False belief understanding goes to school: On the social-emotional consequences of coming early or late to a first theory of mind

Abstract

This research report describes a search for possible relations between children's developing theories of mind and aspects of their social-emotional maturity conducted by comparing the performance of 3-year-olds on measures of false belief understanding with teacher ratings of certain of their social-emotional skills and behaviours. The intuitions guiding this exploratory effort were, not only that a working grasp of the possibility of false belief would prove broadly predictive of social-emotional maturity, but also that such associations would be missing in the specific case of those preschool behaviours largely governed by a simple mastery of social conventions. As a step toward evaluating these possibilities a group of 40 preschoolers were given a battery of six measures of false belief understanding. The preschool teachers of these same children then completed a 40-item questionnaire covering a wide variety of markers of social-emotional maturity. Half of these items (termed “Intentional”) featured behaviours and skills thought to require some measure of insight into the mental lives of others, whereas the remainder (termed “Conventional”) were meant to sample a less heady domain of abilities open to those with no more than a simple grasp of social conventions, or the exercise of self-control. Consistent with the view that individual differences in children's early false belief understanding would express themselves primarily in those areas least governed by heavily routinised social conventions, our own summary measure of false belief understanding correlated positively only with those behavioural items classified as “Intentional”.     

Establishing and maintaining an operant research facility with brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula)

The common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is a readily accessible marsupial that has been shown to adapt relatively well to captivity. The aim of this paper is to outline the husbandry procedures, experimental equipment, and methodologies used successfully within our possum colony since 1995.     

Management of extended-wear contact lenses in infant rhesus monkeys

Infant rhesus monkeys were fitted with extended-wear contact lenses (EWCLs) to correct surgically induced aphakia. The protocol that produced the most favorable experimental outcome, including good lens-wear compliance, involved: (1) custom-made EWCLs with parameters adjusted for each animal, (2) selection for study of neonates who seemed to tolerate EWCLs most naturally, (3) individual housing of monkeys, (4) lens check at 2-h intervals around the clock by trained personnel, (5) a large inventory of EWCLs for each animal, (6) periodic ophthalmologic examinations, and (7) darkroom housing of monkeys during treatment of lens-wear-related incidents. The EWCL is a new tool for studies of the visual system and is a useful complement to existing experimental techniques.     

The incidence of stressful life events of elementary school-aged children

Certain events, commonly found in the life histories of children, have been characterized as potentially stressful (Rutter, 1981). There is some evidence to support the hypothesis that these events play a role in the etiology of various disorders, although the nature of that relationship is not clear (Dohrenwend & Dohrenwend, 1974). Yet that relationship remains the subject of considerable interest, as can be seen by the number of studies on the influence of stressful life events on children's emotional adjustment and school performance (Boike, Gesten, Cowen, Felner, & Francis, 1978; Felner, Ginter, Boike, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1981; Felner, Stolberg, & Cowen, 1975; Gesten, Scher, & Cowen, 1978; Rolf & Garmezy, 1974; Sandler & Block, 1979; Siegel, 1981). Sandler and Ramsey (1980) have suggested that the role of life events as stressors can be understood to be a function of, among other things, the frequency of occurrence of events. For research and clinical assessment purposes, baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children seem to be necessary. In order to collect and organize baseline data, the relevant demographic variables must be identified. It was hypothesized that there might be two relevant demographic variables: age and socioeconomic status (SES). The purposes of this study were to (a) conduct a survey to gather baseline data on the incidence of stressful life events of children, and (b) examine the effects of age and SES on the number of events reported.     

Out of Season: Illness in Adolescent Fiction

The young adult novel is aimed at a carefully defined target market, often focused on a predictable range of issues. Where illness and death are the theme, the process of growing up is more dramatically defined. Young people who suffer or watch a family member suffer a serious illness find their stages of moral development disrupted, their values reorganized, and emerging sexual interests submerged under more insistent demands. The books discussed in this article are not formula novels, but complex tales with interesting subplots and characters. Notable features common to them are as follows: 1) strategies of normalization, 2) abandonment and alienation, 3) unexpected emotions, 4) extra-familial support, 5) other people's problems, and 6) God, meaning, and hope.     

Counseling for Spiritual Wellness: Theory and Practice

Spiritual wellness is an emerging area of interest in counseling. It still lacks clarity, however, in definition and application. To increase familiarity with and encourage counselor intervention regarding the spiritual dimension, the authors of this article attempt to define more clearly the concept of spiritual health and to describe ways to use techniques for the enhancement of spiritual wellness and the advancement of spiritual development.     

Everyday Impact of Cognitive Interventions in Mild Cognitive Impairment: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Cognitive interventions in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) seek to ameliorate cognitive symptoms in the condition. Cognitive interventions may or may not generalize beyond cognitive outcomes to everyday life. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to assess the effect of cognitive interventions compared to a control group in MCI on generalizability outcome measures [activities of daily living (ADLs), mood, quality of life (QOL), and metacognition] rather than cognitive outcomes alone. PRISMA guidelines were followed. MEDLINE and PsychInfo were utilized as data sources to locate references related to cognitive interventions in individuals with MCI. The cognitive intervention study was required to have a control or alternative treatment comparison group to be included. Thirty articles met criteria, including six computerized cognitive interventions, 14 therapist-based interventions, and 10 multimodal (i.e., cognitive intervention plus an additional intervention) studies. Small, but significant overall median effects were seen for ADLs (d = 0.23), mood (d = 0.16), and metacognitive outcomes (d = 0.30), but not for QOL (d = 0.10). Computerized studies appeared to benefit mood (depression, anxiety, and apathy) compared to controls, while therapist-based interventions and multimodal interventions had more impact on ADLs and metacognitive outcomes than control conditions. The results are encouraging that cognitive interventions in MCI may impact everyday life, but considerably more research is needed. The current review and meta-analysis is limited by our use of only PsychInfo and MEDLINE databases, our inability to read full text non-English articles, and our reliance on only published data to complete effect sizes.     

Bridge Building and Other Possible Metaphors for Patching Over Discrepancies Between Typical and Atypical Development

The next several pages are intended as a Commentary on the six target articles bundled together as a Special Issue of the Journal of Cognition and Development — literature reviews and research reports all intended to “build bridges” between the study of cognitive development in typical and atypical populations.     

How Readability Shapes Social Media Engagement

We suggest that text readability plays an important role in driving consumer engagement on social media. Consistent with a processing fluency account, we find that easy‐to‐read posts are more liked, commented on, and shared on social media. We analyze over 4,000 Facebook posts from Humans of New York, a popular photography blog on social media, over a 3‐year period to see how readability shapes social media engagement. The results hold when controlling for photo features, story valence, and other content‐related characteristics. Experimental findings further demonstrate the causal impact of readability and the processing fluency mechanism in the context of a fictitious brand community. This research articulates the impact of processing fluency on brief word‐of‐mouth transmissions in the real world while empirically demonstrating that readability as a message feature matters. It also extends the impact of processing fluency to a novel behavioral outcome: commenting and sharing actions.