The Idea of an Exact Number: Children's Understanding of Cardinality and Equinumerosity

Understanding what numbers are means knowing several things. It means knowing how counting relates to numbers (called the cardinal principle or cardinality); it means knowing that each number is generated by adding one to the previous number (called the successor function or succession), and it means knowing that all and only sets whose members can be placed in one‐to‐one correspondence have the same number of items (called exact equality or equinumerosity). A previous study (Sarnecka & Carey, 2008) linked children's understanding of cardinality to their understanding of succession for the numbers five and six. This study investigates the link between cardinality and equinumerosity for these numbers, finding that children either understand both cardinality and equinumerosity or they understand neither. This suggests that cardinality and equinumerosity (along with succession) are interrelated facets of the concepts five and six, the acquisition of which is an important conceptual achievement of early childhood.     

Differential Development of Learning Strategies on a Pictorial Verbal Learning Test (PVLT) in Primary-School Children

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that developmental differences exist in the use of learning strategies in primary school children. Serial and subjective clustering in a multitrial Pictorial Verbal Learning Test (PVLT) were compared in 79 children aged 6–12. Correlation analyses indicated that serial clustering yielded better performance when information was presented on the initial trials of the test. Subjective clustering was superior when information was presented repeatedly, i.e., after three or more trials. Analyses of variance indicated that subjective clustering was used more often in older children with repeated presentations. On the other hand, there was no increase in the use of serial clustering with age and with repeated presentations. The findings imply that training in the use of proper strategies could have benefit for children who use an inefficient learning strategy and/or have a learning problem. In addition, they point to the importance of the factor “age” in relation to the way information is presented to children.     

Attention,Response Inhibition,and Face-Information Processing in Children: The Role of Task Characteristics,Age, and Gender

The aim of the study was to assess: (a) developmental changes in attention, response inhibition, and face-information processing using the new Balloons task and (b) to evaluate the association between measures derived from the task with reported behavior problems. One hundred and thirty-four typically developing children (53 boys and 81 girls) were tested with the Balloons. Their parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Our results validate the Balloons as a reliable task with significant effects of manipulations in difficulty level (speed, processing load, and processing type). The results suggest that face-information processing undergoes significant changes during the age period between 7 and 13 years with significant gender differences. Modest but significant correlations were found between the Balloons' measures and behavior problems.     

A Transformative Eucharistic Vision for the Entire Oikoumene

This article begins from the awareness that in a world of affluence, millions are hungry. It addresses the question as to whether this is merely an economic issue or whether it also poses an ethical and theological dilemma, considering ways in which the situation we are living in challenges our faith in the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It asks how, in the situation as it is, there is any possibility of believing in such a transformation. Finally it questions whether there is any relationship between hope for the transformation of hunger amidst affluence and belief in the transformation of bread into the body of Christ, and outlines a transformative eucharistic vision for the global Christian Church.     

Small subitizing range in people with Williams syndrome

Recent evidence suggests that the rapid apprehension of small numbers of objects—often called subitizing—engages a system which allows representation of up to 4 objects but is distinct from other aspects of numerical processing. We examined subitizing by studying people with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic deficit characterized by severe visuospatial impairments, and normally developing children (4–6.5 years old). In Experiment 1, participants first explicitly counted displays of 1 to 8 squares that appeared for 5 s and reported “how many”. They then reported “how many” for the same displays shown for 250 ms, a duration too brief to allow explicit counting, but sufficient for subitizing. All groups were highly accurate up to 8 objects when they explicitly counted. With the brief duration, people with WS showed almost perfect accuracy up to a limit of 3 objects, comparable to 4-year-olds but fewer than either 5- or 6.5-year-old children. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to report “how many” for displays that were presented for an unlimited duration, as rapidly as possible while remaining accurate. Individuals with WS responded as rapidly as 6.5-year-olds, and more rapidly than 4-year-olds. However, their accuracy was as in Experiment 1, comparable to 4-year-olds and lower than older children. These results are consistent with previous findings, indicating that people with WS can simultaneously represent multiple objects, but that they have a smaller capacity than older children, on par with 4-year-olds. This pattern is discussed in the context of normal and abnormal development of visuospatial skills, in particular those linked to the representation of numerosity.     

Strategies for spatial organization in adults and children

People have a tendency to organize space by extracting meaningful shapes from the configuration of elements. However, research on spatial correspondence in children suggests that when configural processing is difficult, individuation of elements may be critical. To begin to address the distinction between the use of configurations and individuation, and changes associated with age, we relied upon perceptual grouping and manipulated the colour of the displays—promoting either extraction of configural information (monochromatic) or individuation of elements (multicoloured). In a layout reproduction task (Experiments 1 and 2), children showed a robust advantage for multicoloured arrays, whereas adults showed an attenuated advantage for monochromatic displays. Visual discrimination in adults (Experiment 3) revealed that the influence of the display type occurs at the level of perception. Taken together, these results suggest that there are (at least) two routes to establishing spatial correspondence in arrays of elements, with differential dependence over development.     

Community Psychology and Quality of Life in Tanzania

The purpose of this study was to explore the status of community psychology and its contribution to the quality of life in Tanzania. The study was based on both literature review and interviews. First, social responses to problems such as malaria, food insecurity, domestic violence, environmental changes, and HIV/AIDS are discussed. This is followed by a report on the results of five face-to-face interviews of individuals working in the fields of psychology, sociology, social work, counseling and public health. The participants were predominantly from the Capital City of Dar es Salam and one hailed from the city of Mbeya, 850 km from Dar es Salaam. The interviews were exclusively conducted in English as all participants were fluent in English, though it was their second language. On the basis of the literature review and the interviews, it was concluded that although community psychology has made some progress in contributing to quality of life in Tanzania, it is a field of great potential which must be further explored for the benefit of Tanzanians.     

Development of behavioural problems in children adopted from Romania to the Netherlands,after a period of deprivation

A longitudinal study was conducted among 72 Romanian adoptive children (41 boys, 31 girls) in the Netherlands, who, according to the parents and medical records, had all experienced a period of some degree of deprivation before their adoption. The children were on average 2 years and 9 months old at adoption. Parents filled out the Child Behavioural Checklist twice. On average there was little change in scores between the two measurements, and correlations were high. Some children displayed a marked improvement, or worsening of problems. The change in CBCL scores was not related to age or health on arrival into the adoptive family. Children who received special education at the first measurement (31%) improved significantly more on Total Problems than children who didn't. The same applied to professional help, the 46 children (64%) for whom professional help was engaged improved significantly more than the other 26 children. It appears to be effective to engage educational and psychological help for these (severely) deprived children at an early stage.     

School enrolment and executive functioning: A longitudinal perspective on developmental changes,the influence of learning context,and the prediction of pre-academic skills

The present two-year longitudinal study addressed developmental changes in different aspects of executive functioning (i.e., inhibition, updating, and cognitive flexibility) in a sample of 264 children aged between 5 and 7 years. Of special interest were issues of developmental progression over time, the influence of learning context and the predictive power of executive functions and school context for emerging academic skills. The results revealed pronounced improvements in all executive measures, both over time and as a function of age. For the learning context, small and age-dependent effects on executive skills were found. Inhibition uniquely contributed to the prediction of aspects of emerging academic skills, over and above chronological age and language skills.