Cultural transmission through infant signs: Objects and actions in U.S. and Taiwan

Infant signs are intentionally taught/learned symbolic gestures which can be used to represent objects, actions, requests, and mental state. Through infant signs, parents and infants begin to communicate specific concepts earlier than children’s first spoken language. This study examines whether cultural differences in language are reflected in children’s and parents’ use of infant signs. Parents speaking East Asian languages with their children utilize verbs more often than do English-speaking mothers; and compared to their English-learning peers, Chinese children are more likely to learn verbs as they first acquire spoken words. By comparing parents’ and infants’ use of infant signs in the U.S. and Taiwan, we investigate cultural differences of noun/object versus verb/action bias before children’s first language. Parents reported their own and their children's use of first infant signs retrospectively. Results show that cultural differences in parents’ and children’s infant sign use were consistent with research on early words, reflecting cultural differences in communication functions (referential versus regulatory) and child-rearing goals (independent versus interdependent). The current study provides evidence that intergenerational transmission of culture through symbols begins prior to oral language.     

Symbolic consumption in teenagers' clothing choices

The importance of the symbolic properties of goods has been explored in depth among adult consumers, but there has been less attention given to the symbolic consumption of young people. This study explores the subject of symbolic consumption with specific reference to clothing in the teenage market. Thirty‐eight young people were interviewed, and age, sex and social position variations were considered. The results of this study suggest that conspicuous consumption is relevant for young people, and that they are a group which is adept at reading the signals represented in clothing choices. The authors found that the clothes choices made by young people are closely bound to their self‐concept, and are used both as a means of self‐expression and as a way of judging the people and situations they face. Evidence was also found that clothing has a function in role fulfilment, making the wearer more confident and capable. Overall, clothing can be viewed as an essential social tool in the lives of teenagers. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

An evolutionary system for neural logic networks using genetic programming and indirect encoding

Nowadays, intelligent connectionist systems such as artificial neural networks have been proved very powerful in a wide area of applications. Consequently, the ability to interpret their structure was always a desirable feature for experts. In this field, the neural logic networks (NLN) by their definition are able to represent complex human logic and provide knowledge discovery. However, under contemporary methodologies, the training of these networks may often result in non-comprehensible or poorly designed structures. In this work, we propose an evolutionary system that uses current advances in genetic programming that overcome these drawbacks and produces neural logic networks that can be arbitrarily connected and are easily interpretable into expert rules. To accomplish this task, we guide the genetic programming process using a context-free grammar and we encode indirectly the neural logic networks into the genetic programming individuals. We test the proposed system in two problems of medical diagnosis. Our results are examined both in terms of the solution interpretability that can lead in knowledge discovery, and in terms of the achieved accuracy. We draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the system and we propose further research directions.     

Children's understanding of the relationship between addition and subtraction

In learning mathematics, children must master fundamental logical relationships, including the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. At the start of elementary school, children lack generalized understanding of this relationship in the context of exact arithmetic problems: they fail to judge, for example, that 12 + 9 − 9 yields 12. Here, we investigate whether preschool children’s approximate number knowledge nevertheless supports understanding of this relationship. Five-year-old children were more accurate on approximate large-number arithmetic problems that involved an inverse transformation than those that did not, when problems were presented in either non-symbolic or symbolic form. In contrast they showed no advantage for problems involving an inverse transformation when exact arithmetic was involved. Prior to formal schooling, children therefore show generalized understanding of at least one logical principle of arithmetic. The teaching of mathematics may be enhanced by building on this understanding.     

Examining Mediators of the Link Between Generativity and Well-being

Generativity involves raising and guiding the next generation, contributing to society, and creating new products and ideas. It has clearly been related to personal well-being, yet little is known about why this relationship exists. According to McAdams and de St. Aubin (J Pers Soc Psychol, 62:1003–1015, 1992), generativity is motivated by a desire for symbolic immortality, a need to be needed, and society’s expectation that one should be a contributing member. It was therefore hypothesized that the satisfaction of these variables would fully mediate the relationship between generativity and well-being. Structural equation modeling showed that symbolic immortality alone fully mediated the relationship.     

How Does It Feel to Be a Star?

Over the past three decades, research on the social dimensions of emotions has grown exponentially, particularly in the area of “emotion management.” In this project, we will attempt to add to this body of research by studying the social aspects of labeling or “instantiating” feelings. The data for the project come from televised red-carpet interviews conducted with celebrities immediately prior to awards ceremonies. By focusing on the generic aspects of the emotional claims-making put forth by interviewers and interviewees, we demonstrate how the labeling of emotions is an interpretive, interactive task.

Human embryonic stem cell research and the discarded embryo argument

Many who believe that human embryos have moral status are convinced that their use in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research can be morally justified as long as they are discarded embryos left over from fertility treatments. This is one reason why this view about discarded embryos has played such a prominent role in the debate over publicly funding hESC research in the United States and other countries. Many believe that this view offers the best chance of a compromise between the different sides in this debate. This paper focuses on what seems to be the most plausible argument for this view about discarded embryos. It shows that this argument is unsound regardless of how one understands the claim that embryos have moral status. It also discusses the implications of this conclusion for attempts to use this argument as a basis for public policy.

The spread of fear: Symbolic generalization mediates graded threat-avoidance in specific phobia

Overgeneralization of fear and threat-avoidance represents a formidable barrier to successful clinical treatment of anxiety disorders. While stimulus generalization along quantifiable physical dimensions has been studied extensively, less consideration has been given to symbolic generalization, in which stimuli are indirectly and arbitrarily related. The present study examined whether the magnitude and extent of symbolic generalization of threat-avoidance and threat-beliefs differed between spider-phobic and nonphobic individuals. Initially, participants learned two sets of stimulus equivalence relations (A1?=?B1?=?C1; A2?=?B2?=?C2). Next, one cue (B1) was established as a conditioned stimulus (CS?+?; threat) that signalled onset of spider images and prompted avoidance, and another cue (B2) was established as a CS– (safety cue) that signalled the absence of such images. Subsequent testing showed that phobics compared to nonphobics exhibited greater symbolic generalization of threat-avoidance to threat cues A1 and C1 (indirect CS+ threat cues related via symmetry and equivalence, respectively), while all individuals showed nonavoidance to indirect safety cues A2 and C2. The enhanced symbolic generalization of threat-beliefs and avoidance behaviour observed in spider phobics warrants further investigation.     

Working memory and number line representations in single-digit addition: Approximate versus exact,nonsymbolic versus symbolic

How do kindergarteners solve different single-digit addition problem formats? We administered problems that differed solely on the basis of two dimensions: response type (approximate or exact), and stimulus type (nonsymbolic, i.e., dots, or symbolic, i.e., Arabic numbers). We examined how performance differs across these dimensions, and which cognitive mechanism (mental model, transcoding, or phonological storage) underlies performance in each problem format with respect to working memory (WM) resources and mental number line representations. As expected, nonsymbolic problem formats were easier than symbolic ones. The visuospatial sketchpad was the primary predictor of nonsymbolic addition. Symbolic problem formats were harder because they either required the storage and manipulation of quantitative symbols phonologically or taxed more WM resources than their nonsymbolic counterparts. In symbolic addition, WM and mental number line results showed that when an approximate response was needed, children transcoded the information to the nonsymbolic code. When an exact response was needed, however, they phonologically stored numerical information in the symbolic code. Lastly, we found that more accurate symbolic mental number line representations were related to better performance in exact addition problem formats, not the approximate ones. This study extends our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying children's simple addition skills.     

Reduction of false recognition through haptic presentation of objects

False recognition of an item that is not presented (the lure) can occur when participants study and are tested on their recognition of items related to the lure. False recognition is reduced when the study and test modalities are congruent (e.g., both visual) rather than different (e.g., visual study and auditory test). The present study examined whether such a congruency effect occurs for haptic and auditory modalities. After studying items presented haptically or auditorily, participants took a haptic or auditory recognition test. False recognition was reduced when both the study and test were haptic, but not when the study was auditory and the test was haptic. These results indicate that cues encoded through the haptic modality can reduce false recognition.