The acquisition of scientific knowledge: the influence of methods of questioning and analysis on the interpretation of children's conceptions of the earth

Studies of children's knowledge of the Earth have led to very different conclusions: some appear to show that children construct their own, non‐scientific ‘theories’ (mental models) of the flat, hollow or dual Earth. Others indicate that many young children have some understanding of the spherical (scientific) Earth, and that their knowledge lacks the coherence of mental models. The reasons for these contrasting views were tested by interviewing French children (N = 178) aged 5–11 years and varying the different methods used in previous research, namely the types of questions (open and forced‐choice), the form of representation (two‐dimensional pictures and three‐dimensional models), and the method of analysis (the mental model theorists' coding scheme and a statistical test for associations using MANOVA). Forced‐choice questions resulted in higher proportions of scientific answers than open questions, and children appeared to have naïve mental models of the Earth only when the mental model theorists' coding scheme was used. These findings support the view that children tend to have ‘fragments’ of scientific knowledge, and that naïve mental models of the Earth are methodological artifacts. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Participation des familles immigrantes à l’école: points de vue des parents congolais à Edmonton (Alberta)

Economic development in Alberta during the last decade has attracted a large number of immigrant families to the province. It is important to understand the role that immigrant parents play on the schooling process of their children. The objective of this study was to identify factors limiting the involvement of some immigrant parents in their children’s education. Field data describe how parents perceive their relationship with school teachers.     

Virtual/real transfer of spatial knowledge: benefit from visual fidelity provided in a virtual environment and impact of active navigation

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect the visual fidelity of a virtual environment (VE) (undetailed vs. detailed) has on the transfer of spatial knowledge based on the navigation mode (passive vs. active) for three different spatial recall tasks (wayfinding, sketch mapping, and picture sorting). Sixty-four subjects (32 men and 32 women) participated in the experiment. Spatial learning was evaluated by these three tasks in the context of the Bordeaux district. In the wayfinding task, the results indicated that the detailed VE helped subjects to transfer their spatial knowledge from the VE to the real world, irrespective of the navigation mode. In the sketch-mapping task, the detailed VE increased performances compared to the undetailed VE condition, and allowed subjects to benefit from the active navigation. In the sorting task, performances were better in the detailed VE; however, in the undetailed version of the VE, active learning either did not help the subjects or it even deteriorated their performances. These results are discussed in terms of appropriate perceptive-motor and/or spatial representations for each spatial recall task.     

Can we see syllables in monosyllabic words? A study with illusory conjunctions

Mathey, Zagar, Doignon, and Seigneuric (2006) reported an inhibitory effect of syllabic neighbourhood in monosyllabic French words suggesting that syllable units mediate the access to lexical representations of monosyllabic stimuli. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the perception of syllable units in monosyllabic stimuli. The illusory conjunction paradigm was used to examine perceptual groupings of letters. Experiment 1 showed that potential syllables in monosyllabic French words (e.g., BI in BICHE) affected the pattern of illusory conjunctions. Experiment 2 indicated that the perceptual parsing in monosyllabic items was due to syllable information and orthographic redundancy. The implications of the data are discussed for visual word recognition processes in an interactive activation model incorporating syllable units and connected adjacent letters (IAS; Mathey et al., 2006).     

The discriminative validity of a phallometric test for pedophilic interests among adolescent sex offenders against children

The authors examined the responses of adolescent sex offenders against children on a phallometric test of pedophilic interests. Participants were 40 adolescent sex offenders against children, 75 young adult sex offenders against children, and 39 young adult comparison participants. The responses of adolescents with female victims resembled those of comparison participants; adolescents with any male victims had larger relative responses to child stimuli than comparison participants. Young adult offenders, regardless of victim sex, had larger relative responses to child stimuli than comparison participants. Using a cut score of 0 (indicating equal or greater arousal to children than to adults), sensitivity was 42% for adolescents with any male victims, and specificity was 92% for the comparison participants. Results suggest phallometric testing can identify pedophilic interests among these adolescent sex offenders.     

Psychometric qualities of the German version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS)

In the present study, the psychometric properties of the German version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PTDS; A. Ehlers, R. Steil, H. Winter, & E. B. Foa, 1996) were evaluated in a sample of 143 trauma survivors. To investigate convergent and discriminant validity of this questionnaire, the authors assessed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression symptoms, and social phobia. Internal consistencies of the PTDS and its subscales as well as their association with related measures show that the German PTDS is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of posttraumatic stress symptoms. A 3-factor structure was found that is, however, not exactly in concordance with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) formulation (Reexperiencing, Avoidance, and Hyperarousal) but rather comprises a Reexperiencing/Avoidance factor; an Emotional Numbing/Hyperarousal factor; and a 3rd factor, consisting of Hypervigilance and an Exaggerated Startle Response. The findings are discussed with respect to their equivalency to the original PTDS, core symptoms of PTSD, and desirable future research.     

Retrospective assessment of childhood sexual and physical abuse: a comparison of scaled and behaviorally specific approaches

This study compared retrospective reports of childhood sexual and physical abuse as assessed by two measures: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), which uses a Likert-type scaling approach, and the Computer Assisted Maltreatment Inventory (CAMI), which employs a behaviorally specific means of assessment. Participants included 1,195 undergraduate students recruited from three geographically diverse universities. Agreement was high across the two measures in the classification of victim status (92% and 80% for sexual and physical abuse, respectively). However, the CTQ classified more participants as sexually abused than did the CAMI, whereas the opposite trend was found for physical abuse. For child physical abuse, many participants reporting abusive acts on the CAMI scored below the cut-point for physical abuse on the CTQ. Classification differences for both types of abuse were largely unrelated to demographic factors, socially desirable responding, or self-reported withholding of information. The implications of these results are discussed in light of future research using retrospective methods of assessing childhood abuse.     

A computational model for simulating text comprehension

In the present article, we outline the architecture of a computer program for simulating the process by which humans comprehend texts. The program is based on psycholinguistic theories about human memory and text comprehension processes, such as the construction-integration model (Kintsch, 1998), the latent semantic analysis theory of knowledge representation (Landauer & Dumais, 1997), and the predication algorithms (Kintsch, 2001; Lemaire & Bianco, 2003), and it is intended to help psycholinguists investigate the way humans comprehend texts.     

Sound level of background music and alcohol consumption: an empirical evaluation

The effect of background music on alcohol consumption has been widely researched in the literature, but few studies have tested the effect of sound level on drinking behavior. An experiment was carried out in two bars to test patrons' response to music's loudness. Using random assignment, patrons were exposed to a sound level which was higher than that usually employed in the bars in which the study took place. Analysis showed that a higher sound level than usual was associated with consuming more drinks. An "arousal" hypothesis is used to explain the findings.