Personality Patterns in Adolescence as Portrayed by the Rorschach Ink-Blot Method: III. The “Erlebnistypus” (A Normative Study)

The effect of bigram cues on the solution of five-letter monosyllabic and bisyllabic solution-word anagrams was investigated. This was accomplished through the construction of anagrams with and without solution-word bigrams for both monosyllable and bisyllable words. The results revealed that the monosyllabic words were significantly easier to solve when bigram cues were provided, but that there was no difference between the two types of words when bigram cues were not present in the anagrams. Furthermore, no advantage was observed in the solution of bisyllable words even when the bigram in the anagram was also a syllable of the solution word. It was concluded that the facilitating effect of a bigram cue seems to be peculiar to monosyllabic words, and that the result appears to be a function of an initial solution process that favors a single-syllable response.     

A computerized test of self-control predicts classroom behavior

We assessed choices on a computerized test of self-control (CTSC) for a group of children with features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a group of controls. Thirty boys participated in the study. Fifteen of the children had been rated by their parents as hyperactive and inattentive, and 15 were age- and gender-matched controls in the same classroom. The children were observed in the classroom for three consecutive mornings, and data were collected on their activity levels and attention. The CTSC consisted of two tasks. In the delay condition, children chose to receive three rewards after a delay of 60 s or one reward immediately. In the task-difficulty condition, the children chose to complete a difficult math problem and receive three rewards or complete an easier problem for one reward. The children with ADHD features made more impulsive choices than their peers during both conditions, and these choices correlated with measures of their activity and attention in the classroom.     

Early receptive and productive language skills in preterm and full-term 8-month-old infants

Early receptive and productive language skills were examined for preterm low birthweight infants and full-term normal birthweight infants from middle-class homes. Nineteen preterm infants and 19 full-term infants were observed in a laboratory setting at the gestationally corrected age of 8 months. To avoid the frequent confound between prematurity and low socioeconomic status, mothers of the two groups of infants were matched on educational levels. Regression analyses were used to assess the relative influence of infant cognitive skills, infant sociability, infant birth status, and the mothers' language input as possible predictors of infant receptive language and vocal behavior. Receptive language skills were associated with higher cognitive performance, greater sociability, and preterm birth. Productive language skills were associated with higher cognitive performance. On the basis of this research, the prognosis for language development in preterm infants raised in middle-class homes appears to be excellent.This research was aided by Social and Behavioral Sciences Research grant No. 12-11 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and supported by DHHS Grant HD03352. Computing was provided by the Waisman Center Computing Facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Donna Boylan, Sue DaPra, Maria Kleczewski, Michal Rubin, Susan Silverber, and Paula VanLaanan assisted with data collection.     

Effects of documentary and fictional television formats on children's acquisition of schemata for unfamiliar occupations

Children's acquisition of real-world role schemata from factual and fictional television was tested experimentally in two studies. In study 1, 144 second- and fifth-graders saw a drama and a documentary about a caterer or a film director. In study 2, 125 fifth-graders saw the caterer tapes under conditions of high or low attentional involvement. Role schemata about real caterers or directors were measured by free response, frequency ratings, and multiple choice questions. Children acquired schemata about real occupations from bath documentary and fictional programs. On some measures, their schemata were influenced more by documentary than by fiction, but that difference faded slightly after a month. Level of involvement did not reduce the difference between real and fictional videos. Children learn social role schemata from both fictional and factual television, but they acquire more schema information from real than from fictional TV, at least when fiction is signaled by obvious cues (e.g., comedy) or when it is not percieved as socially realistic.     

Les habiletés et régulations motrices au cours de l'escalade et de la descente d'un escalier hélicoïdal chez des enfants de 17 à 27 mois

Nous rapportons dans cet article des données nouvelles sur les comportements d'escalade et de descente d'un escalier hélicoïdal par 12 enfants, dans un local spécialement aménagé. Âgés entre 17 et 21 mois au début de la recherche, ils ont été répartis en deux groupes: pour l'un, la première marche était triangulaire; pour l'autre, quadrangulaire. Les měmes enfants ont été étudiés entre 23 et 27 mois dans les měmes conditions et selon le měme protocole, mais avec une inversion de la configuration de la première marche. On observe que: (1) dès la classe d'âges de 17 à 21 mois, les enfants des deux groupes privilégient le pied droit pour attaquer la première marche, avec le plus souvent alternance des deux pieds sans diminution du pas et sans arrět; (2) la configuration de la première marche joue un rôle significatif dans la fréquence de choix du pied d'attaque en début d'escalade et en fin de descente; (3) les comportements en fin d'escalade et en début de descente apparaissent influencés par la configuration du sommet de l'escalier et par la configuration de la première marche d'escalade; (4) entre 23 et 27 mois, l'influence des facteurs de développement est particulièrement nette en début d'escalade et en fin de descente; (5) les comportements en fin d'escalade et en début de descente apparaissent influencés par une combinaison de facteurs de développement, de la configuration du sommet de l'escalier, des expériences individuelles au début de l'escalade et des expériences individuelles au cours de la première partie de l'étude.     

Household hunger,standard of living and satisfaction with life in Alice,South Africa

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between household hunger, standard of living and satisfaction with life in a rural South African setting. Respondents were 442 randomly selected community dwellers from Alice, in the Eastern Cape (Xhosa speaking = 89.32%, females = 67%; age range 40–49 years). Multiple regression analysis was utilised to predict satisfaction with life from household hunger and standard of living. Low levels of household hunger, and low to moderate living standards predicted satisfaction with life. Resource support interventions with vulnerable communities should focus on poverty alleviation measures aimed at improving subjective satisfaction levels.     

Transformative professional learning: an ecological approach to agency through critical reflection

Within the global economy, education leverages social and economic improvement. Teachers are positioned as drivers and agents of compliance within change processes. Addressing this concern, we investigate intern teacher agency, as transformative professional learning, that occurs through a process of critical reflection. Critical reflection is conceived as an important element of teacher agency within the current political milieu. This article addresses the role of critical reflection in school-based intern teacher professional learning (PL). It is argued that intern teacher agency is inherent in transformative PL characterized through partnerships, which provide scope for decision-making and critical reflection.     

A preliminary look at loneliness as a moderator of the link between perfectionism and depressive and anxious symptoms in college students: does being lonely make perfectionistic strivings more distressing?

An integrative model involving perfectionism [Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470] and loneliness as predictors of depressive and anxious symptoms was proposed and tested in 383 college students. Beyond the expected additive influences of the two predictors in the prediction of symptoms, loneliness was also hypothesized to moderate the link between perfectionism and symptoms. Results indicated that other-oriented perfectionism predicted anxious symptoms, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted both depressive and anxious symptoms. Loneliness was found to add incremental validity to these predictions. Moreover, the Perfectionism x Loneliness interaction was found to further augment the prediction of depressive and anxious symptoms. These findings are taken to offer support for a more contextual model of perfectionism. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Observing tutorial dialogues collaboratively: insights about human tutoring effectiveness from vicarious learning

The goals of this study are to evaluate a relatively novel learning environment, as well as to seek greater understanding of why human tutoring is so effective. This alternative learning environment consists of pairs of students collaboratively observing a videotape of another student being tutored. Comparing this collaboratively observing environment to four other instructional methods—one-on-one human tutoring, observing tutoring individually, collaborating without observing, and studying alone—the results showed that students learned to solve physics problems just as effectively from observing tutoring collaboratively as the tutees who were being tutored individually. We explain the effectiveness of this learning environment by postulating that such a situation encourages learners to become active and constructive observers through interactions with a peer. In essence, collaboratively observing combines the benefit of tutoring with the benefit of collaborating. The learning outcomes of the tutees and the collaborative observers, along with the tutoring dialogues, were used to further evaluate three hypotheses explaining why human tutoring is an effective learning method. Detailed analyses of the protocols at several grain sizes suggest that tutoring is effective when tutees are independently or jointly constructing knowledge: with the tutor, but not when the tutor independently conveys knowledge.     

Relationship between mousekilling and conspecific aggression in the male rat

In order to investigate the relationships between mousekilling and conspecific aggression, behavioral variables of killer and nonkiller rats were compared in a “resident-intruder” paradigm, in resident as well as in intruder animals. The occurrence of offensive items (offensive sideways, attack) was significantly higher in killer rats when they were residents; their corresponding opponents displayed more defensive behaviors. No significant difference in aggressive behaviors was noted when the comparison was done in the intruders. These results and those of previous studies suggest that there is a correlation between mousekilling and intraspecific offensive behaviors. Some similarities in the situations where both behaviors are elicited–eg, introduction of an unfamiliar intruder into a familiar environment–may contribute to the existence of such a correlation and the possibility of common mechanisms underlying both behaviors is discussed.