The early development of empathy: Self-regulation and individual differences in the first year

A longitudinal study of 45 mothers and their first-born infants was conducted to identify developmentally meaningful, individual differences in children's primitive empathic responding at 12 months of age, and to determine whether differences in self-regulatory skills assessed at 4 months might underlie any differences in empathic responding observed. Personal distress responses analogous to those observed in older children and adults were identified in one-third of the sample at 12 months of age. These distress responses were associated with indices of poorer self-regulatory skills in social contexts at 4 months of age. The results are interpreted within the broader framework of the development of self-regulatory strategies in the early childhood years.This research was supported by grants from the Australian Research Council, the National Research Fellowship Scheme, and the Macquarie University Research Grant Scheme. We thank Judy Chan, Alison Malbourne, Sylvana Sturevska, and Lorraine Smith for their assistance in data collection and analysis.     

Young Children′s Event Recall: Are Memories Constructed through Discourse?

The ways in which event memories may be reconstructed or transformed through discussion with others is a critical question both for understanding basic memory processes and for issues concerning legal testimony. In this research, white middle-class preschool children were interviewed first by their mothers and then by a female experimenter about personally experienced events when they were 40, 46, 58, and 70 months of age. Analyses indicated that at all four time points children only incorporated about 9% of the information initially recounted by the mother into their independent recall of the event with the experimenter. Moreover, children only repeated about 20% of the information they themselves recalled across the two interviews. Additional analyses indicated that information mutually discussed by the mother and child was no more likely to be incorporated or repeated when recalling the event with the experimenter than information not mutually discussed. These results indicate that young children′s personal memories are not so fragile that they easily incorporate information provided by another into their own recall.     

Planning in the preschool years: The emergence of plans from general event knowledge

A framework for conceptualizing the relationship between event knowledge and planning is proposed, and two experiments are reported that examined children's ability to draw on event knowledge in planning. Preschool children were asked to plan and execute shopping trips to a pretend grocery store. Half of the children planned for two events on successive trials (Level 1, single-goal planning) and half of the children planned for two events simultaneously (Level 2, multiple-event planning). The amount of external support for planning was also manipulated. In Experiment 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were presented with either a clustered or interleaved display. In Experiment 2, 3- and 4-year-olds were given adult assistance in plan construction. Results indicated that children's planning becomes more complex and flexible with age. Older children also rely less on external supports for planning. However, when external support was provided, 3- and 4-year-olds displayed higher-level planning abilities. Results are discussed in terms of the roles of event knowledge and external support in the early development of planning skills.     

Social Cognition in Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Recent evidence suggests social cognitive deficits may be among the most profound and disabling consequences of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, it is only...     

EFFECTS OF EXPLICIT TIMING ON MATHEMATICS PROBLEM COMPLETION RATES IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN THIRD-GRADE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of Van Houten and Thompson's (1976) explicit timing procedure on problem completion rates and accuracy levels in African-American third-grade students. During the explicit timing phase, students were told that they were being timed and were instructed to circle the last problem completed at each 1-min interval. Results showed that the explicit timing procedure increased problem completion rates. A decreasing trend in percentage of problems correct also occurred. Exploratory data analysis suggested that decreases in accuracy were not caused by the explicit timing procedure and did not occur in students who had attained high levels of preintervention accuracy. Discussion focuses on recommendations for educators who wish to use timing procedures to increase students' rates of accurate responding.     

Psychological Science Can Improve Diagnostic Decisions

Contents:
Introduction and Scope, p.1
Components of Diagnostic Decision Making, p.4
Statistical Machinery, p.5
Examples of Enhanced Descision Making, p.10
Conclusion and Discussion, p.20
Acknowledgements, p.23
References, p.23
Appendix: Some Concepts of Possibility, p.25