Getting rid of blinkers: the case of mirror self-recognition in horses (Equus caballus)

Animal Cognition - The commentary by Gallup and Anderson (Anim Cogn https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-021-01538-9 , 2021) on the original article by Baragli, Scopa, Maglieri, and Palagi (Anim Cogn...     

Iconic Representations and Representative Practices

I develop an account of scientific representations building on Charles S. Peirce's rich, and still underexplored, notion of iconicity. Iconic representations occupy a central place in Peirce's philosophy, in his innovative approach to logic and in his practice as a scientist. Starting from a discussion of Peirce's approach to diagrams, I claim that Peirce's own representations are in line with his formulation of iconicity, and that they are more broadly connected to the pragmatist philosophy he developed in parallel with his scientific work. I then defend the contemporary relevance of Peirce's approach to iconic representations, and specifically argue that Peirce offers a useful ‘third way’ between what Mauricio Suárez has recently described as the ‘analytical’ and ‘practical’ inquiries into the concept of representation. As a philosophically minded scientist and an experimentally inclined philosopher, Peirce never divorced the practice of representing from questions about what counts as a representation. I claim that his account of iconic representations shows that it is the very process of representing, construed as a practice which is coextensive with observing and experimenting, that casts light on the nature of representative relations.     

Non-Linguistic Grammar Learning by 12-Month-Old Infants: Evidence for Constraints on Learning

ABSTRACT

Infants acquiring their native language are adept at discovering grammatical patterns. However, it remains unknown whether these learning abilities are limited to language, or available more generally for sequenced input. The current study is a conceptual replication of a prior language study, and was designed to ask whether infants can track phrase structure-like patterns from nonlinguistic auditory materials (sequences of computer alert sounds). One group of 12-month-olds was familiarized with an artificial grammar including predictive dependencies between sounds concatenated into strings, simulating the basic structure of phrases in natural languages. A second group of infants was familiarized with a grammar that lacked predictive dependencies. All infants were tested on the same set of familiar strings vs. novel (grammar-inconsistent) strings. Only infants exposed to the materials containing predictive dependencies showed successful discrimination between the test sentences, replicating the results from linguistic materials, and suggesting that predictive dependencies facilitate learning from nonlinguistic input.     

Flashbulb memories of the Pope's resignation: Explicit and implicit measures across differing religious groups

In the present paper, we aimed to provide evidence in support of the idea tested in a recent study by Lanciano and colleagues that flashbulb memories (FBMs) are a special class of autobiographical memories that can be assessed through the autobiographical implicit association test (aIAT). FBMs and event memories (EMs) for the news of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI were evaluated in three samples of churchgoer Catholic, non-churchgoer Catholic and Evangelical Italian participants through the traditional self-report measures (specificity/accuracy, confidence, consistency) and aIAT indices. Results confirmed the strength of the association between FBM and true information. The aIAT effect was stronger for FBMs than for EM details, and for Catholic respondents who were the group most concerned by the original event. Furthermore, the use of implicit measures for memory assessment concurs with the traditional self-report indices of FBMs. The present evidence supports the idea that FBMs are special autobiographical memories which remain detailed, certain and consistent over time.     

A New Neurocognitive Model for Assessing Divergent Thinking: Applicability,Evidence of Reliability,and Implications for Educational Theory and Practice

A new model is presented to assess divergent thinking from a neurocognitive perspective. Evidence is presented showing its sensitivity to capture differences in divergent thinking. This observational interview-based study used a two-dimensional matrix (grid) composed of dimensions derived from neuropsychology and cognitive science theory. Each category (grid cell) is related to a particular cognitive operation that putatively is mediated by one or more functional/anatomical brain regions. Using the coding matrix, data were obtained from 30 middle school students through interviews and think-aloud responses to questions. Students were videotaped while viewing rich pictorial material and responses were coded and characterized for divergent production using 10 coefficients: higher category responses, detail, spontaneous generation, perspective switching, category switching per probe, category switches per utterance, different switches, detail per switching ratio, new subjects, higher category responses and reasoning. Reliability was obtained by interobserver concordance and Cohen's kappa coefficients were calculated for the cognitive and brain functional references dimensions (.90 and .91, respectively). Individual differences were expressed as variations in divergent thinking, providing a convenient way of assessing divergent thinking that may be related to creative thinking in education. This model may have heuristic value beyond research on creativity by providing a theoretical framework to guide further research on the cognitive correlates of divergent thinking with brain functional modules by correlating brain imaging data with concurrent interview data gathered by use of the model.     

Age-related trends in Stroop and conflicting motor response task findings

Inhibition problems are reportedly at the heart of several childhood pathologies and learning disorders, but few instruments are available for their in-depth investigation. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the development of a capacity to inhibit automatic responses in young and middle childhood. For this purpose, 100 children between 6 and 11 years old were administered two tests that measure executive inhibition: an animal Stroop task (in a paper-and-pencil version of the computerized original proposed by Wright and colleagues in 2003) and a conflicting motor response task. Our results indicate that performance clearly improves in both tests during the course of a child's development and the data obtained with the paper-and-pencil animal Stroop task overlap with those obtained with the computerized version. When the task calls for a stronger inhibitory control (the incongruent situation in the Stroop task and in the opposite condition in the conflicting motor response test) the trend of the response times is less homogeneous, peaking in the youngest and oldest age brackets considered. The positivity and significance of the correlation coefficients between the two tests also suggest that the two measures are tapping cognitive abilities that are developing in a parallel fashion.     

Assessing Interpersonal Profiles Associated With Varying Levels of Effortful Control

Research has linked individual differences in effortful control (EC) with variations in interpersonal functioning in children and adolescents. Using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems–Short Circumplex (Hopwood, Pincus, DeMoor, & Koonce, 2008), this study investigated interpersonal problem profiles associated with EC in 763 nonclinical young adults. We found that individuals with low EC reported intrusive interpersonal problems and high levels of interpersonal distress, whereas individuals with high EC reported cold interpersonal problems but low levels of interpersonal distress. Results suggest that EC might play an important role in shaping interpersonal functioning.     

Narrating career,positioning identity and constructing gender in an Italian adolescent's personal narratives

This article explores identity career narratives as a gendered and gendering discourse. The ‘gender differences’ approach to career development conceives of gender as a dichotomous and fixed variable influencing various aspects of career. In contrast to this mainstream approach, the paper adopts a post-structural view and reads identity and gender in terms of performativity, that is to say, constituted through the productive power of discourses. Through a detailed analysis of a text written by Giada, an adolescent involved in a career counseling project in Italy, we analyze how her career narratives implicate and constitute gender in their telling. In particular, we present the discourses that frame Giada's career narrative and we highlight how these discourses position Giada as a woman and as female. These discourses can be read as regulatory discourses: shaping and reflecting particular understandings of gender. However, we also highlight Giada's agency in questioning the regulatory practice of such discourses through linguistic acts. In the conclusions, we further explore the potential implications of these research findings for a rethinking of career counseling research and practice.