Development of rules and strategies: balancing the old and the new

The experiments described in the lead articles replicate findings from previous studies of development of knowledge about balance scales, add several new findings, and raise four key questions: (a) How can rule use best be assessed? (b) How can we reconcile systematic use of rules with variable use of strategies? (c) When do children begin to use rules? and (d) How do children generate new rules? In this Reflection, we summarize current understanding of development of knowledge about balance scales and consider each of the four questions.     

Relating print and speech: the effects of letter names and word position on reading and spelling performance

From an early age, children can go beyond rote memorization to form links between print and speech that are based on letter names in the initial positions of words (Treiman & Rodriguez, 1999; Treiman, Sotak, & Bowman, 2001). For example, children's knowledge of the name of the letter t helps them learn that the novel word TM is pronounced as team. Four experiments were carried out to determine whether letter names at the ends of words are equally useful. Four- and five-year-olds derived little benefit from such information in reading (Experiments 1 and 3) or spelling (Experiment 2), although adults did (Experiment 4). For young children, word-final information appears to have less influence on reading and spelling performance than does word-initial information. The results help delineate the circumstances under which children can go beyond a logographic approach in learning about print.     

Developmental and content effects in reasoning with causal conditionals

Two predictions derived from Markovits and Barrouillet's (2001) developmental model of conditional reasoning were tested in a study in which 72 twelve-year-olds, 80 fifteen-year-olds, and 104 adults received a paper-and-pencil test of conditional reasoning with causal premises ("if cause P then effect Q"). First, we predicted that conditional premises would induce more correct uncertainty responses to the Affirmation of the consequent and Denial of the antecedent forms when the antecedent term is weakly associated to the consequent than when the two are strongly associated and that this effect would decrease with age. Second, uncertainty responding to the Denial of the antecedent form ("P is not true") should be easier when the formulation of the minor premise invites retrieval of alternate antecedents ("if something other than P is true"). The results were consistent with the hypotheses and indicate the importance of retrieval processes in understanding developmental patterns in conditional reasoning with familiar premises.     

2001 DIVISION 27 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: Emotional Intelligence and the Good Community

Suggests various ways in which the concept of emotional intelligence (EI) can inform community research and action. Begins by defining EI and reviewing the growing body of research on its contribution to educational, health, and occupational outcomes. Next distinguishes between EI and the related concept of emotional and social competence. Then considers the connection between EI and several topics of interest to community action researchers including prevention and wellness promotion, implementation and dissemination of innovative programs, community development, and the value of diversity. Concludes by suggesting that the ecological perspective can help inform research and practice relating to EI.     

Groups to Resolve Conflicts Between Groups: Diplomacy with a Therapeutic Dimension

The group self, an individual's self-perception as a member of a group, is distinguished from the group's self, a personification of the group as a person with a self. The perceived group's self of an opposing other group is often a repository for attributes group members are not ready to recognize in their own group's self. Theoretically, the need for an adversarial other to hold one's own group's unwanted attributes—and thus to complete one's own group's self—contributes, however unconsciously, to the apparent intractability of intergroup disputes. In dealing with these issues, I compare intergroup conflict resolution (ICR) groups with therapy groups, on the one hand, and advocacy groups on the other. All of this sets the stage for a presentation of two ICR projects and their analysis in group-developmental terms.     

21世纪我国消化病学发展战略的若干思考

就21世纪消化病的研究与发展的方向和展望,从宏观调控与哲学思想方面提出了如下几个措施;预防为主,人文社会为本;加强基础研究,充分利用科技成果;突出重点,循序渐进;促进中西医结合,充分利用和研究中医药的临床疗效;重视人才培养,提高梯队素质。     

The Late Life Reconstruction of Selfhood Analyzed in Peter Hall's Film She's Been Away

The film She's Been Away tells the story of an old woman who had been locked in a mental asylum while a teenager, for willfully violating repressive sexual codes. Sixty years later her ward is closed and she moves in with her nephew and his wife. Faced with what appears to be a hopeless situation, she manages to forge a sense of a meaningful closure to a misspent life. Through narrative, story structure, and characterization the film throws into focus coping mechanisms and ego strategies deployed by a triple disadvantaged person (woman, old, and mad) in her ascent to a reconstructed selfhood. As the protagonist ties both ends of her life, and faces the abyss in between she makes genuine adaptive use of so-called regressive, late-life development assets (available to a lesser degree to elderly people in normal life circumstances), primarily the abolition of linear time. Through this abolition she makes reminiscing an actual reality while still maintaining a functional separation between the real and the remembered. Her portrayal is a valuable document for gerontologists as it explores, through artistic imagination and intuition, the workings of an aging mind in search for a meaningful sense of closure.     

Stress and memory: opposing effects of glucocorticoids on memory consolidation and memory retrieval

It is well established that glucocorticoid hormones, secreted by the adrenal cortex after a stressful event, influence cognitive performance. Some studies have found glucocorticoid-induced memory enhancement. However, many studies have reported impairing effects of glucocorticoids on memory function. This paper reviews recent findings from this laboratory on the acute effects of glucocorticoids in rats on specific memory phases, i.e., memory consolidation and memory retrieval. The evidence suggests that the consequences of glucocorticoid activation on cognition depend largely on the different memory phases investigated. Posttraining activation of glucocorticoid-sensitive pathways involving glucocorticoid receptors enhances memory consolidation in a pattern highly similar to that previously described for adrenal catecholamines. Also, similar to catecholamine effects on memory consolidation, glucocorticoid influences on memory consolidation depend on noradrenergic activation of the basolateral complex of the amygdala and interactions with other brain regions. By contrast, memory retrieval processes are usually impaired with high circulating levels of glucocorticoids or following infusions of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into the hippocampus. The hypothesis is proposed that these apparently dual effects of glucocorticoids on memory consolidation and memory retrieval might be related and that the basolateral complex of the amygdala is a key structure in a memory-modulatory system that regulates, in concert with other brain regions, stress and glucocorticoid effects on both memory consolidation and memory retrieval.     

Sex differences in judgement of facial affect: a multivariate analysis of recognition errors

The present paper investigated recognition errors in affective judgement of facial emotional expressions. Twenty-eight females and sixteen males participated in the study. The results showed that in both males and females emotional displays could be correctly classified, but females had a higher rate of correct classification; males were more likely to have difficulty distinguishing one emotion from another. Females rated emotions identically regardless of whether the emotion was displayed by a male or female face. Furthermore, the two-factor structure of emotion, based on a valence and an arousal dimension, was only present for female subjects. These results further extend our knowledge about gender differences in affective information processing.