The naming of objects and symbols by children and aphasic patients

Three studies of naming in children and in aphasic patients were conducted in order to determine the kinds of errors made in the naming of objects, parts of objects, and various kinds of symbols, and to evaluate the contribution of operativity to the ease of naming such elements. Operativity refers to the extent to which elements can be transformed and involved in a variety of sensory and motor schemes. It was found that operativity of depicted elements makes a significant contribution to ease of naming for both groups of subjects. However, children and aphasic patients made different types of naming errors. In the case of naming of symbols, the categories easiest for aphasics to name proved the most difficult for children to name. It is suggested that the partial loss of an acquired ability can produce a different clinical picture than the partial acquisition of that ability in the normal child. The concept of operativity may be a less useful concept in the relatively figurative domain of symbols.The research cited in this report was supported in part by Harvard Project Zero (through Grant No. GB-31064 from the National Science Foundation), the Livingston Fund, and the Milton Fund of Harvard University.     

Parent Perception of Retarded Child's Intelligence

A dual evaluation technique exposed measurable and identifiable discrepancies between a retarded child's functioning as measured by standardized tests and the parental perception of that functioning. The sample consisted of 25 mothers and their children ranging in age from 3½ years to 15½ years. The Revised Stanford-Binet was employed for both parent and child. The examiner preceded the administration of the Binet to the mother with an explanation that she was to answer the questions and perform the required tasks in the exact manner she thought her child would respond. The test was administered and scored according to standardized procedures. Although the difference between the two sets of IQ scores was statistically significant, and the hypothesis that mothers would tend to over-estimate their children's intelligence scores was confirmed, the difference was not as great as might be expected from results of previous studies.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Birth Weight and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

A large body of work has investigated the association between birth weight and ADHD and has resulted in mixed findings with regard to the direction and magnitude of this association. Despite the vast amount of research on this topic, a comprehensive and systematic quantification of the association between birth weight and ADHD has yet to be undertaken. A meta-analysis of 88 unique studies (N?=?4,645,482) was conducted to quantify the overall effect size of birth weight on ADHD symptoms. Several variables were examined as moderators that may contribute to systematic variation in effect sizes. Overall, birth weight was found to have a small, but significant, association with ADHD symptoms such that individuals born at lower birth weights manifested greater symptoms of ADHD (r?=??0.15). Sample type, mean birth weight of the sample, geographic region, the informant of ADHD symptoms, ADHD symptom measurement method, and race were all found to contribute significantly to heterogeneity in effect sizes. Notably, several early life risk factors previously found to be associated with both ADHD and birth weight, gestational age and prenatal smoking exposure, were not found to contribute to heterogeneity in effect sizes. The findings of the current analyses align with the growing recognition that early life adversity contributes to neurodevelopmental difficulties, and the findings highlight the importance of a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between early life risk factors and adverse neurodevelopmental sequela, such as that observed in ADHD.     

Sex-specific cognitive–behavioural profiles emerging from individual variation in numerosity discrimination in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gambusia affinis</Emphasis>

The relationship between an individual’s cognitive abilities and other behavioural attributes is complex, yet critical to understanding how individual differences in cognition arise. Here we use western mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, to investigate the relationship between individual associative learning performance in numerical discrimination tests and independent measures of activity, exploration, anxiety and sociability. We found extensive and highly repeatable inter-individual variation in learning performance (r = 0.89; ICC = 0.89). Males and females exhibited similar learning performance, yet differed in sociability, activity and their relationship between learning and anxiety/exploration tendencies. Sex-specific multivariate behaviour scores successfully predicted variation in individual learning performance, whereas combined sex analyses did not. Female multivariate behaviour scores significantly predict learning performance across females (ρ = 0.80, p = 0.005) with high-performing female learners differentiated from female non-learners and low-performing learners by significant contributions of activity and sociability measures. Meanwhile, males of different learning performance levels (high-, low- and non-learners) were distinguished from each other by unique behavioural loadings of sociability, activity and anxiety/exploration scores, respectively. Our data suggest that despite convergence on learning performance, the sexes diverge in cognitive–behavioural relationships that are likely products of different sexual selection pressures.     

A Brilliant but Frosty Solution: Frozen® as an Allegory for the Central Relational Paradox

This article contains a review of Frozen, the animated Disney film about a princess who later becomes a queen, with magical powers that allow her to create ice and snow. The author demonstrates how the film clearly illustrates several important principles from the perspective of relational-cultural theory (RCT), namely connection, disconnection, and the central relational paradox. Elsa’s character development is explored through the RCT lens, particularly the dilemma she faces with regard to how to remain authentic to her unique identity while also maintaining relationships. Implications and suggestions are offered to counselors and counselor educators for how to use these examples in clinical and educational settings.