Cognitive and social-emotional development of children in different preschool environments

62 English-speaking preschool children were divided into three groups, a Montessori group (n = 21), a traditional preschool group (n = 21), and a homestaying group (n = 20) to compare their relative cognitive and social-emotional development. Significant differences in favour of the school groups were found for vocabulary, language comprehension, ability to judge the correctness of figural stimuli, visual memory, and perceptual organization. No differences were found for social-emotional development, and no relationship existed between type of preschool and level of development.     

Classification without identification in visual search

Six subjects scanned displays of random consonants for a single target which was (a) another consonant; (b) a given number; or (c) any number. A second group of six subjects took part in three comparable conditions with number displays, and letters or numbers as targets. Scanning time for a number in a letter display or a letter in a number display was more rapid than scanning for a target drawn from the same set as the background. Several unpractised subjects, and all the subjects who practised the task, were able to scan as fast through letters for “any number” as for a specific number, or conversely through digits. The finding of different scanning rates for two precisely physically specified targets, depending on which class they were drawn from, runs counter to an explanation of high-speed scanning in terms of the operation of visual feature analysers. It is suggested that familiar categorization responses may be immediate and may provide the basis for the discrimination of relevant from irrelevant items in rapid visual scanning.     

Learning and retrieval rate of words presented auditorily and visually

Mode of presentation (visual or auditory) of a multitrial free recall test is stressed as an important factor in improving the diagnosis of certain neurological patients. For further use in neuropsychological research, an experiment was carried out using normal subjects, in which the effects of presentation mode and order of modality were investigated. There were no differential effects of these variables on several parameters, such as the number of words recalled and the learning curve. The time needed for the responses in immediate recall was the same in both auditory and visual conditions. In delayed recall, however, the interresponse times were significantly shorter when words had been presented auditorily than when presented visually. The results are discussed in light of further application in the field of neuropsychology.     

Effects of salience of rape on sex role attitudes,trust, and self-esteem in non-raped women

Women who thought about rape prior to answering questions about themselves reported lower self-esteem, stronger belief in traditional sex roles, and lower trust in other persons than women who were not induced to think about rape. Achievement motivation and locus of control, on the other hand, were not affected by the salience of rape. The data suggest that rape has an intimidating effect on non-raped women as previously suspected in feminist literature, although not all variables suspected may be affected.     

Assessing the Within‐Trial Treatment Integrity of Discrete‐Trial Teaching Programs Using Sequential Analysis

Discrete‐trial teaching is a strategy frequently used to teach functional skills to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Research has shown that the within‐trial components of the procedure should be administered with ≥90% treatment integrity to facilitate optimal learning. Usually within‐trial treatment integrity is measured using whole‐session methods such as percentage of trials correctly administered. This study demonstrated one‐step Markov transition matrices as a method of assessing within‐trial treatment integrity. All components of discrete trials were coded and time‐stamped from video recordings of therapist–learner dyads in their typical setting (home or school). Several types of within‐trial treatment integrity errors were identified using the Markov transition matrices, error sequences that could not be identified using a percentage correct analysis. Better identification of errors has the potential both to enhance treatment integrity and to gain efficiency by targeted retraining of therapists. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One executive function never comes alone: monitoring and its relation to working memory,reasoning, and different executive functions

Monitoring is involved in many daily tasks and is described in several theoretical approaches of executive functioning. This study investigated the relative relationship of cognitive processes that are theoretically relevant to monitoring, such as concept formation, reasoning, working memory, and general cognitive control functions. Data from 699 participants who performed the Balanced Switching Task, aiming at capturing monitoring, were used. Subsamples also performed standard tasks assessing the processes assumed to be related to monitoring. Structural equation modeling revealed that general cognitive control processes are particularly relevant. They mediate the relationship between working memory, reasoning, and monitoring. Updating and maintaining information, as well as concluding from information which strategies can guide behavior toward predefined goals, is required for the ability to exert general cognitive control, which again may be relevant for implementing strategies in a goal-directed way. Together, these processes seem to be necessary to adequately monitor behavior in complex tasks.     

Essays: RELIGIOUS MEDICAL ETHICS: A Study of the Rulings of Rabbi Waldenberg

This article seeks to examine how religious ideas that are not the focus of a particular halakhic question become the crux of the ruling, thereby molding it and dictating its bias. We will attempt to demonstrate this through a study of Jewish medical ethics, based on some of the rulings of one of the greatest halakhic decisors of the previous generation: Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg (1915–2006). Rabbi Waldenberg molds his rulings on the basis of a religious principle asserting that the legitimacy of any medical procedure is qualified and limited. Rabbi Waldenberg rejects certain accepted medical practices, including plastic surgery, in vitro fertilization, and organ transplants. Even if these procedures are regarded by other halakhic decisors as being legitimate, for Rabbi Waldenberg they are ethically and religiously improper, and therefore they are halakhically forbidden.     

TRANSITIVITY OF ODOR PREFERENCES: CONSTANT AND PARTICULARITIES IN HEDONIC PERCEPTION

Transitivity of preferences has been investigated for a long time in decision‐making. In the field of perception, the pleasantness of odors raises several questions related to individual versus cultural or universal preferences and the existence of a classification in a delimited hedonic space. The aim of this study was to test transitivity in olfactory hedonicity using a first panel of 10 mixed odors and a second panel of 10 odors from a delimited floral category. Data were collected by paired comparisons in a two‐alternative forced choice. Results in both panels showed a strong transitivity for each participant leading to a linear range of 10 odors classified by preference. However, ranges varied from one participant to another and the mean preferences of the group did not allow one to infer individual's hedonic classification of odors. Moreover, the individual classification appeared stable over time and undisturbed by odorant distractors. These findings suggest that humans have considerable ability to classify odors hedonically as a model of individual preferences in a sensory space usually considered to be more involved in affective/emotional states than in cognitive performances.     

The sleeping brain and the neural basis of emotions

In addition to active wake, emotions are generated and experienced in a variety of functionally different states such as those of sleep, during which external stimulation and cognitive control are lacking. The neural basis of emotions can be specified by regarding the multitude of emotion-related brain states, as well as the distinct neuro- and psychodynamic stages (generation and regulation) of emotional experience.