Think3d!: Training Spatial Thinking Fundamental to STEM Education

This article describes the initial implementation of an innovative program for elementary-age children involving origami and pop-up paper engineering to promote visuospatial thinking. While spatial ability measures correlate with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) success, a focus on spatial thinking is all but missing in elementary school education. Fourth-grade students took part in the program and then completed spatial thinking assessments or completed the assessments prior to program participation. All students completed assessments at three points in time—before, during, and after the intervention. Results suggest the program's promise in promoting spatial thinking, showing both spatial thinking gains and extensive engagement in the program. Questionnaire responses suggest the program may have particular appeal for girls, which could play a role in reducing gender disparities in spatial reasoning and in situations where spatial thinking can be applied.     

Earliest Memories and Recent Memories of Highly Salient Events—Are They Similar?

Four- to 11-year-old children were interviewed about 2 different sorts of memories in the same home visit: recent memories of highly salient and stressful events—namely, injuries serious enough to require hospital emergency room treatment—and their earliest memories. Injury memories were scored for amount of unique information, completeness vis-à-vis a standardized injury prototype, and accuracy. Earliest memories were scored for amount of unique information, how old children had been at the time of their earliest memory, and time between their earliest memory and current age. Correlational and regression analyses showed that the 2 types of memory reports demonstrated considerable similarity in terms of unique information and completeness. Specifically, children with the most informative earliest memories had more informative as well as more complete free recalls of injury events. Such relationships between both sorts of memories suggest similar underlying processes at work when children produce memory reports, even when the length, structure, coherence, and content of those memories is about as divergent as one can imagine.     

A Gunk-Friendly Maxcon

Hud Hudson has argued that if MaxCon, Ned Markosian's favoured answer to the Simple Question, is true, then there couldn't be gunky objects. If Hudson's argument succeeds, then those who believe that gunky objects are possible have a good reason to reject MaxCon. However, I show that Hudson's argument relies on substantive metaphysical claims that a proponent of MaxCon need not accept. Thus, one who endorses MaxCon need not reject the possibility of gunky objects and those who believe that gunky objects are possible need not reject MaxCon.     

Decomposing the within-person and between-person sources of variation in physical activity-cognition associations for low-active older adults

Abstract

Objectives: To examine within-person and between-person sources of variation in the relationship between physical activity and cognition in older adults participating in a walking program. To explore whether demographic, health and fitness variables, and their interactions with activity, are significant predictors of cognition.

Design: Brief longitudinal burst design.

Participants: 118 participants (91 females, mean age?=?72.81?+ 5.24 years).

Main Outcome Measures: Cognition, self-reported moderate-to-vigorous walking and self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were assessed at baseline and 6, 9, 12 and 16 weeks follow-up. Attendance at weekly walks was also recorded.

Results: Within-persons, changes in physical activity were related to select measures of executive functioning, with increased activity predictive of better cognition (three of four cognitive functions, p<.05). Between-persons, activity was also associated with cognition (two of four cognitive functions, p<.05). Younger age and higher education were related to better cognition. Interactions of demographic, health, and fitness variables with changes in within-person activity were generally non-significant.

Conclusion: The results highlight the importance of distinguishing within- from between-person effects in longitudinal analyses of the association between physical activity and cognition. This stringent within-person test of association underscores the potential value of simple physical activity interventions for improving cognitive function.     

The Relationship of Suicidal Ideation to Objective and Subjective Executive Functioning

Prior research on executive ability and suicidal ideation (SI) has frequently failed to account for either symptom or performance validity. Similarly, studies have not adequately examined both objective performance on executive tests and subjective report of executive deficits in relationship to SI. The purpose of this study was to address these gaps in research by accounting for performance validity, symptom validity, and considering self-reported executive complaints with objective performance. We hypothesized that (a) increases in self-reported SI on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991 Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory: Professional manual. Tampa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. [Google Scholar]) Suicidal Ideation subscale would be related to poorer performance on objective and subjective tests of executive function and (b) level of self-reported depressive symptoms would moderate the relationship between SI and measures of executive function, such that individuals with higher levels of both depressive symptoms and executive dysfunction would be more likely to experience higher levels of SI. No measure of executive function was related to SI when accounting for demographic variables and depressive symptoms. Wisconsin Card Sort Test categories completed was the only measure of executive function to interact significantly with depressive symptoms to predict SI (β = .43). Of particular note, self-reported executive dysfunction was highly correlated with Beck Depression Inventory?II ( Beck, Steer, &; Brown, 1996 Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., &; Brown, G. K. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation. [Google Scholar]) scores (r = .78). Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.     

The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to PTSD,Depression, Poly-Drug Use and Suicide Attempt in Reservation-Based Native American Adolescents and Young Adults

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with numerous risk behaviors and mental health outcomes among youth. This study examines the relationship between the number of types of exposures to ACEs and risk behaviors and mental health outcomes among reservation‐based Native Americans. In 2011, data were collected from Native American (N = 288; 15–24 years of age) tribal members from a remote plains reservation using an anonymous web‐based questionnaire. We analyzed the relationship between six ACEs, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, witness to intimate partner violence, for those <18 years, and included historical loss associated symptoms, and perceived discrimination for those <19 years; and four risk behavior/mental health outcomes: post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression symptoms, poly‐drug use, and suicide attempt. Seventy‐eight percent of the sample reported at least one ACE and 40 % reported at least two. The cumulative impact of the ACEs were significant (p < .001) for the four outcomes with each additional ACE increasing the odds of suicide attempt (37 %), poly‐drug use (51 %), PTSD symptoms (55 %), and depression symptoms (57 %). To address these findings culturally appropriate childhood and adolescent interventions for reservation‐based populations must be developed, tested and evaluated longitudinally.     

“Insight” in pigeons: absence of means–end processing in displacement tests

The understanding of functional relations between action and consequence is a critical component of intelligence. To examine this linkage in pigeons, we investigated their understanding of the relations of the elements tested in an extension of Köhler’s box stacking task to this species. In the experiments, the pigeons had to move a spatially displaced box under an out-of-reach target. Experiment 1 successfully replicated and extended the previous finding showing that when separately trained to move a box and stand on it to peck the target, pigeons can synthesize these behaviors to solve the single-box displacement problem quickly on their first attempt. Experiment 2 tested whether pigeons, when given a simultaneous choice between two boxes with identical reinforcement histories, would selectively choose the box with the correct functional affordance (i.e., permitting standing) to solve the problem rather than a non-functional one. Their extensive, equivalent, and undirected behavior in moving both boxes during these tests suggests the pigeons did not possess a means–end understanding of the functional properties of the boxes. Instead, their results were consistent with an analysis of their earlier synthetic behavior as being due to the temporal and spatial relations of the physical elements in the task and their prior learned behaviors.     

Linking Crimes Using Behavioural Clues: Current Levels of Linking Accuracy and Strategies for Moving Forward

The number of published studies examining crime linkage analysis has grown rapidly over the last decade, to the point where a special issue of this journal has recently been dedicated to the topic. Many of these studies have used a particular measure (the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, or the AUC) to quantify the degree to which it is possible to link crimes. This article reviews studies that have utilised the AUC and examines how good we are currently at linking crimes (within the context of these research studies) and what factors impact linking accuracy. The results of the review suggest that, in the majority of cases, moderate levels of linking accuracy are achieved. Of the various factors that have been examined that might impact linking accuracy, the three factors that appear to have the most significant impact are crime type, behavioural domain, and jurisdiction. We discuss how generalisable these results are to naturalistic investigative settings. We also highlight some of the important limitations of the linking studies that we reviewed and offer up some strategies for moving this area of research forward. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive Psychology and Attachment: Positive Affect as a Mediator of Developmental Outcomes

Fredrickson’s (1998) broaden-and-build model and Bowlby’s (1969) attachment theory provide alternate explanations for positive cognitive, social, physical, and psychological outcomes, positive affect and secure attachments, respectively. This study examined whether affect mediates the relationship between attachment and positive outcomes. The sample consisted of 99 undergraduate students from a small, public liberal arts college in the mid-Atlantic region. For people high in attachment anxiety, but not those high in attachment avoidance, affect partially mediated social and psychological outcomes and fully mediated health outcomes. People who scored high in attachment anxiety reported less positive affect and more negative affect, which results in poorer social, physical, and psychological outcomes than those with lower levels of attachment anxiety. Perhaps children with caregivers who are more responsive to their needs experience more positive affect; and, it is the experience of positive affect that yields developmental advantages.