Short-term memory for serial order supports vocabulary development: New evidence from a novel word learning paradigm

Although recent studies suggest a strong association between short-term memory (STM) for serial order and lexical development, the precise mechanisms linking the two domains remain to be determined. This study explored the nature of these mechanisms via a microanalysis of performance on serial order STM and novel word learning tasks. In the experiment, 6- and 7-year-old children were administered tasks maximizing STM for either item or serial order information as well as paired-associate learning tasks involving the learning of novel words, visual symbols, or familiar word pair associations. Learning abilities for novel words were specifically predicted by serial order STM abilities. A measure estimating the precision of serial order coding predicted the rate of correct repetitions and the rate of phoneme migration errors during the novel word learning process. In line with recent theoretical accounts, these results suggest that serial order STM supports vocabulary development via ordered and detailed reactivation of the novel phonological sequences that characterize new words.     

Increasing Students' Scientific Creativity: The “Learn to Think” Intervention Program

The “Learn to Think” (LTT) Intervention Program was developed for raising thinking abilities of primary and secondary school students. It has been implemented in more than 300 schools, and more than 200,000 students took part in the experiment over a 10‐year span. Several longitudinal intervention studies showed that LTT could promote the development of students' thinking ability, learning motivation, and learning strategy as well as raise academic performance in primary schools. This article describes a study of the influence and the delayed effects of LTT on the scientific creativity of secondary school students. One hundred and seven students were selected from a secondary school, 54 of them participated in the LTT every 2 weeks and the rest had not. The intervention lasted 2 years, and the delayed effect was explored half a year after terminating the intervention. The Scientific Creativity Test for Secondary School Students was used four times from pre‐test to delayed post‐test. The results indicated that the LTT did promote the development of scientific creativity of secondary school students, and the effects on the scientific creativity were not necessarily immediate, but tended to be long‐lasting.     

Transfer of Work Decrement in Motor Learning

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the decremental effects of massed practice are due to the development of a negative drive (Hull’s I_r). The results indicated that the decremental effects of massed practice on either the pursuit rotor or the two-hand coordinator do not transfer to depress performance or reminiscence on the other task. The results did not support Hull’s drive interpretation but were explained by theories attributing decrement to a decreased level of arousal.     

A Test of Order-Constrained Hypotheses for Circular Data With Applications to Human Movement Science

Researchers studying the movements of the human body often encounter data measured in angles (e.g., angular displacements of joints). The evaluation of these circular data requires special statistical methods. The authors introduce a new test for the analysis of order-constrained hypotheses for circular data. Through this test, researchers can evaluate their expectations regarding the outcome of an experiment directly by representing their ideas in the form of a hypothesis containing inequality constraints. The resulting data analysis is generally more powerful than one using standard null hypothesis testing. Two examples of circular data from human movement science are presented to illustrate the use of the test. Results from a simulation study show that the test performs well.     

Item grouping and item randomization in personality measurement

This paper describes a study examining the impact of item order in personality measurement on reliability, measurement equivalence and scale-level correlations. A large sample of university students completed one of three forms of the International Personality Item Pool version of the Big Five personality inventory: items sorted at random, items sorted by factor, and items cycled through factors. Results showed that the underlying measurement model and the internal consistency of the IPIP-Big Five scale was unaffected by differences in item order. Also, most of the scale-level correlations among factors were not significantly different across forms. Implications for the administration of tests and interpretation of test scores are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

Methods for second order meta-analysis and illustrative applications

This paper presents methods for second order meta-analysis along with several illustrative applications. A second order meta-analysis is a meta-analysis of a number of statistically independent and methodologically comparable first order meta-analyses examining ostensibly the same relationship in different contexts. First order meta-analysis greatly reduces sampling error variance but does not eliminate it. The residual sampling error is called second order sampling error. The purpose of a second order meta-analysis is to estimate the proportion of the variance in mean meta-analytic effect sizes across multiple first order meta-analyses attributable to second order sampling error and to use this information to improve accuracy of estimation for each first order meta-analytic estimate. We present equations and methods based on the random effects model for second order meta-analysis for three situations and three empirical applications of second order meta-analysis to illustrate the potential value of these methods to the pursuit of cumulative knowledge.     

Moved to tears: Technical considerations and dilemmas encountered in working with a 13-year-old boy with acquired quadriplegia 1

This paper is about therapeutic work with David, a 13-year-old boy who, at the age of 5, was the victim of a hit-and-run road traffic accident resulting in quadriplegia. The circumstances leading to the accident and its sequelae reveal a particularly complex picture, which combines early emotional deprivation and trauma. Although cognitively intact and able to speak, David could not move. Yet he created movement in others through a desperate necessity, by communicating via the employment of extreme projective forces. The highly complex presentation of emotional, psychic and bodily damage in the child, and in particular, David's physical paralysis, has had a profound impact upon what I have come to think of as the ‘mindbody’ of the therapist. Winnicott has talked of the infant's ‘psyche/soma’. Here I want to extend the notion and consider the bodily impact of projections in particular and how these have a powerful emotional and physical resonance on the ‘mindbody’ of the therapist, especially in therapy with a young person whose body is damaged. In this paper, I consider technical challenges and dilemmas encountered in the work, including the complex interplay of transference/countertransference phenomena. This unusual presentation of a boy in extraordinary circumstances led to considerations of psychoanalytic method and interpretative activity, which may be viewed as being inspired by ‘emotional truthfulness’.2 2 Alex Dubinskey (Chair ACP conference 2004) commenting on aspects of this work used the term ‘emotional truthfulness’.

Dans cet article, l'auteur raconte son travail thérapeutique auprès de David, âgé de 13 ans, qui à l'âge de 5 ans fut victime d'un accident de la circulation avec délit de fuite, accident qui le laissa tétraplégique. Les circonstances qui aboutirent à l'accident et à ses séquelles forment un tableau particulièrement complexe mettant en jeu des carences affectives précoces et des traumatismes. Bien que ses capacités cognitives ne fussent nullement atteintes et qu'il fut capable de parler, David ne pouvait pas bouger. Par l'urgence désespérée de son discours, transmise grâce à des projections extrêmement puissantes, il réussissait à susciter du mouvement chez ses interlocuteurs. La présence conjointe et extrêmement complexe de dommages affectifs, psychiques et corporels chez cet enfant – et notamment sa paralysie physique – eut un impact profond sur ce que l'auteur en vient à appeler l'“ esprit-corps ” du psychothérapeute. D. W. Winnicott a parlé du “ psyché-soma ” du jeune enfant. Dans son texte, l'auteur élargit cette notion, notamment pour prendre en considération l'impact corporel des projections, ainsi que leur résonance émotionnelle et physique massive sur l'“ esprit-corps ” du thérapeute, surtout lorsque son patient est une personne jeune dont le corps est endommagé. L'auteur explore les défis et dilemmes techniques rencontrés au cours de son travail, y compris le jeu complexe de phénomènes transférentiels et contre-transférentiels. Ce traitement, inhabituel, avec un garçon dans des circonstances sortant de l'extraordinaire soulève des questions concernant la méthodologie psychanalytique et l'activité interprétative, questions qui peuvent être considérées comme étant inspirées par la “ véracité émotionnelle ”.

Dieser Artikel ist über die therapeutische Arbeit mit David, einem 13-jährigen Jungen, der im Alter von 5 Jahren das Opfer eines Unfalls mit Fahrerflucht war, der zu einer Querschnittslähmung führte. Die Umstände, die zu dem Unfall führten und seine Folgen legen ein besonders komplexes Bild dar, das frühe Vernachlässigung und Trauma kombiniert. Obwohl David kognitiv intakt war und sprechen konnte, konnte er sich nicht bewegen. Doch schaffte er Bewegung aus verzweifelter Notwendigkeit in anderen, indem er mit mithilfe der Benutzung von extremen projektiven Kräften kommunizierte. Die höchst komplexe Präsentation von emotionalem, psychischem und körpelichem Schaden in dem Kind und insbesondere Davids körperliche Lähmung, hatte eine tiefe Auswirkung auf das, was ich nun den ‘mindbody’ (Gemütskörper) des Therapeuten nenne. Winnicott sprach vom Psyche/Soma des Babies. Hier möchte ich diesen Begriff ausweiten und besonders die köperliche Auswirkung der Projektionen betrachten und wie diese eine starke emotionale und physische Resonanz auf den ‘mindbody’ des Therapeutens haben, insbesondere in der Therapie mit einer jungen Person, deren Körper beschädigt ist. In diesem Artikel betrachte ich technische Herausforderungen und Dilemmas, denen man in dieser Arbeit begegnet, einschliesslich der komplexen Wechselwirkung von Übertragungs/ Gegenübertragungsphänomenen. Diese ungewöhnliche Behandlung mit einem Jungen in aussergewöhnlichen Umständen führten zu Überlegungen zur psychoanalytischen Methode undzur Deutungsaktivität, die von ‘emotionaler Wahrheit’ inspiriert wird

Riassunto: In questo articolo si parla del lavoro terapeutico con David, un bambino di 13 anni che, all'età di 5 anni, fu vittima di un incidente stradale che portò alla quadriplegia. Le circostanze che portarono all'incidente e la sua sequela rivelano un quadro particolarmente complesso, nel quale emerge un misto di deprivazione emotiva precoce e trauma. Sebbene David fosse abile cognitivamente e potesse parlare, egli non poteva muoversi. Eppure il bambino generava movimento negli altri attraverso una disperata necessità, comunicando con l'uso di estreme forze proiettive. Il presentarsi di un danno nel bambino altamente complesso nella sua dimensione emotiva, psichica e corporea, ed in particolare, la paralisi fisica di David, hanno avuto un profondo impatto su ciò che ho iniziato a pensare come il ‘corpomente’ del terapeuta. Winnicott ha parlato dello ‘psiche/soma’ del neonato. L'autrice vuole nell'articolo estendere la nozione e considerare l'impatto corporeo delle proiezioni e come queste abbiano una risonanza emotiva e fisica molto forte sul ‘corpomente’ del terapeuta, soprattutto nella terapia con un ragazzo giovane il cui corpo è stato danneggiato. Nell'articolo considero le sfide tecniche e i dilemmi incontrati nel lavoro, compreso il gioco complesso dei fenomeni transferali e controtransferali. Il trattamento insolito con questo bambino in circostanze molto particolari ha portato a considerazioni riguardo al metodo psicoanalitico e all'attività interpretativa, che si possono considerare come ispirati da ‘verità emotiva'¹     

A methodological note on ordered Q-Sort ratings

Patterns of ratings using the Q-Sort method and the Likert-type method are compared. Ordering effects are found in Q-Sort ratings that are not present in Likert-type ratings. Specifically, item order is related to both item variance and item placement, such that items appearing near the end of the Q-Sort have less variance and more central placement. This finding is verified across three measures in several datasets spanning nearly 20 years of research. Such item order effects appear to attenuate average absolute relationships (covariances and correlations) between items appearing near the end of the Q-Sort and other measures. Randomization of items may be (in some situations) a viable course of action to minimize these effects at a sample level.     

RICOEUR'S PHILOSOPHY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

In differentiation of early and mature shame, the phenomenological content of shame changes with the development of a stable self-state. In this hypothesis, early shame refers to a person's dependence upon mirroring himself and in being mirrored by an outer object, while mature shame refers to introspection and self-reflection. From a developmental psychological point of view, the connection between self-development and mirroring is expounded. Mirroring is defined as a psychic dialectic process between the inner psychic reality and the outer reality. Early shame is connected to dyadic mirroring, which refers to attachment and empathy. Mature shame is connected to triadic mirroring, which refers to separation and reflection. Early shame emerges from discrepancies between the infant's expectations of a complementary affective response and the mother's response, and is defined as an early marker of differences in the mother/infant unit. It is argued that early shame in smaller ‘doses’ has a regulating function on self-development by maintaining the psychic dialectic process, while in larger ‘doses’, it has a disturbing effect on the self-development, resulting in pathological shame. In the therapeutic process, early shame appears as shame scenarios illustrated in the text by a clinical vignette.     

Working memory deficits in developmental dyscalculia: The importance of serial order

Although a number of studies suggests a link between working memory (WM) storage capacity of short-term memory and calculation abilities, the nature of verbal WM deficits in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) remains poorly understood. We explored verbal WM capacity in DD by focusing on the distinction between memory for item information (the items to be retained) and memory for order information (the order of the items within a list). We hypothesized that WM for order could be specifically related to impaired numerical abilities given that recent studies suggest close interactions between the representation of order information in WM and ordinal numerical processing. We investigated item and order WM abilities as well as basic numerical processing abilities in 16 children with DD (age: 8–11 years) and 16 typically developing children matched on age, IQ, and reading abilities. The DD group performed significantly poorer than controls in the order WM condition but not in the item WM condition. In addition, the DD group performed significantly slower than the control group on a numerical order judgment task. The present results show significantly reduced serial order WM abilities in DD coupled with less efficient numerical ordinal processing abilities, reflecting more general difficulties in explicit processing of ordinal information.