Building Bridges: Cognitive Development in Typical and Atypical Populations

Most research reported in the Journal of Cognition and Development focuses on typically developing children—those who are following what is assumed to be the most common path. This special issue was designed to foster a dialogue between cognitive developmentalists who work on typical development and those who work on atypical development, with the goal of illustrating how recent findings can advance thinking in both fields. The 6 target articles and 2 commentaries in this special issue provide a compelling demonstration of the symbiotic nature of the study of typical and atypical cognitive development.     

Bridging the Gaps in the Study of Typical and Atypical Cognitive Development: A Commentary

The articles in this special issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development examine the cognitive development of children who are following typical and atypical developmental pathways. The articles offer a mixture of theory-based considerations, reviews of the literature, and new empirical data addressing fundamental aspects of cognitive development. Our commentary considers these articles in light of comparative and dimensional approaches to the study of typicality/atypicality and offers some considerations for researchers building bridges between typical and atypical development.     

Eyewitness Memory for Typical and Atypical Weapons in Cognitive Context

The present research addressed eyewitness memory for weapons, specifically for a modern semi‐automatic pistol and an antique flintlock, in order to address the influence of weapon novelty on recall for the given weapon. Additionally, the effect of explanatory backstory was examined in the same context; respondents were given prior information, which was either consistent or inconsistent with the presence of the flintlock in the scene, in order to gauge the influence of appropriate or inappropriate explanatory cognitive context. Finally, the effects of these variables on line‐up identification of the ‘suspect’ holding the given weapon were addressed. The results showed that weapon type did not influence recall accuracy for given weapons, although explanatory backstory did have a significant effect here, as initially predicted. Both weapon type and explanatory backstory produced significant effects on weapon recall errors, with the exotic weapon and the more prosaic backstory producing larger numbers of mistakes. Neither of these variables was associated with significant differences in line‐up performance. These results indicate the importance of prior cognitive context, as well as the physical appearance of weapons, in a full understanding of eyewitness processing of scenes involving firearms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theory of Mind Deficit in Schizophrenia and Associated Cognitive Functions

This study examined the Theory of Mind (ToM) ability of schizophrenic persons in association with other cognitive functions like memory, executive functioning and attention. Results showed evidence of relationship between ToM and cognitive functions i.e. executive function, working memory and intelligence but no uniform predictive model was found across all the ToM tasks. It was also noted that predicting variables related to different cognitive domains varied markedly for schizophrenia and control groups. It seems that there are multiple cognitive pathways to ToM mechanism, although these different forms may not have an additive effect.     

认知复杂性与意识水平:Zelazo理论述评

Zelazo等人提出的认知复杂性和控制理论、意识水平模型认为可在问题解决框架内理解执行功能,且执行功能的变化可根据儿童形成和使用的最大规则复杂性的变化来描述,而规则复杂性的变化可根据儿童意识水平的变化来解释。Zelazo的理论提出后受到不少研究者的关注,但也存在一些问题和不足。     

婴儿心理理论的发展:表现和机制

婴儿心理理论发展研究是探索人类社会认知起源、发生和发展的重要领域.从联合注意、情绪理解、意图理解、愿望理解和错误信念理解等方面分析了几个月至3岁左右的婴儿心理理论发生和发展的研究现状.为了探讨3岁以下婴儿心理理论的发展过程,研究者发展了一些适合婴儿语言和行为发展特征的非言语和言语测试任务,包括非言语自发—反应错误信念任务、言语自发—反应错误信念任务,同时也采用眼动技术和事件相关电位技术来考察心理理论发展水平和发展机制.婴儿心理理论的发生和发展在不同测试任务上表现出一定的年龄特征.这与认知功能(如语言、执行功能)的发展、环境因素(如家庭、同伴、文化)以及神经系统发育有关.也有一些最新研究从心理理论发生和发展的基因、激素水平进行了探讨.最后提出了该领域未来研究可以进一步探讨的问题.     

幼儿心理理论水平及其与抑制控制发展的关系

本研究通过经典的错误信念任务首先考察了3与4岁幼儿心理理论的发展水平;然后通过抑制控制任务探讨了幼儿心理理论发展水平与抑制控制能力发展的关系。结果表明,3、4岁在完成错误信念任务时有显著的年龄差异;通过错误信念任务的幼儿在抑制冲突的得分显著地高于没有通过错误信念的幼儿;而且除了他人的错误信念,幼儿在其他错误信念上的水平与抑制冲突成绩有显著的相关。     

Narrative Discourse and Theory of Mind Development

The authors examined experimentally whether exposure to social discourse about concepts related to mental states could promote changes in children's theory of mind understanding. In 2 studies, 3- to 4-year-old children were assigned to either a training or a no training control condition. All children were administered several theory of mind measures at pretest and 2 posttests. Training was not effective in improving performance in Study 1 (n = 37); but in Study 2 (n = 54), modifications of the training procedure led to significant improvements on measures of false belief and deception from pretest to 1st posttest. The findings support the influence of social discourse on children's theory of mind development.     

Parental Practices and Theory of Mind Development

In the past three decades, psychologists have become increasingly interested in the study of theory of mind. This ability involves an understanding of different components of the mind (e.g., emotions, thoughts, beliefs) and of how they are related to human behavior. Several parents’ characteristics (e.g., attachment, mental-state talk) have been associated to children’s theory-of-mind development, but the variables and methods adopted are diverse and at times lead to inconsistent findings. The goal of the present paper, therefore, is to provide a literature review that can point both to possible ways in which discrepancies might be overcome and to promising research directions. Our review covers 78 research reports published in English between 1980 and 2011. Only empirical studies, using children as participants, were included in the review. Three main suggestions are offered for researchers, parents and practitioners on how to nurture young children’s understanding of mind: (a) to treat children as intentional agents, acting in a sensitive and responsive fashion to their mental states; (b) to speak to children about mental states in an elaborate and connected way, pointing out their causes and consequences, and explaining that these may be different for different people; and (c) to expose children to a wide range of emotions while being careful to not express over-frequent and inconsistent negative affect. One limitation of the present review, however, is that we do not look into how parental practices interact with certain individual characteristics of the child (e.g., personality, IQ and language skills). Future research should explore the multifaceted nature of these relationships and interactions.     

Measures of Cognitive Complexity and Its Development in Chinese Adolescents

There are various controversies over the measurement of cognitive complexity and few studies concerning its development in adolescents, especially in China. Based on a sample of 234 Chinese adolescents from Grades 7 through 11, the present study first compared 2 instruments and 12 corresponding indices of cognitive complexity—11 traditional and new forms of cognitive complexity scores on the Repgrid, and 1 score on the Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ)—then adopted the most appropriate tool to investigate the development of cognitive complexity. The results showed that the RCQ may have relatively more construct validity than the Repgrid in terms of the assessment of adolescents’ cognitive complexity. Using the RCQ, it was found that adolescents of different grades, gender, peer status, and academic achievement had different levels of cognitive complexity.     

Cognitive and affective Theory of Mind in mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease

Theory of Mind (ToM) allows one's own and others' cognitive and emotional mental states to be inferred. Although many patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) display impaired social functioning as their disease progresses, very few studies have investigated ToM in AD. Those that have done so suggest that patients' ToM deficits are the consequence of other cognitive impairments. The aim of this study was thus to investigate changes in both the cognitive and the affective dimensions of ToM in AD, using tasks designed to circumvent the patients' comprehension difficulties. Sixteen mild to moderate AD patients and 15 healthy controls matched on age, sex and education level underwent cognitive (preference judgment and first‐ and second‐order false belief) and affective (Reading the Mind in the Eyes) ToM assessments. Comprehension of false belief stories was verified and an additional neuropsychological examination was undergone. We observed impaired performances by AD patients on all the ToM tasks. While working memory and executive functioning impairments contributed to the deterioration in the more complex aspects of cognitive ToM abilities as highlighted by a correlation analysis, we failed to observe any comprehension difficulties in patients who performed poorly on simple cognitive ToM tasks, which suggests that AD truly affects cognitive ToM.     

幼儿预见能力的发展及与抑制控制、心理理论的关系

预见是预测未来会发生什么或者需要什么的能力,是对未来自我状态进行的推理。该研究由两部分实验组成。实验1以3～5岁幼儿为研究对象,采用Atance和Meltzoff(2005)的非言语研究范式,探讨了预见能力的发展特点。结果表明,4岁以后,幼儿能够根据未来的需要选择适宜的物品。实验2以4～6岁幼儿为研究对象,考察了预见与抑制控制和心理理论能力的关系。结果发现,抑制控制对幼儿的预见能力存在直接的预测效力,而心理理论则是通过抑制控制作为中介变量间接地作用于预见过程。     

Reflective Personality: Identifying Cognitive Style and Cognitive Complexity

Categorized among learning practices, reflection involves cognitive processing. Some people say they reflect often, whereas others claim they are less inclined to reflect on a regular basis. The present study examines reflection in an academic learning setting. In contrast with previous studies testing reflective task accomplishment, we are interested in personality traits that can predict reflection or a reflective outcome. By means of a survey university students are questioned about their learning practices when working on their final thesis. To test whether certain traits influence reflection and whether reflection produces cognitive outcomes at the individual level, we performed hierarchical regression analysis. In addition, structural equation modeling is used to test for the mediation effects of reflection. The data stress a mediating role of reflection in the relationship between particular personality traits and cognitive complexity.     

朱子人心道心论的渊源与发展

朱子之前,人心道心之说有苏轼的一本论传统与二程的对立互发论传统。朱子早年深受苏轼的影响,后来逐渐继承二程之论。朱子晚年明显表达人心道心互发论的观点,但同时主张"心"的单一性,并且强调"有道理底人心便是道心",以形成庞大复杂的理论体系。韩儒李滉注重朱子人心道心对立互发之说,而李珥更重视"一心"思想。中国与韩国的理学发展史上,人心道心之说始终是伦理学讨论的中心主题,其所关注的道德之来源、动机、获得方法等问题,对现代伦理学研究也有一定的启发性。     

Cognitive Developmental Theory and Spiritual Development

Traditional conceptions of cognitive development have failed to account for changes in adult cognition as well as more subjective and intuitive features of human experience. This paper reviews recent theories and research in cognitive development and spirituality with the aim of providing connections between the two domains. Neo-Piagetian and postformal theories of cognitive development suggest that advances in cognition are domain-specific, dependent on individual experience, and can occur at any point in the lifespan. However, theories of spiritual development have not adequately addressed these points. Thus, a novel account of spiritual development is presented that addresses these features with respect to individuals' changing conceptions of their relation to an External Power.     

认知神经科学领域脑电复杂性测度方法的新进展

脑电分析是认知神经科学研究领域重要的研究技术之一。本文主要介绍了新近发展的KC、C1、C2 、C0 、信息传输矩阵和近似熵等基于非线性动力学的脑电复杂性测度分析方法 ,对各种方法的特点进行了简单的讨论 ,并简述了其在分析认知电位时空模式 ,从而揭示脑认知功能研究中的应用。     

抑制性控制在幼儿执行功能与心理理论中的作用

将执行功能任务和心理理论任务中的共同成分——抑制性控制区分为3个不同的难度水平,从而构成心理理论任务（错误信念）的3个变式A1、A2、A3和执行功能任务（白天/黑夜）的3个变式B1、B2、B3。实验1以48名4岁幼儿为被试,探讨对两类任务中各自的3个变式所包含的抑制性控制的难度区分的适当性,结果表明幼儿在两类任务中各自的3个变式上的正确率差异显著,说明其抑制性控制的确表现出了高、中、低3个不同的难度水平;实验2根据实验1所设计的两类任务,以144名3~6岁幼儿为被试,探讨了不同抑制性控制的难度水平在幼儿执行功能和心理理论的相关中的作用,结果表明抑制性控制的难度水平是影响幼儿执行功能与心理理论的相关的一个重要因素。     

成人依恋与心理理论的关系:认知融合与经验性回避的中介作用

为探究成人依恋、认知融合、经验性回避与心理理论的关系及其作用机制,研究者采用实验法和问卷法对312名成年人进行了测量。研究结果表明：（1）不安全的成人依恋负向预测心理理论;（2）经验性回避在成人依恋与心理理论之间起中介作用;（3）认知融合在成人依恋与心理理论之间不存在中介作用;（4）成人依恋的两种类型（依恋回避、依恋焦虑）呈现出不同的链式中介作用：认知融合与经验性回避在依恋回避与心理理论之间起部分中介作用,而在依恋焦虑与心理理论之间起完全中介作用。研究从心理灵活性的角度考察成人依恋与心理理论的关系及其作用机制,并探究接纳承诺训练在提升社会认知能力上的实践意义。     

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。