乡村卫生事业的建立与完善在根本上有赖于培养和支持具有现代公德素质的新型农民群体。     

疾病负担综合性指标DALYs及精神障碍的疾病负担

1990年WHO和世界银行提出了评价疾病负担的综合性指标伤残调整生命年（DALYs）,该指标采用客观定量的方法,综合评价各种疾病因早逝或残疾造成的健康生命年的损失。本文对DALYs的设计思路、主要优缺点、在全球疾病负担（GBD）研究和精神障碍及相关心理行为问题所致疾病负担中的应用情况进行阐述。     

Cultural evolution over the last 40 years in China: Using the Google Ngram Viewer to study implications of social and political change for cultural values

Chinese people have held collectivistic values such as obligation, giving to other people, obedience and sacrifice of personal interests for thousands of years. In recent decades, China has undergone rapid economic development and urbanisation. This study investigates changing cultural values in China from 1970 to 2008 and the relationship of changing values to ecological shifts. The conceptual framework for the study was Greenfield's (2009) theory of social change and human development. Changing frequencies of contrasting Chinese words indexing individualistic or collectivistic values show that values shift along with ecological changes (urbanisation, economic development and enrollment in higher education), thereby adapting to current sociodemographic contexts. Words indexing adaptive individualistic values increased in frequency between 1970 and 2008. In contrast, words indexing less adaptive collectivistic values either decreased in frequency in this same period of time or else rose more slowly than words indexing contrasting individualistic values.     

Reciprocal relations between autonomous motivation from self-determination theory and social cognition constructs from the theory of planned behavior: A cross-lagged panel design in sport injury prevention

ObjectivesThe present study examined reciprocal relations between autonomous motivation from self-determination theory (SDT) and constructs from the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in a sport injury context.MethodsThe study adopted a three-wave longitudinal cross-lagged panel design. Physical education students in China (N = 4414; M_age = 14.42, SD = 1.75) completed self-report measures of autonomous motivation, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control with respect to sport injury prevention at baseline (T1) and at two follow-up occasions one (T2) and three (T3) months later. Proposed reciprocal relations between autonomous motivation and the TPB constructs controlling for construct stability over time were tested using structural equation modeling.ResultsThree cross-lagged SEMs for effects of constructs measured at T1 on constructs measured at T2 and T3, and effects of constructs measured at T2 on constructs measured at T3 met goodness-of-fit criteria (CFI > 0.95, TLI > 0.94, RMSEA = 0.03, SRMR = 0.05) with consistent patterns of effects. Across the three models, autonomous motivation predicted the prospectively-measured TPB constructs with small-to-medium effect sizes (β range = 0.17 to 0.32, ps < .001), but associations between the TPB variables and prospectively-measured autonomous motivation were markedly smaller in size (β range = 0.01 to 0.18, ps range = .001 to .892).ConclusionsFindings provide initial support for the temporal ordering of the constructs in the integrated model of SDT and TPB in a sport injury context. Autonomous motivation from SDT is likely to be an antecedent of the constructs from the TPB.     

Travel behavior changes and responses to advanced traveler information in prolonged and large-scale network disruptions: A case study of west LRT line construction in the city of Calgary

The objective of this study was the investigation of travel behavioral effects of the reduction in traffic capacity resulting from the construction of the West LRT (Light Rail Transit) line in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Travelers’ responses to real-time information providing traffic updates and advisory detours due to lane/road closures were also examined. The West LRT alignment extends approximately 8.2 km from downtown into the city’s southwest. Many road closures took place in the vicinity of the LRT line construction zones, inducing significant delays to traffic. Data on travelers’ behavioral responses and responses to real-time information were obtained by conducting a survey on a sample of users of the main road affected by the construction. The survey also investigated the effects of West LRT line construction on drivers’ daily commutes, including increases in travel times, mode choices, alternate route choices, and selection of sources of information on traffic conditions. A significant change in the selection of transportation mode was caused by West LRT construction. Throughout the construction period, there was a decrease in the percentage of respondents who reported private vehicles as their first choice and an increase in the percentage of respondents who preferred public transit as their first and second choices. Radio was found to be the most preferred source for traffic updates and detour advice, followed by variable message signs (VMS). The findings of the en-route information model showed that driving experience, employment status, travel time and purpose, and desire for pre-trip information had significant effects on traveler’s rerouting decisions after getting en-route information through VMS. The results from this study are of interest for understanding behavioral changes for the purposes of traffic management, mitigation schemes and design of advanced traveler information systems in response to network disruptions.