On the nature and development of conditional reasoning in early adolescence

Two studies investigated the conditional reasoning capabilities of eighth grade learners. In Study 1, we analysed conditional reasoning performances for differences in learners' abilities to solve problems correctly and propensities to be tricked into responding to problems in a biconditional manner. There seemed to be a developmental progression in conditional reasoning ability. Most young adolescents reason using memory of domain-specific memories. However, pragmatic inferential rules may serve as an intermediate level of abstration in reasoners as they progress from the ability to reason using only domain-specific experience to the ability to use content-free syntactic rules. In addition, correlation between scores on the Test of Logical Thinking and conditional reasoning performances suggested that ability to reason deductively using inferential rules at progressively higher levels of abstraction is related to cognitive development. In Study 2, we assessed the effectiveness of an instructional application of pragmatic inferential rule theory for development of conditional reasoning abilities. Pragmatic reasoning skill was developed throug engagement in Prolog programming activities involving hierarchical knowledge domains.     

OVERT AND COVERT RECOGNITION OF FACES IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Abstract— There has been considerable recent interest in covert face-recognition effects. In Experiment 1, we adapted a paradigm, previously shown to produce covert recognition effects, to test 5-year-old children. Classmates' photographs served as the familiar faces. Children showed effects of familiarity on face matching similar to the effect normal adults and prosopagnosics had previously shown for famous faces In Experiment 2, we investigated whether brief familiarization with the photographs used in Experiment 1 would suffice to produce the effects, in children and adults. It did not, even though the exposure did lead to above-chance overt recognition. Taken together with previous studies, the data suggest that covert recognition may be doubly dissociable from overt recognition. Finding a double dissociation would place constraints on models of face recognition.     

The concept of the ‘Other’ in modern Arab thought: From Muhammad cAbdu to Abdallah Laroui

The primary condition for the progress, or indeed the survival, of human societies is their effective coalescence into one human society’ (Zurayk 1994, 96).     

Gender and Hedging: From Sex Differences to Situated Practice

In a reanalysis of women's language, Holmes (1995) has argued that women's use of hedges expresses interpersonal warmth and not, as many researchers have maintained, linguistic tentativeness. It is typically men, she suggests, who employ hedges to convey imprecision and incertitude. In this study, we investigated the use of the hedges sort of and you know in a sample of South African students. Holmes's method of analysis was applied to hedging behavior in 52 dyadic conversations. The study consisted of a 2 (Speaker Gender: Male/Female) × 2 (Audience Gender: Male/Female) × 2 (Condition: Competitive/Noncompetitive) between-subjects experimental design. The results showed that contextual influences eclipsed the effects of gender; in fact, no main effects were found for speaker gender. Fewer hedges were deployed in the competitive condition than in the noncompetitive condition. Moreover, perhaps reflecting differences in social status, both sexes used sort of to express tentativeness more frequently when talking to male addressees. When speaking to female addressees, on the other hand, men deployed facilitative you know hedges more readily than women.     

Picture Naming Deficits in Developmental Dyslexia: The Phonological Representations Hypothesis

The picture and word naming performance of developmental dyslexics was compared to the picture and word naming performance of non-dyslexic (“garden variety”) poor readers, reading age, and chronological age-matched controls. The stimulus list used for both tasks was systematically manipulated for word length and word frequency. In order to examine picture naming errors in more depth, an object name recognition test assessed each subject's vocabulary knowledge of those names which they were unable to spontaneously label in the picture naming task. Findings indicated that the dyslexic and the garden variety poor readers exhibited a picture naming deficit relative to both chronological and reading age-matched controls. Findings also indicated that both groups of impaired readers obtained superior scores in the word naming task than in the picture naming task, while both groups of controls showed no difference in performance across tasks. The dyslexics' picture naming errors, but not those of the garden variety poor readers, were particularly marked on polysyllabic and/or low frequency words, indicating a possible phonological basis to the picture naming deficit of the dyslexic children. These children also recognized significantly more unnamed target words than all comparison groups, suggesting a particular difficulty inretrievingthe phonological codes of known picture names rather than a vocabulary deficit. Results are discussed in terms of dyslexics' difficulty in encoding full segmental phonological representations of names in long-term memory and/or in processing these representations in order to generate required names on demand.     

Effects of sex of defense attorney,sex of juror,and age and attractiveness of the victim on mock juror decision making in a rape case

In an experimental study, mock jurors heard a 50-minute audiotape of a rape trial and saw pictures of the victim and defendant. The factors in the design were sex of the defense attorney, age of the victim (early 20s or 60s), attractiveness of the victim, and sex of the juror. The most striking finding was a higher acquittal rate under the female defense attorney condition (71%) than under the male defense attorney condition (49%). This may be an instance of the recently described “talking platypus” phenomenon. Main effects for juror's sex, age of the victim, and attractiveness of the victim were not significant, but these factors showed complex interactions. Internal-external scores did not predict decisions. The most frequent reasons given for acquittals were reasonable doubt and the victim's not resisting.     

The influence of shape on apparent area: a new demonstration.

It has long been recognised that the apparent area of a form is influenced by its shape, and it has generally been accepted that when a more compact and a more diverse form of the same physical area are compared, the more compact is judged smaller. Experiments are reported which demonstrate that when the apparent area of an isosceles triangle is bisected, the reverse of this principle holds. It is shown that when the apparent areas of a triangle and trapezium are being compared the relative location of the forms being judged determines the direction of the error typically found. Three theories of apparent area are discussed, and reasons for rejecting them put forward. It is concluded that no adequate theory has yet been proposed.