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.     

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.     

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.     

On the other side of the mean: the perception of dissimilarity in human faces

We created a 'face space' using a laser-scan representation of faces. In this space, a caricature can be made by moving a face away from the average face, along the line connecting the particular face to the average face. Here, we move the face along this line in the other direction, proceeding through the mean and 'out the other side'. This results in a face that is 'opposite', in a computational sense, to the original face. We morphed several faces into their anti-faces and sampled the morph trajectory in five discrete steps. We then collected similarity ratings from human participants for all possible pairs of morphed faces to determine how the distances in the 'physical face space' related to the distances in the 'psychological face space'. The data indicate that there is a perceptual discontinuity of face identity as the face crosses over to the 'other side of the mean'. We consider these results in the context of face-space models of human face processing.     

Book reviews

Contemporary psychology Experiments: Adaptations for Laboratory. By John Jung and Joan Bailey. London and New York: Wiley. 1966 Pp. xiii + 155. 238.

A Textbook of Psychology. Second Edition. By D.O. Hebb. Philadelphia and London: W.B. Saunders & Co. 1966. Pp xvi + 353. Pound2.

Behaviour Therapy Techniques: A Guide to the Treatment of Neuroses. By Josweph Wolpe and Arnold A. Lazarus. Oxford and London: Pergamon Press. 1966. Pp. ix + 198. 21s.

Motivated Learning: a Developmental Study from Birth to the Senium. By Miriam E. Hebron. London: Methuen. Methuen's Manuals of Modern Psychology. 1966. Pp. 264. 35s.

Human Brain and Psychological Processes. By A.R. Luria. Translated by Basil Haigh. New York and London: Harper & Row. 1966. Pp.xix + 587. £5 $14.50.

Higher Cortical Functions in Man. By A. R. Luria. Translated by Basil Haigh. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp xvi + 513. £6 6s.

Productive Thinking. By Max Wertheimer. Edited by Michael Wertheimer. social science Paperbacks. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp xvi + 302. 30s.

Problem Solving: Research Method and Theory. Edited by B. Kleinmuntz. London and New York: Wiley. 1966. Pp. ix + 406. 53s.

Human Conceptual Behavior. By Lyle E. Bourne, Jr. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1966. Pp. viii + 139. $2.50.

Attraction and Hostility. An Experimental Analysis of Interpersonal and Self Evaluation. By albert Peptone. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp. ix + 234. 30s.

Ability Structure and subgroups in Mental Retardation. By John Clausen. London: Macmillan. Washington: spartan Books. 1966. Pp. viii + 208. 80s.

The Biologiv Basis of Schizophrenia. By Jon L. Karlsson. springfield. Illionois: Thomas. 1966. Pp.xi + 77. $4.75.

Psychology for Psychiatrists. By C.G. Costello. London: Commonwealth and Unversity Library, pergamon Press. 1966. Pp. 328. 25s.

Science and theory of Psychoanalysis. Edited by Irwin G. Sarason. London: Van Nostrand. Insight Book No. 26. 1965. Pp xiii + 205. 14s.

Aspects of Learning and Memory. Edited by D. Richter. London: heinemann. 1966. Pp. x + 185. 35s.

The Spiral After-Effect. By Harry C. Holland. London: pergamon. 1965. Pp.xii + 99. 35s.

Dynamics of Response. By J.M. Notterman and D.E. Mintz. London and New York: Wiley. 1965. Pp. 277. 70s.

Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy. By Liam Hudson. London: Methuen. 1966. Pp. vii + 181. 25s.

The Structure of Association in Language and Thought. By James A. Deese. London: Oxford University Press: Johns Hopkin Press. 1960. Pp. xiii + 216. 52s.

A source Book in the History of Psychology. Edited by R. J. Herrnstein and E.J. boring. London: Oxford University Press; Harvard University Press. 1965. Pp. xvii + 636. £5.     

Loneliness predicts suicidal ideation and anxiety symptoms in long-term childhood cancer survivors

Background/ObjectiveLong-term childhood cancer survivors (CCS) are at risk for adverse late effects. However, not all of them are well understood. The present study addressed loneliness, a previously under-researched mental health risk in cancer survivor populations. We assessed the prevalence of loneliness and its impact on psychological symptoms over time. Method: A registry-based sample of N = 633 adult long-term CCS underwent medical and psychological assessments and took part in a follow-up survey 2.5 years later. Psychological symptoms (somatic, anxiety, depression symptoms, and suicidal ideation) were measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire. We calculated linear regression models of symptoms at follow-up to investigate the impact of loneliness over time (controlling for symptoms at baseline and relevant confounders). Results: Loneliness was reported by 17.70% of CCS. In multivariate linear regression analyses, loneliness was still predictive of more severe anxiety symptoms and suicidal ideation over two years later. Loneliness did not predict somatic and depression symptoms at follow-up (which increased with age). Conclusions: Loneliness affected a significant number of CCS and was a risk factor for persistent anxiety symptoms and suicidal ideation. The extent to which young cancer patients’ re-integration into society is successful could thus have important implications for well-being in adulthood.     

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.     

Are the states underlying implicit biases unconscious? – A Neo-Freudian answer

Many philosophers as well as psychologists hold that implicit biases are due to unconscious attitudes. The justification for this unconscious-claim seems to be an inference to the best explanation of the mismatch between explicit and implicit attitudes, which is characteristic of implicit biases. The unconscious-claim has recently come under attack based on its inconsistency with empirical data. Instead, Gawronski, Hoffman, and Wilbur (2006) analyze implicit biases based on the so-called Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) model, according to which implicit attitudes are phenomenally conscious and accessible. The mismatch between the explicit and the implicit attitude is explained by the Cognitive Inconsistency Approach (CIA) (as I will call it): implicit attitudes are conscious but rejected as basis for explicit judgments because the latter lead to cognitive inconsistency with respect to other beliefs held by the subject. In this paper, I will argue that the CIA is problematic since it cannot account for the fact that implicit attitudes underlying implicit biases typically are unconscious. I will argue that a better explanation of the attitude-mismatch can be given in terms of a Neo-Freudian account of repression. I will develop such an account, and I will show how it can accommodate the merits of the APE model while avoiding the problems of the CIA.