Sticking to common values: Neighbourhood social cohesion moderates the effect of value congruence on life satisfaction

This article aims to explicate the role of social cohesion in the relationship between adherence to common values and life satisfaction. Shared values are often assumed to be a constitutive element of social cohesion and are used in measurement of the concept. However, sociopsychological theory of values sees social cohesion rather as a moderator of the link between value congruence and life satisfaction, not as a constituent of value congruence. Based on a representative survey of the city of Bremen, Germany (N = 2605), we predict life satisfaction from person‐group value congruence and neighbourhood social cohesion. We find no relationship between value congruence and social cohesion, but a significant positive moderating effect of social cohesion on the relationship between value congruence and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that sticking to common values does not increase social cohesion, but that positive effects of value congruence are more pronounced in high‐cohesion neighbourhoods.     

When development and learning decrease memory. Evidence against category-based induction in children

Inductive inference is crucial for learning: If one learns that a cat has a particular biological property, one could expand this knowledge to other cats. We argue that young children perform induction on the basis of similarity of compared entities, whereas adults may induce on the basis of category information. If different processes underlie induction at different points in development, young children and adults would form different memory traces during induction, and would subsequently have different memory accuracy. Experiment 1 demonstrates that after performing an induction task, 5-year-olds exhibit more accurate memory than adults. Experiment 2 indicates that after 5-year-olds are trained to perform induction in an adultlike manner, their memory accuracy drops to the level of adults. These results, indicating that sometimes 5-year-olds exhibit better memory than adults, support the claim that, unlike adults, young children perform similarity-based rather than category-based induction.     

Naive theory and transfer of learning: When less is more and more is less

In this research, we examine how young children perform induction in the domain of biology. According to the essentialist view, even young children have a priori knowledge that some predictors of biological properties are central, whereas others are peripheral. According to the flexible-learning view, the roles of predictors are not fixed, and young children flexibly learn the predictive value of each predictor. In the experiment reported, 4- to 5-year-olds and 11- to 12-year-old preadolescents were taught the predictive values of features that were (by the essentialist account) either central or peripheral for predicting the biological properties of animals. Retention of the learned predictors was then tested immediately after learning, 1 h after leaning, and 2.5–3.5 months later. The results indicate that 2.5–3.5 months after learning, young children retained learned predictors well regardless of their putative centrality, whereas preadolescents were likely to retain and recall only central, but not peripheral, predictors.     

Transitive responding in hooded crows requires linearly ordered stimuli

Eight crows were taught to discriminate overlapping pairs of visual stimuli (A+ B-, B+ C-, C+ D-, and D+ E-). For 4 birds, the stimuli were colored cards with a circle of the same color on the reverse side whose diameter decreased from A to E (ordered feedback group). These circles were made available for comparison to potentially help the crows order the stimuli along a physical dimension. For the other 4 birds, the circles corresponding to the colored cards had the same diameter (constant feedback group). In later testing, a novel choice pair (BD) was presented. Reinforcement history involving stimuli B and D was controlled so that the reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios for the latter would be greater than for the former. If, during the BD test, the crows chose between stimuli according to these reinforcement/nonreinforcement ratios, then they should prefer D; if they chose according to the diameter of the feedback stimuli, then they should prefer B. In the ordered feedback group, the crows strongly preferred B over D; in the constant feedback group, the crows' choice did not differ significantly from chance. These results, plus simulations using associative models, suggest that the orderability of the postchoice feedback stimuli is important for crows' transitive responding.     

Induction and categorization in young children: a similarity-based model

The authors present a similarity-based model of induction and categorization in young children (SINC). The model suggests that (a). linguistic labels contribute to the perceived similarity of compared entities and (b). categorization and induction are a function of similarity computed over perceptual information and linguistic labels. The model also predicts young children's similarity judgment, induction, and categorization performance under different stimuli and task conditions. Predictions of the model were tested and confirmed in 6 experiments, in which 4- to 5-year-olds performed similarity judgment, induction, and categorization tasks using artificial and real labels (Experiments 1-4) and recognition memory tasks (Experiments 5A and 5B). Results corroborate the similarity-based account of young children's induction and categorization, and they support both qualitative and quantitative predictions of the model.     

Contents Volume 112 2003

Volume Contents

Contents Volume 112 2003     

Linguistic labels: Conceptual markers or object features?

Linguistic labels affect inductive generalization; however, the mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. According to one similarity-based model, SINC (similarity, induction, naming, and categorization), early in development labels are features of objects contributing to the overall similarity of compared entities, with early induction being similarity based. If this is the case, then not only identical but also phonologically similar labels may contribute to the overall similarity and thus to induction. These predictions were tested in a series of experiments with 5-year-olds and adults. In Experiments 1-5 participants performed a label extension task, whereas in Experiment 6 they performed a feature induction task. Results indicate that phonological similarity contributes to early induction and support the notion that for young children labels are features of objects.     

Age effects on rotational hand action

We investigated age-related differences in finger coordination during rotational hand actions. Two hypotheses based on earlier studies were tested: higher safety margins and lower synergy indices were expected in the elderly. Young and elderly subjects held a handle instrumented with five six-component force sensors and performed discrete accurate pronation and supination movements. The weight of the system was counterbalanced with another load. Indices of synergies stabilizing salient performance variables, such as total normal force, total tangential force, moments produced by these forces, and total moment of force were computed at two levels of a hypothetical control hierarchy, at the virtual finger-thumb level and at the individual finger level. At each level, synergy indices reflected the normalized difference between the sum of the variances of elemental variables and variance of their combined output, both computed at comparable phases over repetitive trials. The elderly group performed the task slower and showed lower safety margins for the thumb during the rotation phase. Overall, the synergy indices were not lower in the elderly group. In several cases, these indices were significantly higher in the elderly than in the younger participants. Hence, both main hypotheses have been falsified. We interpret the unexpectedly low safety margins in the elderly as resulting from several factors such as increased force variability, impaired feed-forward control, and the fact that there was no danger of dropping the object. Our results suggest that in some natural tasks, such as the one used in this study, healthy elderly persons show no impairment, as compared to younger persons, in their ability to organize digits into synergies stabilizing salient performance variables.     

Finger coordination under artificial changes in finger strength feedback: a study using analytical inverse optimization

A recently developed method of analytical inverse optimization (ANIO) was used to compute cost functions based on sets of experimental observations in 4-finger pressing tasks with accurate total force and moment production. In different series, feedback on total force and moment was provided using the index finger force at its value, doubled, or halved. Finger force data across different force-moment combinations formed a plane. This allowed reconstructing cost functions as 2nd-order polynomials with linear terms. Changes in the coefficients of the cost function across the 3 series allowed the authors to offer a biomechanical interpretation related to constraints on finger forces with different lever arms. ANIO allows the authors to describe preferred regions within the space of solutions for redundant tasks in terms of cost functions.     

Learning to learn: From within-modality to cross-modality transfer during infancy

One critical aspect of learning is the ability to apply learned knowledge to new situations. This ability to transfer is often limited, and its development is not well understood. The current research investigated the development of transfer between 8 and 16 months of age. In Experiment 1, 8- and 16-month-olds (who were established to have a preference to the beginning of a visual sequence) were trained to attend to the end of a sequence. They were then tested on novel visual sequences. Results indicated transfer of learning, with both groups changing baseline preferences as a result of training. In Experiment 2, participants were trained to attend to the end of a visual sequence and were then tested on an auditory sequence. Unlike Experiment 1, only older participants exhibited transfer of learning by changing baseline preferences. These findings suggest that the generalization of learning becomes broader with development, with transfer across modalities developing later than transfer within a modality.