任务、年龄和性别对幼儿情绪理解成绩的影响

以69名3-6岁幼儿为被试,考察了在简单面部表情识别任务、基于愿望的情绪理解任务、基于信念的情绪理解任务和冲突情绪理解任务四种条件下幼儿情绪理解的表现。结果表明:1)幼儿的情绪理解能力随年龄发展不断提高,各层次的情绪理解上存在先后顺序,情绪理解性别差异不显著;2)幼儿在情绪类型识别上表现出一定的偏好;3)幼儿在情绪理解任务上的表现总体上存在潜在的认知一致性,在不同层次上又具有显著的任务特异性。     

Sex Differences in Simple Visual Reaction Time: A Historical Meta-Analysis

To test the hypothesis that the magnitude of sex differences in simple visual reaction time (RT) has narrowed across time, a meta-analysis was conducted on 72 effect sizes derived from 21 studies (n=15,003) published over a 73-year period. The analysis provided strong evidence for the hypothesized change. In addition, the analysis indicated that the sex difference in RT was on average smaller with non-U.S. samples than with U.S. samples. No relation was found between the magnitude of the sex difference in RT and age or presence vs. absence of a warning signal. Two factors–-participation in fast-action sports and driving–-are proposed as having been responsible for the decrease in the magnitude of the sex differences in simple visual RT across time.     

小学中高年级儿童情绪理解力的特点研究

对640名小学中高年级儿童情绪理解力的测查表明,儿童能够理解抽象的情绪概念和简单的情绪词汇;会依赖表情、言语及副言语和身体动作线索识别他人的情绪;会依赖内部心理活动、表情和身体动作线索识别自己的情绪;儿童已理解情绪与事件/行为间的因果联系,对积极情绪事件/行为的理解具有社交性和亲社会性的特点,对消极情绪事件/行为的理解具有攻击性和破坏性的特点;在理解自己和他人情绪隐藏能力时存在明显差异。     

From understanding others' needs to prosocial action: Motor and social abilities promote infants' helping

In the present study, we test the main hypothesis that infants' understanding of others' needs translates into helping behavior, when critical motor and social competencies have emerged, early in the second year. We assessed the understanding of others' needs in an eye‐tracking paradigm and the helping behavior of 10‐ (n = 41) and 16‐month‐olds (n = 37). Furthermore, we assessed the motor and social abilities of 16‐month‐olds. Critically, while infants understood others' needs already at 10 months, fine motor and social interaction skills moderated the link between infants' prosocial understanding and helping behavior at 16 months. This provides first evidence that infants' helping behavior relates to their understanding of others' needs. Furthermore, we found that fine motor, gross motor, and social interaction skills predicted early helping behavior by themselves. These findings highlight that the emergence of infants' helping behavior is the result of a developmental system that includes infants' understanding of others' needs and also their motor and social competencies. The link between infants' understanding of others' needs and their early helpful actions provide further support for the prosocial nature of early helping behavior.     

Parent-carer awareness and understanding of dyspraxia: Implications for child development support practices

Dyspraxia manifests as difficulty in thinking, planning, and executing planned movements or tasks. Dyspraxia affects roughly 5–6% of school aged children. This study aimed to explore parent-carer’s awareness and understanding of dyspraxia and the resources they self-perceived to need to manage their children with dyspraxia. Informants were 15 parents from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. They completed semi-structured interviews on their knowledge of and indicators of dyspraxia in their children and resources they presently utilised or could seek to use. Thematic analysis of the data suggested the parent-carers to be aware of motor rather than cognition oriented limitations. Additionally, parent-carers accessed or sought educator assistance from the school system. Health professionals and educators working with parents of children with dyspraxia can expect them to report reliably on behavioural characteristics of their children’s abilities important for treatment support interventions.     

Is knowledge of causes sufficient for understanding?

According to a traditional account, understanding why X occurred is equivalent to knowing that X was caused by Y. This paper defends the account against a major objection, viz., knowing-that is not sufficient for understanding-why, for understanding-why requires a kind of grasp while knowledge-that does not. I discuss two accounts of grasp in recent literature and argue that if either is true, then knowing that X was caused by Y entails at least a rudimentary understanding of why X occurred. If my defense is successful, it would cast doubt on an influential account of the epistemic value of understanding.     

33-month-old children succeed in a false belief task with reduced processing demands: A replication of Setoh et al. (2016)

A recent low-inhibition false belief task showed a high success rate with 33-month-old children when response-generation demands were reduced [Setoh, Scott, & Baillargeon (2016). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(47), 13360–13365]. We found correct responding in 74% of N = 58 33-month-old children, replicating the original findings. Within the same sample, we compared this performance with performance in a concurrent measure of false belief understanding which has previously produced competence in children below the age of 3 years [Hughes & Ensor (2007). Developmental Psychology, 43(6), 1447–1459]. Contrasting sharply with findings from the low-inhibition false belief task, we found partial competence in 15%, and full competence in only 5% of the same sample. These results show that the paradigm by Setoh and colleagues generates reliable findings in a different lab and a different language. We discuss this pattern of results in relation to theoretical considerations of early false belief understanding.     

Toward Cyber-Systemic Thinking in Practice

This article is an invitation to be reflexive; reflexivity is a second-order process or reflection on reflection. The possibility that a reader might experience a reflexive moment is sought by avoiding a narrative trap: to believe the “coming to” of the issue title implies a state to arrive at, carefully planned, a purposeful journey, pursued by an enlightened individual devoid of all social relations. The author thus begins situated in a social system. Following Maturana, a social system is explained, as is what constitutes, or triggers, change, in a social system. An example of granting rivers sentience in law as an expansion of the social is explored     

Beyond control of variables: What needs to develop to achieve skilled scientific thinking?

We identify three aspects of scientific thinking beyond the control-of-variables strategy that we claim are essential for students to master as a foundation for skilled scientific thinking. The first is strategic and involves the ability to coordinate effects of multiple causal influences on an outcome. The second is a mature understanding of the epistemological foundations of science, recognizing scientific knowledge as constructed by humans rather than simply discovered in the world. The third is the ability to engage in skilled argumentation in the scientific domain, with an appreciation of argumentation as entailing the coordination of theory and evidence. We present new empirical data with respect to the first two of these competencies, supporting the claim that they are not well developed by early adolescence and warrant attention and provision of effective kinds of scaffolding.     

儿童混合情绪的发展研究述评

混合情绪是指同一情境中同时存在两种不同或者矛盾的情绪状态,主要包括混合情绪理解和混合情绪体验两个方面,其发展模式表现为从单一情绪理解到多种情绪理解、从继时性混合到同时性混合的特点,但在具体的发展年龄特征上研究结果存在分歧。混合情绪的发展研究主要采用临床访谈法,其基本研究范式一致,但在材料的制作、刺激的呈现、被试的反应方式以及结果的处理等方面存在差异。未来,在研究范式上需要有所突破,内隐测量、认知神经科学方法等对揭示混合情绪发展规律都有其独特的优势。同时,应扩大研究对象的年龄范围,从发展水平和模式两个方面系统考察儿童混合情绪的发展特点及其影响与作用。