Preschool children's ability to visually represent relations

The developmental origins of mapping temporal relations onto space was investigated in N = 122 3- to 5-year-old children and adults. Spontaneous production and comprehension were investigated. Production was investigated in two conditions: an iconic condition (three-dimensional objects depicting the events or objects to be represented) and an abstract condition (plain discs). Consistent with findings by Tversky, Kugelmass and Winter (1991), 5-year-olds performed on an adult-like level. Developmental progress was observed between the ages of 3 and 4 years, with comprehension preceding production. Consistent with DeLoache's findings (2000), 4-year-olds' performance was better in abstract than in iconic conditions, indicating that dual representational demands may have affected task performance in the iconic condition. In sum, abilities to map temporal relations onto spatial relations appear to develop spontaneously, even before children have experience with conventional notational systems.     

Attitudes towards people with AIDS and avoidance behavior: Automatic and reflective bases of behavior

We tested the assumption that implicit attitude measures are related to automatic behavior, while explicit attitude measures are related to reflective behavioral intentions. In our study, attitudes towards persons with AIDS were assessed with both the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and an explicit attitude measure. Behavioral intentions were measured through a questionnaire. Automatic approach and avoidance predispositions were operationalized as the speed with which a computer mouse was either pulled towards (approach) or pushed away from the body (avoidance). Consistent with our expectations, the IAT was related to the automatic approach and avoidance behaviors, while the explicit attitude measure was related to behavioral intentions. These findings support the idea that automatic and reflective processes exert independent effects on behavior.     

Cognitive consequences of motivational orientation: perceived similarity between objects

Recent findings suggest that the unconscious activation of the motivational orientations of approach and avoidance is accompanied by the adoption of a more global and a more local processing style, respectively. A global processing style, in turn, is assumed to instigate a focus on similarities whereas a local processing style is assumed to instigate a focus on differences. Integrating these two ideas, the present research examines the hypothesis that participants under approach perceive objects as more similar to each other than participants under avoidance. To test this assumption, we induced the two motivational orientations and elicited judgments of similarities (Experiments 1 and 2) and differences (Experiment 2) for pairs of pictures. Results confirmed the hypothesis. We propose that the relative attunement to similarities/differences under approach/avoidance is functional because it allows for a flexible conceptualization of the environment/an ability to discern slight deviations from what is expected.     

Children's Risky Play from an Evolutionary Perspective: The Anti-Phobic Effects of Thrilling Experiences

This theoretical article views children's risky play from an evolutionary perspective, addressing specific evolutionary functions and especially the anti-phobic effects of risky play. According to the non-associative theory, a contemporary approach to the etiology of anxiety, children develop fears of certain stimuli (e.g., heights and strangers) that protect them from situations they are not mature enough to cope with, naturally through infancy. Risky play is a set of motivated behaviors that both provide the child with an exhilarating positive emotion and expose the child to the stimuli they previously have feared. As the child's coping skills improve, these situations and stimuli may be mastered and no longer be feared. Thus fear caused by maturational and age relevant natural inhibition is reduced as the child experiences a motivating thrilling activation, while learning to master age adequate challenges. It is concluded that risky play may have evolved due to this anti-phobic effect in normal child development, and it is suggested that we may observe an increased neuroticism or psychopathology in society if children are hindered from partaking in age adequate risky play.     

Inverse gender gap in Germany: social dominance orientation among men and women

Across cultures studies show that men score higher on social dominance orientation than women. This gender gap is considered invariant, but conflicting explanations are discussed: Some authors refer to evolutionary psychology and perceive the gender gap to be driven by sociobiological factors. Other authors argue that social roles or gender-stereotypical self-construals encouraged by intergroup comparisons are responsible for attitudinal gender difference. In Study 1 we analyzed sex differences in social dominance orientation in three German probability surveys (each n > 2300). Unexpectedly, the analyses yielded an inverse gender gap with higher values for social dominance orientation in women than in men. Interactions with age, education, political conservatism, and perceived inequity indicated that the inverse gender gap can be mainly attributed to older, conservative, (and less educated) respondents, and those who feel they get their deserved share. In Study 2 we replicated the well-known gender gap with men scoring higher than women in social dominance orientation among German students. Results are interpreted on the basis of biocultural interaction, which integrates the sociobiological, social role, and self-construal perspectives. Our unusual findings seem to reflect a struggle for status by members of low-status groups who consider group-based hierarchy the most promising option to improve their status. While younger women take advantage of a relational, feminine self-construal that leads to lower social dominance orientation in young women than in young men, older women are supposed to profit from an agentic self-construal that results in stronger social dominance orientation values. Specific characteristics of the culture in Germany seem to promote this strategy. Here, we discuss the female ideal of the national socialist period and the agentic female social role in the post-war era necessitated by the absence of men.     

Brief assessment of schizotypy: Developing short forms of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales

The Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales—the Perceptual Aberration, Magical Ideation, Physical Anhedonia, and Revised Social Anhedonia Scales—have been used extensively since their development in the 1970s and 1980s. Based on psychometric analyses using item response theory, the present work presents 15-item short forms of each scale. In addition to being briefer, the short forms omit items with high differential item functioning. Based on data from a sample of young adults (n = 1144), the short forms have strong internal consistency, and they mirror effects found for the longer scales. They thus appear to be a good option for researchers interested in the brief assessment of schizotypic traits. The items are listed in an Appendix A.     

Science undergraduates’ and graduates’ epistemologies of science: the notion of interpretive frameworks

First-year science (biology, chemistry, physics) undergraduates’ and advanced graduate students’ understanding of the scientific research process was assessed using two clinical interviews: the “Nature of Science Interview” (International Journal of Science Education 11 (1989) 514; Cognition and Instruction 18 (2000) 349) and the “Nature Nurture Interview” (Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 1992) which offered a context (a fictitious conflict of a nature and a nurture theorist about the causes of nervousness in dogs). The participants’ answers were then subjected to a categorical analysis using a coding scheme that progresses from an undifferentiated understanding of science as action (Level 1) to an understanding of science as an iterative process of theory formation, testing, and revision with increasing depth of explanation (Level 5). Results indicate that neither group had a clear understanding of the necessity of framework theories for the scientific research process. While no clear developmental progression was found, differences between students majoring in different fields emerged.     

Lack of coherence and divergent thinking: Two sides of the same coin in artistic talent?

The aim of this study was to identify some of the underlying cognitive components of artistic talent. The participants in this study were an artistically gifted group of young adults, and a group of controls with no such talent but matched on intelligence. Two components were investigated, one was a preference for local over global processing and others were measures of divergent thinking. The results supported the hypothesis that talented artists might, in contrast to others, show a distinctive cognitive style which may be linked to divergent thinking.     

Lack of coherence and divergent thinking: Two sides of the same coin in artistic talent?

The aim of this study was to identify some of the underlying cognitive components of artistic talent. The participants in this study were an artistically gifted group of young adults, and a group of controls with no such talent but matched on intelligence. Two components were investigated, one was a preference for local over global processing and others were measures of divergent thinking. The results supported the hypothesis that talented artists might, in contrast to others, show a distinctive cognitive style which may be linked to divergent thinking.     

Recognition and sex categorization of adults' and children's faces: examining performance in the absence of sex-stereotyped cues

The ability of children and adults to classify the sex of children's and adults' faces using only the biologically based internal facial structure was investigated. Face images of 7- to 10-year-old children and of adults in their 20s were edited digitally to eliminate hairstyle and clothing cues to sex. Seven-year-olds, nine-year-olds, and adults classified a subset of these faces by sex and were asked, subsequently, to recognize the faces from among the entire set of faces. This recognition task was designed to assess the relationship between categorization and recognition accuracy. Participants categorized the adult faces by sex at levels of accuracy varying from just above chance (7-year-olds) to nearly perfect (adults). All participant groups performed less accurately for children's faces than for adults' faces. The 7-year-olds were unable to classify the children's faces by sex at levels above chance. Finally, the faces of children and adults were equally recognizable--a finding that has theoretical implications for understanding the relationship between categorizing and identifying faces.