Fitting objects into holes: on the development of spatial cognition skills

The authors examined 14- to 26-month-old infants' understanding of the spatial relationships between objects and apertures in an object manipulation task. The task was to insert objects with various cross-sections (circular, square, rectangular, ellipsoid, and triangular) into fitting apertures. A successful solution required the infant to mentally rotate the object to be fit into the aperture and use that information to plan the action. The object was presented standing up in half of the trials; in the other half, it was lying down. The results showed that infants solved the problem consistently from age 22 months and that a successful solution was associated with appropriate preadjustments before the hand arrived with the block to the aperture. No sex differences were found.     

Depressive Realism: Wiser or Quieter?

The Psychological Record - Depressive realism consists of the lower personal control over uncontrollable events perceived by depressed as compared to nondepressed individuals. In this article, we...     

Attachment representations in mothers of preterm infants

The aim of the study was to assess attachment representations in mothers of preterm infants using the Working Model of Child Interview (WMCI) at the 12 months of the infant's corrected age. In addition, the relation between WMCI representation categories and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score at 6 months of the infant's corrected age was studied. There were 38 mothers of preterm infants (<1500 g or <32 gestational weeks) and 45 mothers of full-term infants. The results showed no differences between the study groups in the distribution of the three main representation categories (balanced, disengaged and distorted). However, there were qualitative differences in representations between the groups. Furthermore, maternal depression symptoms were associated with distorted representation category. We suggest that despite the qualitative differences in the mothers’ representations, mothers of preterm infants are as likely to form balanced attachments with their infants as mothers of full-term infants.     

Diagnosing students’ misconceptions in algebra: Results from an experimental pilot study

Computer-based diagnostic assessment systems hold potential to help teachers identify sources of poor performance and to connect teachers and students to learning activities designed to help advance students’ conceptual understandings. The present article presents findings from a study that examined how students’ performance in algebra and their overcoming of common algebraic misconceptions were affected by the use of a diagnostic assessment system that focused on important algebra concepts. This study used a four-group randomized cluster trial design in which teachers were assigned randomly to one of four groups: a “business as usual” control group, a partial intervention group that was provided with access to diagnostic tests results, a partial intervention group that was provided with access to the learning activities, and a full intervention group that was given access to the test results and learning activities. Data were collected from 905 students (6th–12th grade) nested within 44 teachers. We used hierarchical linear modeling techniques to compare the effects of full, partial, and no (control) intervention on students’ algebraic ability and misconceptions. The analyses indicate that full intervention had a net positive effect on ability and misconception measures.     

ILLUSION OF CONTROL:

Abstract— Experiments in which subjects are asked to analytically assess response-outcome relationships have frequently yielded accurate judgments of response-outcome independence, but more naturalistically set experiments in which subjects are instructed to obtain the outcome have frequently yielded illusions of control. The present research tested the hypothesis that a differential probability of responding p (R), between these two traditions could be at the basis of these different results. Subjects received response-independent outcomes and were instructed either to obtain the outcome (naturalistic condition) or to behave scientifically in order to find out how much control over the outcome was possible (analytic condition). Subjects in the naturalistic condition tended to respond at almost every opportunity and developed a strong illusion of control. Subjects in the analytic condition maintained their p (R) at a point close to 5 and made accurate judgments of control. The illusion of control observed in the naturalistic condition appears to be a collateral effect of a high tendency to respond in subjects who are trying to obtain an outcome, this tendency to respond prevents them from learning that the outcome would have occurred with the same probability if they had not responded.     

A partially ordered extention of the integers

This paper presents a monotonic system of Post algebras of order +* whose chain of Post constans is isomorphic with 012 ... -3-2-1. Besides monotonic operations, other unary operations are considered; namely, disjoint operations, the quasi-complement, succesor, and predecessor operations. The successor and predecessor operations are basic for number theory.The editing of this unified version of two previous papers [Epstein, Rasiowa 1990, 1991] by the authors was completed, except for footnotes, while the first author visited at Warsaw University during June–July, 1994. The footnotes were added by the first author in September, 1994.Presented byRyszard Wójcicki     

Multidimensional signal detection analyses (MSDA) for testing separability and independence: A Pascal program

A Pascal (Turbo 6.0) program for testing perceptual separability, decisional separability, and perceptual independence—three types of independence defined in the context of general recognition theory (GRT)—is presented. GRT is essentially a multidimensional extension of signal detectability theory (Green & Swets, 1966) and has been employed in complete-identification experimental paradigms to examine whether information processing of stimulus dimensions is perceptually and/or decisionally separable and/or perceptually independent. The definitions of these different forms of “independence” are provided, the experimental design is described, and the program, MSDA, is described and demonstrated.     

Sex-role preferences in four age levels

Brown's (1956a; 1956b) influential finding that girls of all ages exhibit masculine rather than feminine sex-role preferences has been challenged by the argument that the scale used in his studies—the It Scale for Children (ITSC)—is masculine biased. The present investigation reexamined this issue with an instrument designed to be free of the limitations inherent in the ITSC. Boys and girls from grades 2, 5, 8, and 11 examined drawings of activities scaled for sex-role stereotypy and selected those activities they would like to engage in. Consistent with Brown's earlier work, boys exhibited strong masculine preferences at all ages. Contrary to Brown, however, girls did not show similar masculine preferences. Instead, their choices reflected strong feminine preferences throughout the spectrum of ages tested.