Interpersonal problem solving in preschool children: A comparison of assessment procedures using two-dimensional versus three-dimensional stimuli

Two procedures for assessing the social problem-solving strategies of young children were compared: a traditional measure using pictorial stimuli and an alternative measure in which problems were presented using three-dimensional props. Subjects were 48 preschool children ages 3, 4 and 5. Using a counterbalanced, repeated measures design, the two tasks were presented to the children on consecutive days. Children also received the PPVT, and teacher ratings of behavioral adjustment were completed. Children gave more responses and suggested a greater variety of problem-solving strategies when tested with props than when tested with pictures. Response differences to the two testing procedures were greatest for children who were rated by their teachers as impulsive. Results are discussed in terms of the representational competence of the preschool child. Implications of the findings for intervention strategies also are discussed.     

Effects of early hospital-based intervention on mothers and their preterm infants

Mothers of eight Israeli preterm infants were exposed to a standardized but individualized intervention during their stay in the hospital and before their infants were discharged. Mothers and infants in the intervention group were compared to eight control subjects using various outcome measures. While the intervention did not affect maternal personal attitudes and feelings, it positively affected the mother-infant interactions and mothers' perceptions of their infants. The importance of individualized interventions with parents of preterm infants is discussed.     

Peer education: The untapped potential

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for making broader educational use of peer learning principles as explicated in developmental theory and research. The paper argues that peer learning brings with it unique motivational and cognitive benefits for participating peers. Research has shown that peer learning can bolster children's self-esteem, awaken their interest in challenging tasks, enhance scholarly achievement, and foster prosocial behavior. In particular, it is an effective means of enabling children to grasp basic concepts that underlie school curricula.Two different forms of peer learning, “peer tutoring” and “peer collaboration,” are distinguished. Each has its potential use: peer tutoring for transmitting information and drilling special skills; peer collaboration for facilitating intellectual discovery and the acquisition of basic knowledge.Some general guidelines for the integration of peer tutoring and peer collaboration in the classroom are offered. It is recognized that specific curriculum plans implementing these guidelines must be formulated with a view to the overall cultural context of the school system. Such plans must be molded in context to suit the needs of each particular site. It is concluded, however, that the general principles of peer education set forth in this position paper would enhance all varieties of schooling. As explicated in this article, peer education complements rather than supplants adult teaching, freeing up teachers' time and attention and enabling them to focus more directly and effectively on individual children's learning needs.     

Day care: Promoting collaboration between research and policymaking

An agenda for day care research that is tailored to current policy concerns is presented. Familiar developmental issues related to the quality of day care are recast within a policy perspective. Largely unexamined issues pertaining to the costs and supply of day care, the preventative role of day care services, economic and employment-related effects, links between day care and other settings that comprise children's environments, and alternative approaches to day care such as employer-sponsored care, are also identified. It is argued that these issues extend current conceptualizations of interdisciplinary and ecological research. By way of introduction, an overview of recent sociodemographic trends and changes in federal day care policy is provided. A discussion of emerging policy issues that could profit from input by child development research then serves as background to detailed suggestions for research that can advance the dual goals of informing day care policy-makers and contributing to developmental theory.     

When celebrities talk,children listen: An experimental analysis of children's responses to TV ads with celebrity endorsement

Two studies tested the effects of TV ads with celebrity endorsement on the product preference and understanding of 8- to 14-year-old boys. Study 1 compared two ads for a model racer. One had celebrity endorsement (by a famous race driver) and footage of real automobile racing featuring the celebrity (live action); the second had neither feature. Study 2 employed one ad for a different brand of model racer edited to generate a 2 (endorser presence) by 2 (inclusion of live racetrack action) factorial design. A total of 415 boys were exposed to one of the experimental ads or a control ad, embedded in a new animated children's adventure program. Preference for the advertised brand of model racer (pre- and postviewing) and a number of cognitive variables were assessed. Exposure to endorsement led to increased preference for the toy and belief that the celebrity was expert about the toy. Live action led to exaggerated estimates of the physical properties of the toy and the belief that the ad was not staged. The 8- to 10-year-olds associated the glamour of the endorser with the toy and were more reliant on his advice than were 11- to 14-year-olds. However, the two age groups were not differentially affected by the ads. Contrary to the speculation of many researchers, understanding about advertising intent and techniques and cynicism about ads had almost no influence on product preference after viewing.     

Perceptual and conceptual organization of facial emotions: Hemispheric differences

Patients with lesions to either the right or left hemisphere and control subjects were asked to judge the similarity of pairs of photographs of a person displaying different emotions, and of pairs of emotion words. The results were submitted to a multidimensional scaling analysis. Right-hemisphere-damaged subjects were found to be more impaired at perceiving facial emotions than were left-hemisphere-damaged subjects or controls, and this impairment was not confined to the perception of a subset of facial emotions nor to judging emotional valence (Pleasantness versus Unpleasantness). Rather, subtle impairments in perceiving a wide range of facial emotions were found, mostly concerning differentiation of the Positive-Negative and Attention-Rejection dimensions, and concerning the strategies the subjects used to make their judgments. The right-hemisphere-damaged subjects performed comparably to controls in their ratings of emotion words, suggesting that their ability to conceptualize emotional states was intact and that their impairment was strictly in the perception of emotion.     

Development of differences in response latencies to right and left visual fields

Robust lateralization developed in right-handed adults who were asked to judge letter pairs as "same" or "different" during 4608 trials. By the end of the first two blocks (768 trials) "same" responses were favored when presented in the RVF (transmitted directly to the left hemisphere) and "different" responses were favored when presented in the LVF (transmitted direction to the right hemisphere). This gradually reversed over sessions with "same" responses becoming faster for letters presented in the LVF, and "different" responses becoming faster for stimuli presented in the RVF. The laterality acquired under these conditions was cumulative and reproducible, appeared in all 16 subjects, and was preserved between sessions a week apart. The data suggest that laterality is a flexible and reversible characteristic of the human brain even when stimulus and task remain constant.     

Acquisition and retention of gestures by apraxic patients

The purpose of this study was to examine whether apraxic-aphasic patients with parietal lesions had difficulty learning lists of gestures and whether the performance deficits they displayed resulted from an inability either to consolidate this information in memory or to retrieve the information once stored. The findings indicate that apraxic-aphasic patients do have difficulty acquiring lists of gestures. This inability to reproduce gestural information was not associated with a retrieval disorder, but instead the apraxic-aphasic subjects could not consolidate the information in memory.     

Why Reading? Because it's there

Three papers (V. A. Mann, Reading skill and language skill. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 1–15; G. Wolford & C. A. Fowler, Differential use of partial information by good and poor readers. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 16–35; F. J. Morrison, Reading disability: A problem in rule learning and word decoding. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 36–47) are critiqued from the standpoint of their adequacy in advancing our understanding of a problem as complex as reading disability. Experimenters should be explicit about their guiding theoretical assumptions, and should think through the relations, if any, between their laboratory tasks and the actual processes of reading. The reading protocol of a dyslexic child is provided, and is interpreted within the frameworks of the Mann, Wolford and Fowler, and Morrison viewpoints.     

Models of central capacity and concurrency

According to single channel theory, the ability of humans to perform concurrent mental operations is limited by the capacity of a central mechanism. The theory was developed by analogy with early computers which had a single central processing unit and required sequential processing. These limitations are not likely to be properties of the mind. But now computers have begun to employ extensive concurrent processing, because of the decreasing cost of the necessary hardware. In this review we will try to bring the computer analogy up to date. Theoretical issues important for concurrent systems may be of interest to psychologists and have applications to such problems as the speed-accuracy trade-off. Several hypotheses about the way signals gain access to the central mechanism are reviewed. Recent variations of the single channel theory are discussed, including the hypotheses that more than one process can use the central mechanism at a time, and that some processes do not use the central mechanism and can be executed concurrently with those that do. In addition, relevant concepts from scheduling theory and operating systems theory are introduced and difficulties encountered by concurrent systems, namely complexity, deadlocks, and thrashing, are discussed.