Assessing interactional competencies: The early social-communication scales

Interactional competencies that develop in the first two years of life provide a foundation for all further social and communicative developments. Their normal acquisition, especially in the handicapped, can not be taken for granted. If delays in social-communicative development can be identified early in life and changes made in how the social environment interacts with the child, intervention may effectively facilitate social development. However, to accomplish this, both a model for describing and an instrument for assessing interactional competencies are needed. A recently developed set of scales, organized according to a cognitive-developmental framework and drawing upon recent research literature, is described in terms of its organization and content. Results that support the cognitive model underlying the set of scales are reported. The paper concludes with a consideration of potential criticisms that may apply to such a theoretically based instrument.     

Knowledge embedded in process: the self-organization of skilled noun learning

Young children's skilled generalization of newly learned nouns to new instances has become the battleground for two very different approaches to cognition. This debate is a proxy for a larger dispute in cognitive science and cognitive development: cognition as rule-like amodal propositions, on the one hand, or as embodied, modal, and dynamic processes on the other. After a brief consideration of this theoretical backdrop, we turn to the specific task set before us: an overview of the Attentional Learning Account (ALA) of children's novel noun generalizations, the constrained set of experimental results to be explained, and our explanation of them. We conclude with a consideration of what all of this implies for a theory of cognitive development.     

Introduction

There are very significant conceptual links between theories of social macroevolution and theories of the World System development. It is shown that the growth of the World System complexity and integrity can be traced through a system of phase transitions of macroevolution. The first set of phase transition is connected with the agrarian, industrial, and information-scientific revolutions (that are interpreted as changes of “production principles”). The second set consists of phase transitions within one production principle. These phase transitions are analyzed on the basis of the World System urbanization dynamics, but they can be traced with respect to the other (cultural, economic, technological, demographic, political, etc.) dimensions of the World System development.     

Are twins different from singletons during early childhood?

This paper examines the specificity of intrafamilial experiences to which twins are exposed during early childhood, and the impact of this family context on the psychological development of twins. An overview of the literature on the psychological development of twins indicates two broad categories of findings. The first category covers studies dealing with the developmental features that appear early in twins. Although there are numerous studies comparing the psychomotor and verbal development of twins to singletons, only a few have dealt with the emergence of personality and identity, and most have been conducted in clinical settings. The second set of studies deals with mother-twin relations, explored in recent years in terms of the psychosocial stress created by twin births. Few studies have examined the mother-twin relationship in the light of major theories on mother-child bonding (psychoanalysis, attachment, interactionist model). These developmental models have mainly focused on mother-infant dyads, while the construction of this specific mother-twin relationship needs to be set within the framework of a triadic situation. Rather than describing a specific ‘twin mentality’, it is argued here that the twin situation should be seen as a special case of adaptative development, both for the mother and the child, which has effects on the formation of the individual.     

A model of the development of the early infant object concept

A computational model is proposed for the early stages of development of the object concept in infancy. Stages in development are represented as a sequence of grammars or rewrite rules that parse a set of perceptual phenomena. The infant's changes between developmental stages can be described by differences between the grammar rules that model each stage. The program replicates five studies by Bower et al on the development of the object concept and reaffirms the primacy of rest and motion parameters as explanatory invariants in early object-concept development.     

Skills,training, and activism

Most studies of activism and social movements give more attention to methods and strategies than to the development of skills. Yet skills are crucially important to the success of campaigns. Research on expert performance provides insights into what is required to become highly proficient at a well-defined set of skills. These insights are potentially relevant to activists, as shown by the example of training for lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville, Tennessee in 1960. Skill development needs to be given greater attention by activists and scholars.     

Assessing therapeutic problem solving skills: Empirical analysis of a measuring operation

Employment of caregivers as trainers is an imperative in the training and treatment of mentally retarded persons. Besides being taught specific behavior modification skills, these paraprofessional trainers have to obtain a set of general skills in order to adjust their specific skills to new clients, situations, and behaviors across time. Empirical research on the characteristics of therapeutic problem-solving skills are scarce. This may be due to a reluctance of behavior researchers against including cognitive factors in the analysis of behavior influence. However, the development of basic knowledge on the existence of therapeutic problem-solving skills should be one of the primary research goals. This article describes the development and application of four scales assumed to be representative of an important set of general skills—therapeutic problem-solving skills. By means of these four scales 21 caregivers were evaluated before and after extensive training. A multifaceted measuring operation is employed with the main objective of empirically testing the dimensionality of problem-solving skills. Rater consistency and individual differences in change from pre- to post-training level are also uncovered. It is concluded that the four scales of therapeutic skills, largely reflect the same underlying concept of a rather general therapeutic problem-solving skill. Discussion of the findings also pointed to future research.     

Deconstructing executive deficits among persons with autism: implications for cognitive neuroscience

Individuals with autism demonstrate impairments on measures of executive function (EF) relative to typically developing comparison participants. EF is comprised of several processes including inhibition, working memory and set shifting that develop throughout the lifespan. Impairments in EF may appear early in development and persist, or may represent a more transient delay which resolves with time. Given the unevenness of the cognitive profile of persons with autism, understanding the development of EF poses methodological challenges. These issues include those related to matching measures and the choice of comparison participants to which the performance of persons with autism will be compared. In the current review, we attempt to break down the processes of inhibition, working memory and set shifting among persons with autism. We propose to do this within a developmental perspective that highlights how matching measures and comparison participants can affect the interpretation of research findings.     

SOME EXPLORATIONS IN INITIAL INTERACTION AND BEYOND: TOWARD A DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

This paper provides a theoretical perspective for dealing with the initial entry stage of interpersonal interaction. The seven axioms and 21 theorems presented suggest a set of research priorities for studying the development of interpersonal relationships. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the problems to be considered if the theory is to be extended beyond the initial stages of interaction.     

幼儿朴素理论发展的研究现状

朴素物理学、朴素生物学和朴素心理学是幼儿朴素理论发展的三个核心领域,本体集合、因果原则集合和内部一致的知识体系则是朴素理论的三个重要成分。该文以幼儿对三个核心领域的因果认知发展为中心,以朴素理论三个重要组成成分为线索,对近期幼儿朴素理论发展的研究成果进行了简要的介绍和讨论,并提出进一步研究所需要解决的问题。     

Developing practice and evidence for counselling in primary care: the agenda

Counselling in primary care has developed rapidly over the last few years and now appears to be a widespread provision. Yet ad hoc , unregulated development, coupled with radical changes within the National Health Service environment, presents an array of challenges to continued development. This paper reviews and summarises the contributions of all the authors to this special symposium, and in so doing attempts to set out a development agenda for both evidence and practice as a practical yield from the rich insights and experiences offered.     

NEO-PIAGETIAN THEORY: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

In the present article, the neo-Piagetian theories that were presented in the previous articles are placed in historical context; then compared and contrasted. It is suggested that all the theories arose in response to a common dilemma, namely that of building a revised theory of development which would preserve the strengths of classical Piagetian theory, while elminating its weaknesses. Since one of the strengths of the classical theory was its ability to explain the universal features of cognitive development, most of the new theories retained the core set of structural postulates which made this explanation possible. This gives the new theories a strong family resemblance with regard to their structural claims. Since one of the weaknesses of the classical theory was its inability to explain the aspects of cognitive development that are not universal, most of the new theories have modified and/or added to this set of core postulates, and specified a set of structural transformation processes which go beyond the classical theory as well. In this latter regard there are more dissimilarities among the new theories than there are similarities. Two reasons for this divergence are suggested. The first is that Piaget's structural transformation model was less clearly falsified than other aspects of his theory, by the data on cognitive-developmental non-universality. It was therefore less clear which aspects of the transformation model should be retained, and which eliminated. The second reason is that current theorists are divided on the question of which other theoretical approach - among those that are currently available in other branches of psychology - offers the greatest promise, when it comes to extending Piaget's transformation model in a productive fashion.     

An action perspective on motor development

Motor development has all too often been considered as a set of milestones with little significance for the psychology of the child. Nothing could be more wrong. From an action perspective, motor development is at the heart of development and reflects all its different aspects, including perception, planning and motivation. Recent converging evidence demonstrates that, from birth onwards, children are agents who act on the world. Even in the newborn child, their movements are never just reflexes. On the contrary, they are purposeful goal-directed actions that foresee events in the world. Thus, motor development is not just a question of gaining control over muscles; equally important are questions such as why a particular movement is made, how the movements are planned, and how they anticipate what is going to happen next.     

Standards on how to develop and report systematic reviews in Psychology and Health

Systematic reviews are secondary studies that summarize the best scientific evidence available by means of explicit and rigorous methods to identify, select, appraise, analyse and summarise the empirical studies that enable responding to specific questions. The aim of this theoretical study is to set out a series of standards and recommendations for the planning, development and reporting of a systematic review in the field of the health sciences. The article describes the systematic reviews in the context of practice based on scientific evidence, their rise, justification, applicability and differences compared to traditional literature reviews. Secondly, the methodology is set out for their development and guidelines are established for their preparation; the stages of the process and preparation of a protocol are described with emphasis on the steps to follow to prepare and report a systematic review. Finally, some additional considerations are set out for their preparation and publication in a scientific journal. This guide is aimed both at authors and reviewers of a systematic review.     

Talent Development and the Luck Problem

This paper examines the relationship between the development of talented young sports people and conceptions of social justice. It is set within the context of recent policy developments in the United Kingdom that place renewed emphasis on talent development (and wider issues of ‘gifted and talented education’), and justifies this with explicit reference to social justice. After providing a summary of relevant policy initiatives and their often-unstated presumptions, the paper goes on to examine the different ways in which philosophers have conceptualised the role of luck in human affairs. Luck is a matter of particular interest to social justice theorists, who often frame their discussions in terms of the neutralisation of luck. This presents something of a problem for policy makers, as talent development seems destined to exaggerate the effects of luck, not neutralise them. In other words, it is suggested here that talent development cannot be justified in terms of social justice – at least the version of social justice advocated my many of the leading theorists – because it results in the opposite outcome than would be desired. None of this means that talent development is indefensible; it is just indefensible in the terms used in the UK talent development policy.     

Assessing planning ability with the Tower of London task: psychometric properties of a structurally balanced problem set

In clinical and experimental settings, planning ability is typically assessed using the Tower of London (ToL) or one of its variants. For enhancing the comparability across studies, a common ToL problem set was recently suggested comprising a collection of 4- to 7-move problems. Based on previous theoretical and empirical analyses of problem space and task structure, development of the problem set accounted particularly for the influence of structural problem parameters on the detection of individual differences in planning ability. To assess its adequacy as a clinical and research instrument, the present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the suggested problem set. Results showed a clear and nearly perfect linear increase of task difficulty across minimum moves. Given a broad range of item difficulty, high- and low-achieving subjects could be well discriminated. The test scores' split-half reliability (r = .72) and internal consistency (α = .69) were satisfactory. Taken together, the ToL problem set evaluated here proved to have good psychometric qualities and constitutes a conceptually sound basis for diagnostic and research purposes.     

Słupecki's Generalized Mereology and Its Flaws

One of the streams in the early development of set theory was an attempt to use mereology, a formal theory of parthood, as a foundational tool. The first such attempt is due to a Polish logician, Stanis?aw Le?niewski (1886–1939). The attempt failed, but there is another, prima facie more promising attempt by Jerzy S?upecki (1904–1987), who employed his generalized mereology to build mereological foundations for type theory. In this paper I (1) situate Le?niewski's attempt in the development of set theory, (2) describe and evaluate Le?niewski's approach, (3) describe S?upecki's strategy without unnecessary technical details, and (4) evaluate it with a rather negative outcome. The issues discussed go beyond merely historical interests due to the current popularity of mereology and because they are related to nominalistic attempts to understand mathematics in general. The introduction describes very briefly the situation in which mereology entered the scene of foundations of mathematics — it can be safely skipped by anyone familiar with the early development of set theory. Section 2 describes and evaluates Le?niewski's attempt to use mereology as a foundational tool. In Section 3, I describe an attempt by S?upecki to improve on Le?niewski's work, which resulted in a system called generalized mereology. In Section 4, I point out the reasons why this attempt is still not successful. Section 5 contains an explanation of why Le?niewski's use of Ontology in developing arithmetic also is not nominalistically satisfactory.     

公共卫生资源配置的伦理目标

公共卫生资源配置是医疗卫生体制的核心,在医疗卫生事业的改革和发展中起着关键的基础性作用。公共卫生资源配置不仅要从技术操作层面解决公平性问题,更为重要的是,在公共卫生资源配置过程中,我们应秉持公平的价值取向和伦理诉求,确立以权利的公平、分配的公平和制度的公平为主要内容的公共卫生资源配置伦理目标。     

自闭症谱系障碍的生物基础

自闭症谱系障碍是一组发病于生命早期, 由一系列生理、心理因素引起的神经发育障碍。遗传、脑神经结构、营养素等是自闭症谱系障碍的生物基础的重要来源。个体在孕育早期形成的大脑和机体异常可能是导致自闭症谱系障碍的关键。这种异常在出生后的发育中具体作用于神经活动、脑发育、免疫系统等生理途径。研究者们今后可以尝试横跨不同自闭症谱系障碍亚型、年龄和发育阶段, 开展横向与纵向相结合的大范围研究, 以进一步明确自闭症谱系障碍的生物基础。