Number-knower levels in young children: insights from Bayesian modeling

Lee and Sarnecka (2010) developed a Bayesian model of young children’s behavior on the Give-N test of number knowledge. This paper presents two new extensions of the model, and applies the model to new data. In the first extension, the model is used to evaluate competing theories about the conceptual knowledge underlying children’s behavior. One, the knower-levels theory, is basically a “stage” theory involving real conceptual change. The other, the approximate-meanings theory, assumes that the child’s conceptual knowledge is relatively constant, although performance improves over time. In the second extension, the model is used to ask whether the same latent psychological variable (a child’s number-knower level) can simultaneously account for behavior on two tasks (the Give-N task and the Fast-Cards task) with different performance demands. Together, these two demonstrations show the potential of the Bayesian modeling approach to improve our understanding of the development of human cognition.     

科学发展观与生态医学模式

分析了生物医学模式没有转型为生物心理社会医学模式的原因。认为生态危机背景下的医学发展模式研究,应把提高人的生命质量和改善人的生存、生活环境等相关条件,纳入视野之中,这正表现出生态医学模式的价值基础与科学发展观在根本上的一致性。以生态医学模式引领未来医学发展是实践科学发展观的必然要求和具体行动。     

儿童科学概念的认知发展

综述了作者在儿童科学概念认知领域的研究,其中包括儿童的朴素生物学、朴素物理学认知及其与心理理论发展关系的研究。作者研究了儿童在生命科学领域的自发概念,包括对生长、衰老、疾病和死亡等生命现象的认知,探查儿童对日常生活中物理学概念（如力等）的朴素认知,力图发现儿童早期认知中的潜力,同时探明他们相应的错误概念,并采用教育干预实验,促进儿童科学概念的转化。还探查影响儿童科学概念发展的因素,包括外部教育条件以及个体认知能力（如心理理论发展水平,推理能力等）。研究发现,儿童在接受正规的科学教育前就对人类重要的科学领域形成了自己的“朴素理论”,他们用这种理论来解释现实世界的现象。作者主张儿童的科学教育（包括健康教育）应该以儿童的“朴素理论”为基础,从而真正做到因材施教     

现代公共卫生的概念特征及发展方向研究

现代公共卫生本质上是组织社会共同努力,预防疾病、促进健康的广泛的社会公共事业和人类健康相关的科学与实践活动,其理论观念、目标任务和工作模式等在传统公共卫生的基础上已发生了一系列重大变化。以健康为中心、与经济社会协调发展是现代公共卫生作的重要的发展方向。     

Concept formation in non-verbal categorization tasks in brain-damaged patients with and without aphasia

The study of thinking in patients with aphasic language impairments has long since been considered as means for learning about neuropsychological processes. In the present investigation, a non-verbal categorization task was used, requiring the subjects to sort several common objects according to different principles. The experimental group consisted of aphasic patients with motor and sensory aphasia. Two control groups were used, one consisting of normal subjects and the other of non-aphasic patients with injuries in the right hemisphere of the brain. The sorting behaviour was analysed according to several aspects. The final product of the categorization was assessed, as well as the behavioural processes observed during the sorting. The results were expressed in terms of different conceptual levels achieved. The results of the investigation showed that the aphasics were significantly inferior to normal controls both quantitatively and qualitatively in all sorting aspects. Possible mechanisms underlying the deficiencies in the sorting behaviour of the two aphasic groups were discussed.     

不同分配情境下儿童公平行为的发展

为探究儿童在不同利益对比情境以及与己利益无关情境中的公平行为,研究呈现了自我任务的劣势博弈、优势博弈、冲突博弈以及第三方任务博弈四种分配情境。自我任务中儿童需要为自己与另一名匿名儿童迫选方案,第三方任务中则需为两名匿名儿童迫选方案。结果发现:(1)劣势博弈中所有年龄组均倾向于选择公平方案,而非劣势方案;(2)优势博弈中,8岁、10岁组选择公平方案的人显著多于优势方案,而4岁、6岁组均无显著差异;(3)冲突博弈中,4岁、6岁组选择优势方案的人显著多于劣势方案,而8岁、10岁组均无显著差异;(4)第三方博弈中, 8岁、10岁组选择公平方案的人显著多于不公平方案,而4岁、6岁组均无显著差异。这表明,4岁~6岁儿童尚未真正获得公平观念,且以获得个人利益为主;而8岁是真正获得公平观念的转折年龄,8~10岁儿童对人对己均坚持公平原则,且表现出利他倾向。     

浅论肝移植医师的理念和思维

随着医学的进步,在新的医疗形势下,肝移植是对器官移植科医师的巨大挑战,在实际临床工作中,应首先树立正确的器官移植医患关系观,不断提高自己的人文修养和职业素养,进一步完善与肝移植相关的新的知识结构,运用正确的哲学理念和逻辑方式来处理与肝移植相关的临床问题。使肝移植患者得到满意的治疗效果。     

“多少”概念发展的研究

采用数量判定任务,分别用2～30和5～100范围内点子图为刺激,研究个体“多”和“少”概念的发展。结果发现：在5～100点子条件下,随年龄的增长,个体“多”概念的判断值、“少”概念的判断值、“多”“少”概念的临界值均显著增大;7～9岁是个体“多少”概念发展的转折期;个体对“多少”概念的认知具有相对性;在本实验的两种条件下,随年龄增长,个体“多”概念的判断值、“少”概念的判断值、“多”“少”概念的临界值逐渐趋于刺激点子数最大值的2/3、1/3、1/2,“多”概念与“少”概念判断的不确定距离逐渐趋于刺激点子数最大变化范围的1/3或略小于1/3。     

慢性疼痛的心理概念模式

疼痛绝不仅仅只是一种感觉,它所包含的情感和认知成分与其感觉成分同等重要。任何一种形式的疼痛都有心理成分的参与,在其发生、发展的各个阶段都受到心理因素的影响。然而在日常生活中,很多人由于不了解疼痛的原理和影响,只把疼痛看做是疾病或组织损伤的提示信号,忽视了其对个体生理、心理乃至大脑功能的消极影响。因此,探索疼痛对心理的影响及其内在机制,有助于人们多方位地了解疼痛带给人们的消极作用,提高对疼痛的重视程度,促进对疼痛的诊断并采取适当的对策。     

Qualitative and Quantitative Shifts in Adolescent Problem Behavior Development: A Cohort-Sequential Multivariate Latent Growth Modeling Approach

The aim of this study was to examine the nature of problem behavior development from late childhood through adolescence, to assess the quantitative development of problem behavior (alcohol use, marijuana use, deviance, academic failure) as well as potential qualitative shifts in problem behavior over time. Multivariate latent growth curve modeling (LGM) analyses and a cohort-sequential design were employed. Data were from the National Youth Survey and included 770 youth from four cohorts (11, 12, 13, 14 years old), assessed annually for 5 years. Results showed significant growth in problem behavior from ages 11 to 18. Alcohol use and marijuana use contributed most, and academic failure contributed least to the problem behavior latent construct. Results of the variant model revealed that the contribution of all four behaviors to the overall problem behavior construct increased similarly as children aged.     

Number bias for the discrimination of large visual sets in infancy

This brief report attempts to resolve the claim that infants preferentially attend to continuous variables over number [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 10 (1999) 408; Cognit. Psychol.44 (2002) 33] with the finding that when continuous variables are controlled, infants as young as 6-months of age discriminate large numerical values [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 14 (2003) 396; Cognition 89 (2003) B15; Cognition 74 (2000) B1]. In two parallel experiments, we compare 6-month-old infants' ability to discriminate number and ignore continuous variables with their ability to form a representation of a cumulative surface area and ignore number. We find that infants discriminate a 2-fold change in number but fail to discriminate a 2-fold change in cumulative surface area. The results point to a more complicated relationship between discrete and continuous dimensions than implied by previous literature.     

A New Model for Acquiescence at the Interface of Psychometrics and Cognitive Psychology

ABSTRACT

When measuring psychological traits, one has to consider that respondents often show content-unrelated response behavior in answering questionnaires. To disentangle the target trait and two such response styles, extreme responding and midpoint responding, Böckenholt (2012a Böckenholt, U. (2012a). Modeling multiple response processes in judgment and choice. Psychological Methods, 17, 665–678. doi:10.1037/a0028111[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) developed an item response model based on a latent processing tree structure. We propose a theoretically motivated extension of this model to also measure acquiescence, the tendency to agree with both regular and reversed items. Substantively, our approach builds on multinomial processing tree (MPT) models that are used in cognitive psychology to disentangle qualitatively distinct processes. Accordingly, the new model for response styles assumes a mixture distribution of affirmative responses, which are either determined by the underlying target trait or by acquiescence. In order to estimate the model parameters, we rely on Bayesian hierarchical estimation of MPT models. In simulations, we show that the model provides unbiased estimates of response styles and the target trait, and we compare the new model and Böckenholt’s model in a recovery study. An empirical example from personality psychology is used for illustrative purposes.     

儿童数量表征与数概念的发展特点及机制

对儿童数量表征和数概念的研究是当前数认知领域的两个重点研究方向。我们在这一领域通过理论及实证研究进行了广泛且深入的探索,系统分析了大小数量、符号与非符号数量表征的机制,深入考察了数量表征线索的发展、线性数量表征的发展特点及形成机制等问题;并对数概念的发展及其影响机制、数量表征与数概念的关系进行了理论梳理和实证研究。这些探索为进一步探明数量表征与数概念的发展特点及机制提供了基础。     

幼儿说谎认知的年龄特征及其与心理理论水平的关系

研究探讨了3～4岁幼儿说谎认知的年龄特征,并在此基础上考察了说谎的概念理解水平与道德评价之问的关系,及说谎认知与心理理论水平的关系。结果表明：3岁和4岁幼儿在说谎和说真话概念的判断上年龄差异显著,在对说谎的道德评价上,年龄差异不显著;幼儿心理理论与说谎概念的相关显著,4岁组的心理理论与道德评价的相关显著。     

On the Validity of Idiographic and Generic Self‐Concept Implicit Association Tests: A Core‐Concept Model

We present a core‐concept model (CCM) suggesting that stimulus centrality is an important factor in category representations in implicit measures. We tested the hypothesis that idiographic stimuli (first name, birthday) are more central and therefore assess self‐concept in Implicit Association Tests (IATs) more validly than generic and nonspecific stimuli (me, you). Superior validity of the idiographic variant emerged across three different domains of self‐concept. First, an idiographic self‐esteem IAT displayed higher correlations than a generic IAT with self‐assessments and observer‐assessments of self‐esteem. Second, an idiographic body scheme‐IAT predicted subjective ratings of body image and objective body‐mass index. Third, an idiographic aggressiveness‐IAT had higher incremental validity for unprovoked aggression when interacting with explicit measures of aggressiveness. We conclude that idiographic stimuli focus participants' attention on the core features of the self, hence, tapping into self‐related associations to a stronger degree than generic stimuli. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Concept of Psychological Health in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

The argument has been made that if Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is to survive and prosper in the 21st century, its underlying personality theory requires further development and clarification. In this spirit, the concept of psychological health in REBT theory is examined in the present article. The concept of psychological health in personality theories is discussed briefly, as are the core aspects of the REBT view of emotional disturbance. Given that necessary context, a definition of the essence of psychological health in REBT theory is proposed and discussed. The clinical implications of the proposed definition are then explored.     

Young children combine sensory cues with learned information in a statistically efficient manner: But task complexity matters

Human adults are adept at mitigating the influence of sensory uncertainty on task performance by integrating sensory cues with learned prior information, in a Bayes‐optimal fashion. Previous research has shown that young children and infants are sensitive to environmental regularities, and that the ability to learn and use such regularities is involved in the development of several cognitive abilities. However, it has also been reported that children younger than 8 do not combine simultaneously available sensory cues in a Bayes‐optimal fashion. Thus, it remains unclear whether, and by what age, children can combine sensory cues with learned regularities in an adult manner. Here, we examine the performance of 6‐ to 7‐year‐old children when tasked with localizing a ‘hidden’ target by combining uncertain sensory information with prior information learned over repeated exposure to the task. We demonstrate that 6‐ to 7‐year‐olds learn task‐relevant statistics at a rate on par with adults, and like adults, are capable of integrating learned regularities with sensory information in a statistically efficient manner. We also show that variables such as task complexity can influence young children's behavior to a greater extent than that of adults, leading their behavior to look sub‐optimal. Our findings have important implications for how we should interpret failures in young children's ability to carry out sophisticated computations. These ‘failures’ need not be attributed to deficits in the fundamental computational capacity available to children early in development, but rather to ancillary immaturities in general cognitive abilities that mask the operation of these computations in specific situations.     

2~5岁学前儿童数概念的发展水平及过程——理解者水平理论的视角

本研究从儿童数概念发展的理解者水平模型的理论视角,对100名2～5岁学前儿童的数概念发展水平进行划分,并比较不同水平儿童对后继函数的理解和掌握,探讨儿童数概念的发展过程。结果表明：儿童在4岁时基本达到了数概念发展的最高水平即基数原则水平,已经理解了后继函数,能够把它的方向性和单位性的变化,对应到数数序列的数词上。而2～3岁的儿童还处于子集水平,该水平的儿童和基数原则水平的儿童相比,对后继函数的理解存在差异。但后继函数的发展不是全或者无的,儿童积累的数词越多,后继函数发展得越好。     

A Cross-Classified CFA-MTMM Model for Structurally Different and Nonindependent Interchangeable Methods

Multirater (multimethod, multisource) studies are increasingly applied in psychology. Eid and colleagues (2008) proposed a multilevel confirmatory factor model for multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data combining structurally different and multiple independent interchangeable methods (raters). In many studies, however, different interchangeable raters (e.g., peers, subordinates) are asked to rate different targets (students, supervisors), leading to violations of the independence assumption and to cross-classified data structures. In the present work, we extend the ML-CFA-MTMM model by Eid and colleagues (2008) to cross-classified multirater designs. The new C4 model (Cross-Classified CTC[M-1] Combination of Methods) accounts for nonindependent interchangeable raters and enables researchers to explicitly model the interaction between targets and raters as a latent variable. Using a real data application, it is shown how credibility intervals of model parameters and different variance components can be obtained using Bayesian estimation techniques.