A STRUCTURE-MAPPING APPROACH TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Several contemporary theories of cognitive development appear to agree that children progress through a hierarchy of increasingly powerful cognitive organizations, and that higher-level organizations impose greater information-processing loads. Although theories differ in their method of defining both the levels and the information-processing loads they impose, it is possible to find considerable common ground. In this paper it is argued that the different levels of cognitive organization can be attributed to a hierarchy of structure-mapping rules. Structure mapping is part of the process by which children represent and understand concepts. Four levels of structure mapping are defined. The levels, from lowest to highest, are based on element mappings, relational mappings, system mappings and multiple-system mappings. The higher-level rules are more ‘abstract’ in the sense of being less dependent on specific properties of each task, and are more transferable. However, they also impose higher information-processing demands. Children who lack the information-processing capacity for a particular level of structure mapping will be able to attain concepts that belong to that level. The theory is used to predict the characteristic age of attainment of cognitive tasks including transitivity, classification, interpretation of algebraic expressions, analogies, logical reasoning, and hypothesis testing. It is argued that the four-structure mapping levels can subsume the four main stages of cognitive development.     

Islands of memory: Autobiographical remembering in amnestics

In amnestics with anterograde amnesia, memories of post-onset autobiographical experiences, if present at all, are typically barren and impoverished. However, there have been sporadic reports of islands of memory--memories that are vivid, detailed, and specific to time and place. The aim of this study was to verify the presence of such memories and examine their incidence rate. Anterograde amnestics were interviewed in their home using a narrative interviewing strategy with a view to describing memory in everyday life. Each autobiographical memory of a post-onset event was coded for quantity-length, and quality-episodicity. In just over half of the amnestics (8 out of 14), a memory that was lengthy, rich in personal details, and localisable was recollected. The quantitative and qualitative aspects of these island memories were significantly different from the other autobiographical memories that the amnestics supplied. These memories were at odds with what would be expected on the basis of their performance on standardised memory instruments. Our findings suggest there is occasionally more variability in remembering of autobiographical experiences in some amnestics than has traditionally been believed.     

Induction of Relational Schemas: Common Processes in Reasoning and Complex Learning

Five experiments were performed to test whether participants induced a coherent representation of the structure of a task, called a relational schema, from specific instances. Properties of a relational schema include: An explicit symbol for a relation, a binding that preserves the truth of a relation, potential for higher-order relations, omnidirectional access, potential for transfer between isomorphs, and ability to predict unseen items in isomorphic problems. However relational schemas are not necessarily coded in abstract form. Predictions from relational schema theory were contrasted with predictions from configural learning and other nonstructural theories in five experiments in which participants were taught a structure comprised of a set of initial-state,operator → end-state instances. The initial-state,operator pairs were presented and participants had to predict the correct end-state. Induction of a relational schema was achieved efficiently by adult participants as indicated by ability to predict items of a new isomorphic problem. The relational schemas induced showed the omnidirectional access property, there was efficient transfer to isomorphs, and structural coherence had a powerful effect on learning. The “learning to learn” effect traditionally associated with the learning set literature was observed, and the long-standing enigma of learning set acquisition is explained by a model composed of relational schema induction and structure mapping. Performance was better after reversal of operators than after shift to an alternate structure, even though the latter entailed more overlap with previously learned tasks in terms of the number of configural associations that were preserved. An explanation for the reversal shift phenomenon in terms of induction and mapping of a relational schema is proposed. The five experiments provided evidence supporting predictions from relational schema theory, and no evidence was found for configural or nonstructural learning theories.     

On the representation of events: a study of orientation, recall, and recognition

Examined the representation of real-world events in memory as a function of orientation toward a videotaped sequence in which 2 people play a board game. In 4 experiments, analyzed subjects' segmentation of the videotaped sequence into events, using a technique developed by Newtson (1973). A comparison of segmentation patterns with performance on recognition, recall, and cued-recall tasks indicated that recall of events changed as a function of subjects' orientation toward the videotape, whereas recognition of events did not. The authors conclude that orientation toward an episodic sequence affects how rather than what events are represented in memory. An account of how orientation might affect the encoding and the representation of events is offered.     

Recognition and recall in amnesics

Although there is considerable agreement that performance in direct memory tasks (e.g., recall, recognition) is more disrupted by amnesia than performance in indirect memory tasks (e.g., mirror reading, word completion), one may be able to further circumscribe the deficit within the domain of direct memory tasks. The present article explores whether recall is disproportionately disrupted by amnesia compared to recognition. If amnesia affects memory uniformly across different direct memory measures, recall of normal controls should not differ from the recall of amnesics when recognition scores of these two groups are equated. On the other hand, if recall is disproportionately disrupted, normal recall should be superior to amnesic recall even when recognition is equated. The present study equated amnesic recognition with that of controls by providing amnesics with 8 s of study time and normal subjects with 0.5 s. Amnesics with Korsakoff's syndrome, amnesics with other etiologies, and appropriate controls were examined. Normal recall was superior to amnesic recall even when no differences were found in recognition. The results further specify the selective nature of amnesia.     

The Problem of Religious Language ‘Look at it this way’ (Wittgenstein)*

This essay is critical of some of the attempts made to solve problems of meaning in religious languages, but remains open-minded about them and accepts the Wittgensteinian invitation to look at their dissolution by way of the experiences of meaning and the aspects of language on which they rely. I have argued that there were and are no lasting problems with religious language per se and that the force and meaning of what is said in using religious language over time and circumstance may vary even to the point of having to retrieve concepts feared lost. We may in addition give ourselves our own personal interpretations by which we want to live and discuss with those in our space of reasons where good conversation is ever an inexhaustible provision on the way to enlightened understanding. Furthermore, we are not merely passive recipients of the meanings and significance of the languages we know. Finally, much of the meaning of religious language comes with the experience of being struck again by what has always been loved and by new aspects of, or different ways of taking, what is presented.     

Relational processing following stroke

The research examined relational processing following stroke. Stroke patients (14 with frontal, 30 with non-frontal lesions) and 41 matched controls completed four relational processing tasks: sentence comprehension, Latin square matrix completion, modified Dimensional Change Card Sorting, and n-back. Each task included items at two or three levels of relational complexity. Relational processing was impaired in the stroke groups. This was due mainly to items at the intermediate ternary-relational level of complexity. Less complex binary-relational items and more complex quaternary-relational items (the latter are difficult for adults generally) were less sensitive to stroke status. Impairment was greater in frontal than non-frontal stroke patients. Positive inter-correlations among measures supported the domain-general nature of relational processing. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.     

An assessment of Church life in Vietnam

Biblia: Válogatás a Vizsolyi Bibliábol (Bible: Selections from the Vizsoly Bible) compiled by István Vas. Budapest: Európa könyvkiadó, 1986. 933 pp. 125 Ft.

Vallási kisközösségek Magyarországon (Small Religious Communities in Hungary ) by József Fodor. Budapest: Magyar Média, n.d. Paperback, 168 pp.

The Struggles for Poland by Neal Ascherson. London: Michael Joseph, 1987. 242 pp, £14·95.

Human Rights in Yugoslavia edited by Oskar Gruenwald and Karen Rosenblum‐Cale. Los Angeles: Institute for Interdisciplinary Research; New York: Irvington Publishers, 1986. 673 pp.

?rtve Drugog Svetskog Rata u Jugoslaviji (Victims of the Second World War in Yugoslavia) by Bogoljub Ko?ovi?. London: Biblioteka Na?e Delo, 1985. 205 pp. Include English and French summaries

The Churches of China by Britt E. Towery, Jr. Revised and enlarged second edition. Waco, Texas: Long Dragon Books, 1987. 300 pp.

Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan by Olivier Roy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Paperback, 254 pp.

Ioann XXIII ‐ Pobornik edinstva khristian (John XXIII: Bringer of Christian Unity) by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod Vienna: Pro Oriente, 1984. 656 pp.

A Radiance in the Gulag by Nijole Sadunaite. Translated by Rev. Casimir Pugevi?ius and Marian Skabeikis. Manassas, Virginia: Trinity Communications, 1987. Paperback, 148 pp. English printing planned for January 1988.

Book note

Der Geistliche und seine Gemeinde in Osteuropa (The Priest and his Parish in Eastern Europe) edited by Wolfgang Kasack. Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 1986. Paperback, 160 pp.     

Attention and Executive Function Deficits in Adolescent Sex Offenders

Thirty male adolescent sex offenders and 20 age-matched male adolescents completed an extensive battery of attention and executive function tests. Controls were obtained from adolescents from a socially and economically deprived background, typical of the offending group. The attention battery was based on Mirksy, Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, and Kellam (1991) and the executive function battery on Kelly (2000a). Successful matching for IQ was not achieved and therefore ANCOVA comparisons were made between the groups, with IQ as the covariate. In attention a highly significant difference was found on the focus-execute factor and a significant difference on the shift factor. In executive function there was a highly significant difference only on the response speed factor. In all cases better abilities were demonstrated by the control group. The importance of thorough neuropsychological investigation in the clinical assessment of this forensic group is supported. The clinical implications of neuropsychological deficits in terms of risk assessment and clinical management are discussed.