What's in a cue? The role of cue orientation in object displacement tasks

The current study looked at two theoretical proposals explaining toddlers’ abilities to use cue information for recovering a hidden object that had rolled down a ramp behind an occluded screen. These two approaches, the theory of object directed attention and a landmark-based account, make different predictions regarding the efficacy of an obliquely aligned cue to object position. Accordingly, the search by forty 24-month olds, forty-two 30-month olds, and forty-one 36-month olds for a hidden toy that was cued using either a short versus a long cue, or a vertically aligned versus an obliquely aligned cue, were compared. Analyses of search accuracy revealed that children were more successful when faced with short as opposed to long cues, and when using vertical as opposed to oblique cues. These findings support a landmark-based approach, as opposed to an object-directed attention account, and are discussed with reference to their implications for spatial orientation more generally.     

The Suppositional Ramsey Test and Decision-Instability

I analyse the relationship between the Ramsey Test (RT) for the acceptance of indicative conditionals and the so-called problem of decision-instability. In particular, I argue that the situations which allegedly bring about this problem are troublesome just in case the relevant conditionals are evaluated by non-suppositional versions, e.g. causal/evidential, of the test. In contrast, a suppositional RT, by highlighting the metacognitive nature of the evaluation of indicative conditionals, allows an agent to run a simulation of such evaluation, without yet committing her to the acceptance of such conditionals. I conclude that a suppositional interpretation of RT is superior to its non-suppositional counterparts and by briefly showing that a suppositional RT is compatible with a deliberational decision theory.     

Objects and Levels: Reflections on the Relation Between Time-Consciousness and Self-Consciousness

The text surveys the development of the debate between Zahavi and Brough/Sokolowski regarding Husserl’s account of inner time-consciousness. The main arguments on both sides are reconsidered, and a compromise is proposed.     

If-Clauses and Probability Operators

Adams’ thesis is generally agreed to be linguistically compelling for simple conditionals with factual antecedent and consequent. We propose a derivation of Adams’ thesis from the Lewis-Kratzer analysis of if-clauses as domain restrictors, applied to probability operators. We argue that Lewis’s triviality result may be seen as a result of inexpressibility of the kind familiar in generalized quantifier theory. Some implications of the Lewis-Kratzer analysis are presented concerning the assignment of probabilities to compounds of conditionals.     

The effect of local kinematic changes on anticipation judgments

Skilled tennis players rely on a more global than local perceptual strategy when anticipating an opponent’s shot direction in tennis (Williams, Huys, Cañal-Bruland, & Hagemann, 2009). Global perceptual strategy refers to the pick-up of dynamic information across different body areas rather than from a single source such as the arm or racket. We extend previous work by examining the spatiotemporal characteristics of visual information pick-up when anticipating shot direction in tennis. We perturbed information from various body locations by interchanging the dynamics of selected areas with those from strokes played to the opposite side of the court. In addition, we presented each manipulation under four different temporal occlusion conditions (from 240 ms prior to racket-ball contact) to examine the time course of information extraction. Skilled tennis players outperformed less skilled counterparts in predicting shot direction, even at early phases of the opponent’s motion. Moreover, skilled players showed significant decrements in performance when the arms and racket were perturbed, highlighting the relevance of distal information when anticipating opponents’ intentions.     

ADHERENCE TO DISCRETE‐TRIAL INSTRUCTION PROCEDURES BY RURAL PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders may not attempt treatment, even when effective treatment options are available. Little is known about how to improve frequency of attempts to implement treatment (‘treatment adherence’). We provided 32 rural parents of young children with autism spectrum disorders with either written or video training materials about how to implement discrete‐trial instruction and compared parental adherence between the written (control) and video (experimental) groups. Parents who received video instructions adhered to the training procedures to a significantly greater extent than did parents who received written instructions, suggesting that instruction format is a predictor of training success. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Callous-Unemotional Traits and the Treatment of Conduct Problems in Childhood and Adolescence: A Comprehensive Review

The treatment of conduct problems among children and adolescents with callous-unemotional (CU) traits has been subject to much speculation; however, treatment outcome research has been surprisingly limited and findings have been mixed. This review examines the research to date in this field as it pertains to two key questions. First, are CU traits associated with clinical outcomes and processes in the family based treatment of child and adolescent conduct problems? Second, can family based intervention produce change in CU traits? Using a systematic search strategy, we identified 16 treatment outcomes studies that can be brought to bear on these questions. These studies provide strong evidence of unique associations between CU traits and risk for poor treatment outcomes, while at the same time indicating that social-learning-based parent training is capable of producing lasting improvement in CU traits, particularly when delivered early in childhood. We discuss the potential for this emerging evidence base to inform the planning and delivery of treatments for clinic-referred children with CU traits, and detail an ongoing program of translational research into the development of novel interventions for this high-risk subgroup.     

Young‐age gender differences in mathematics mediated by independent control or uncontrollability

We studied whether the origins of math anxiety can be related to a biologically supported framework of stress induction: (un)controllability perception, here indicated by self‐reported independent efforts in mathematics. Math anxiety was tested in 182 children (8‐ to 11‐year‐olds). Latent factor modeling was used to test hypotheses on plausible causal processes and mediations within competing models in quasi‐experimental contrasts. Uncontrollability perception in mathematics, or (in)dependence of efforts, best fit the data as an antecedent of math anxiety. In addition, the relationship of math anxiety with gender was fully mediated by adaptive perception of control (i.e. controllability). That is, young boys differ from girls in terms of their experience of control in mathematics learning. These differences influence math anxiety. Our findings are consistent with recent suggestions in clinical literature according to which uncontrollability makes women more susceptible to fear and anxiety disorders. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4b_47Y-e_U     

Additive effects of social and non‐social attention during infancy relate to later autism spectrum disorder

Emerging findings from studies with infants at familial high risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), owing to an older sibling with a diagnosis, suggest that those who go on to develop ASD show early impairments in the processing of stimuli with both social and non‐social content. Although ASD is defined by social‐communication impairments and restricted and repetitive behaviours, the majority of cognitive theories of ASD posit a single underlying factor, which over development has secondary effects across domains. This is the first high‐risk study to statistically differentiate theoretical models of the development of ASD in high‐risk siblings using multiple risk factors. We examined the prediction of ASD outcome by attention to social and non‐social stimuli: gaze following and attentional disengagement assessed at 13 months in low‐risk controls and high‐risk ASD infants (who were subsequently diagnosed with ASD at 3 years). When included in the same regression model, these 13‐month measures independently predicted ASD outcome at 3 years of age. The data were best described by an additive model, suggesting that non‐social attention, disengagement, and social attention as evidenced by gaze following, have a cumulative impact on ASD risk. These data argue against cognitive theories of ASD which propose that a single underlying factor has cascading effects across early development leading to an ASD outcome, and support multiple impairment models of ASD that are more consistent with recent genetic and neurobiological evidence.