Development of spatial memory and spatial orientation in preschoolers and primary school children

The present study addresses the question of what kind of information children use when orientating in new environments, if given proximal and distal landmarks, and how spatial memory develops in the investigated age groups. Ten 5-year-old, ten 7-year-old and ten 10-year-old children were presented with the ‘Kiel Locomotor Maze’, containing features of the Radial Arm Maze and the Morris Water Maze, in order to assess spatial memory and orientation. Children had to learn to approach baited locations only. Task difficulty was equated with respect to the children's age. Training was given until the children reached criterion. During testing, the maze configuration and response requirements were systematically altered, including response rotation, cue rotation, cue deletion and response rotation with cue deletion in order to assess the spatial strategies used by the children. During training and testing, working-memory errors (WM), reference-memory errors (RM) and working-reference memory errors (WR) were recorded. As expected, no difference between age groups appeared during training, thus confirming comparable task difficulty across age groups. During testing, age groups differed significantly with regard to the orientation strategy used. The 5-year-olds were bound to a cue strategy, orientating towards local, proximal cues. The 10-year-olds mastered all tasks, thus displaying a place strategy, being able to use distal cues for orientation, and were even able to do so after being rotated 180°. The 7-year-olds proved to be at an age of transition: five of them were bound to a cue strategy, five children were able to adopt a place strategy. The differences in the orientation strategies used by children of different age groups was reflected by the sum of errors they made, also by RM. WM were found to be rare, especially in older children. We conclude that preschoolers use a cue strategy, that the development of place strategies occurs during primary school age and seems to be complete by the age of 10 years.     

Constructions of classical models by means of Kripke models (survey)

It is demonstrated how Kripke models for intuitionistic predicate logic can be applied in order to prove classical theorems. As examples proofs of the independence of the axiom of constructibility, of the omitting types theorem and of Shelah's ultrapower theorem are sketched.     

The acquisition of taste aversions in humans

A written questionnaire or an interview was given to 517 undergraduates concerning their acquisition of illness-induced (taste) aversions to foods and drinks. The subjects reported 415 aversions, with 65% of the subjects reporting at least one aversion. The aversions were more likely to be reported as having been formed through forward rather than simultaneous or backward conditioning, and long-delay learning was frequent. The aversions usually formed to the taste of the foods, rather than the appearance or other aspects of the foods. Extinction appeared more effective in decreasing the aversions than did forgetting. The illness responsible for the aversion's forming was usually attributed to the subsequently aversive food, but for 21% of the reported aversions subjects were sure that something else had caused their illness. Aversions were more likely to have formed to relatively less familiar and less preferred foods. Aversions were also more likely to form between the ages of 13 and 20. Generalization of the aversions to similar foods occurred in 29% of the cases. Approximately one fourth of the aversions were to alcoholic beverages. Finally, instances of aversions forming without food or drink consumption and instances of observational learning were reported. The data were quite similar to laboratory taste aversion data collected using other species and can help in optimizing taste aversion treatments of eating and drinking disorders. Taste aversions among humans are frequent and strong.     

A characterization theorem for random utility variables

In this note we investigate the condition that the distribution of the maximum of a set of random variables does not depend on which variable attains the maximum. This problem arises in random utility theory. When the random variables are independent, the property implies that all the marginal distributions must be Double Exponential (with distribution function exp(?e^?x) in standard form). When dependence is allowed the property characrerizes a much broader class consisting of arbitrary functions of arbitrary homogeneous functions of the variables e^?xi, a result stated without proof in D. J. Strauss (Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1979, 20, 35–52). These are the distributions such that the maximum has the same distribution (apart from a location shift) as the marginals, provided the marginals are the same.     

Partial isomorphisms and intuitionistic logic

A game for testing the equivalence of Kripke models with respect to finitary and infinitary intuitionistic predicate logic is introduced and applied to discuss a concept of categoricity for intuitionistic theories.     

Stimulus information and processing time in pitch perception

Summary The assumption of Massaro, that the preperceptual auditory image is processed at the same rate as the stimulus information, was tested for pitch recognition, using a recognition masking paradigm. The data clearly show that the preperceptual image is processed with a much lower rate.     

Psychologie et culture: vers une solution du “Babel”?

The current scientific debate on the relationship between psychological development and culture has been given different labels. These labels not only indicate divergent methodological approaches and heterogeneous research interests, but also represent distinct national scientific traditions. The authors suggest making a distinction between three main perspectives, namely “Cross-Cultural Psychology”, “Cultural Psychology” and “Psychologie Interculturelle”; a specific German approach called “Kulturpsychologie” is also briefly touched upon. These perspectives are described as distinct types of conceptual approaches and research strategies on the relationship between psychology and culture.     

Arithmetical Set Theory

It is well known that number theory can be interpreted in the usual set theories, e.g. ZF, NF and their extensions. The problem I posed for myself was to see if, conversely, a reasonably strong set theory could be interpreted in number theory. The reason I am interested in this problem is, simply, that number theory is more basic or more concrete than set theory, and hence a more concrete foundation for mathematics. A partial solution to the problem was accomplished by WTN in [2], where it was shown that a predicative set theory could be interpreted in a natural extension of pure number theory, PN, (i.e. classical first-order Peano Arithmetic). In this paper, we go a step further by showing that a reasonably strong fragment of predicative set theory can be interpreted in PN itself. We then make an attempt to show how to develop predicative fragments of mathematics in PN.If one wishes to know what is meant by reasonably strong and fragment please read on.     

On Agents That Have the Ability to Choose

We demonstrate ways to incorporate nondeterminism in a system designed to formalize the reasoning of agents concerning their abilities and the results of the actions that they may perform. We distinguish between two kinds of nondeterministic choice operators: one that expresses an internal choice, in which the agent decides what action to take, and one that expresses an external choice, which cannot be influenced by the agent. The presence of abilities in our system is the reason why the usual approaches towards nondeterminism cannot be used here. The semantics that we define for nondeterministic actions is based on the idea that composite actions are unravelled in the strings of atomic actions and tests that constitute them. The main notions used in defining this semantics are finite computation sequences and finite computation runs of actions. The results that we obtain meet our intuitions regarding events and abilities in the presence of nondeterminism.     

Methodology for identifying specific psychological deficits: introduction to the special section

A long-standing problem in psychopathology research is establishing that patterns of differences between groups reflects differences of underlying constructs and not artifacts of research design, measurement, or analysis. This introduction provides a context for 4 articles that consider several controversial issues regarding this problem and presents a précis. Although these articles focus on schizophrenia, it is noted how the issues are of more general relevance to psychopathology researchers.