Do development and learning really decrease memory? On similarity and category-based induction in adults and children

In a recently published study, Sloutsky and Fisher [Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A.V. (2004a). When development and learning decrease memory: Evidence against category-based induction in children. Psychological Science, 15, 553-558; Sloutsky, V. M., & Fisher, A. V. (2004b). Induction and categorization in young children: A similarity-based model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 166-188.] demonstrated that children have better memory for the items that they generalise to than do adults. On the basis of this finding, they claim that children and adults use different mechanisms for inductive generalisations; whereas adults focus on shared category membership, children project properties on the basis of perceptual similarity. Sloutsky & Fisher attribute children's enhanced recognition memory to the more detailed processing required by this similarity-based mechanism. In Experiment 1 we show that children look at the stimulus items for longer than adults. In Experiment 2 we demonstrate that although when given just 250ms to inspect the items children remain capable of making accurate inferences, their subsequent memory for those items decreases significantly. These findings suggest that there are no necessary conclusions to be drawn from Sloutsky & Fisher's results about developmental differences in generalisation strategy.     

What do you want? How perceivers use cues to make goal inferences about others

Variables influencing inferences about a stranger's goal during an unsolicited social interaction were explored. Experiment 1 developed a procedure for identifying cues. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed the relative importance of various cues (space, time, characteristics of oneself, characteristics of the stranger, and the stranger's behavior) for goal judgments. Results indicated that situational context cues informed goal judgments in ways that were consistent with diagnosticity ratings and typicality ratings of those cues. Stranger characteristics and stranger behaviors affected goal judgments more than would be expected from these quantitative measures of their informativeness. Nonetheless, the results are consistent with a mental model view that assumes perceivers monitor situational cues present during interactions and that goal inferences are guided by the informativeness of these cues.     

An inner face advantage in children's recognition of familiar peers

Children’s recognition of familiar own-age peers was investigated. Chinese children (4-, 8-, and 14-year-olds) were asked to identify their classmates from photographs showing the entire face, the internal facial features only, the external facial features only, or the eyes, nose, or mouth only. Participants from all age groups were familiar with the faces used as stimuli for 1 academic year. The results showed that children from all age groups demonstrated an advantage for recognition of the internal facial features relative to their recognition of the external facial features. Thus, previous observations of a shift in reliance from external to internal facial features can be attributed to experience with faces rather than to age-related changes in face processing.     

Children's understanding of directed motion events in an imitation choice task

We investigated children’s understanding of directed motion events using an imitation choice paradigm. A total of 34 children (mean age 33 months) watched a model act out an event containing a manner of motion (hopping or sliding), a motion path (up or down a ramp), and a goal (in or on a bowl). On the children’s apparatus, the locations of the goal objects were different from the model so that the children needed to choose whether to imitate the path or the goal of the model’s event. Children’s choice of which component to imitate, therefore, reflects how they prioritize these event components. Most children showed no bias to imitate the goal of the event and, instead, preferred to imitate the model’s path at the expense of the model’s goal. However, children who spontaneously played with the goal objects during a free play session showed a diminished path preference, choosing to imitate path and goal components equally often. We suggest that children’s prioritization of information within an event depends on how that information is structured within the event itself.     

Towards a Philosophy of Software Development: 40 Years after the Birth of Software Engineering

Over the past four decades, software engineering has emerged as a discipline in its own right, though it has roots both in computer science and in classical engineering. Its philosophical foundations and premises are not yet well understood. In recent times, members of the software engineering community have started to search for such foundations. In particular, the philosophies of Kuhn and Popper have been used by philosophically-minded software engineers in search of a deeper understanding of their discipline. It seems, however, that professional philosophers of science are not yet aware of this new discourse within the field of software engineering. Therefore, this article aims to reflect critically upon recent software engineers’ attempts towards a philosophy of software engineering and to introduce our own philosophical thoughts in this context. Finally, we invite the professional philosophers of science to participate in this interesting new discourse.

中国的心理测量发展史

有关心理测量的思想起源于中国古代。但西方科学的心理测验理论与方法是20世纪初自西方传人中国的。30年的发展取得很大成绩,但道路艰辛曲折,文章分三个阶段对之作了回顾。一、最早是1915年外国学者为比较中美儿童的智力差异对广州500名小学生进行测试。同一时期,我国学者也开始自己编制测验,"小学生毛笔书法量表"是最早的标准化教育测验。廖世承和陈鹤琴1920年在南京高等师范开设测验课程,出版《心理测验法》一书,正式介绍科学的心理测验。与美国专家合作编制多种测验,1923年与美国专家合作对全国小学生进行测试,得出了三至八年级学童的年龄与班级常模,引起了教育界的注意。艾伟从1925年起致力编制中小学不同年级和学科的测验以及能力测验,还与张耀翔编制了识字测验与阅读测验等,对我国教育测验的发展做出了很大贡献。"中国测验学会"1931成立。并创办会刊《测验》有效地推动了当时测验研究的开展.1937年"七七"事变后,工作继续进行和扩展,但受战争的影响,发展上减慢了速度。二、1949年新中国成立后,由于政治上的变迁,心理测验被视为禁区,认为它违心,反动,没有人敢于问津。文化大革命中,心理学被打成伪科学,心理测验更是全盘否定了。三.文革以后,心理学恢复。而心理测验面对着既缺人力又少资料的困难。林传鼎等三位教授于1980年春举办了第一个全国性心理测验培训班,是心理测验再生的标志。此后各高等院校逐步开设心理测量学课程。通过引进各种心理测量理论,修订外国测验和逐步向自编我国测验发展,几年中取得了良好效果。1984年中国心理学会下属的‘心理测量分会’成立,1990年加入国际测验委员会(ITC)成为它的一个国家会员。1991年在南京举办了国内第一个心理测验国际性学术会议,又与台湾学者交流,建立起隔年一次海峡两岸心理与教育测量学术研讨会的协议。这些都对中国心理测验的发展都起了积极作用。80年代后期国家实行改革开放,经济转型,心理测验逐渐渗入医学、教育、企业、和组织人事部门等多种应用领域,扩大了对社会的影响。教育是其最早也是最重要的应用领域。从高考开始向各种考试、应用领域广泛扩展,取得良好效果。尤其是在人力资源、心理咨询领域,心理测验发展迅速日益兴旺。社会各界从多方面加深了对心理测量的认同,使它变成为一个相当热门的应用科学了。最后,文章从测验的数量、质量,数据处理的方法技术,测验者素质提高和法律完备等几个方面分析了存在问题并提出对今后的展望。     

Sustainable system-of-systems and francophone activity-centered approaches in ergonomics: Converging and diverging lines of dialogue

This paper initiates a dialogue between the sustainable system-of-systems (SSoS) approach and one particular situated approach of activity analysis within francophone activity-centered ergonomics (FACE). This paper explores the possible cross-fertilizations between FACE and SSoS in coping with the challenge of enlargement which ergonomists have to face in order to address sustainability issues. We present how the SSoS model and FACE have currently considered the challenges of sustainable development and the theoretical-methodological principles that frame their approaches. Then, eight topics of dialogue are introduced and debated in order to open the dialogue between the two approaches where emerging lines of convergence are generated. We conclude by further discussing the complementarity between FACE and SSoS in the objectives of their approaches and the levels analysed by each approach, and by highlighting the importance of taking into account the emergent and complex aspects of systems. One possible way forward might be to “situate the sustainable system-of-systems” while also “systemizing systems of sustainable situations” for the future.     

The effects of age and cue-action reminders on event-based prospective memory performance in preschoolers

The present study investigated event-based prospective memory in five age groups of preschoolers (i.e., 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds). Applying a laboratory-controlled prospective memory procedure, the data showed that event-based prospective memory performance improves across the preschool years, at least between 3 and 6 years of age. However, our findings do not confirm early speculations that 2-year-olds may have attained reliable skills to carry out future intentions on their own. By contrast, there were first signs of prospective memory abilities among the 3-year-olds. The present study also revealed that children as young as 3 years can use external memory aids in the form of cue-action reminders to improve their event-based prospective remembering. Finally, the findings suggest that parents or caregivers can adequately estimate their preschool children's prospective memory abilities, as revealed by applying a modified version of the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ).     

The development of facial emotion recognition: the role of configural information

The development of children's ability to recognize facial emotions and the role of configural information in this development were investigated. In the study, 100 5-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds and 26 adults needed to recognize the emotion displayed by upright and upside-down faces. The same participants needed to recognize the emotion displayed by the top half of an upright or upside-down face that was or was not aligned with a bottom half that displayed another emotion. The results showed that the ability to recognize facial emotion develops with age, with a developmental course that depends on the emotion to be recognized. Moreover, children at all ages and adults exhibited both an inversion effect and a composite effect, suggesting that children rely on configural information to recognize facial emotions.     

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, and Self- and Other-Assessments of Social Competence: A Developmental Study

This study examined whether others (i.e., teachers and parents) and self-appraisals of social competence mediated the relationship between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and depression. To determine whether age moderated the effects of the mediation, the total sample was divided into younger (under 9) and older (at or above 9 years) age levels. The total sample (age range 6.6 to 11.7 years) was primarily male (194 boys and 52 females) and consisted of 148 children diagnosed with ADHD and 98 community controls. Three central findings were derived from this study. First, there was a strong relationship between ADHD (with and without comorbid ODD/CD) and depression in both younger and older aged children. Among younger children with ADHD, there was no differential influence on the level of depression depending on whether or not ADHD was comorbid with ODD/CD; in contrast, with older children, comorbid ODD/CD had higher levels of depression than was the case for children with ADHD that did not display such comorbidity. Second, with younger children approximately half of the relationship between ADHD (with and without comorbid ODD/CD) and depression was exclusively mediated by others appraisal of social competence. Third, a more complex relationship between ADHD and depression emerged during the later part of the childhood years. As such, the relationship between ADHD, others appraisals of social competence, and depression was further mediated by self-appraisals of social competence. Findings are discussed in terms of developmental theory and theoretical models of childhood depression.Rick Ostrander and David S. Crystal contributed equally to this article, and the order of authorship was determined by a coin toss.