The Portuguese version of the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory-P (KIDI-P)

Several studies show that parental knowledge about child development and education is relevant to parenting actions. Considering that the lack of assessment instruments specific to this domain in Portugal is an obstacle to cross-cultural research and programme evaluation, the objective of this study was to make available a Portuguese version of the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory-P (KIDI-P). This inventory (58 items) allows for the calculation of three summary scores (Attempted, Accuracy and Total) that reflect correctness and confidence in one's knowledge. The Portuguese version of the KIDI-P confirmed a unidimensional structure and revealed good internal consistency (α = .89). In a sample of 252 mothers and fathers, educational level showed to be related to KIDI-P scores, unlike parents’ sex and age.     

The development of parental monitoring during adolescence: A meta-analysis

Abstract

As adolescents grow up, one of the important developmental tasks is to individuate themselves and to become more autonomous from parents. This requires a realignment of the parent-adolescent communication. The current meta-analytic study aims at identifying developmental changes in parent-adolescent communication, conceptualized within the parental monitoring framework, as entailing parental solicitation, control and knowledge, and adolescent’s disclosure and secrecy. Thirty-one longitudinal studies published between 2000 and 2015 were identified and included in the current meta-analysis. Informants, age at assessment and study duration were tested as moderators. Results showed a low to medium normative decline in parental control (Cohen’s d = ?.395, 95% CI [?.541, ?.249]), knowledge (d = ?.245,95% CI [?.331, ?.160] and adolescence disclosure (d = ?.147, 95% CI [?.204, ?.090]), and an increase in adolescent’s secrecy (d = .194, CI [031, .356]). Parental solicitation decreased based on parents’ (d = ?.242, 95% CI[?.376, ?.109]) but not on adolescents’ reports (d = .038, 95% CI[?.099, .175]). Another significant moderator was the duration of the study, with studies longer than 2 years being able to detect a more pronounced change in parental control than studies lasting less than 2 years (≤2 years, d = ?.139 vs. duration > 2 years, d = ?.581). Limitations of the current knowledge and new directions of studies are discussed.     

The different representational frameworks underpinning abstract and concrete knowledge: Evidence from odd-one-out judgements

Recent evidence from neuropsychological investigations of individuals with global aphasia and deep or deep-phonological dyslexia suggests that abstract and concrete concepts are underpinned by qualitatively different representational frameworks. Abstract words are represented primarily by their association to other words, whilst concrete words are represented primarily by their taxonomic similarity to one another. In the current study, we present the first evidence for this association/similarity distinction to be gathered from healthy research participants. Using a semantic odd-one-out task, it is shown that normal participants identify associative connections more quickly than similarity-based connections when processing abstract words, but that the pattern is reversed for concrete words. It is also demonstrated that the typical concrete-word advantage observed in many cognitive tasks is abolished and even reversed when participants have to comprehend the semantic associations between words. The data provide converging evidence for the different representational frameworks hypothesis and suggest that claims based on information from previous neuropsychological investigations can be generalized to normal cognition.     

The sensory nature of knowledge: Sensory priming effects in semantic categorization

The aim of the present study was to show the perceptual nature of conceptual knowledge by using a priming paradigm that excluded an interpretation exclusively in terms of amodal representation. This paradigm was divided into two phases. The first phase consisted in learning a systematic association between a geometrical shape and a white noise. The second phase consisted of a short-term priming paradigm in which a primed shape (either associated or not with a sound in the first phase) preceded a picture of an object, which the participants had to categorize as representing a large or a small object. The objects were chosen in such a way that their principal function either was associated with the production of noise (“noisy” target) or was not typically associated the production of noise (“silent” target). The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the prime and the target was 100 ms or 500 ms. The results revealed an interference effect with a 100-ms SOA and a facilitatory effect with a 500-ms SOA for the noisy targets only. We interpreted the interference effect obtained at the 100-ms SOA as the result of an overlap between the components reactivated by the sound prime and those activated by the processing of the noisy target. At an SOA of 500 ms, there was no temporal overlap. The observed facilitatory effect was explained by the preactivation of auditory areas by the sound prime, thus facilitating the categorization of the noisy targets only.     

Buddhism as Philosophy: An Introduction

Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives learning, practising, and performing a wide range of skills. Many of us also have a great amount of control over which skills we learn and develop. From choices as significant as career pursuits to those as minor as how we spend our weeknight leisure time, we exercise a great amount of agency over what we know and what we can do. In this paper we argue, using a framework first developed by Carbonell [2013], that in many real-world circumstances we have moral obligations to develop some skills rather than others.     

Moral realism and program explanation

Alexander Miller has recently considered an ingenious extension of Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit's account of ‘program explanation’ as a way of defending non-reductive naturalist versions of moral realism against Harman's explanatory criticism. Despite the ingenuity of this extension, Miller concludes that program explanation cannot help such moral realists in their attempt to defend moral properties. Specifically, he argues that such moral program explanations are dispensable from an epistemically unlimited point of view. I show that Miller's argument for this negative claim is inadequate, and that he has, in spite of himself, identified a promising defence of moral realism.     

Physicalism and our knowledge of intrinsic properties

This paper examines recent arguments by Rae Langton and David Lewis intended to prove Humility: the thesis that we have no knowledge of the intrinsic properties of substances. I argue that at best, these arguments are internally incoherent. They at once presuppose a strong version of physicalism according to which physical science is in a position to give a complete list of the fundamental properties of reality, and at the same time various metaphysical principles which in actuality challenge the completeness of the list of properties given by science. Although these arguments are unsound, their consideration enables us to draw important conclusions regarding the tension between the metaphysician's practice of positing intrinsic properties that give colour to the world, and the scientific attempt at giving a complete account of all phenomena.     

Malevolent Creativity in Terrorist Organizations

Terrorist organizations are both imitative and innovative in character. While the drivers of imitation have been extensively modeled using concepts such as contagion and diffusion, creativity and innovation remain relatively underdeveloped ideas in the context of terrorist behavior. This article seeks to redress this deficiency by presenting a conceptual framework with which we can understand the complex nature and multiple drivers of creativity and innovation within terrorist organizations. The overriding questions we address are: what factors spark creativity and innovation within terrorist organizations, and are there particular organizational traits that increase an organization's propensity to be creative and innovative? Using insights from industrial and organizational psychology and aided by illustrative examples and case studies from the history of terrorism, we aim to show that the multiple drivers of creativity and innovation are identifiable. By providing a conceptual framework that explores these key issues, we suggest that a much clearer research agenda for these issues may emerge. We conclude with a discussion concerning how our framework can help inform counter‐terrorism practices.     

Neurotic Nucleus and Test Anxiety

Undergraduate university students (N = 103) participated in a study of the relationship between test anxiety and the variables of trait anxiety, self-esteem, locus of control, mental ability, and gender. Results indicated bivariate associations between total test anxiety and the other measures except for mental ability. Further analyses revealed independent relationships between the “worry” component of test anxiety and the variables of trait anxiety, intemality, chance, and mental ability. We also found independent associations between the “emotionality” aspect of test anxiety and the measures of trait anxiety and chance.