3～5岁幼儿反事实思维的发展研究

该研究采用结果和前提反事实推理任务,选取58名3-5岁幼儿为被试,考察了其反事实思维能力的发展。结果表明:1.3岁儿童在结果反事实推理中的得分显著低于4岁和5岁儿童,而4岁和5岁儿童的得分并不存在显著差异;2.幼儿的前提反事实推理因结构和方向不同而表现出不同的年龄变化趋势;3.幼儿产生的上行和下行反事实论断之间不存在显著差异。如成人一样,幼儿较少产生减法反事实。     

辞旧岁 庆胜利 迎新春

刚刚过去的2005年,我国胜利地完成了“十五”业结构优化升级,促进区域协调发展,建设资源节划。这是在中国共产党领导下,全国各族人民团约型和环境友好型社会,进一步深化体制改革和提奋斗、锐意进取的结果。“十五”时期是不平凡的高对外开放水平,深入实施科教兴国战略和人才强年。我国成功应对了上世纪末亚洲金融危机带来国战略,使社会主义和谐社会建设事业更上一个台严重冲击,战胜了非典疫情和重大自然灾害的挑阶。这是一项极其宏伟、光荣而又十分艰巨的任务,,加强改善了对经济建设的宏观调控,从容应对需要全社会各行各业共同努力。胡锦涛…     

Conflict resolution and social understanding in six to twelve year old boys

Three different aspects of children's social competency were studied, i.e. social methods, (via their suggested solution to given conflict situations), social understanding (via their explanations of the solution given) and role-taking capacity. 75 boys—ages 6, 8 and 12 years—were interviewed concerning different conflict situations, six of which involved a child/child interaction and six a child/adult interaction. A separate role-taking task was also used. Developmental differences in social methods were found only in situations involving adults, where older children to a greater extent chose altruistic methods for solving the conflict. As regards social understanding, developmental changes were found and correspond to results reported by previous researchers. Role-taking capacity was found to increase with age. Role-taking as measured here was not related to social understanding. Social method and social understanding were significantly related to each other in some of the situations, mainly in those involving only children. The results indicate that different norms prevail for solving conflicts with adults versus with peers, and that the role-taking aspect is but one of several involved in the development of social understanding.     

Temporal performance in 4-8 year old children. The effect of chronometric information in task execution

The present study explores temporal performance in children between 4 and 11 years of age. In order to optimise the children's performance, verbal instructions and demonstrations were used to specify the temporal requirement of the task. Moreover, specific feedback was given, which indicated the success of a response, or, in case of a mistake, indicated the type of error made. The task was presented in two phases: training and experimental. In the first phase, the child practised until a learning criterion was reached. In the experimental phase, four conditions were defined according to the information provided to the children. In general, the results of the training phase showed an improvement in performance with advancing age. Significant differences were found in children between 7 and 8 years of age, which points to an important transition period. Results of the experimental phase showed a pronounced impact of instructions on the performance of the task and on the strategies used to control timing behaviour. Specifically, the instructions that contained chronometric information caused an impairment in task performance and a change in the strategy used.     

Audiospatial and visuospatial working memory in 6-13 year old school children

The neural processes subserving working memory, and brain structures underlying this system, continue to develop during childhood. We investigated the effects of age and gender on audiospatial and visuospatial working memory in a nonclinical sample of school-aged children using n-back tasks. The results showed that auditory and visual working memory performance improves with age, suggesting functional maturation of underlying cognitive processes and brain areas. The gender differences found in the performance of working memory tasks suggest a larger degree of immaturity in boys than girls at the age period of 6–10 yr. The differences observed between the mastering of auditory and visual working memory tasks may indicate that visual working memory reaches functional maturity earlier than the corresponding auditory system.     

Interracial contact and racial constancy: A multi-site study of racial intergroup bias in 3–5 year old Anglo-British children

This paper examined the influence of interracial contact and racial constancy on the racial intergroup bias of young Anglo-British children. This multi-site study was conducted in areas of Great Britain that varied in terms of racial diversity. The study also investigated whether preschool children express bias on positive, but not negative, valence attributions. Anglo-British children (N = 136) between 3 and 5 years of age with different levels of interracial contact undertook a racial stereotype attribution measure and three tasks to assess racial constancy. Significantly more racial bias was shown towards the African Caribbean-British compared to the Asian-British or Oriental-British racial out-groups. As predicted, only children in racially mixed areas failed to show discrimination in favor of the white in-group on both the positive and negative trait attributions. In addition, higher racial constancy was related significantly to greater racial intergroup bias. These findings suggest that racial intergroup bias amongst 3–5 year old children may be reduced through the promotion of interracial contact, because at this age children are already beginning to develop racial constancy.     

Family Communication of BRCA1/2 Results and Family Uptake of BRCA1/2 Testing in a Diverse Population of BRCA1/2 Carriers

Previous studies examining communication of BRCA1/2 results with relatives and family uptake of BRCA1/2 testing have sampled from predominantly white, high SES cohorts ascertained solely from tertiary care centers. No studies have focused on family communication and testing among relatives of diverse BRCA1/2 carriers. We conducted structured interviews with 73 BRCA1/2 carriers identified at a public hospital and a tertiary cancer center. We asked participants if each first- and second-degree relative was aware of their BRCA1/2 results and whether or not each relative had tested. Generalized estimating equations identified rates and predictors of family communication and testing. Participants disclosed their test results to 73 % of 606 eligible relatives and 31 % of 514 eligible relatives tested. Communication and testing rates were similar for relatives of participants from the public hospital and the tertiary cancer center. Hospital site was not a significant predictor of either result disclosure or relative uptake of testing. African American and Asian/Pacific Islander participants were significantly less likely to disclose their results to their relatives; relatives of African American participants were significantly less likely to test. Addressing these disparities will require further research into the best ways to facilitate family communication and counsel at-risk relatives of racially and socioeconomically diverse BRCA1/2 mutation carriers.     

The perception of identity by 6 1/2-month-old infants.

In Study 1, sixteen 6 1/2-month-olds were habituated to a Reversible stimulus (an upright face that could be perceived as an entirely different upright face when it was rotated 180 degrees) and to a Nonreversible stimulus (a face that could be perceived as upright in only one orientation). Following habituation for each type of stimulus, test trials paired the habituated face with a novel stimulus (an inversion of the same face). For both Reversible and Nonreversible stimuli, the physical difference between the old and new test stimuli was the same (a 180 degrees rotation); however, infants devoted more visual attention to the 180 degrees rotation only when it was a Reversible face, suggesting that the identity change was detected. Experiment 2 ruled out the explanation that infants might have failed to dishabituate to the inversion of the Nonreversible stimulus because they could not remember it. Results are interpreted as evidence that 6 1/2-month-old infants are not limited to face recognition based on similarity in pattern arrangement alone, but are capable of processing faces at a representational level.     

On Nachträglichkeit: The modernity of an old concept1

Nachträglichkeit provides the memory, not the event, with traumatic signifi cance and signifi es a circular complementarity of both directions of time. Conceived by Freud as early as 1895 in the Project for a scientifi c psychology, the concept remains in his work without offi cial status but through its character of biphasic development and latency indispensable for understanding temporal connections and psychic causality. As an implicit principle it is linked with the postponement and biphasic onset of sexual life … and retains its sometimes hidden importance until the late Moses study. Temporarily virtually forgotten, it was recalled to memory by Lacan in 1953. Translations into French as après‐coup and into English as ‘deferred action’ emphasized the two vectors (retroactivity and after‐effect) separately which are united in the substantive form coined by Freud. Unnoticed, it played a part in many aspects of clinical practice, especially in Winnicott's Fear of breakdown and the subsequent (nachträglich) working through of unconscious infantile and transgenerational confl icts. The author uses a clinical illustration to elucidate the belated understanding of the striving for non‐existence in Winnicott's sense. Wolfgang Loch extended Freud's concept of Nachträglichkeit in a constructivist way, advocating an art of interpretation as an innovative enterprise through which connections are not only unmasked but also created, constituted by subsequent (nachträglich) reinterpretation of a subjective past. Very briefl y the author refers to the interdisciplinary reception of the concept of Nachträglichkeit, especially in cultural studies.