Accessing the Eternal: Dreaming "The Dreaming" and Ceremonial Performance

Australian Aboriginal cosmology is centered on The Dreaming, which has an eternal nature. It has been referred to as “everywhen” to articulate its timelessness. Starting with the assumption that “waking” reality is only one type of experienced reality, we investigate the concept of timelessness as it pertains to the Aboriginal worldview. We begin by questioning whether in fact “Dreaming” is an appropriate translation of a complex Aboriginal concept, then discuss whether there is any relationship between dreaming and The Dreaming. We then discuss Aboriginal ceremonial performance, during which actors are said to become Dreaming Ancestors, using as a frame of reference the “flow” experience explicated by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi together with Alfred Schutz's “mutual tuning‐in relationship.”     

Children’s mapping between symbolic and nonsymbolic representations of number

When children learn to count and acquire a symbolic system for representing numbers, they map these symbols onto a preexisting system involving approximate nonsymbolic representations of quantity. Little is known about this mapping process, how it develops, and its role in the performance of formal mathematics. Using a novel task to assess children’s mapping ability, we show that children can map in both directions between symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical representations and that this ability develops between 6 and 8 years of age. Moreover, we reveal that children’s mapping ability is related to their achievement on tests of school mathematics over and above the variance accounted for by standard symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical tasks. These findings support the proposal that underlying nonsymbolic representations play a role in children’s mathematical development.     

Contrasting intellectual patterns predict creativity in the arts and sciences: tracking intellectually precocious youth over 25 years

A sample of 2,409 intellectually talented adolescents (top 1%) who were assessed on the SAT by age 13 was tracked longitudinally for more than 25 years. Their creative accomplishments, with particular emphasis on literary achievement and scientific-technical innovation, were examined as a function of ability level (sum of math and verbal SAT scores) and tilt (math SAT score minus verbal SAT score). Results showed that distinct ability patterns uncovered by age 13 portend contrasting forms of creative expression by middle age. Whereas ability level contributes significantly to creative accomplishments, ability tilt is critical for predicting the specific domain in which they occur (e.g., securing a tenure-track position in the humanities vs. science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; publishing a novel vs. securing a patent).     

Trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity, and children's functioning at school entry

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the authors modeled trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms from infant age 1 month to 7 years. The authors identified 6 trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms: high-chronic, moderate-increasing, high-decreasing, intermittent, moderate-stable, and low-stable. Women on these depression trajectories varied in sociodemographic risk and in changes in observed maternal sensitivity over time. Maternal sensitivity was generally higher and increased when depressive symptoms were low; sensitivity was lower and decreased when depressive symptoms were either high or increasing. Child outcomes at 1st grade were examined by trajectory group. The authors discuss the complexity of disentangling maternal symptoms from maternal sensitivity and sociodemographic risk when predicting children's functioning.     

Meeting the educational needs of special populations

We evaluated the Advanced Placement (AP) program from the point of view of intellectually precocious youth and their subsequent educational-vocational outcomes, analyzing normative and idiographic longitudinal data collected across 30 years from 3,937 participants. Most took AP courses in high school, and those who did frequently nominated an AP course as their favorite. Students who took AP courses, compared with their intellectual peers who did not, appeared more satisfied with the intellectual caliber of their high school experience and, ultimately, achieved more. Overall, this special population placed a premium on intellectual challenge in high school and found the lack of such challenge distressing. These findings can inform contemporary educational policy debates regarding the AP program; they also have general implications for designing and evaluating educational interventions for students with special needs.     

Does the nature of the experience influence suggestibility? A study of children's event memory

Two experiments examined the effects of event modality on children's memory and suggestibility. In Experiment 1, 3- and 5-year-old children directly participated in, observed, or listened to a narrative about an event. In an interview immediately after the event, free recall was followed by misleading or leading questions and, in turn, test recall questions. One week later children were reinterviewed. In Experiment 2, 4-year-old children either participated in or listened to a story about an event, either a single time or to a criterion level of learning. Misleading questions were presented either immediately or 1 week after learning, followed by test recall questions. Five-year-old children were more accurate than 3-year-olds and those participating were more accurate than those either observing or listening to a narrative. However, method of assessment, level of event learning, delay to testing, and variables relating to the misled items also influenced the magnitude of misinformation effects.     

Naive optics: understanding the geometry of mirror reflections

Paper-and-pencil tasks showed that many university students believed that when laterally approaching a mirror, they would see a reflection in the mirror before it was geometrically possible. Participants failed to adequately factor in the observer's location in the room. However, when asked about the behavior of a ray of light, participants knew about the law of reflection. No differences between psychology and physics students were detected, suggesting that the phenomenon is widespread and refractory to training. The findings were replicated with observers making judgments about image locations in a real room using a pretend mirror. Possible heuristics about mirror reflection that might explain the data are discussed. Naive optics is a promising venue to further knowledge of how observers understand basic laws of physics.     

Junior Tennis Players’ Preferences for Parental Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to identify junior tennis players’ preferences for parental behaviors at competitions. Eleven focus groups were conducted with 42 high performance Canadian tennis players (M age = 13.5 yrs, SD = 1.2 yrs). Analysis revealed several themes describing athletes’ views of supportive parental behaviors. Specific preferences were that parents should not provide technical and tactical advice, but they should comment on effort and attitude, provide practical advice, respect tennis etiquette, and match nonverbal behaviors with supportive comments. By providing a children's perspective, these findings offer guidance to enhance parental involvement in tennis.     

Presenting Different Selves to Different People: Self-Presentation as a Function of Relationship Type and Contingent Self-Esteem

Past work has established a connection between self-esteem and self-presentation; however, research has not explored how self-esteem that is contingent on one's relationship may influence self-presentational tactics in that relationship. Across two studies, undergraduate students reported on the extent to which their self-esteem depended on their friendship and romantic relationship, as well as the extent to which they engaged in self-presentation behaviors in those relationships. The results suggest that relationship-specific contingent self-esteem predicts relationship-specific self-presentation; however, friendship-contingent self-esteem predicted self-presentation in both friendships and romantic relationships. These results suggest that individuals are keenly and differentially attuned to qualitatively different relationships, and when perceiving potential problems, they attempt to remedy those through their self-presentations. Furthermore, results indicate the possibility that self-esteem tied to a particular relationship may not be as important as self-esteem based more generally on one's relationships.