Bilingualism and Creativity: Towards a Situated Cognition Approach

In this paper, the association between bilingualism and creativity is investigated. In the first part, the results of a literature review are reported. Previous research predominantly found that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on creativity tasks, which was explained by bilinguals’ enhanced executive functioning compared to monolinguals, and their experience with multiple cultures. Most previous research has examined the relationship between bilingualism and creativity within a psychological trait framework, which does not take into account that cognitive processes are regarded to be situated‐embodied, meaning that they are influenced by environmental factors, and by a person's perceptions of and actions towards these environmental factors. In the second part, we discuss an alternative approach, in which creativity can be defined as the emerging skill of an individual to discover affordances, to come up with creative ideas and products. Recommendations for future research are discussed as well.     

Meeting the emotional needs of infants and toddlers in foster care: The collaborative mental health care experience

This paper describes a partnership between an infant mental health consultation program and child welfare authorities, with a special focus on the use of a consultation model to support infants and toddlers in foster care. The authors describe a model of practice that incorporates the transactional model with a developmental perspective to help foster parents understand and address the emotional needs of these children. The clinical implications section reviews strategies for addressing attachment and relationship disturbances, promoting self‐regulation, and enhancing social competence in infants and young foster children.     

Long-term memory for categories and concepts in horses (Equus caballus)

Three horses (Equus caballus) with a history of performing cognitive tasks including discrimination learning, categorization, and concept use were tested to evaluate their long-term memory (LTM) in three experiments. In addition, use of LCD multi-displays for stimulus presentation was incorporated into cognition testing protocol for the first time with horses. Experiment 1 tested LTM for discrimination learning that originally occurred 6 years earlier. Five sets of stimuli were used and the two horses tested showed no decrement in performance on four of the sets; however, both horses did score below chance on one set. Experiment 2 examined long-term categorization recall 10 years after horses had demonstrated the ability to make stimulus selections based on shared characteristics within a given category. The horse tested for LTM after the decade-long interval immediately and consistently applied the previously learned categorization rule to not only familiar but also novel sets of stimuli. Experiment 3 tested another horse for LTM for a relative size concept. This horse had originally demonstrated concept rule use in order to select stimuli based on their relative size to one another. More than 7 years later and without further training, this horse reliably applied the previously established size concept to both familiar and novel sets of stimuli. These findings are the first reports of long-term categorical and conceptual memory in horses and are consistent with observations of domestic and wild horses, which indicate that behavioral and ecological events may be remembered for long periods of time. These studies also demonstrate the adaptive nature of horses with regard to their ability to generalize over several different testing conditions.     

Consultation with multidisciplinary teams: A program of development and improvement of team functioning

The purpose of this paper is to review a program designed to assist multidisciplinary teams engaged in screening and eligibility determination to assess their own functioning and set specific goals to improve their case handling procedures. The program was implemented in four elementary and one secondary school of a large suburban school district. In this paper, the approach is described and some preliminary data are provided on the usefulness of the program in assisting multidisciplinary teams to select and implement those changes which they feel will improve their case handling. Considerations for implementing the program on a district-wide basis are also noted.     

Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor     

Student mental health: A pilot study

In this country, little research has been undertaken into the difficulties faced by students and the contributory stressors. It is apparent that they have a lot with which to content. Identification of stressors, assessement of stress levels and consequences on mental health appear vital.A pilot study was undertaken of 40 studets: 10 males aged under 21 years, ten males 21–40 years, 10 females under the age of 21 and 10 females 21–40 years, The purpose was to identify the potential factors leading to student discontent, problems and stress. Students were in the professions allied to medicine. Oral semi-structured interviews and a written questionnaire were used. Results indicated that for students the major difficulties were coursework and emotional state. Finance was a recurring problem but not as troublesome to the students as the other two problems. What must be considered are ways to alleviate student unhappiness. Emphasis should be placed on prevention where possible. Ongoing counseling throughuot the educational years is desirable as are various programmes which address student concerns. Of particular value would be a Student Mental Health Service. ‘Unnecessary’ coursework could be an added burden.     

Recognition vs recall of visually vs acoustically confusable letter matrices

In an attempt to separate auditory and visual components in short-term memory, five subjects were exposed to letter matrices composed of six visually confusable letters, six acoustically confusable letters, or a mixture of the two, under two response conditions: recognition and recall. A 50-msec stimulus presentation was followed by a variable dark interval of 1, 250, 1,000, or 3,000 msec. In the recall condition, the interval was followed by a buzzer which signaled the subject to recall, in any order, as many letters as possible. In the recognition condition, the variable interval was followed by a second letter matrix which was either identical to the first matrix or differed from is by one letter. Subjects responded either "same" or "different." The results support the notion that the auditory component plays a major role in recall, whereas the visual component dominates in recognition.     

Experimentation on humans and nonhumans

In this article, I argue that it is wrong to conduct any experiment on a nonhuman which we would regard as immoral were it to be conducted on a human, because such experimentation violates the basic moral rights of sentient beings. After distinguishing the rights approach from the utilitarian approach, I delineate basic concepts. I then raise the classic “argument from marginal cases” against those who support experimentation on nonhumans but not on humans. After next replying to six important objections against that argument, I contend that moral agents are logically required to accord basic moral rights to every sentient being. I conclude by providing criteria for distinguishing ethical from unethical experimentation.     

Ethnic identity and mentoring among Latinas in professional roles

This study examined ethnic identity and mentoring (a known strategy to promote career success and advancement) in a sample of 103 Latina women with professional roles in the areas of business, academia, policy, and politics. Other variables examined included traditional gender roles and perceptions of professional success. Findings indicated that the women's ethnic identity was consistent with a bicultural profile; some received mentoring and, if given a choice, would prefer to be mentored by someone of similar ethnicity. This finding is critical and can allow researchers, service providers, and policy developers to apply culturally responsive strategies in communities and in organizations. Other hypotheses were not supported. A discussion of the findings, implications, and suggestions for future research are presented.