Contextology

Philosophical Studies - Contextology is the science of the dynamics of the conversational context. Contextology formulates laws governing how the shared information states of interlocutors evolve...     

The influence of televised models on toy preference in children

Eighteen boys and 18 girls aged 4–6 years viewed one of three videotapes in which fantasy characters used culturally stereotyped arguments to assign masculinity, femininity, or sex-role neutrality to a standard set of sex-neutral toys. After viewing the videotape, subjects were observed for 10 minutes in free play with the test toys and with a less attractive set of comparison toys which were not shown. The videotaped portrayal of sex appropriateness significantly affected toy choice. Children of both sexes spent more time playing with the test toys when they were identified as sex appropriate than with the comparison toys. When the test toys were identified as inappropriate for their sex, however, children spent more time playing with the less desirable comparison toys. The implications of these findings were discussed in light of media protrayal of male and female models.     

Effects of Training Method and Word Order on Adults’ Acquisition of Miniature Linguistic Systems

The Psychological Record - Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of training method, English vs. non-English syntax, and number of training items on the learning of two-word...     

Question-asking strategies after severe closed head injury.

This investigation examined problem solving behaviors in survivors of severe closed head injury. Fourteen patients and 10 neurologically intact controls were administered the Twenty Questions procedure, requiring them to guess items the examiner was thinking of in a picture array. Relative to controls, survivors required more trials to guess the items and utilized a strategy characterized by attention to the individual pictures rather than to their shared conceptual features. The importance of problem solving impairments to neurobehavioral outcome after head injury is discussed.