Representation of the cardinality principle: early conception of error in a counterfactual test

There is debate over how the integration of non-verbal quantifying and verbal counting relates to the representation of number principles. A stringent representational test would be one in which a child obeyed a number principle where it ran counter to a characteristic procedure. We devised a test relying on the uniqueness principle for using evidence from a miscount in inferring a counterfactual cardinal number. All the 5-year-olds passed, as did half the preschoolers. Subtests probed associated number-skills. We suggest that a crucial preschool step is to start conceptualising error by categorising relations between counting and miscounting. That step is taken at a similar age to passing a representational theory of mind test but the two were uncorrelated.     

Who needs control? A cultural perspective on the process of compensatory control

Compensatory control theory (CCT) provides a framework for understanding the mechanisms at play when one's personal control is challenged. The model suggests that believing the world is a structured and predictable place is fundamental, insofar as it provides the foundation upon which people can believe they are able to exert control over their environment and act agentically towards goals. Because of this, CCT suggests, when personal control is threatened people try to reaffirm the more foundational belief in structure/predictability in the world, so that they then have a strong foundation to reestablish feelings of personal control and pursue their goals. This review seeks to understand how the basic assumptions of these compensatory control processes unfold in different cultural contexts. Drawing on research and theorizing from cultural psychology, we propose that cultural models of self and agency, culturally prevalent modes of control, and culture-specific motivations all have implications for compensatory control processes. Culture determines, in part, whether or not personal control deprivation is experienced as a threat to perceiving an orderly world, how/whether individuals respond to low personal control, and the function that responses to restore a sense of order in the world serve. A theoretical model of compensatory control processes across cultures is proposed that has implications for how people cope with a wide range of personal and societal events that potentially threaten their personal control.     

Age of acquisition in face categorisation: is there an instance-based account?

An instance-based model of the effects of age of acquisition (AoA) is offered and derived predictions are considered. A face-categorisation experiment is reported which tested these predictions. Nine participants made speeded-categorisation judgements of 185 faces from two TV shows. Ratings were given for the faces' frequency of occurrence in the shows and, for each face, the length of time the character was in the show and the time since they had left was found. Regression analyses were used to find how the factors affected the speed of categorisation. Speed of categorisation was found to follow a negative power function of the frequency and time on the show and a positive power function of the time since they had left. This was supportive of the instance-based account and suggests that effects of AoA with words and objects can be explained in terms of cumulative frequency.     

Film Review

Pastoral Psychology -     

“Yours,Thirsty for Honesty,Ferenczi”: Some Background to Sándor Ferenczi's Pursuit of Mutuality

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -