Are children any more logical than monkeys on the five-term series problem?

Six-year-old children were tested on several versions of the five-term transitivity problem as used by B. O. McGonigle and M. Chalmers (1977, Nature (London), 267, 694–696) with squirrel monkeys as subjects. Both binary and triadic versions of the tests were administered in both verbal and nonverbal modes to help determine whether or not any major procedural differences between the monkey version and that used conventionally in research with children might account for the monkey's apparently nonlogical solution of the problem. The main result is that children showed very similar response profiles to that of monkeys in all the conditions used. In addition, “labeling”, direct seriation, and “association” post-tests suggest that nonlogical strategies can underwrite ostensibly impeccable transitive “reasoning” in child as well as monkey.     

Cognitive constraint on the ‘automatic pilot’ for the hand: Movement intention influences the hand’s susceptibility to involuntary online corrections

Research suggests that the reaching hand automatically deviates toward a target that changes location (jumps) during the reach. In the current study, we investigated whether movement intention can influence the target jump’s impact on the hand. We compared the degree of trajectory deviation to a jumped target under three instruction conditions: (1) GO, in which participants were told to go to the target if it jumped, (2) STOP, in which participants were told to immediately stop their movement if the target jumped, and (3) IGNORE, in which participants were told to ignore the target if it jumped and to continue to its initial location. We observed a reduced response to the jump in the IGNORE condition relative to the other conditions, suggesting that the response to the jump is contingent on the jump being a task-relevant event.     

Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues

Two studies tested the hypothesis that Rejection Sensitivity (RS) increases vulnerability to disruption of attention by social threat cues, as would be consistent with prior evidence that it motivates individuals to prioritize detecting and managing potential rejection at a cost to other personal and interpersonal goals. In Study 1, RS predicted disruption of ongoing goal-directed attention by social threat but not negative words in an Emotional Stroop task. In Study 2, RS predicted attentional avoidance of threatening but not pleasant faces in a Visual Probe task. Threat-avoidant attention was also associated with features of borderline personality disorder. This research extends understanding of processes by which RS contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of interpersonal problems and distress.     

Lexical learning in bilingual adults: the relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and phonological knowledge

Studies of monolingual speakers have shown a strong association between lexical learning and short-term memory (STM) capacity, especially STM for serial order information. At the same time, studies of bilingual speakers suggest that phonological knowledge is the main factor that drives lexical learning. This study tested these two hypotheses simultaneously in participants with variable levels of English-French bilingual proficiency. A word-nonword paired-associate learning task was administered, with nonwords obeying French phonotactic patterns. French phonological knowledge was estimated by a composite French proficiency score summarizing productive and receptive French vocabulary knowledge as well as quantitative and qualitative measures of French exposure. STM measures maximized retention of order information (serial order reconstruction) or retention of phonological item information (single nonword delayed repetition). The French proficiency score and the serial order STM measure independently predicted performance on the paired-associate learning task. These results highlight the conjoined role of phonological knowledge and serial order STM in lexical learning. Importantly, serial order STM remains a strong predictor of lexical learning, even for bilingual individuals who have broad phonological knowledge.     

Narcissistic Subtypes and Contingent Self‐Esteem: Do All Narcissists Base Their Self‐Esteem on the Same Domains?

ABSTRACT It has been suggested that there are two forms of narcissism: a grandiose subtype and a vulnerable subtype. Although these forms of narcissism share certain similarities, it is believed that these subtypes may differ in the domains upon which their self-esteem is based. To explore this possibility, the present study examined the associations between these narcissistic subtypes and domain-specific contingencies of self-worth. The results show that vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with contingencies of self-worth across a variety of domains. In contrast, the associations between grandiose narcissism and domain-specific contingencies of self-worth were more complex and included both positive and negative relationships. These results provide additional support for the distinction between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism by showing that the domains of contingent self-esteem associated with grandiose narcissism may be more limited in scope than those associated with vulnerable narcissism.     

Learning beyond the surface: engaging the cognitive,affective and spiritual dimensions within the curriculum

In Australia the separation of mind, body and spirit by secular society has had a significant influence on educational trends. An outcomes‐based approach to education, with an emphasis on cognitive learning, has meant that the affective and spiritual dimensions of students' lives have often been understated. Classroom programs in religious education have been affected by this educational climate where the pendulum has swung in favour of the achievement of cognitive learning outcomes. The cognitive dimension of learning is an integral part of the learning dynamic. However the roles of thinking, feeling and reflecting/intuiting are complementary within this process. Religious education is one curriculum area that can effectively address the interplay between the cognitive, affective and spiritual dimensions of learning. This paper outlines a model explored with pre‐service teachers at a publicly funded Catholic university. This model addresses the complementarity of the cognitive, affective and spiritual dimensions of learning. Examples of pre‐service teachers' work are drawn upon to demonstrate the interplay of these dimensions and to show how in practice this might be achieved within school curricula.     

False recollection in children with reading comprehension difficulties

Children with reading comprehension difficulties display impaired performance on semantic processing tasks. These impairments are assumed to reflect weaker knowledge about abstract semantic associations between words in poor comprehenders [Nation, K., and Snowling, M. (1999). Developmental differences in sensitivity to semantic relations among good and poor comprehenders: evidence from semantic priming. Cognition, 19, B1-B13.]. We examined the performance of poor comprehenders on the Deese/Roediger/McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Children studied spoken words that were semantic associates (e.g., bed, rest, and awake) or phonological associates (e.g., pole, bowl, and hole) followed by free recall and a recognition test containing nonstudied critical words (e.g., sleep and roll). Results showed reduced recall and recognition of critical words in the semantic condition but not in the phonological condition for poor comprehenders. We argue that poor comprehenders are less sensitive to abstract semantic associations between words because of reduced gist memory.     

Attention Problems and Restlessness as Transdiagnostic Markers of Severity and Treatment Response in Youth with Internalizing Problems

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Transdiagnostic models of psychopathology suggest that disorders may share common features that could influence their severity. Attention problems...