Combining gesture with verbal instruction promotes problem-solving skills among young children attempting difficult tasks

Extensive research shows that caregivers’ speech and gestures can scaffold children’s learning. This study examines whether caregivers increase the amount of spoken and gestural instruction when a task becomes difficult for children. We also examine whether increasing the amount of instruction containing both speech and gestures enhances children’s problem-solving. Ninety-three 3- to 4-year-old Chinese children and their caregivers participated in our study. The children tried to assemble two jigsaw puzzles (with 12 pieces in one and 20 in the other); each puzzle was attempted in three phases. The order in which the puzzles were to be solved was randomized. In Phases 1 and 3, the children tried to solve the puzzles alone. In Phase 2, the children received instruction from their caregivers. The children assembled a smaller proportion of the 20-piece puzzle than of the 12-piece one, suggesting that the 20-piece puzzle was more difficult than the 12-piece one. The caregivers produced more spoken and gestural instruction for the 20-piece than for the 12-piece puzzle. The proportion of the instruction employing both speech and gesture (+InstS+InstG) was significantly greater for the 20-piece puzzle than for the 12-piece puzzle. More importantly, the children who received more instruction with +InstS+InstG performed better in solving the 20-piece puzzle than those who received less instruction of the same type. Those who did not receive +InstS+InstG instruction performed less successfully in Phase 3. However, the facilitating effect of instruction with +InstS+InstG was not found with the 12-piece puzzle. Our findings suggest that adults should incorporate speech and gesture in their instruction as frequently as possible when teaching their children to perform a difficult task.     

Reaching around barriers: the performance of the great apes and 3–5-year-old children

Inhibitory control has been suggested as a key predictive measure of problem-solving skills in human and nonhuman animals. However, there has yet to be a direct comparison of the inhibitory skills of the nonhuman apes and their development in human children. We compared the inhibitory skills of all great ape species, including 3–5-year-old children in a detour-reaching task, which required subjects to avoid reaching directly for food and instead use an indirect reaching method to successfully obtain the food. We tested 22 chimpanzees, 18 bonobos, 18 orangutans, 6 gorillas and 42 children. Our sample included chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans housed in zoos (N = 27) and others housed in sanctuaries in their native habitats (N = 37). Overall, orangutans were the most skilful apes, including human children. As expected older children outperformed younger children. Sanctuary chimpanzees and bonobos outperformed their zoo counterparts whereas there was no difference between the two orangutan samples. Most zoo chimpanzees and bonobos failed to solve the original task, but improved their performance with additional training, although the training method determined to a considerable extent the level of success that the apes achieved in a transfer phase. In general, the performance of the older children was far from perfect and comparable to some of the nonhuman apes tested.     

Lions (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Panthera leo</Emphasis>) solve,learn, and remember a novel resource acquisition problem

The social intelligence hypothesis proposes that the challenges of complex social life bolster the evolution of intelligence, and accordingly, advanced cognition has convergently evolved in several social lineages. Lions (Panthera leo) offer an ideal model system for cognitive research in a highly social species with an egalitarian social structure. We investigated cognition in lions using a novel resource task: the suspended puzzle box. The task required lions (n = 12) to solve a novel problem, learn the techniques used to solve the problem, and remember techniques for use in future trials. The majority of lions demonstrated novel problem-solving and learning; lions (11/12) solved the task, repeated success in multiple trials, and significantly reduced the latency to success across trials. Lions also demonstrated cognitive abilities associated with memory and solved the task after up to a 7-month testing interval. We also observed limited evidence for social facilitation of the task solution. Four of five initially unsuccessful lions achieved success after being partnered with a successful lion. Overall, our results support the presence of cognition associated with novel problem-solving, learning, and memory in lions. To date, our study is only the second experimental investigation of cognition in lions and further supports expanding cognitive research to lions.     

Spontaneous performance of wild baboons on three novel food-access puzzles

Although the technical problem-solving expertise of nonhuman primates has been investigated extensively in captivity, few species have been tested in their natural habitats. Here I examine the physical cognition of wild savanna baboons (Papio anubis), a species that occupies an omnivorous foraging niche in which a variety of embedded food items are extracted and processed. Baboons were tested on three puzzles, each involving high-quality food that required removal from a novel obstruction: (1) a string-pulling puzzle in which food was hung from tree branches, (2) a twig-dipping puzzle in which food was embedded in a vertical tube, and (3) a stick-pushing puzzle in which food was contained in a horizontal conduit. The baboons failed to solve the second and third puzzles even when tools had been appropriately positioned in advance. And although they solved the first puzzle, their actions (running while holding food that was still attached to the string), suggested they did not fully comprehend the string’s connective property. The baboons’ performance might reflect the time constraints of life in the wild, which relative to captivity may provide fewer opportunities for the development of understanding about the physical properties of objects and their potential uses as tools. Further experiments on the physical cognition of baboons and many other primate species in their natural habitats would help test this ontogenetic hypothesis. Such field experiments would be especially fruitful if they continued to target extractive foragers like baboons: these experiments could simultaneously provide a test of phylogenetic hypotheses that invoke extractive foraging as the key stimulus for brain expansion in savanna-dwelling hominids. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

“I Don’t Need Help”: Gender Differences in how Gender Stereotypes Predict Help-Seeking

Although self-report and correlational studies suggest that gender stereotypes are related to men’s health behavior, particularly in relation to seeking help, there is minimal research that has tested this hypothesis experimentally. The present study examined how two stereotype pathways, personally endorsed gender stereotypes and gender stereotyped attitudes, predicted help-seeking behavior among U.S. undergraduate women (n = 68) and men (n = 72) when they worked on challenging puzzles and recalled previous health help-seeking behavior for physical or psychological problems. Results revealed gender and domain differences in how the two pathways predicted help-seeking. For the puzzle tasks, both attitudinally and personally endorsed gender stereotypes predicted men’s help-seeking, whereas only personally endorsed gender stereotypes predicted women’s help-seeking. For recalled health behaviors, personally endorsed gender stereotypes predicted men’s help-seeking, whereas gender stereotypes did not predict women’s help-seeking. The gender and domain differences in how personal and attitudinal gender stereotypes predicted help-seeking are important to consider when designing interventions to increase help-seeking.     

Personality, intelligence, and spatial visualization: correlates of mental rotations test performance

In the context of a longitudinal study of cognitive and personality development, I examined various correlates of spatial visualization ability, as measured by Vandenberg's Mental Rotations Test, in order to elaborate the meaning of the known sex difference on this factor. Spatial visualization ability in females was correlated with verbal IQ and various aspects of personality. These relations were absent in males. Within each sex, measures of cognitive abilities obtained in childhood predicted spatial visualization ability at age 18. Hypotheses designed to explain the sex difference in spatial visualization must be sensitive to the different implications of this factor in males and females.     

Having “The Talk”: Individual,Family, and Partner Factors on Unprotected Sex among Female Adolescent Offenders

This study assessed the influence of individual age and substance use, family support and communication, and partner support and communication on the frequency of unprotected sex among incarcerated adolescent females. Subjects (n = 273) completed a survey on psychosocial correlates and risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections (STI). Communication with male partners and sex while under the influence have a significant impact on condom use. Findings highlight the necessity of providing assertive communication skills training and increasing self-efficacy as STI/HIV prevention components for adolescent females thus empowering their decision-making processes.     

Impacts of exposure to television and types of animations on children’s task persistence

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of the duration of children’s exposure to television, the level of parental guidance during the exposure and the types of animations (realistic or unrealistic) on their task persistence. A total of ninety young children with a mean age of 60.1 months (SD = 5.89) participated in the study. The time the children spent on unsolvable puzzles was recorded as an indicator of task persistence. The children were randomly assigned to either a realistic animation group or an unrealistic animation group. Initially, the children were tested with an unsolvable puzzle as a pretest. They were given a posttest two weeks later. During the test, the realistic animation group watched a realistic animation and the unrealistic animation group watched an unrealistic animation before they were asked to work on another unsolvable puzzle. The same procedure was repeated with a follow-up test two weeks later. In the pretest, no significant difference among the independent variables emerged between the groups. Multiple regression between the posttest and the follow-up test pointed out children’s daily exposure to television as a predictor of a decrease in their task persistence. The finding places more emphasis on the duration of children’s exposure to television than parental guidance and the types of television programs.     

Semi-wild chimpanzees open hard-shelled fruits differently across communities

Researchers investigating the evolutionary roots of human culture have turned to comparing behaviours across nonhuman primate communities, with tool-based foraging in particular receiving much attention. This study examined whether natural extractive foraging behaviours other than tool selection differed across nonhuman primate colonies that had the same foods available. Specifically, the behaviours applied to open the hard-shelled fruits of Strychnos spp. were examined in three socially separate, semi-wild colonies of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) that lived under shared ecological conditions at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, and were comparable in their genetic makeup. The chimpanzees (N = 56) consistently applied six techniques to open these fruits. GLMM results revealed differences in the number of combined technique types to open fruits across the colonies. They also showed colony differences in the application of three specific techniques. Two techniques (full biting and fruit cracking) were entirely absent in some colonies. This study provides empirical evidence that natural hard-shelled fruit-opening behaviours are distinct across chimpanzee colonies, differences that most likely have not resulted from ecological and genetic reasons.     

Modal preferences in creative problem solving

Embodied cognitive science appeals to the idea that cognition depends on the body as well as on the brain. This study looks at whether we are more likely to engage just the brain or enlist the body for complex cognitive functioning such as creative problem solving. Participants were presented with a puzzle based on De Bono’s lateral thinking puzzles. The puzzle consisted of rotating and joining two-dimensional shapes to make a three-dimensional one. In one condition, participants were given the choice of either solving the puzzle mentally or through manipulation of the images on a computer screen. In another condition, the subjects had to solve the puzzle first mentally and then report which mode they would have preferred to solve the puzzle. Two more conditions were applied with slight variations. In all conditions, an overwhelming majority of participants chose to solve the puzzle by manipulation, even though there was not a significant increase on performance. It appeared that participants were making a conscious choice for the body to play a feedback-driven role in creative cognitive processing. This strong preference for manual manipulation over just mental representation, regardless of the impact on performance, would seem to suggest that it is our natural tendency to involve the body in complex cognitive functioning. This would support the theory that cognition may be more than just a neural process, and that it is a dynamic interplay between body, brain and world. The experiential feedback of the body moving through space and time may be an inherently important factor in creative cognition.     

A nice surprise? Predictive processing and the active pursuit of novelty

Recent work in cognitive and computational neuroscience depicts human brains as devices that minimize prediction error signals: signals that encode the difference between actual and expected sensory stimulations. This raises a series of puzzles whose common theme concerns a potential misfit between this bedrock informationtheoretic vision and familiar facts about the attractions of the unexpected. We humans often seem to actively seek out surprising events, deliberately harvesting novel and exciting streams of sensory stimulation. Conversely, we often experience some wellexpected sensations as unpleasant and to-be-avoided. In this paper, I explore several core and variant forms of this puzzle, using them to display multiple interacting elements that together deliver a satisfying solution. That solution requires us to go beyond the discussion of simple information-theoretic imperatives (such as 'minimize long-term prediction error') and to recognize the essential role of species-specific prestructuring, epistemic foraging, and cultural practices in shaping the restless, curious, novelty-seeking human mind.     

Chimpanzees prioritise social information over pre-existing behaviours in a group context but not in dyads

How animal communities arrive at homogeneous behavioural preferences is a central question for studies of cultural evolution. Here, we investigated whether chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) would relinquish a pre-existing behaviour to adopt an alternative demonstrated by an overwhelming majority of group mates; in other words, whether chimpanzees behave in a conformist manner. In each of five groups of chimpanzees (N?=?37), one individual was trained on one method of opening a two-action puzzle box to obtain food, while the remaining individuals learned the alternative method. Over 5 h of open access to the apparatus in a group context, it was found that 4/5 ‘minority’ individuals explored the majority method and three of these used this new method in the majority of trials. Those that switched did so after observing only a small subset of their group, thereby not matching conventional definitions of conformity. In a further ‘Dyad’ condition, six pairs of chimpanzees were trained on alternative methods and then given access to the task together. Only one of these individuals ever switched method. The number of observations that individuals in the minority and Dyad individuals made of their untrained method was not found to influence whether or not they themselves switched to use it. In a final ‘Asocial’ condition, individuals (N?=?10) did not receive social information and did not deviate from their first-learned method. We argue that these results demonstrate an important influence of social context upon prioritisation of social information over pre-existing methods, which can result in group homogeneity of behaviour.     

Competitiveness, Gender, and Adjustment Among Adolescents

This study explored whether trait competitiveness in late adolescence is more detrimental to females’ than males’ social and psychological adjustment. Two types of competitiveness were studied, competing to win (CW; to dominate others) and competing to excel (CE; to surpass personal goals). Questionnaire ratings (by self and others) of 110 (53 females, 57 males, Mage 17.9 years) predominantly Caucasian (88.9%) high school students in northern Texas, USA were gathered. Males were higher on CW than females, but there were no gender differences on CE. For females, CW was associated with greater depression and loneliness, and with fewer and less close friendships. CE was associated with higher self-esteem and less depression for both genders, but was largely unrelated to social adjustment.     

Parental Responses to School-aged Children’s Sibling Conflict

The goals of this study were: (1) to describe and compare parental responses to school-aged siblings’ conflicts; (2) to explore the sibling relationship structural correlates of the parental responses; and (3) to assess the links between type of parental response and sibling relationship quality and children’s psychosocial and physical well being. One parent from eighty-two families (mothers = 68; fathers = 13; 1 missing) of firstborn (Mage = 9.84 years old) and secondborn (Mage = 7.16 years old) children completed an anonymous survey. Parents employed a child-centered strategy most often and sanctioned sibling aggression least often in response to siblings’ conflicts. Closer age spacing among siblings was related to parents’ sanction of physical aggression. Parental response type was associated with sibling relationship quality and children’s psychosocial and physical well being. The differential associations between parental response type, sibling experiences and children’s mental and physical well being are discussed.     

A Daily Process Approach to Depict Satisfaction with Life during the Menopausal Transition: Physical (In)activity,Symptoms, and Neuroticism

The main objectives of the present study were (1) to examine the between- and within-person association of physical (in)activity and satisfaction with life (SWL), and (2) to identify relevant top-down and bottom-up influences associated with daily well-being in menopausal women using a daily process approach. As part of a 21-day diary study, community-dwelling middle-aged women (N = 103; age range 40–60 years) wore an accelerometer for the objective assessment of physical activity and completed daily Internet surveys at the end of their day. Multilevel analyses indicated the between-person effects of physical activity on SWL were negligent but that on days when a woman was more physically active than her usual, she reported greater SWL (B = 12.01, p < .05). Sedentary behavior did not demonstrate a between- or within-person association with SWL. Women also experienced reduced SWL on days when greater symptom burden was reported (B = ?2.47, p < .05). Neuroticism also emerged as a top-down personality trait with a negative relation to SWL (B = ?1.47, p < .05). Higher levels of neuroticism predicted reduced daily life satisfaction particularly on days characterized by heightened symptom burden (B = ?0.26, p < .05). In this sample of midlife women, daily physical activity had a positive influence on SWL, whereas daily symptom burden and the personality trait of neuroticism had detrimental consequences on a woman’s daily well-being.     

Personality,coping, and school well-being: an investigation of high school students

With a growing interest in well-being as an outcome of schooling, there is an increased need for research on how to enable it in students’ academic lives. This study examined personality and coping strategies as predictors of students’ well-being outcomes at school using structural equation modelling. Students (N?=?328) completed measures of personality and coping strategies, and then approximately 6 months later reported on their satisfaction with school and subjective well-being. Results indicated that, along with personality and sociodemographics, productive coping strategies were associated with school satisfaction and subjective well-being 6 months later. The findings suggest that coping strategies used by adolescents to deal with the stresses of school have important consequences. Interventions to increase school students’ use of productive coping strategies may have meaningful impacts on their well-being.     

Early-life education may help bolster declarative memory in old age,especially for women

ABSTRACT

Although declarative memory declines with age, sex and education might moderate these weaknesses. We investigated effects of sex and education on nonverbal declarative (recognition) memory in 704 older adults (aged 58–98, 0–17 years of education). Items were drawings of real and made-up objects. Age negatively impacted declarative memory, though this age effect was moderated by sex and object-type: it was steeper for males than females, but only for real objects. Education was positively associated with memory, but also interacted with sex and object-type: education benefited women more than men (countering the age effects, especially for women), and remembering real more than made-up objects. The findings suggest that nonverbal memory in older adults is associated negatively with age but positively with education; both effects are modulated by sex, and by whether learning relates to preexisting or new information. The study suggests downstream benefits from education, especially for girls.     

BMI,age, Mate Value,and Intrasexual Competition in Chilean Women

Attractiveness is the most important component of women intrasexual competition and it certainly has an impact in female’s perceived mate value (i.e., the value of an individual to the opposite sex as a potential mate). In the realm of intrasexual competition women are eager to emphasize their attractiveness and compete with rivals displaying these cues. Accordingly, age is an important feature of women’s appeal to the opposite sex; youth is highly valued by men, and is perceived by women as an important component of their attractiveness. Another trait that is a reliable cue of health and fertility is Body Mass Index (BMI). A large body of literature has associated BMI to female attractiveness. However, more information is necessary about the associations of BMI and age with mate value, and female intrasexual competition. In the present research we report two studies that examined the associations of BMI and age with estimates of self-perceived mate value and intrasexual competition in Chilean women (18–39 years). More specifically, we hypothesized inverse relationships of BMI and age with mate value (N?=?234), and intrasexual competition (N?=?308). We found partial support to our propositions. The results revealed inverse associations between BMI, mate value and mating success, but BMI with intrasexual competition were not related. In contrast, age had a strong and negative effect on intrasexual competition. We discuss our results within the framework of Evolutionary Psychology and consider the central role of attractiveness (estimated from BMI and age) in the mating strategies of women.     

Relation of Psychiatric Symptoms with Epilepsy,Asthma, and Allergy in Youth with ASD vs. Psychiatry Referrals

The present study aimed to characterize the association of psychopathology with the clinical correlates of epilepsy, asthma, and allergy within and between neurobehavioral syndromes. Participants were consecutively evaluated youth (6–18 years, 75 % male) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 589) and non-ASD outpatient psychiatry referrals (n = 653). Informants completed a background questionnaire (parents) and a psychiatric symptom severity rating scale (parents, teachers). Youth with ASD had higher rates of epilepsy and allergy but not asthma than psychiatry referrals, even when analyses were limited to youth with IQ ≥ 70. Somatic conditions evidenced variable associations with medical services utilization, educational interventions, family income, and maternal education. Youth with ASD with versus without epilepsy had more severe ASD social deficits (parents’ ratings) and less severe ASD repetitive behaviors (teachers’ ratings). Epilepsy was associated with more severe depression, mania, and schizophrenia symptoms in youth with ASD. Youth with allergy (psychiatry referrals only) had more severe anxiety and depression symptoms (parents’ ratings) but less severe aggression (teachers’ ratings) thus providing evidence of both context- and diagnostic-specificity. Youth with ASD versus non-ASD psychiatry referrals evidence a variable pattern of relations between somatic conditions and a range of clinical correlates, which suggests that the biologic substrates and psychosocial concomitants of neurodevelopmental disorders and their co-occurring somatic conditions may interact to produce unique clinical phenotypes.     

Parental, Behavioral, and Psychological Factors Associated with Cigarette Smoking among Secondary School Students in Nanjing, China

We designed this study to assess parental, behavioral, and psychological factors associated with tobacco use among Chinese adolescents. The data were collected from 995 middle school students in Nanjing, China. Both smoking experimentation and current smoking (smoking in the past 30 days) were assessed among the study sample. Psychosocial measures include family structure, problem behaviors, social influence of smoking (both parental and friends’ approval of smoking), depressive symptoms, social alienation, self-esteem, parental monitoring (social monitoring and academic monitoring) and parenting style (responsiveness and demandingness). Among the study sample (mean age 15.16 years and 50% females), 24% ever smoked and 15% smoked in the past 30 days. Advanced age, male gender, low family SES, low school performance and low educational aspiration were associated with both smoking experimentation and current smoking. Depressive symptoms, social alienation, low self-esteem, low social and academic monitoring, problem behaviors, low maternal and paternal responsiveness, peer smoking, parent smoking, and parental and friends’ approval of smoking were positively associated with current smoking among Chinese adolescents. Future tobacco use prevention efforts among Chinese adolescents need to consider the parental, behavioral, and psychological correlates identified in the current study.