“Reading” Paintings: Evidence for Trans-Symbolic and Symbol-Specific Comprehension Processes

Art-based reading instruction and interventions for elementary and middle school students are growing in popularity despite scant theoretical rationale and empirical research support. This study explored the degree to which painting comprehension processes map onto text comprehension processes in this population. In particular, we used think aloud protocols to examine the painting comprehension processes used by 35 fourth-grade and 34 eighth-grade students and compared the manifest processes to the literature on text comprehension. Protocol analysis revealed six painting comprehension processes—observing, activating prior knowledge, inferring and interpreting, elaborating, evaluating and responding, and monitoring—comprising 23 subprocesses. Of the identified painting comprehension subprocesses, 17 are commonly associated with text comprehension. These findings suggest that compositions—be they encoded visually, linguistically, or in another symbol system—may entail comprehension processes that transcend symbol systems, as well as processes that are particular to a given symbol system.     

The development of route learning in Down syndrome,Williams syndrome and typical development: investigations with virtual environments

The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to investigate use of landmarks; and to relate cognitive functions to route‐learning ability in these groups. Overall, measures of attention and long‐term memory were strongly associated with route learning, even once non‐verbal ability was controlled for. All of the groups, including 5‐ to 6‐year‐old TD children, demonstrated the ability to make use of all landmark types to aid route learning; those near junctions, those further from junctions, and also distant landmarks (e.g. church spire, radio mast). Individuals with WS performed better than a matched subset of TD children on more difficult routes; we suggest that this is supported by relatively strong visual feature recognition in the disorder. Participants with DS who had relatively high levels of non‐verbal ability performed at a similar level to TD participants.     

GREAT IDEAS AND DUMB LUCK IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY

Both Dr. Kuriloff’s initial contribution to the Roundtable, and her later response to her fellow discussants focus on the social construction of psychoanalytic theories of therapeutic action. She notes the promise of the enlightenment/ modern era as impetus for an initially positivist “science” of psychoanalysis, and then implicates the scourge of the Shoah as that which galvanized the largely Jewish seminal community to cling to universal, versus contextual theories and technique. That the deconstruction of truth and authority, beginning with the post-war “baby boom” and student movements in the United States and Europe, put an end to one metapsychology is yet another example of the power of context upon ideas and praxis. This seemingly haphazard pairing of context and content determines the degree to which theories are embraced or ignored within any particular body politic, or within our tiny community at one time or another, prompting Kuriloff to warn against over valuing and/or excluding any theory, theorist, or technique from what we need to know and do to be helpful to people. This tension—between immersion in, and observation of the field—is what psychoanalytic theory and praxis ought to allow.     

Strengthening the Role of Unmarried Fathers: Findings from the Co‐Parent Court Project

While the importance of fathers in unmarried coparent families is a strong area of social and political interest, a dearth of community‐based interventions exists for supporting the role of fathers in at‐risk families. The Co‐Parent Court (CPC) was a 3‐year demonstration project evaluating the effectiveness of a collaborative intervention to support unmarried coparents establishing paternity and improving their coparenting relationships and paternal involvement in their child's life. A randomized‐control experimental design was employed. The paper will explore father involvement and coparent relationship outcomes.