Using deferred imitation to understand the process of change in infant memory development

In their commentaries, Carver, Richmond and DeBoer pose several challenging and insightful questions in response to our target article. Two key themes emerged from their commentaries, which are important in the field of infant memory research. The first concerns the use of deferred imitation as a paradigm, and its relationship to other methods of assessing infant cognition. The second concerns understanding the process of change observed in infant memory. How do maturation and experience interact to produce developmental change, and what theories can best account for changes in representational flexibility in early infancy? We will address each area and the implications these questions have for the direction of future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

区分的终结

形而上学或哲学的终结在后现代是一个时髦的口号,但博德尔认为,对它的意义不能从消极的角度来理解。因为哲学与理性分不开,而哲学的历史是理性自身的发展史,理性这个整体有开端、中间和终结,所以,形而上学或哲学的终结应看成是理性自身的完满或圆寂,每一个时代终结于智慧赋予它的任务的完满的实现。因此,与现当代的许多激进的宣称哲学之死的人不同,博德尔主张对完成其使命的形而上学或哲学应表示敬意和礼赞,然后向它告别。     

A stronger latent‐variable methodology to actual–ideal discrepancy

We introduce a latent actual–ideal discrepancy (LAID) approach based on structural equation models (SEMs) with multiple indicators and empirically weighted variables. In Study 1, we demonstrate with simulated data, the superiority of a weighted approach to discrepancy in comparison to a classic unweighted one. In Study 2, we evaluate the effects of actual and ideal appearance on physical self‐concept and self‐esteem. Actual appearance contributes positively to physical self‐concept and self‐esteem, whereas ideal appearance contributes negatively. In support of multidimensional perspective, actual‐ and ideal‐appearance effects on self‐esteem are substantially—but not completely—mediated by physical self‐concept. Whereas this pattern of results generalises across gender and age, multiple‐group invariance tests show that the effect of actual appearance on physical self‐concept is larger for women than for men. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flow and regulatory compatibility: an experimental approach to the flow model of intrinsic motivation

The authors propose that the experience of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) as reflected in the deep involvement in an activity perceived as intrinsically rewarding represents a regulatory compatibility experience. The research addresses the notion that the compatibility of critical person (e.g., skills) and environmental factors (e.g., demands) involved in a given activity elicits subjective experiences that render the respective activity rewarding. Two studies are reported that investigate the consequences of compatibility of skills and task demands during task engagement. Departing from correlational research, the present studies employ a newly developed experimental paradigm to document the causal impact of such a skills/demands compatibility on the emergence of flow. Experiment 2 revealed that individuals characterized by a strong habitual action-orientation were most sensitive to the manipulation of the skills-demands compatibility.     

The multilevel latent covariate model: a new, more reliable approach to group-level effects in contextual studies

In multilevel modeling (MLM), group-level (L2) characteristics are often measured by aggregating individual-level (L1) characteristics within each group so as to assess contextual effects (e.g., group-average effects of socioeconomic status, achievement, climate). Most previous applications have used a multilevel manifest covariate (MMC) approach, in which the observed (manifest) group mean is assumed to be perfectly reliable. This article demonstrates mathematically and with simulation results that this MMC approach can result in substantially biased estimates of contextual effects and can substantially underestimate the associated standard errors, depending on the number of L1 individuals per group, the number of groups, the intraclass correlation, the sampling ratio (the percentage of cases within each group sampled), and the nature of the data. To address this pervasive problem, the authors introduce a new multilevel latent covariate (MLC) approach that corrects for unreliability at L2 and results in unbiased estimates of L2 constructs under appropriate conditions. However, under some circumstances when the sampling ratio approaches 100%, the MMC approach provides more accurate estimates. Based on 3 simulations and 2 real-data applications, the authors evaluate the MMC and MLC approaches and suggest when researchers should most appropriately use one, the other, or a combination of both approaches.     

Academic buoyancy: Towards an understanding of students' everyday academic resilience

Academic buoyancy is developed as a construct reflecting everyday academic resilience within a positive psychology context and is defined as students' ability to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are typical of the ordinary course of school life (e.g., poor grades, competing deadlines, exam pressure, difficult schoolwork). Data were collected from 598 students in Years 8 and 10 at five Australian high schools. Half-way through the school year and then again at the end of the year, students were asked to rate their academic buoyancy as well as a set of hypothesized predictors (self-efficacy, control, academic engagement, anxiety, teacher-student relationship) in the area of mathematics. Multilevel modeling found that the bulk of variance in academic buoyancy was explained at the student level. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling showed that (a) Time 1 anxiety (negatively), self-efficacy, and academic engagement significantly predict Time 1 academic buoyancy; (b) Time 2 anxiety (negatively), self-efficacy, academic engagement, and teacher-student relationships explain variance in Time 2 academic buoyancy over and above that explained by academic buoyancy at Time 1; and (c) of the significant predictors, anxiety explains the bulk of variance in academic buoyancy.     

Development and learning: An historical perspective on acquisition of motor control

A historical overview on infant motor development is provided, using the concepts of learning and development as a vehicle to travel from Darwin, through the 20th century till today. The different theoretical perspectives are highlighted with attention to how the two concepts are treated.     

Inferring the importance of arguments: Order effects and conversational rules

This paper investigates order effects in one-sided and two-sided communications. While most theorizing attributes both primacy and recency effects to cognitive processes (e.g., attention decrement), we propose that, in addition, communicative aspects play a central role in the emergence of order effects. We postulate that individuals—drawing on conversational norms—hold expectations about the order in which arguments are presented. Depending on these expectations, arguments presented first or last will be highly influential. The results of three studies indicate that recipients hold such expectations, which lead to order effects. Arguments were most influential when they were presented at a position where participants expected the most important arguments. Moreover, these effects were eliminated when the applicability of participants’ expectations was experimentally reduced.