The learning and motor development transfer process

The aim of this study is to analyze the transference process in motor skill learning. For this purpose, 320 boys and girls, with ages ranging from 3 to 12 years (M= 7.61; SD= 2.61), took part in nine object movement reception drills in which the following variables were cross-examined: the presence-absence of displacement (static or in motion), the corporal segments utilized (hands or arms), the movement direction (right or left), and the moving object (volleyball or tennis ball). The results indicate that what is being transferred is the common factor among them, the ocular-kinesthetic regulating system, which is constructed according to a generalized motor program and a predictive strategy of continuous control. The way that individuals group by levels of skill that represent the developmental levels of the aforementioned regulating system can also be observed. Lastly, the results are discussed, and strategies to improve the learning process in sports and physical education are provided.     

Acquired distinctiveness and equivalence in human discrimination learning: Evidence for an attentional process

In a first stage of training, participants learned to associate four visual cues (two different colors and two different shapes) with verbal labels. For Group S, one label was applied to both colors and another to both shapes; for Group D, one label was applied to one color and one shape, and the other label to the other cues. When subsequently required to learn a task in which a given motor response was required to one of the colors and one of the shapes, and a different response to the other color and the other shape, Group D learned more readily than Group S. The task was designed so that the associations formed during the first stage of training could not generate differential transfer to the second stage. The results are consistent, however, with the proposal that training in which similar cues are followed by different outcomes will engage a learning process that boosts the attention paid to features that distinguish these cues.     

Participative work as an influence on human development

A number of business and industries in the United States and Europe have been experimenting with ways to involve more employees in organizational decision-making and problem-solving activities. Although the goal of such experiments in participative work is usually to improve productivity and enhance morale, there is evidence that working in such firms enhances adult development. This article reviews this evidence, focusing on how the experience of working in a participative milieu affects the individual in ways that are manifested off the job—in the family and community. Suggestions are made for future research that would involve developmental psychologists in helping work organizations experiment with planned social change.     

Implicit learning as an ability

The ability to automatically and implicitly detect complex and noisy regularities in the environment is a fundamental aspect of human cognition. Despite considerable interest in implicit processes, few researchers have conceptualized implicit learning as an ability with meaningful individual differences. Instead, various researchers (e.g., Reber, 1993; Stanovich, 2009) have suggested that individual differences in implicit learning are minimal relative to individual differences in explicit learning. In the current study of English 16–17 year old students, we investigated the association of individual differences in implicit learning with a variety of cognitive and personality variables. Consistent with prior research and theorizing, implicit learning, as measured by a probabilistic sequence learning task, was more weakly related to psychometric intelligence than was explicit associative learning, and was unrelated to working memory. Structural equation modeling revealed that implicit learning was independently related to two components of psychometric intelligence: verbal analogical reasoning and processing speed. Implicit learning was also independently related to academic performance on two foreign language exams (French, German). Further, implicit learning was significantly associated with aspects of self-reported personality, including intuition, Openness to Experience, and impulsivity. We discuss the implications of implicit learning as an ability for dual-process theories of cognition, intelligence, personality, skill learning, complex cognition, and language acquisition.     

Knowledge as process: contextually-cued attention and early word learning

Learning depends on attention. The processes that cue attention in the moment dynamically integrate learned regularities and immediate contextual cues. This paper reviews the extensive literature on cued attention and attentional learning in the adult literature and proposes that these fundamental processes are likely significant mechanisms of change in cognitive development. The value of this idea is illustrated using phenomena in children novel word learning.     

Signs and the process of interpretation: sign as an object and as a process

Historically the words representation and symbol have had overlapping meanings, meanings that usually disregard the role played by the interpreter. Peirce’s theory of signs accounts for these meanings and also for the role of the interpreter. His theory draws attention to the static and dynamic nature of signs. Sign interpretation can be viewed as a continuous dynamic and evolving process. The static and dynamic nature of signs helps us understand the teaching–learning activity as a process of interpretation on the part of teacher and students. The paper attempts to explain the classroom interpretation process on the part of the actors involved using the Peircean theory of signs.     

Conditional teaching and mindful learning

Abstract:

Most people can draw on vast categories of stored information when explicitly asked to do so. The spontaneous, creative, mindful use of previously learned information, however, tends to be atypical. Three studies were designed to assess whether the manner in which information is initially presented affects how such information will subsequently be used, that is, in a mindful or mindless way. More specifically, two experiments (one with children, the other with college students) were conducted to compare the effects of a conditional versus absolute form of teaching upon creativity. Results revealed that instruction presented in an absolute manner resulted in mindless use of the information for both age groups. In contrast, subjects who were taught in a conditional way were better able to creatively deal with the information. For the college students, this finding was obtained even when the absolute learning condition was concerned with theoretical (i.e., conditional) information. In a third experiment, student teachers were taught conditionally or unconditionally in a confident or unconfident manner. Results indicated that confident but conditional instruction was most effective in provoking subsequent mindfulness.     

Strategy development and learning to spell new words: generalization of a process

The authors used microgenetic methods in 2 experiments to examine children's and adults' progress from initial attempts at spelling nonwords to later direct memory retrieval of the spellings. Participants repeatedly spelled nonwords presented in computerized, dictated-word spelling tests over several weeks. Following each spelling, participants provided retrospective strategy reports. Half of the children showed a gradual shift from spelling words with effortful backup strategies to fast retrieval; half of the children continued using backup strategies that were fast and effective for them. Relatively more adults shifted from backup strategies to retrieval, but otherwise their patterns of spelling development were quite similar to those of the children. This research provides support for the generalizability of the overlapping waves model to nonalgorithmic domains. It also demonstrates parallels between children and adults in learning to spell new words.     

Interval timing as an emergent learning property

Interval timing in operant conditioning is the learned covariation of a temporal dependent measure such as wait time with a temporal independent variable such as fixed-interval duration. The dominant theories of interval timing all incorporate an explicit internal clock, or "pacemaker," despite its lack of independent evidence. The authors propose an alternative, pacemaker-free view that demonstrates that temporal discrimination can be explained by using only 2 assumptions: (a) variation and selection of responses through competition between reinforced behavior and all other, elicited, behaviors and (b) modulation of the strength of response competition by the memory for recent reinforcement. The model departs radically from existing timing models: It shows that temporal learning can emerge from a simple dynamic process that lacks a periodic time reference such as a pacemaker.     

Infants' persistence and mothers' teaching as predictors of toddlers' cognitive development

This study examined the relative contributions of infants' persistence and mothers' teaching at 6 and 14 months to infants' cognitive development at 14 months in a sample of 65 low-income mother-infant dyads. Infants' persistence was assessed from a videotaped persistence task at 6 months and from the Behavior Record Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 2nd ed. (BSID II) at 14 months. Mothers' teaching was assessed from a videotaped teaching interaction at 6 and 14 months using the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST) teaching scale. Cognitive development at 14 months was based on the Mental Scale, BSID II. Infants' persistence at both ages and mothers' teaching at 6 months each explained unique variance in infants' cognitive status at 14 months. Persistence appears to be a stable quality that can be measured early on, and both infants' early persistence and mothers' teaching are direct pathways to cognitive status at the start of the second year.     

Origins of adolescents' ideal self: an intergenerational perspective

The present longitudinal study traced the ideal self of 120 adolescents to the ideals that parents hold for themselves and for their children. Ideals were assessed using Q sorts for personality attributes and life goals. After permutation analysis was used to control for random similarity, moderate parent-child ideal-self similarity was evident. Three intermediate transmission steps accounted for this intergenerational similarity: (a) transfer of parents' ideal self to ideals for their children, (b) children's perception, and (c) acceptance of these parental ideals. The last 2 processes related to parenting practices, with parental warmth augmenting parent-child concordance and restrictiveness reducing it. Compared with boys' ideal self, that of girls was more similar to the ideals that parents hold for their children and for themselves. Analyses of patterns over time suggested a growth of ideal-self stability across adolescence.     

Applied developmental psychology as an implementation of a life-span view of human development

Application of knowledge about psychological development should, ideally, be theory based. As such, these applications represent “natural ontogenetic experiments”; the results of the evaluation of such interventions feed back to the theory, helping to support, falsify, or refine the ideas from the theory which led to the particular application. Such applied developmental intervention research is central within a currently popular perspective of life-span human development. Thus, applied developmental intervention research provides critical tests of such key concepts within this life-span perspective as: plasticity; multidirectionality; the synthesis of continuous and discontinuous processes across ontogeny; contextual embeddedness; and the role of individuals as agents in their own development. This paper elucidates some of the major features of the dynamic linkage between applied developmental psychology and this view of life-span human development. Key elements of this life-span perspective and the facts of developmental intervention, as seen from this perspective, are specified. Finally, the doctoral training program at the authors' institution is presented as one example of how this link may be institutionalized in the form of graduate education.