Self-directed activity and cognitive development

Both in constructivist theories of development and in educational applications of such theories, self-directed activity is aleged to play a critical role in the developmental process. The purpose of the present study was to subject this popular assertation to empirical examination. Subjects were fourth- and fifth-graders who showed no formal operational reasoning. Subjects assigned to an experimental condition were matched with yoked-control partners of the same sex and grade. An additional group of subjects was assigned to a simple control condition. Experimental and yoked-control subjects were given opportunities to solve problems requiring formal operational reasoning over a three-month period. The procedure for experimental subjects differed from that for yoked-controls only in that experimental subjects selected the particular information-seeking activities they would engage in. Yoked-control subjects carried out the same activities that had been chosen by their experimental partners. Both groups showed significant progress in the construction of new reasoning strategies, but experimental subjects showed greater progress than yoked-controls. The enhanced progress of the experimental subjects, it is suggested, was due to the increased presence of anticipatory schemes regarding the outcomes of their actions. These anticipatory schemes allowed subjects to better “make use of”, in the cognitive sense—in other words, assimilate into a theoretical framework—the data yielded by the experiments, and thus they gained more from their experience.     

Three conditions on conceptual naturalness

Human infants are predisposed to organize their experience in terms of certain concepts and not in terms of others. The favored concepts are called natural, the remainder, unnatural. A major problem in psychology is to state a principled distinction between the two kinds of concepts. Toward this end, the present paper offers three, formal necessary conditions on the naturalness of concepts. The conditions attempt to link the problem of naturalness to the distinctions between sense versus nonsense, simplicity versus complexity, and validity versus invalidity.     

Events and the ontology of individuals: verbs as a source of individuating mass and count nouns

What does mass-count syntax contribute to the interpretation of noun phrases (NPs), and how much of NP meaning is contributed by lexical items alone? Many have argued that count syntax specifies reference to countable individuals (e.g., cats) while mass syntax specifies reference to unindividuated entities (e.g., water). We evaluated this claim using the quantity judgment method, and tested the interpretation of words used in mass and count syntax that described either protracted, "durative" events (e.g., mass: some dancing; count: a dance), or instantaneous, "punctual" events (e.g., mass: some jumping; count: a jump). For durative words, participants judged, for example, that six brief dances are more dances but less dancing than two long dances, thus showing a significant difference in their interpretation of the count and mass usages. However, for punctual words, participants judged, for example, that six small jumps are both more jumps and more jumping than two long jumps, resulting in no difference due to mass-count syntax. Further, when asked which dimensions are important for comparing quantities of durative and punctual events, participants ranked number as first in importance for durative and punctual words presented in count syntax, but also for punctual words presented in mass syntax. These results indicate that names for punctual events individuate when used in either mass or count syntax, and thus provide evidence against the idea that mass syntax forces an unindividuated construal. They also indicate that event punctuality as encoded by verbs is importantly linked to the individuation of NPs, and may access a common underlying ontology of individuals.     

Parental Exposure to Mass Violence and Child Mental Health: The First Responder and WTC Evacuee Study

Children’s reactions after being exposed to mass violence may be influenced by a spectrum of factors. Relatively unexplored is the extent to which family exposure to mass violence may affect child mental health, even when these children have not been directly exposed. In a representative sample of NYC public school children assessed 6 months after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center (WTC), seemingly elevated rates of psychopathology were recorded among children of WTC evacuees. Children of NYC First Responders (police officers, EMTs, and fire fighters) displayed a complex pattern of response to the WTC attack. Overall, the findings from this previous study support putative transmission of trauma to children whose parents were exposed to the WTC attack. The “Children of First Responder and WTC Evacuee Study”—a two-site longitudinal study—is currently underway in the United States (New York City) and in Israel (Tel Aviv area) in an effort to understand the impact of different patterns of mass violence. The NYC sample permits us to examine the impact of a rare instance of mass violence (e.g., WTC attack), while the Israeli sample provides information about repeated and frequent exposure to mass violence brought about by acts of terrorism. In addition, children’s exposure to mass violence is considered in the context of their exposure to other potentially traumatic events. This study aims to improve our general understanding of the impact of mass violence on children, especially the psychological effects on children whose parents’ work experiences are by nature stressful. Knowledge generated by this study has implications for guiding efforts to meet the needs of children who have, directly or through a family member, been subjected to rare or infrequent mass violent event as well as to children whose exposure to mass violence is part of daily life.     

儿童语言样本的分析技术

语言样本分析是评定儿童表达性语言能力发展的一个有效的广泛应用的方法,文章介绍了国外关于语言样本分析技术的发展情况,包括语言样本分析的程序、流行程度、语言样本的诱发方式,及其宏观结构和微观结构的分析指标;总结了国内在儿童语言样本分析领域的三方面的探索研究;未来的国内研究可以在宏观结构分析方面借鉴国外的经验,但在微观结构分析方面还需要基于汉语自身的特点,开发出适于中国儿童的语言样本分析指标。     

工作记忆与汉语歧义句加工的眼动研究

以符合“VP+N1+的+N2”格式的述宾型歧义短语组成的句子为材料,采用2×2的混合设计,即2(工作记忆广度：高、低)×2(续接方式：偏正、述宾),采用眼动记录法,考察被试对歧义短语的语义加工过程。结果发现：（1）在无前语境的暂时句法歧义句中,不同的续接方式在句子的最初加工过程中的作用不显著,而在最终的理解过程中作用显著。（2）工作记忆高有利于句子的理解,但对歧义短语的两种意思的提取和保持的作用不显著。     

Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Embodied Language

ABSTRACT— Mirror neurons are a class of neurons first discovered in the monkey premotor cortex that activate both when the monkey executes an action and when it observes the same action made by another individual. These neurons enable individuals to understand actions performed by others. Two subcategories of mirror neurons in monkeys activate when they listen to action sounds and when they observe communicative gestures made by others, respectively. The properties of mirror neurons could constitute a substrate from which more sophisticated forms of communication evolved; this would make sense, given the anatomical and functional homology between part of the monkey premotor cortex and Broca's area (the "speech" area of the brain) in humans. We hypothesize that several components of human language, including some aspects of phonology and syntax, could be embedded in the organizational properties of the motor system and that a deeper knowledge of this system could shed light on how language evolved.     

The flexible application of a manualized treatment for PTSD symptoms and functional impairment related to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack

The purpose of this treatment effectiveness study was to evaluate the flexible application of a manualized cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for PTSD and related symptoms in survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Treatment delivery ranged from 12 to 25 sessions; therapist experience ranged from no prior training to extensive training in CBT; and training and supervision of clinicians in the treatment manual was considerably less than that required in a randomized clinical trial (RCT). Paired t-tests demonstrated significant pre-post reductions in symptoms of PTSD and depression for the flexible application of the treatment. A benchmarking analysis revealed that the moderate-to-large effect sizes found for these variables were similar to those obtained in an RCT of the same treatment. Furthermore, effect sizes on measures of outcomes particularly relevant to this population of mass violence survivors such as functional impairment, use of alcohol and drugs to cope, and use of social support to cope, were also medium to large.     

Language-specific and universal influences in children's syntactic packaging of Manner and Path: a comparison of English, Japanese, and Turkish

Different languages map semantic elements of spatial relations onto different lexical and syntactic units. These crosslinguistic differences raise important questions for language development in terms of how this variation is learned by children. We investigated how Turkish-, English-, and Japanese-speaking children (mean age 3;8) package the semantic elements of Manner and Path onto syntactic units when both the Manner and the Path of the moving Figure occur simultaneously and are salient in the event depicted. Both universal and language-specific patterns were evident in our data. Children used the semantic-syntactic mappings preferred by adult speakers of their own languages, and even expressed subtle syntactic differences that encode different relations between Manner and Path in the same way as their adult counterparts (i.e., Manner causing vs. incidental to Path). However, not all types of semantics-syntax mappings were easy for children to learn (e.g., expressing Manner and Path elements in two verbal clauses). In such cases, Turkish- and Japanese-speaking children frequently used syntactic patterns that were not typical in the target language but were similar to patterns used by English-speaking children, suggesting some universal influence. Thus, both language-specific and universal tendencies guide the development of complex spatial expressions.