Development of classification: The use of similarity and dimensional relations

Findings about perceptual development indicate that overall similarity is the primary perceptual relation by which young children compare complex objects. Traditional studies of classification, however, did not focus on children's organizational use of holistic relations but rather on their ability to classify by dimensions or criterial attributes. The results from such traditional studies suggest that young children are deficient classifiers. The present research investigated the possibility, contrary to the traditional view, that 4- to 6-year-old children are competent and systematic classifiers at least by overall similarity. In three experiments, preschoolers and kindergarteners classified various sets of multidimensional stimuli that could be organized into categories by overall similarity or by dimensional attributes. Consistent with the research in perceptual development, the children were highly attentive to overall similarity. However, the preschoolers in particular showed marked difficulty in using this relation to form categories of more than two objects. The children's difficulties were highly reminiscent of traditional claims about early classification. Analyses of the classification strategies used by the children, however, suggest that even the youngest children understood the purpose of a classification. The developmentla changes appear to be in the ability to execute a classification. Importantly, type of classification strategy was independent of type of category organization. Individual children used the same strategies both when classifying by overall similarity and by dimensional attributes. These results strongly suggest that it is the classification skills themselves, and not just the ability to classify by particular relations, that change with age.     

Social judgments of spurious and causal relations between attributes and outcomes

People can learn about relations between attributes and outcomes by observing the attributes and outcomes of others, but, as this experiment indicates, such learning is not always veridical. Each subject received information about the ages, educations, and salaries of groups of employees in a fictitious corporation. Within a group, either age or education was related to salaries and the two attributes were either orthogonal or correlated. In each case, subjects judged the strength of the causal relation between each attribute and salaries. The results confirmed our hypothesis that observers are more likely to view a causally relevant attribute as irrelevant, and a causally irrelevant attribute as relevant, when relevant and irrelevant attributes are correlated. However, this tendency seemed to be mediated by subjects' bias to prefer education as an explanation of salary differences: That is, when age and education were correlated, subjects tended to view education as relevant even when it was irrelevant and age as irrelevant even when it was relevant. The results suggest that when attributes are correlated, factors extraneous to observed data may have a major influence on inferred attribute-outcome associations.     

The Rorschach and structured tests of perception as indices of intellectual development in mentally retarded and nonretarded children

In a study of the developmental significance of certain perceptual activities, the Rorschach and four structured tests of perception were administered to five groups of children at various CA, MA, and IQ levels. All three Rorschach measures were significantly related to MA, as were all four of the structured tests. The Childrens' Embedded Figures Test was the best predictor of MA; it accounted for 52% of the variance, while the six remaining measures yielded nonsignificant increments to a multiple regression equation. In a factor analysis the four structured tests loaded on one factor (51% of total variance), while the three Rorschach variables loaded on a second (17%); MA loaded on both (.669 and .447, respectively). In an additional finding, Zigler's “developmental” hypothesis that level of development and not IQ determines cognitive competence, received partial support from 13 of 14 statistical tests.     

Commitment to work in immigrants: Its functions and peculiarities

It was assumed that in order to cope with the crisis of immigration, immigrants would have low expectations regarding their vocational future while maintaining a high commitment to work. The meaningfulness and the centrality of work (as components of the commitment to work), work values, and work attitudes were tested in samples of 74 immigrants, of 66 old-time white-collar employees, and of 35 ongoing executives, by means of the semantic differential technique and by a projective personality test. An adaption of Eysenck's neuroticism test was also administered. Immigrants evaluated career and work-related objects in a less positive manner in comparison with the other samples, but scored higher in work centrality and job involvement, and held more positive attitudes toward authority figures in the place of work. No significant differences in neuroticism were found.     

Attribute centrality and imaginative thought

Participants' representations of the concept human were examined to differentiate three types of associations between concepts and their component attributes: the capacity of concepts to cue attributes (attribute accessibility), the capacity of attributes to cue concepts (instance accessibility), and the extent to which attributes are thought of as central to concepts (attribute centrality). The findings provide information about the concept human itself and, more generally, about the functionally distinct roles those different attribute-concept associations play in guiding imaginative thought. College students listed attributes that differentiate humans from other animals, rated the centrality of those attributes, and listed animals that possess those attributes. Other students drew and described extraterrestrials that possessed some of the attributes that were found to vary across those listing and rating tasks. Rated centrality was the most important determinant of an attribute's impact on imaginative generation. When the imagined extraterrestrials were supposed to possess attributes that had been rated as central to humans (intelligence, emotional complexity, or opposable thumbs), participants projected more aspects of human form onto them than when the creatures were supposed to possess less central attributes or when attributes were unspecified.     

The cognitive representation of political personalities. A cross-cultural comparison(1)

The cognitive representation of salient political personalities was studied in a British and a German student sample, using a multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) procedure. Separate MDS analyses for the two samples yielded a readily interpetable three dimensional stimulus space in each case. These cognitive spaces for political figures were interpreted as reflecting the attributes of political potency, evaluation and intelligence in the case of the British sample, and evaluation, conservatism and political potency in the case of the German sample. An additional joint analysis of data from both subject groups indicated significant cross-cultural differences in the cognitive representations of political leaders. The results were discussed in terms of the socio-cultural differences between the two subsamples, and the utility of a multi-dimensional approach to political perception and behaviour.     

分类视角下认知诊断测验项目区分度指标及应用

在认知诊断中还没有指标能在无作答数据情况下直接评价项目的属性分类准确率或属性判准率。项目水平上的属性分类准确率,与项目属性向量、项目参数、先验分布和作答反应等有关。综合各个影响因素定义了项目水平上的属性期望分类准确率指标,并将其用于组卷。模拟研究显示：新指标可十分准确地评价项目的属性判准率,新指标对于项目筛选十分重要;以模式分类准确率为评价指标,基于新指标的组卷方法与经典的组卷方法表现相当。     

Kindergartners' reasoning in simple problems

Three experiments assessed kindergartners' performance on simple conceptlike problems in which the correct solution could be selected from a specified set of possible solutions by using the information provided by a single positive or negative stimulus. For both positive and negative instances, performance was accurate when all stimulus attributes were logically informative, but performance was impaired when stimuli included an additional, logically uninformative, attribute. This impairment could not be attributed simply to increased information processing load. Children seemed to realize that uninformative attributes provided no basis for choosing among possible solutions, but did not seem to understand how to interpret this fact in order to make appropriate inferences. It was suggested that children's inferential deficit may result from a failure to understand how the relationships that exist between two sets of information are coordinated with the relationships that exist among the parts of each set. Implications were discussed for kindergartners' performance on more complex concept problems.     

Conservation accidents

Eighty children aged between 4 years 2 months and 6 years 3 months were tested on length and number conservation, both when the transformation occured because of a direct action by the experimenter and when it happened ‘accidentally’ as the by-product of an activity directed towards a different goal. Fifty children conserved when the transformation was ‘accidental’, whereas only 13 were successful when it was intentional. These results are interpreted as evidence that characteristics of the experimenter's behaviour, in particular his actions towards the task materials, can influence children's interpretation of utterances by suggesting the experimenter is thinking about a different attribute from that specified linguistically. It is suggested that traditional procedures may underestimate children's cognitive abilities.     

Attribute-value functions as global interpretations of attribute importance

In order to better understand decision maker’s perceptions of the importance of attributes, Goldstein (1990) differentiates between global and local interpretations of attribute importance. While the appreciation for the distinction is growing, research on the relationship between measures of global and local importance is inconclusive. We believe that these inconclusive findings are caused by operationalizing global attribute importance with single-point measures that implicitly assume that the global interpretation of attribute importance linearly depends on the relevant range of context-specific attribute levels. To address this, we propose to operationalize the global interpretation of attribute importance by estimating decision makers’ attribute-value functions. Two empirical studies demonstrate that the shape of attribute-value functions changes from concave to convex with global attribute importance. Furthermore, the steepness of these functions increases with global attribute importance while the diminishing sensitivity decreases. Finally, it is demonstrated that the inconclusive findings about the relationship between common, single-point measures of global and local attribute importance is driven by non-linearities in decision makers’ attribute-value functions. The results suggest great promise for future research on using decision makers’ attribute-value functions for measuring the importance of attributes.     

具有认知诊断功能的计算机化自适应测验的研究与实现

构造具有认知诊断功能的计算机化自适应测验（Computerized Adaptive Testing,CAT）,关键在于设计不同于传统CAT的选题策略。本文采用先认知诊断后估计能力的方法,在诊断阶段用状态转换图描述特定认知领域中所有知识状态及这些状态之间的联系,以图的深度优先算法为基础设计选题策略;而在能力估计精细化阶段,每个被试所测项目,不仅与其能力估计值相匹配,且只与其所掌握的属性相关。本文采用蒙特卡罗模拟针对三种不同的属性结构进行试验,结果良好     

Sensitivity to binocular depth information in infants

In order to study infants' sensitivity to binocular information for depth, 11 infants, 20 to 26 weeks of age, were presented with real and stereoscopically projected virtual objects at three distances, and the infants' reaching behavior was videotaped. When the virtual object was positioned out of reach, infants tended to lean further forward and to reach less frequently than when the virtual object was positioned within reach. In addition, the proportion of reaches in which the infants patted, closed their hands, or brought their hands together was greater when the virtual object was within reach. However, no difference in the terminal location of the infants' reaches was found as a function of the virtual object's position. Examination of reaches to a near real object revealed that infants frequently did not contact the object or show appropriate hand shape or orientation. The effectiveness of the cue of retinal size and of binocular information for the depth of an object is discussed. It is concluded that 5-month-old infants are sensitive to binocular information for depth.     

The effect of children's spontaneous cognitive sets on discrimination learning

Two experiments investigated the role of children's spontaneous cognitive “sets” in pictorial discrimination learning. Lists were constructed to highlight either perceptual or conceptual similarities among the stimuli. In each experiment age by treatment interactions revealed that in comparison to the behavior of older children (sixth graders), that of younger children (kindergartners) is governed more by the perceptible than by the conceptual attributes of stimuli—data in complete accord with Bruner's view of cognitive development.     

Adjective–noun order as representational structure: Native-language grammar influences perception of similarity and recognition memory

This article describes two experiments linking native-language grammar rules with implications for perception of similarity and recognition memory. In prenominal languages (e.g., English), adjectives usually precede nouns, whereas in postnominal languages (e.g., Portuguese), nouns usually precede adjectives. We explored the influence of such rules upon similarity judgments about, and recognition of, objects with multiple category attributes (one nominal attribute and one adjectival attribute). The results supported the hypothesized primacy effect of native-language word order such that nouns generally carried more weight for Portuguese speakers than for English speakers. This pattern was observed for judgments of similarity (i.e., Portuguese speakers tended to judge objects that shared a noun-designated attribute as more similar than did English speakers), as well as for false alarms in recognition memory (i.e., Portuguese speakers tended to falsely recognize more objects if they possessed a familiar noun attribute, relative to English speakers). The implications of such linguistic effects for the cognition of similarity and memory are discussed.     

Actors,observers, and the attribution process: Toward a reconceptualization

Jones and Nisbett hypothesize that actors attribute their actions to situational requirements whereas observers attribute the same actions to personal dispositions. This hypothesis is critically examined and a reconceptualization is proposed. Our conceptual analysis focuses on the attributional consequences of differences between actors and observers in: (a) availability of information about the contemporary and historical determinants of the actor's behavior, and (b) susceptibility to possible motivational distortions and cognitive biases. The relationship between this formulation and Jones and Nisbett's analysis of differences between self-perception and interpersonal perception is discussed.     

Imitation as a learning strategy in the acquisition of vocabulary

Twenty-four 14- to 30-month-old children observed a model use 20 new words as labels for objects of varied semantic associations. Acquisition of the new words was clear in both elicited and spontaneous imitation by the children and in generalized use of the words. Age was highly and positively correlated with elicited and spontaneous imitation and scores for recognition of the objects associated with the words. Imitation and recognition scores were highest for words associated with food and active objects and low for passive objects and words with no associations. Older children's use of the words immediately after the model's use increased rapidly with the first two presentations, and their use of the words prior to the model's use showed an increasing trend over the series of modeling sessions. Younger children responded at a lower rate.     

Developmental trends in the use of perceptual and conceptual attributes in grouping,clustering, and retrieval

In Experiment I, two tasks were administered to children aged 4, 5, and 9 in order to investigate preference for perceptual versus conceptual attributes in grouping of common objects, and in various aspects of memory. The grouping task revealed a clear chronological progression: color and form determined the youngest children's grouping about equally; form dominated in the 5-year-olds; and most of the oldest children grouped primarily by conceptual attributes. In the memory task, three lists—one organized by color, one by form, one by superordinate category—were presented for free, followed by cued recall. Clustering showed the developmental shift from color to form to concept, while cued recall showed conceptual superiority at all ages. Experiment II replicated the memory task, yielding the same results. The results were discussed in terms of the relative abstractness and predictability of conceptual versus perceptual attributes and the difficulty of abstraction in encoding and the function of predictability in retrieval.     

Preschoolers out of adults: discriminative learning with a cognitive load

This paper explores novel predictions from the spontaneous overtraining interpretation of human discrimination shift learning (Sirois & Shultz, 1998a). Results from six experiments where adults perform a discrimination shift task with or without a cognitive distractor are reported. In three experiments with a concurrent distractor task (Experiments 1A, 2A, and 3A), performance of adults is comparable to what would be expected from preschoolers performing only the learning task. These adults show no dimensional transfer from initial learning, unless new attributes are introduced in shift learning. On the same tasks without a cognitive load (Experiments 1B, 2B, and 3B), performance is typical of normal adults. The discussion focuses on the relative ability of competing theoretical models (i.e., levels of processing, attentional mediation, and perceptual differentiation) to account for these data.     

A comparison of depressed and nondepressed disturbed children on measures of attributional style,hopelessness, life stress,and temperament

Upon admission to a hospital treatment program, clinically depressed and nondepressed children (aged 9–17 years) were assessed on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, depression, life stress, and child temperament. The depressed group tended to attribute positive events to specific and unstable factors when compared with the nondepressed sample. Group differences also were found on child temperament measures. However, no differences were reported between the diagnostic groups on self-reported depression, hopelessness, or life stress. The findings suggested that there may not be a unique constellation of cognitive characteristics in depressed children when compared with a nondepressed clinical sample. For both depressed and nondepressed groups, treatment did appear to affect self-reported depression and overall ratings of depressogenic attributional style.