3.5～6.5岁儿童式样认知发展的实验研究

通过实验法 ,探讨了 3.5～ 6 .5岁儿童式样认知的发生和发展过程。结果表明 :(1) :3.5～ 4 .5岁和 5 .5～ 6 .5岁是儿童的式样认知发展的两个快速发展期。 (2 )儿童式样认知发展的特点 ,3.5岁儿童处于式样认知发展的萌芽状态 ;4 .5岁儿童 (4 .5岁 )式样认知开始发展 ;5 .5岁儿童式样认知比 4 .5岁儿童有所发展 ,但仍处于开始发展阶段 ;6 .5岁大部分儿童已基本上或完全有了式样概念。 (3)儿童对各类式样的认知有一个由易到难的顺序 :是从循环式样→重复式样→滋长式样→变异式样。 (4 )儿童式样认知发展是儿童认知发展的一个方面 ,可用中心概念结构理论来解释。     

发展性团体心理咨询改善大学生应对方式及其相关因素的实验研究

对发展性团体心理咨询在改善和提高大学生应对方式及能力方面的可行性及有效性进行了研究。将按照入组条件选出的28名大学生随机分为实验组(14名)和对照组(14名)。实验组接受发展性团体心理咨询干预两个月,对照组不予处理。三个月后对实验组成员进行追踪随访。采用应对方式问卷、抑郁自评量表、焦虑自评量表和社会支持评定量表进行评估。结果表明,发展性团体心理咨询明显改善了团体成员的应对方式,在提高团体成员的社会支持程度和减少情绪问题(焦虑、抑郁)方面有良好的作用。     

Chaos breeds autonomy: connectionist design between bias and baby-sitting

In connectionism and its offshoots, models acquire functionality through externally controlled learning schedules. This undermines the claim of these models to autonomy. Providing these models with intrinsic biases is not a solution, as it makes their function dependent on design assumptions. Between these two alternatives, there is room for approaches based on spontaneous self-organization. Structural reorganization in adaptation to spontaneous activity is a well-known phenomenon in neural development. It is proposed here as a way to prepare connectionist models for learning and enhance the autonomy of these models.     

Evolutionary Pluralism: A New System of Systems Philosophy

When Darwin wrote his ‘On the origin of species…” (1859) he focused on evolution as a property of living organisms in interaction with abiotic and biotic elements in the world. This viewpoint is still dominant amongst biologists. For particle physicists and cosmologists evolution refers to a larger scale, ranging from quarks and atoms to galaxies, stars and planets (i.e. Pagels 1985, Hawking 1988). To close the gap between such different viewpoints, a wide range of perspectives on an interdisciplinary understanding of system development has been published (i.e. Teilhard de Chardin 1966, von Bertalanffy 1968, Varela 1979, Prigogine and Stengers 1984, Laszlo 1996). As an integrative concept, the construction of nature from a hierarchy of system layers forms a central tenet in general system research and the stepwise construction of this layered hierarchy can be regarded as an interdisciplinary evolution theory. Surprisingly, the literature offers no unequivocal rules to recognise a multilayer hierarchy in nature. This presents an obstacle for interdisciplinary approaches to evolution.

Searching a solution to part of the above hierarchy problem, the present paper is dedicated to the analysis of a special kind of layering in natural systems, which is based on transitions between ‘building block’ systems. To identify these building blocks, and the transitions from building block x at level A, to building block y at level B, the focus of this study is further limited to ‘hypercydic dynamics’ and ‘containment’. On the basis of these criteria, a hierarchy is created which shows no possibilities for ‘bypasses’. It connects hadrons to atoms, atoms to cells, and cells to neural networks. Implications of this hierarchy for system studies and evolution are discussed.     

Spiritual Need Six: Community Building

SUMMARY

Community building includes but is greater than providing fellowship. Community building promotes connection, belonging, and a sense of togetherness. Based upon the needs of older adults, community building is defined as an engagement that is mutually supportive and stimulating. Community building doesn't just happen naturally. There are important guidelines and categorization that assist in effective planning. Community building can happen any time a person is personally engaged with another and thus, with some intentionality, can happen at worship, committee meetings, as well as pot lucks and fun activities.     

The effect of different kick start positions on OMEGA OSB11 blocks on free swimming time to 15 m in developmental level swimmers

The introduction of the OMEGA OSB11 starting blocks (Swiss Timing, Corgémont, Switzerland) which feature an adjustable inclined plate built into the rear of the platform, have led to the evolution of the “kick start” style of swimming start. Previous studies examining the effect of different starting positions using the OSB11 starting blocks have not examined swimming performance over distances beyond 7.5 m. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to compare three starting positions (front, neutral and rear-weighted) using the kick start to determine whether a given position can improve swimming performance over a 15 m distance. After undergoing four weeks of dive training using each of the three positions, ten developmental level swimmers completed three 20 m sprint trials in each position. Results indicated that the neutral and rear-weighted positions produced faster times to 15 m (p < .01) when compared to the front-weighted position. Starting position did not affect the swimmer’s velocity between 4.5 and 5.5 m or between 14.5 and 15.5 m (p = .50). Developmental level swimmers should choose between a neutral-weighted or rear-weighted position on the new OSB11 starting blocks.