Toward a multi-factor theory of styles and their relationships to cognition and affect1

This paper is focused on the structural aspects of a multidimensional, system-dynamics model of stylistic processing. Styles are distinguished as cognitive, affective, and cognitive-affective constructs, depending on their association with either cognitive abilities, affective traits, or both. A hierarchy of styles is proposed in which three general styles described as rational, empirical, and metaphoric are indicated as higher-order constructs which subsume three style subhierarchies and are conceptually linked to similar hierarchies of cognitive abilities and affective traits.     

Reserve capacity of the elderly in aging sensitive tests of fluid intelligence: a reanalysis via a structural equation modelling approach

In the last decade there has been a growing interest among developmental psychologists to investigate whether the cognitive performance of older adults can be improved by means of training programs. A number of cognitive training studies involving aging sensitive abilities of fluid intelligence have been performed with healthy older adults (Willis et al. 1981; Baltes et al., 1984/1986). In this paper we reanalyse data from Baltes et al. (1986) concerning the ADEPT Induction, ADEPT Figural Relations, Induction Standard and the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices Tests. In contrast to the above study, where the data analysis was based on a MANOVA approach, usually carried out when experimental data were gathered, this discussion implements an approach to change measurement for which the structural equation of different aspects of change in means as manifested in the moment matrices. The results here confirm these by Baltes et al. (1986), and suggest conclusions concerning change in means over time in the experimental and control groups, which are not implied by their study.     

Gaze tracking patterns on different types of traffic risk in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease

Many fatal accidents are caused by the driver’s inability, upon the occurrence of sudden events, to detect hazards in time, an ability that is based on the driver’s eye movement patterns, the detection of involved persons, events, objects, as well as the length of time spent on noticing same. This study intends to compare risk perception and decision-making in high-risk traffic situations between individuals with AD and controls by exploring gaze tracking and hazard detection patterns. The study included 16 individuals with early-stage AD and 26 controls. During the experiment, participants underwent several vision and cognitive tests and watched twelve videos of high-risk traffic situations while their eye movement patterns were being recorded by the eye tracking device, in order to understand how cognitive abilities affect eye movement patterns during high-risk traffic situations. The results revealed poorer cognitive abilities and diminished risk perception in individuals with AD compared with the controls and thus an inability to predict potential accidents. In terms of high-risk traffic situations involving pedestrians, traffic violations by others and view-blocking events, a significant difference in gaze patterns was found between individuals with AD and healthy seniors. The contribution of this study is in elaborating the effect of different traffic event type and specific cognitive abilities on traffic risk-detection in individuals with AD. The results of this study may aid in the formulation of driver licensing policies and the design of traffic scenarios; they also elucidate the driving behaviors of individuals with AD.     

Attachment between humans and dogs

The special relationship that dogs have developed with humans has been studied not only from the social sciences perspective, but also from the perspectives of psychology and human medicine. Recently, in cognitive science, it has been suggested that dogs may have acquired the superior cognitive ability to communicate with humans, particularly using human-like visual cues during evolution, and that emotional bonding has developed between humans and dogs by means of similar social cues. This article discusses the biological aspects of human-dog attachment. Attachment requires the distinction of a specific figure using species-specific social cues and specific responses to the figure, brought about by neuroendocrinological homeostatic functions as well as behavioral aspects. It has been shown that dogs can distinguish a particular human figure (e.g. the owner) and exhibit specific autonomic reactions. Moreover, when dogs gaze at their owners, the latter's urinary oxytocin levels increase after the interaction. This understanding of the biological aspect of interspecies attachment suggests the possible elements that form the basis of cross-species empathy and the development of evolutionary cognitive abilities that may depend on not merely their genetic dendrogram.     

Strategy generalization across orientation tasks: testing a computational cognitive model

Humans use their spatial information processing abilities flexibly to facilitate problem solving and decision making in a variety of tasks. This article explores the question of whether a general strategy can be adapted for performing two different spatial orientation tasks by testing the predictions of a computational cognitive model. Human performance was measured on an orientation task requiring participants to identify the location of a target either on a map (find-on-map) or within an egocentric view of a space (find-in-scene). A general strategy instantiated in a computational cognitive model of the find-on-map task, based on the results from Gunzelmann and Anderson (2006) , was adapted to perform both tasks and used to generate performance predictions for a new study. The qualitative fit of the model to the human data supports the view that participants were able to tailor a general strategy to the requirements of particular spatial tasks. The quantitative differences between the predictions of the model and the performance of human participants in the new experiment expose individual differences in sample populations. The model provides a means of accounting for those differences and a framework for understanding how human spatial abilities are applied to naturalistic spatial tasks that involve reasoning with maps.     

CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research

During the past decade the Cattell–Horn Gf–Gc and Carroll Three-Stratum models have emerged as the consensus psychometric-based models for understanding the structure of human intelligence. Although the two models differ in a number of ways, the strong correspondence between the two models has resulted in the increased use of a broad umbrella term for a synthesis of the two models (Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory of cognitive abilities—CHC theory).The purpose of this editorial is three-fold. First, I will describe the CHC framework and recommend that intelligence researchers begin using the CHC taxonomy as a common nomenclature for describing research findings and a theoretical framework from which to test hypotheses regarding various aspects of human cognitive abilities. Second, I argue that the emergence of the CHC framework should not be viewed as the capstone to the psychometric era of factor analytic research. Rather, I recommend the CHC framework serve as the stepping stone to reinvigorate the investigation of the structure of human intelligence.Finally, the Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation Human Cognitive Abilities (HCA) project, which is an evolving, free, on-line electronic archive of the majority of datasets analyzed in Carroll's (1993) seminal treatise on factor analysis of human cognitive abilities, is introduced and described. Intelligence scholars are urged to access the Carroll HCA datasets to test and evaluate structural models of human intelligence with contemporary methods (confirmatory factor analysis). In addition, suggestions are offered for linking the analysis of contemporary data sets with the seminal work of Carroll. The emergence of a consensus CHC taxonomy and access to the original datasets analyzed by Carroll provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend and refine our understanding of human intelligence.     

眼动分析法在学前儿童认知研究中的应用

眼动分析法是心理学研究的一种重要手段,它对于研究儿童的认知活动有着非常重要的意义。文章介绍了眼动记录的原理、眼动指标,并对该方法在研究学前儿童的图画观看、图文阅读、视觉搜索等领域的应用进行了评介。最后,对眼动分析法在学前儿童认知研究中的应用前景进行了展望。     

Extended mind and cognitive enhancement: moral aspects of cognitive artifacts

This article connects philosophical debates about cognitive enhancement and situated cognition. It does so by focusing on moral aspects of enhancing our cognitive abilities with the aid of external artifacts. Such artifacts have important moral dimensions that are addressed neither by the cognitive enhancement debate nor situated cognition theory. In order to fill this gap in the literature, three moral aspects of cognitive artifacts are singled out: their consequences for brains, cognition, and culture; their moral status; and their relation to personal identity.     

Introduction to the special section on cognitive abilities: 100 years after Spearman's (1904) "'General intelligence,' objectively determined and measured"

The study of individual differences in cognitive abilities is one of the few branches of psychological science to amass a coherent body of empirical knowledge withstanding the test of time. There is wide consensus that cognitive abilities are organized hierarchically, and C. Spearman's (1904) general intelligence occupies the vertex of this hierarchy. In addition, specific abilities beyond general intelligence refine longitudinal forecasts of important social phenomena and paint a rich portrait of this important domain of psychological diversity. This opening article identifies and then reviews 5 major areas concerning the personological significance of cognitive abilities and the methods used to study them. In models of human behavior and important life outcomes, cognitive abilities are critical in more ways than social scientists realize.     

Cognitive Abilities As Expressions Of Three "Ways Of Knowing"

Factor analytic studies suggest that there are six replicable second order cognitive factors. These six factors lend themselves to being interpreted as aspects of Royce's (1964) three "ways of knowing." This view provides a unified explanation of the second and third order factors. We hypothesize that each second order factor represents either the number of cognitive schemata of a particular type that a person possesses or the quality of these schemata, and the types of schemata are linked to "ways of knowing." The division of second order factors into qualitative and quantitative aspects, with the qualitative aspects being more subject to deterioration with age, and the quantitative aspects more trainable and subject to personality influence, provides an avenue for linking cognitive abilities to the other personality traits. The theory also resolves several theoretical problems concerning cognitive abilities, including distinguishing aptitudes from achievements, measuring creativity, and determining the relationship between rote memory and intelligence.     

The precursors of mathematics learning: Working memory,phonological ability and numerical competence

This research aims at identifying the precursors of mathematics learning at the beginning of primary school. There are few experimental studies on this topic and existing ones use between-subjects designs and correlation analysis. This paper analyses longitudinal data to investigate whether the relationship between basic abilities and mathematics learning is causally interpretable, rather than one where cognitive abilities are correlated to early mathematics learning in a cross-section design.     

Assessing the uniqueness of language: Animal grammatical abilities take center stage

Questions related to the uniqueness of language can only be addressed properly by referring to sound knowledge of the relevant cognitive abilities of nonhuman animals. A key question concerns the nature and extent of animal rule-learning abilities. I discuss two approaches used to assess these abilities. One is comparing the structures of animal vocalizations to linguistic ones, and another is addressing the grammatical rule- and pattern-learning abilities of animals through experiments using artificial grammars. Neither of these approaches has so far provided unambiguous evidence of advanced animal abilities. However, when we consider how animal vocalizations are analyzed, the types of stimuli and tasks that are used in artificial grammar learning experiments, the limited number of species examined, and the groups to which these belong, I argue that the currently available evidence is insufficient to arrive at firm conclusions concerning the limitations of animal grammatical abilities. As a consequence, the gap between human linguistic rule-learning abilities and those of nonhuman animals may be smaller and less clear than is currently assumed. This means that it is still an open question whether a difference in the rule-learning and rule abstraction abilities between animals and humans played the key role in the evolution of language.     

Examining Preschool Cognitive Abilities Using a CHC Framework

Although there has been a substantial growth in the number of published studies examining tests of cognitive abilities and using contemporary theories of cognitive abilities, to date none have done so with preschool cognitive tests. In this study the relation between cognitive ability measures for young children and Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory is examined. Tests and subtests from the Differential Ability Scales: Upper Preschool Level and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability-Revised with a sample of 158 children between 4 and 5 years of age were used in a series of joint factor analyses. Although a series of models were explored, the model representative of the CHC theory of cognitive abilities was best supported by the data. This provides evidence for a greater differentiation of young children's cognitive abilities than are typically interpreted. Results are discussed with regard to understanding the link between contemporary theories of intelligence and young children's cognitive abilities, as well as implications for intellectual assessment practices with young children.     

Grounding words in perception and action: computational insights

We use words to communicate about things and kinds of things, their properties, relations and actions. Researchers are now creating robotic and simulated systems that ground language in machine perception and action, mirroring human abilities. A new kind of computational model is emerging from this work that bridges the symbolic realm of language with the physical realm of real-world referents. It explains aspects of context-dependent shifts of word meaning that cannot easily be explained by purely symbolic models. An exciting implication for cognitive modeling is the use of grounded systems to 'step into the shoes' of humans by directly processing first-person-perspective sensory data, providing a new methodology for testing various hypotheses of situated communication and learning.     

Social cognition: learning about what matters in the social world

Social‐cognitive principles underlie people's learning about what matters in the social world. The benefits of these social‐cognitive principles reveal essential aspects of what it means to be human. But these social‐cognitive principles also have inherent costs , which highlight what it means to be ‘only human’. Social cognition is ‘social’ because what is learned concerns the social world, and where the learning takes place is in the social world. This paper reviews the benefits and costs of both sides of social cognition: (1) the cognition of social psychology principles of organization, explanation, knowledge activation and use; and (2) the social psychology of cognition principles of shared reality role enactment, social positions and identities and internal audiences. The fact that there are inherent costs of the same social‐cognitive principles for which there are essential benefits affords a new perspective on social‐cognitive costs that is different from either the classic ‘conflict’ perspective or the more current ‘limited capacity’ and ‘dual‐process’ perspectives. This ‘trade‐off’ perspective deepens both our understanding of the true nature of these principles and our appreciation of our common humanity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What makes us human (Homo sapiens)? The challenge of cognitive cross-species comparison

Two major theoretical approaches have dominated the quest for uniquely human cognitive abilities: a developmentalist approach stressing the importance of environmental and social conditions, and a predominant approach in experimental and comparative psychology, the deterministic approach suggesting the effect of environmental and social conditions to be minimal. As a consequence, most claims of human cognitive uniqueness are based on comparisons of White middle class Westerner humans (Homo sapiens) with captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). However, humans are much more than only White middle class Westerners, and chimpanzees are much more than only captives. A review of some data available on different populations of humans and chimpanzees reveals that only the predictions of the developmentalist approach are supported. In addition, systematic biases are too often introduced in experiment protocols when comparing humans with apes that further cast doubts on cross-species comparisons. The author argues that only with consideration of within-species population differences in the cognitive domains and the use of well-matched cross-species experimental procedures will an objective understanding of the different cognitive abilities between species emerge. This will require a shift in the theoretical approach adopted by many in experimental and comparative psychology.     

Using support vector machines to identify literacy skills: Evidence from eye movements

Is inferring readers’ literacy skills possible by analyzing their eye movements during text reading? This study used Support Vector Machines (SVM) to analyze eye movement data from 61 undergraduate students who read a multiple-paragraph, multiple-topic expository text. Forward fixation time, first-pass rereading time, second-pass fixation time, and regression path reading time on different regions of the text were provided as features. The SVM classification algorithm assisted in distinguishing high-literacy-skilled readers from low-literacy-skilled readers with 80.3 % accuracy. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of combining eye tracking and machine learning techniques to detect readers with low literacy skills, and suggest that such approaches can be potentially used in predicting other cognitive abilities.     

Reasoning through doing. Epistemic mediators in scientific discovery

The recent epistemological and cognitive studies concentrate on the concept of abduction, as a means to originate and refine new ideas. Traditional cognitive science and computational accounts concerning abduction aim at illustration discovery and creativity processes in terms of theoretical and “internal” aspects, by means of computational simulations and/or abstract cognitive models. I will illustrate in this paper that some typical internal abductive processes are involved in scientific reasoning and discovery (for example through radical innovations). Nevertheless, especially concrete manipulations of the external world constitute a fundamental passage in science: by a process of manipulative abduction it is possible to build prostheses (epistemic mediators) for human minds, by interacting with external objects and representations in a constructive way. In this manner it is possible to create implicit knowledge through doing and to produce various opportunity to find, for example, anomalies and fruitful new risky perspectives. This kind of embodied and unexpressed knowledge holds a key role in the subsequent processes of scientific comprehension and discovery.     

Profils multidimensionnels de jeunes enfants trisomiques bulgares

This study examines links between cognitive, communicative, socioemotional and psychomotor abilities in 20 Bulgarian institutionalised children with Down syndrome. These children were evaluated by means of the Early Cognitive Development Assessment Scales (ECDAS, Nader-Grosbois, 1993), the Early Social Communication Scales (ECSP, Guidetti and Tourrette, 1993), and two grids of socioemotional and psychomotor indicators, inspired by the Trandisciplinary Play-Based Assessment (TPBA, Linder, 1990). Several analyses of developmental patterns were performed in order to identify specificities in the structural organisation of abilities in Bulgarian Down syndrome children in situation of abandonment or negligence: comparison of means of scores in distinct domains, correlations, clusters of variables, analysis of individual profiles by clusters of cases. The results indicate: weakness in vocal imitation and in joint attention; limited relationships between communicative abilities; local homologies between some cognitive and communicative abilities implicating a lack of integration; particular links between specific dimensions of socioemotional and psychomotor adaptation and certain cognitive and communicative abilities in these Down syndrome children.