Calendrical savants: exceptionality and practice

The exceptionality of the skills of calendrical savants and the role of practice were investigated. Experiment 1 compared four autistic calendrical savants to Professor Conway, a distinguished mathematician with calendrical skills. Professor Conway answered questions over a greater range of years but some savants knew more calendrical regularities. Experiment 2 studied the development of a calendrical savant's ability to answer date questions for very remote future years. He started by making written calculations and progressed to mental calculation. His variation in response time for remote dates was similar to that for near dates. The findings are consistent with the view that calendrical savants develop their skills through practice.     

Melody and pitch processing in five musical savants with congenital blindness

We examined absolute-pitch (AP) and short-term musical memory abilities of five musical savants with congenital blindness, seven musicians, and seven non-musicians with good vision and normal intelligence in two experiments. In the first, short-term memory for musical phrases was tested and the savants and musicians performed statistically indistinguishably, both significantly outperforming the non-musicians and remembering more material from the C major scale sequences than random trials. In the second experiment, participants learnt associations between four pitches and four objects using a non-verbal paradigm. This experiment approximates to testing AP ability. Low statistical power meant the savants were not statistically better than the musicians, although only the savants scored statistically higher than the non-musicians. The results are evidence for a musical module, separate from general intelligence; they also support the anecdotal reporting of AP in musical savants, which is thought to be necessary for the development of musical-savant skill.     

The effect of question expectedness and experience on lying about intentions

In recent years researchers have started to focus on lying about intentions (Granhag, 2010). In the present experiment participants were interviewed about their forthcoming trip. We tested the hypothesis that liars (N=43) compared to truth tellers (N=43) would give fewer details to unexpected questions about planning, transportation and the core event, but an equal amount or more detail to expected questions about the purpose of the trip. We also tested the hypothesis that participants who had previously experienced the intention (i.e., they had made such a trip before) would give more detail than those who had never experienced the intended action. The unexpected question hypothesis was supported, whereas the previous experience effect only emerged in interactions. The benefit of using different types of questions for lie detection purposes is discussed.     

More than expected? Psychological outcomes from first-stage training in counselling

This study considers psychological outcomes of first-stage counselling training for nine annual student cohorts. A self-report questionnaire, with both open-ended and closed questions, was employed to investigate initial course expectations, what had been learned about self, and any perceived changes in attributes and skills and in relationships with family, friends and others. Eighty-six out of a total of 148 students returned questionnaires, a response rate of 58%. Students reported having learned more about counselling theories and skills, as they had expected initially, but results show that other important outcomes had been largely unanticipated. Many, for example, felt that, as a consequence of course participation, they had a deeper understanding, and greater acceptance, of self and that a range of attributes and skills, such as sensitivity to others and communication skills, had been enhanced. For many, these outcomes had led to improved relationships with family and friends, and also, for some, with work colleagues. It is concluded that, in this example of introductory counselling training, the course experience had led students to discover more about self and had also impacted on different facets of their lives.     

Another look at confirmatory strategies during a real interview

In two experiments, it is shown that interviewers bias to a larger extent their questions towards their hypothesis when they interact with an interviewee than when they only prepare questions for a future interview. Also more biased questions are asked at the beginning of the interview than at the end. This does not seem to be due to the certainty entertained by the interviewers about their hypothesis. More likely, it appears that biased questions have an adaptative value and that they smooth the interview. All in all, our subjects were not especially concerned with diagnosticity.     

An analysis of calendar performance in two autistic calendar savants

We acquired large data sets of calendar performance from two autistic calendar savants, DG and RN. An analysis of their errors and reaction times revealed that (1) both individuals had knowledge of calendar information from a limited range of years; (2) there was no evidence for the use of memorized anchor dates that could, by virtue of counting away from the anchors, allow correct responses to questions about other dates; and (3) the two individuals differed in their calendar knowledge, as well as in their ability to perform secondary tasks in which calendar knowledge was assessed indirectly. In view of the fact that there are only 14 possible annual calendars, we suggest that both savants worked by memorizing these 14 possible calendar arrangements.     

MOTHERS' DEVELOPMENTAL TIMETABLES IN TWO CULTURAL GROUPS*

To explore differences in concepts about development, mothers in two cultural groups were interviewed to determine: (a) their developmental timetables (the ages at which they expected various skills to appear); (b) the extent to which they taught various skills before school; and (c) the extent to which they perceived several qualities, once established, as stable over time. Variables were the child's gender, the child's birth order (first or not first to begin school), and the mother's ethnic background (Australian-born or Lebanese-born). Gender and birth order showed minimal effects; ethnicity had a strong effect in areas (a) and (b) but not (c). The results bring out the content of mothers' ideas, raise questions about factors affecting this content, and point to some aspects of mothers' ideas as inter-related.     

Searching for Cognitive Processes in the Cultivation Effect Adult and Adolescent Samples in the United States and Australia

Research on the cultivation hypothesis has focused on whether relationships between television viewing and social reality beliefs truly exist or are artifacts. There is very little evidence about what cognitive processes allow viewers to construct television-biased beliefs. The present study tests two possible processes: First, that perceptions of the television world serve as an intermediate step between fragmented incidental learning from television and beliefs about the real world and second, that beliefs closely linked to television content are an intermediate step in implying more general values and beliefs. These two hypotheses were tested in one adult and three adolescent samples, two in the United States and two in Australia. Across a range of cultivation questions, the basic cultivation result generally replicated that heavy viewers had beliefs about the world that appeared influenced by television. However, neither process hypothesis was supported. Although the null findings on the first hypothesis do not rule out construction from learned fragments, findings on the second hypothesis contradict cultivation's second-order effect. “Close” beliefs and their implied counterparts were unrelated, and cultivation relationships for these implied variables occurred only for those with real-world biased “dose” beliefs. Exploration of this result demonstrated that cultivation of both kinds of beliefs occurred more of ten for adolescents with high academic skills, suggesting that if cultivation occurs, it is a more active and intellectually demanding process than previously proposed.     

Induction and category coherence

In studies of category formation, subjects rarely construct family resemblance categories. Instead, they divide objects into categories using a single dimension. This is a puzzling result given the widely accepted view that natural categories are organized in terms of a family resemblance principle. The observation that natural categories support inductive inferences is used here to test the hypothesis that family resemblance categories would be constructed if stimuli were first used to generate inductive inferences. In two experiments, subjects answered either induction questions, which made interproperty relationships more salient, or frequency questions, which required information only about individual properties, before they performed a sorting task. Subjects were likely to produce family resemblance sorts if they had first answered induction questions but not if they had answered frequency questions.     

Memory for questions and amount of processing

Two experiments were carried out on how questions are remembered. Subjects watched a videotape of a series of simple events and then answered 18 questions about these events. The questions were all of the same general syntactic form (e.g., “Did the pencil fall against the jug on A?”, where A refers to a particular location). They were designed to elicit three sorts of answer: “yes,” “no” because the event took place at another location, and “no” because the event did not take place at all. After the subjects had answered the questions, they were given an unexpected test of their ability to recall them. A difference in the memorability of the questions was predicted on the basis of a procedural theory of comprehension and a hypothesis about memory subjects should cease to process a question when they realize that it concerns an event that did not take place, and such questions should be harder to remember because they are processed to a lesser degree than the other sorts of question. Experiment 1 confirmed the predictions, but its results in part could be accounted for by assuming that subjects recalled the original events and used them as a cue to remembering the questions. Experiment 2 eliminated this explanation by showing that when subjects do not have to answer certain questions, their recall of them is very poor. However, the same differences in the memorability of the three sorts of question were obtained for both answered and unanswered questions.     

Changes in self-reported driving behaviour following attendance at a mature driver education program

A telephone survey was conducted with 367 drivers aged 55–94 years who had voluntarily attended the 55 Alive/Mature Driving education program one-and-one-half to four years prior. 55 Alive/Mature Driving is a classroom delivered program that presents information on the effects of aging on driving, general rules of the road and road signs, and strategies for reducing driving risk. The survey contained both open-ended and closed questions and asked respondents to recall what they had learned in the course, and how their driving behaviour had changed as a result of attending. Results showed that 20% of respondents, especially older men, were urged to attend the course by a spouse or other. Types of information recalled from the course fell into seven main categories: need for increased vigilance; road rules and road signs; visual skills; self-awareness; maneuvers; safe speed; and space margins. Three quarters of participants said they changed their driving habits as a result of attending the course including: increased awareness and visual skills; changes in attitude; improved speed and space margins; avoidance of hazards; using more caution; obeying road rules; and improved vehicle maneuvers. Men were more likely to report their driving skills had improved since taking the course, and older men reported significantly higher mean comfort scores with their driving. Comments about the course’s delivery underscored the importance of providing opportunities to interact, an environment where participants felt safe in expressing their views, and an opportunity to practice.     

Referring patients to counsellors in primary care: Qualitative investigation of general practitioners’ perceptions

Despite growing evidence of the effectiveness of counselling in primary care, questions arise concerning the role of general practitioners in the referral process. This involves both liaison with counsellors and the management of people who do not wish to see counsellors. Respondents (n=23) in this qualitative study of general practitioners’ perceptions were clear about which patients should be referred to counsellors, based on guidelines. Additionally, these doctors perceived their role and skills as negotiating with their patients about referral to a counsellor, and managing patients who are either waiting to see a counsellor or who prefer not to see a counsellor. These doctors feel inadequately trained in managing this latter group, whose outcome they perceive as unclear. Despite this, respondents accept a role in ongoing support for their patients with consequent training issues for doctors and opportunities for liaison and mentoring by counsellors.     

Why don't health professionals check patient understanding? A questionnaire-based study

Checking patient understanding, by asking questions about information presented in a medical consultation, is a core communication skill but its use is not frequently assessed. The newborn hearing screening commenced in England with a pilot of its implementation in January 2002. Because it is a new screening test, it provided an opportunity for studying the effective communication of novel information. A randomized controlled trial of training newborn hearing screeners to present information about the screening test and to ask questions to check understanding was commenced but had to be prematurely ended as the majority of the screeners did not ask the questions. The aim of this study was to understand why the screeners did not ask questions to check understanding of the information provided. Questionnaires were sent to screeners who participated in the study to elicit their responses to the use of the questions to check understanding. A response rate of 87% (26/30) was achieved. Screeners who reported not asking the questions were more likely to express a lack of confidence in their ability to ask questions, and to perceive asking questions as an ineffective way of increasing patient understanding. The study suggests that the ability and willingness of healthcare professionals to use simple communication skills may have been overestimated and training needs to target skills as well as beliefs about the effectiveness of using them.     

Metacognition in Taiwan: students' calibration of comprehension and performance

Researchers have increasingly investigated the role played by metacognition in students' learning and performance. Metacognition is comprised of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences, and both components of metacognition are viewed as being important to learning and performance in academic settings. Metacognitive experiences involve, in part, students' awareness of progress on cognitive tasks. Such awareness is critical to learning, for students may fail to spend additional time reviewing or studying material if they believe they have understood the material adequately. In the present study we examined Taiwanese students' ability to assess their comprehension of passages following reading as well as their ability to predict the number of questions they would be able to answer about passage content. Following an actual test on the material, students were asked to assess how many questions they felt they answered correctly about a passage (postdiction). Students were able to predict comprehension and test performance at better than chance levels and were more accurate at postdiction than prediction. Students with better performance, as measured by comprehension test scores, were better at both prediction and postdiction of comprehension performance. However, students' self-assessments of general calibration ability did not relate to their test performance. The metacomprehension skills of Taiwanese students were quite similar to those previously found for western students, but also diverged in some respects.     

Young Children Have Difficulty Predicting Future Preferences in the Presence of a Conflicting Physiological State

This study examined children's predictions about their future preferences when they were in two different physiological states (thirsty and not thirsty). Ninety 3‐ to 7‐year‐olds were asked to predict what they would prefer tomorrow: pretzels to eat or water to drink after having consumed pretzels, and again after having had the opportunity to quench their thirst with water. Results showed that although children initially preferred pretzels to water at baseline, they more often indicated that they would prefer water the next day after they had consumed pretzels. After consuming water, however, the same children indicated they would prefer pretzels the next day. Children's verbal justifications for their choices rarely made reference to their current or future states, but rather justifications were more likely to make reference to their general preferences when they were no longer thirsty compared to when they were thirsty. Results suggest that current physiological states have a powerful influence on future preferences. The findings are discussed in the context of the development of episodic foresight, the Bischof‐Kohler hypothesis, and the important and often overlooked role that children's current states play in future decision making. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

近似数量系统敏锐度与数学能力的关系

近年来,来自认知发展、比较认知、跨文化认知和神经生物学的研究证据都表明近似数量系统的存在,并且相较于一般认知能力,它更可能是决定个体数学能力差异最为重要的因素。本文综述了有关近似数量系统敏锐度与数学能力相互关系的横断研究、纵向研究、训练研究及认知神经科学的研究成果,分析了影响二者关系的因素,包括个体年龄、数学能力高低、抑制控制等,并总结了多种理论对二者间显著正相关关系的解释。未来研究需要在确定更具信效度的测量范式的基础上探讨近似数量系统与数学能力各维度的关系,以及这种相互关系背后的原因,并将研究结论运用于数学教学及计算障碍个体的干预。     

Talking to primary care patients about weight: a study of GPs and practice nurses in the UK

Evidence-based guidance recommends that primary care health practitioners should deliver brief interventions to their patients to change behaviours to reduce overweight and obesity. This cross-sectional study investigates UK general practitioners' (GPs) and practice nurses' communication about overweight with their overweight and obese patients. Forty general practitioners and 47 practice nurses in two inner-London primary care organizations completed a questionnaire about past practice and concerns. When there was no identified medical problem, 38% of GPs and 14% of practice nurses reported raising the issue on less than 50% of occasions. Practice nurses were more likely than GPs to raise the issue of weight, both when there was no medical problem and when there was a medical problem. When they did raise the issue of overweight, only 9% did so in the context of presenting possible solutions to weight loss or in discussions about health promotion. Fifty two per cent of GPs and 28% of practice nurses had concerns about raising the issue of overweight; the most common being that patients would react emotionally to the message. These results suggest that there is considerable room for improvement in the frequency with which primary care practitioners address the questions of weight in their overweight patients, especially amongst doctors. Training to increase skills and confidence in communicating about weight is recommended.     

Probabilistic reasoning,affirmative bias and belief in precognitive dreams

Three hundred and eighty‐six participants were interviewed about their experience of dreams that seem to predict an event in the future, and their belief about whether such dreams can be explained naturally or paranormally. For those without university education, participants who had had a dream that seemed to predict the future (termed experiencers) and believers in paranormal explanations for such dreams (termed believers) made more errors on a probabilistic reasoning task about a lottery. Contrary to the chance baseline shift hypothesis experiencers and believers did not give lower estimates than non‐experiencers and non‐believers for the frequency with which others would answer three simple personal questions affirmatively. However, they were more likely to answer the three simple personal questions affirmatively about themselves than were non‐experiencers and non‐believers, which suggests an affirmative bias. This affirmative bias either affects paranormal experience and belief, or is a confound in the methods used in assessing experience and belief. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How do parents respond to children's questions about the identity of artifacts?

We investigated how parents respond to young children's questions about the identity of artifacts. Children's questions were predominantly ambiguous about whether they were inquiring about name or function, but when their questions were more specific, they were almost always about function. For unfamiliar objects, parents responded with functional information the majority of the time, alone or in addition to names. For atypical members of familiar categories, adults usually responded only with the category name. The results indicate that adults adjust their responses in a way that often provides the information about object kind, specifically functional information in the case of artifacts, that they believe their children are lacking. Such input may contribute to the development of children's concepts and word meanings.     

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: Understanding What Parents Plan to Tell Their Children About Their Conception

Over 10,000 babies have been born by PGD and PGS worldwide (Simpson, Prenatal Diagnosis 30(7): 682–695 2010). The experience of parents who have undergone this procedure and their children’s well-being are documented, but no research to date has explored whether parents intend to tell their children how they were conceived and whether this raises special issues for them. PGD practitioners recommend research in this area as parents of children born by PGD increasingly ask questions pertaining to disclosure. We conducted 30 in-depth interviews with couples who have had a baby conceived by PGD. We explored what couples plan to tell their children about how they were conceived, when they plan to do this, and issues they anticipate may arise. The couples had a family history of a monogenic disorder or chromosome rearrangement. Six themes emerged which highlight key issues: (1) To tell or not to tell? (2) Primary reason for undergoing PGD, (3) The ideal time to tell, (4) Situations which may warrant earlier disclosure, (5) Words which parents might choose, and (6) Issues which parents anticipate may arise. We conclude that parents are likely to inform their children about PGD because there is an affected sibling or relative about whom they ask questions, and/or their children are carriers of a condition their parents feel obliged to tell them about. Parents felt they would benefit from access to a genetic counsellor at the time of disclosure and are optimistic about the future of reproductive technology for their children.