The latent variable approach as applied to transitive reasoning

We discuss the limitations of hypothesis testing using (quasi-) experiments in the study of cognitive development and suggest latent variable modeling as a viable alternative to experimentation. Latent variable models allow testing a theory as a whole, incorporating individual differences with respect to developmental processes or abilities in the model. Experiments, in contrast, aim at testing hypotheses that refer to a specific part of a theory; also they ignore individual differences or model the individual differences using age group as a proxy for developmental stage. Drawing on a sample of 409 5–13-year olds, we demonstrate the advantages of latent variable models in the area of transitive reasoning. A comparison of three models showed that the latent variable model that represented fuzzy trace theory had a better fit than the models representing Piaget's theory or linear ordering theory.     

Calibrating and constructing models of protein folding

Prediction is more than testing established theory by examining whether the prediction matches the data. To show this, I examine the practices of a community of scientists, known as threaders, who are attempting to predict the final, folded structure of a protein from its primary structure, i.e., its amino acid sequence. These scientists employ a careful and deliberate methodology of prediction. A key feature of the methodology is calibration. They calibrate in order to construct better models. The construction leads to knowledge of how to construct or build an object. Thus, prediction serves a cognitive goal of model construction and not just model or theory testing. The kind of knowledge that results is relevantly different than theoretical knowledge.     

How shared are age-related influences on cognitive and noncognitive variables?

Several theories have suggested that age-related declines in cognitive processing are due to a pervasive unitary mechanism, such as a decline in processing speed. Structural equation model tests have shown some support for such common factor explanations. These results, however, may not be as conclusive as previously claimed. A further analysis of 4 cross-sectional data sets described in Salthouse, Hambrick, and McGuthry (1998) and Salthouse and Czaja (2000) found that although the best fitting model included a common factor in 3 of the data sets, additional direct age paths were significant, indicating the presence of specific age effects. For the remaining data set, a factor-specific model fit at least as well as the best fitting common factor model. Three simulated data sets with known structure were then tested with a sequence of structural equation models. Common factor models could not always be falsified--even when they were false. In contrast, factor-specific models were more easily falsified when the true model included a unitary common factor. These results suggest that it is premature to conclude that all age-related cognitive declines are due to a single mechanism. Common factor models may be particularly difficult to falsify with current analytic procedures.     

Developmental steps in the comparison and integration of information by grade-school children

The developmental sequence in 5- to 11-year-old children's attempts to combine two discrete stimuli was investigated by microanalysis of answers in an equivalence task. Eleven response types were identified and shown to form both a developmental and a hierarchical sequence of comparison and integration operations. An age-related progression in response abstractness was also found and a significant interrelation with response type was demonstrated. The evidence supported a construct of verbally mediated executive control over the interactions of short- and long-term memory.     

Developing a Leadership Perspective in the Classroom

This paper presents a normative pedagogical model that integrates leadership theory, student development, and cognitive/ego development. The first step, assessment of students' developmental stage/needs, uses a developmental model to assess students' developmental and motivational needs. The second step, selection of teaching style, incorporates leadership literature to develop teaching styles selected based on the developmental and motivational needs of students. The third step in the continuous process, evaluation of outcomes, involves assessment of either continued development and/or increased student motivation and improved student learning. Research and teaching implications of the proposed model are also discussed.     

Toward a Model-Based Approach to the Clinical Assessment of Personality Psychopathology

Recent years have witnessed tremendous growth in the scope and sophistication of statistical methods available to explore the latent structure of psychopathology, involving continuous, discrete, and hybrid latent variables. The availability of such methods has fostered optimism that they can facilitate movement from classification primarily crafted through expert consensus to classification derived from empirically based models of psychopathological variation. The explication of diagnostic constructs with empirically supported structures can then facilitate the development of assessment tools that appropriately characterize these constructs. Our goal in this article is to illustrate how new statistical methods can inform conceptualization of personality psychopathology and therefore its assessment. We use magical thinking as an example, because both theory and earlier empirical work suggested the possibility of discrete aspects to the latent structure of personality psychopathology, particularly forms of psychopathology involving distortions of reality testing, yet other data suggest that personality psychopathology is generally continuous in nature. We directly compared the fit of a variety of latent variable models to magical thinking data from a sample enriched with clinically significant variation in psychotic symptomatology for explanatory purposes. Findings generally suggested a continuous latent variable model best represented magical thinking, but results varied somewhat depending on different indexes of model fit. We discuss the implications of the findings for classification and applied personality assessment. We also highlight some limitations of this type of approach that are illustrated by these data, including the importance of substantive interpretation, in addition to use of model fit indexes, when evaluating competing structural models.     

Acquisition of cognitive compiling

Language involves both structure and process. Giving each its due, we present a cognitive process model and show how its empirical success is related to claims about syntactic structure. Innate constraints on syntax are a central issue in linguistic theory, so it is a matter of concern that a widely accepted view of phrase structure constraints (X-bar theory) appears to be violated in some recent comprehension experiments with children. However, what is directly observed in the experiments is not a syntactic structure but the execution of a plan. We present a language of process for representing such plans and thereby provide a unified explanation of several developmental phenomena, including the results of the above experiments and of new experiments suggested by our approach. The explanation is in terms of the cognitive resources required to formulate and execute a plan. Since the explanation is based on nonsyntactic processing, the children's syntax need no longer be held faulty. This conclusion invigorates the claim that the range of phrase structures available to children is biologically constrained.     

Cognitive change processes in psychotherapy

Several types of cognitive-behavioral therapy are now practiced that use different sets of theoretical concepts and propose different kinds of change mechanisms. None, however, is directly grounded in experimental research in cognitive and social psychology, and few address basic issues such as the relevance of conscious versus nonconscious cognitive processes and the validity of the self-report data on which therapy depends. Put forward in this article is a model that describes the conscious and nonconscious processing of emotional stimuli and distinguishes between knowledge that is verbally accessible and knowledge that can only be recovered by exposure to situational cues. Also proposed are three mechanisms of cognitive change that involve altering verbally accessible knowledge, the accessibility of nonconscious situational memories, and self-regulatory strategies. These mechanisms are related to the current practices of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapists.     

Verbal Thinking and Inner Speech Use in Autism Spectrum Disorder

The extent to which cognition is verbally mediated in neurotypical individuals is the subject of debate in cognitive neuropsychology, as well as philosophy and psychology. Studying “verbal thinking” in developmental/neuropsychological disorders provides a valuable opportunity to inform theory building, as well as clinical practice. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive, critical review of such studies among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD involves severe social-communication deficits and limitations in cognitive/behavioural flexibility. The prevailing view in the field is that neither cognition nor behaviour is mediated verbally in ASD, and that this contributes to diagnostic features. However, our review suggests that, on the contrary, most studies to date actually find that among people with ASD cognitive task performance is either a) mediated verbally in a typical fashion, or b) not mediated verbally, but at no obvious cost to overall task performance. Overall though, these studies have methodological limitations and thus clear-cut conclusions are not possible at this stage. The aim of the review is to take stock of existing empirical findings, as well as to help develop the directions for future research that will resolve the many outstanding issues in this field.     

One-back reinforcement dissociates implicit-procedural and explicit-declarative category learning

The debate over unitary/multiple category-learning utilities is reminiscent of debates about multiple memory systems and unitary/dual codes in knowledge representation. In categorization, researchers continue to seek paradigms to dissociate explicit learning processes (yielding verbalizable rules) from implicit learning processes (yielding stimulus–response associations that remain outside awareness). We introduce a new dissociation here. Participants learned matched category tasks with a multidimensional, information-integration solution or a one-dimensional, rule-based solution. They received reinforcement immediately (0-Back reinforcement) or after one intervening trial (1-Back reinforcement). Lagged reinforcement eliminated implicit, information-integration category learning but preserved explicit, rule-based learning. Moreover, information-integration learners facing lagged reinforcement spontaneously adopted explicit rule strategies that poorly suited their task. The results represent a strong process dissociation in categorization, broadening the range of empirical techniques for testing the multiple-process theoretical perspective. This and related methods that disable associative learning—fostering a transition to explicit-declarative cognition—could have broad utility in comparative, cognitive, and developmental science.     

Does functional neuroimaging solve the questions of neurolinguistics?

Neurolinguistic research has been engaged in evaluating models of language using measures from brain structure and function, and/or in investigating brain structure and function with respect to language representation using proposed models of language. While the aphasiological strategy, which classifies aphasias based on performance modality and a few linguistic variables, has been the most stable, cognitive neurolinguistics has had less success in reliably associating more elaborately proposed levels and units of language models with brain structure. Functional imaging emerged at this stage of neurolinguistic research. In this review article, it is proposed that the often-inconsistent superfluity of outcomes arising from functional imaging studies of language awaits adjustment at both "ends" of the process: model and data. Assumptions that our current language models consistently and reliably represent implicit knowledge within human cerebral processing are in line for major revision; and the promise of functional brain imaging to reveal any such knowledge structures must incorporate stable correlates of the imaging signal as dependent variable.     

Stagewise cognitive development: an application of catastrophe theory.

In this article an overview is given of traditional methodological approaches to stagewise cognitive developmental research. These approaches are evaluated and integrated on the basis of catastrophe theory. In particular, catastrophe theory specifies a set of common criteria for testing the discontinuity hypothesis proposed by Piaget. Separate criteria correspond to distinct methods used in cognitive developmental research. Such criteria are, for instance, the detection of spurts in development, bimodality of test scores, and increased variability of responses during transitional periods. When a genuine stage transition is present, these criteria are expected to be satisfied. A revised catastrophe model accommodating these criteria is proposed for the stage transition in cognitive development from the preoperational to the concrete operational stage.     

Some Implications of Recent Research in Social and Developmental Psychology for Counseling Practice

Blocher sees four implications for counseling as a result of the additions to research and theory building of social, developmental, and general psychology. From social influence theory, from cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, and developmental research (and their hyphenated combinations) he offers a prototype “systematic eclectic” task-model directed toward implications (1) counseling is a social influence process, (2) counseling centers on the client's cognitive activity, (3) a major variable in the outcome of counseling is the level of the client's cognitive development, and (4) counselors may need intervention programs to raise cognitive levels.     

发展瀑布效应:儿童认知功能与社会适应领域的研究

发展瀑布效应指的是在复杂的发展过程中各种交互作用或相互作用的累积结果,这种发展的累积效应导致跨越不同水平、领域、系统或者不同世代的传播效应。本文阐述了研究者利用发展瀑布效应解释儿童认知功能与社会适应领域的发展时采用的不同模型,介绍了儿童认知功能与社会适应领域的发展瀑布效应,最后对发展瀑布效应在这两个领域的研究方法与应用价值进行了总结与展望。     

Contributions of cognitive science to the Rorschach Technique: cognitive and neuropsychological correlates of the response process

This article presents an understanding of the Rorschach Technique in terms of emergent models from cognitive science. We propose a linkage between cognitive psychology and neuropsychology in understanding the operations that underlie the Rorschach response process. Contemporary information processing models are described. The Rorschach Technique is conceived of as a complex process involving all areas of the cerebral hemispheres, encompassing various aspects of visual attention and perception, object recognition, associative memory, language production, and executive functioning. Exner's model of the response process is delineated, including both Association and Inquiry phases, in terms of requisite underlying neuropsychological abilities and anatomical substrates. The question of the Rorschach Technique's status, utility, and potential as a neuropsychological assessment, tool is discussed. Understanding the Rorschach in terms of contemporary cognitive psychological and neuropsychological models heightens appreciation of the technique's complexity and provides a heuristic and conceptual foundation for empirical research.     

Dynamic models of development and the mechanistic-organismic controversy

Starting with a prototypical model of Newtonian mechanics, a sequence of dynamic models with increasing structural complexity is presented. The implicated smooth variation along a dimension of structural complexity yields dynamic models which display organismic properties such as stagewise development and emergent self-organization. Consequently, it is concluded that dynamic models of development are inherently neutral with respect to the mechanism-organicism controversy. Accordingly, a unitary research program is proposed in which these dynamic models serve as building blocks for the construction of a coherent explanatory system of development.     

分心抑制的年龄差异

通过对负启动范式的说明,从年龄发展的角度对分心抑制作了理论上的探讨,介绍了几个有代表性的理论与假说,包括抑制衰退理论、多样化抑制系统模型和最佳测试时间假说;并从工作记忆能量与分心抑制的关系上探讨了基于年龄发展的资源依赖抑制模型和抑制控制假说。     

犯罪行为决策的理论与研究方法

犯罪行为是犯罪人决策的结果。犯罪行为决策研究旨在通过运用认知心理学的有关原理,说明犯罪行为实施之前的行为决策过程及影响因素,其成果能为国家制定刑事政策与犯罪预防政策等提供理论依据。犯罪行为决策的理论模型主要可分为犯罪理性模型、犯罪期望效用模型和犯罪前景理论模型。犯罪行为决策的研究方法主要采用心理物理法、过程追踪法、访谈法、投射测验法和犯罪统计法等。展望未来,应进一步探讨犯罪行为决策的理性与非理性问题,并加强对犯罪行为决策的验证性研究。