Many-valued computational logics

This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under grant A9136.     

Reliability and validity of the Group Embedded Figures Test for a grade school sample.

Data on validity of the Group Embedded Figures Test for 22 sixth grade students (9 boys and 13 girls) were obtained. 50 wk. later all subjects were individually screened on the Portable Rod-and-Frame Test and after a period of 2 more weeks, when they were retested on the embedded figures, data on reliability were obtained. Long-term coefficients of stability of .80 and .71 for the 9 boys and 13 girls, respectively, were obtained. Coefficients of internal consistency ranged from .83 to .98 for boys and girls. Coefficients reflecting both construct and concurrent validity were -.60 and .00 for boys and girls, respectively. Customary sex differences with respect to field-dependence--independence were not observed for these small samples.     

On Finitely-Valued Inference Systems

A proof-theoretical analysis of finite-valuedness in the domain of cumulative inference systems is presented.     

The Polish Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale: Preliminary Evidence on Validity and Cross-Cultural Comparison

Anxiety disorders are one of the most widespread psychological diseases in adolescence, which may lead to impairment in several areas of life and has been demonstrated a risk factor of other psychiatric disorders. One of the most widely used self-report measures to assess multiple symptoms of anxiety in youth is the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS). Literature suggests that anxiety symptoms vary across cultures to some extent. It has been found that individuals from collectivistic culture report higher levels of anxiety disorders than those from individualistic culture. Poland is a country whose culture was traditionally collectivistic; but now Poland is undergoing social and economic system transformation, which is taking it closer to individualistic culture. However, SCAS has never been validated in Polish samples, and thus the current study aimed (1) to assess the psychometric properties (structural validity and reliability) of SCAS in a sample of 303 Polish adolescents, (2) to examine gender differences, (3) to test the divergent validity of SCAS by relating it to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and (4) to compare the mean levels with Chinese (collectivistic) and Italian (individualistic) samples. The results confirmed that the Polish version of SCAS showed good reliability and validity. Polish girls showed higher physical injury and generalized anxiety/overanxious symptoms than boys. Furthermore, Polish adolescents reported higher levels of anxiety than Italian youth but lower levels of anxiety than their Chinese counterparts. Implications for professionals and researchers are discussed.     

Affect in Play Scale-Preschool Version: Validation on a Sample of School Age Italian Children

The Affect in Play Scale-Preschool version is a semi-structured measure of cognitive and affective pretend play processes using a 5?min standardized play task devised for preschool children. This study investigated an extension of the scale in a sample of 333 children, aged 6–10 years. Participants were assessed using another measure of play processes, the Affect in Play Scale, a divergent thinking task, the Alternate Uses Test, a measure of school coping, the School Coping measure, and a measure of empathy, the Index of Empathy for Children. External validity with these measures was investigated, using correlational analyses. Construct validity of the scale was assessed using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. A correlated two-factor structure with a cognitive and an affective factor demonstrated the best fit. Implications for the use of this extension to assess cognitive and affective processes in pretend play and developmental outcomes were discussed.     

‘Numerical trap’. A new look at outcome representation in studies on choice behaviour

In almost all experimental studies on choice behaviour the consequences of choices are limited to denumerable goods (usually money) and represented in a numerical way. It is argued that a different way of representing consequences would cause differences in social orientations. In an exploratory study (1) the kind of consequences (money, satisfaction with money and satisfaction with the situation) and (2) the way of representing consequences (numbers, rectangles, and faces) were varied. No differences were found between the three kinds of consequences represented by rectangles. Representation of money by numbers did not differ from representation of money by rectangles. However, subjects in the condition in which satisfaction with money was represented by faces were more cooperative and altruistic and less equality-oriented than subjects in the corresponding condition in which satisfaction with money was represented by rectangles. Additional correlational analyses showed differences between ways of representing consequences. It was concluded that both for theory and for future research it is important to consider how consequences are represented.     

The child's conceptions about means of production and their owners

Investigated the child's social ideas, namely notions about production means (factory, public transportation, farmland) and family influence on notion acquisition. 120 children of jive age groups (4 to 13 years) were clinically interviewed (sensu Piaget). Children's parents, workers and housewives of an Italian industrial centre, answered to questionnaires inquiring background information on parents and child and appraisal of child's level of understanding. Interview answers were classified on ten level sequences concerning father's job, home ownership, function and ownership of production means and produce. Correlational analyses and separate ANOVAs [5(age) × 2(sex) × 3(production mean)] in three subject areas (owner of production mean, of produce, and produce use) of interview answers reveal that children's ideas about different production means develop with differing rhythms through the same level sequences, which are clearly related to the general characterstics of intelligence described by Piaget. Questionnaires show that parents tend to furnish their children with the degree of information concerning jobs appropriate to the level of development at which the parents believe their children to be.     

Problematyka indukcji w pracach i działalności Kazimierza Ajdukiewicza

Allatum est die 10 Aprilis 1964