Discussion

While in no way denying the interest of the study of “Theories of Mind”, the discussion tends to show that, in the tasks described in the papers, the development of abilities to process perceptual and verbal information is sufficient in itself to fully account for changes in observed responses. Whether the issue is false beliefs or the distinction between appearance and reality, children's behavior is highly dependent on their working memory span, their operational efficiency (action coordination) and their current state of knowledge. “Theories of Mind” emerge as indices of cognitive development. Their adaptive value is more problematical.     

Emergent conditional discrimination in children: Matching to compound stimuli

This study reports two experiments that first taught preschool children identity-matching to compound sample and compound comparison stimuli. A compound stimulus consisted of a colour and a form superimposed on one another. Test sessions assessed whether children related the form and colour elements of a particular compound stimulus. The test for this was matching to sample in which an arbitrary conditional discrimination was required. A majority of the children selected the correct colour comparison in the presence of each form sample. The children also showed the reverse sample-comparison relations: they matched form comparisons to the corresponding colour samples, respectively. In the context of these arbitrary relations, new colours were paired with the form elements of the samples (Experiment 1), and new form elements were paired with the colour elements of the comparisons (Experiment 2). Subsequent tests assessed whether the new stimulus elements had control over responding when presented as single samples or comparisons. Test results showed that most subjects were able to relate the new stimulus elements to the corresponding colour and form elements, respectively. The study demonstrated that matching to compound stimuli in training and testing conditionsMaygenerate conditional relations between the individual stimulus elements.     

Effects of cohabitation with another female on aggressive behaviour in pregnant mice

Pregnant, nonpregnant (but mated) and virgin females were individually housed or lived with a pregnant or nonpregnant cagemate. They were subjected to a series of successive daily encounters with a male intruder, the cagemate being excluded. The most aggressive subjects were pregnant females living with a pregnant cagemate. Isolated pregnant females were as aggressive as pregnant females with a nonpregnant cagemate. Nonpregnant and virgin females were the least aggressive. Nevertheless nonpregnant subjects living with a pregnant cagemate generated higher aggressive scores than nonpregnant females living alone. The way in which a pregnant cagemate influences the aggressive behaviour of another pregnant or nonpregnant female is discussed.     

“Okokuqala ngokuya ndandiqala kwakungekho easy”: Feeling empowered to take collective action through community engagement

Community engagement (CE) at Rhodes University (RU) and community psychology draw on similar principles: using an asset-based community development approach; recognising and drawing on the skills, capabilities, and knowledge of all parties, which they contribute to a partnership. Working from a strategic model of engagement, mutuality is foreground in all CE activities, where both student volunteers and community partners jointly benefit from the engagement. This paper examines CE at RU and how CE principles are translated into practise, using Siyakhana@Makana (S@M) as a case study. In S@M, a 19-week-long volunteer programme, community partners and student volunteers are jointly involved in planning, executing, and evaluating CE activities together. This paper illustrates how being involved in such CE activities has enabled community partners to mobilise for effective change in their communities. Community partners reflect on how they have been empowered to taken on leadership roles, addressing local challenges in collaborative ways, while drawing on the skills and knowledge that they have gained through their engagements in S@M. This resonates with the social action model of community psychology, a participatory approach that seeks to mobilise people to bring about change in the contexts in which they live.