Let’s play at the park! family pathways promoting spiritual resources to inspire nature,pretend play,storytelling, intergenerational play and celebrations

Contemporary interest from scholars examining spirituality have suggested that young children have an innately rich spiritual dimension that can be nurtured when they are given opportunities to express it or when such expressions are recognised. Based on direct observations in natural settings, this article addresses the importance of children’s spirituality and how outdoor play spaces, especially community parks, can contribute to a child’s spiritual development through enriching activities in nature, pretend play, storytelling and intergenerational play. The article also aims to encourage consideration of a variety of strategies that can be used to support the holistic development of a young child and nurture children’s spirituality. Supporting a child’s spiritual development with playful activities in outdoor spaces can help to identify the child’s interests, strengths and creativity through relationships that shape bonds with both families and community.     

快速与正常阅读条件下文章标记对高中生阅读信息保持的影响

探讨正常与快速阅读条件下文章宏观标记对文章主题通达和文章信息保持的影响。实验以高中二年级学生为被试。结果表明,在文章主题通达上,有文章宏观标记时,正常阅读与快速阅读之间无显著差异;无文章宏观标记时,正常阅读显著优于快速阅读;在文章信息的保持量上,文章宏观标记对正常阅读和快速阅读都有显著的促进作用。据此,我们可以初步得出快速阅读过程是读者利用文章结构信息建构文章结构表征并进行结构搜索加工的过程的结论。     

注视者及观察者因素对注视知觉的影响

注视知觉既包括识别他人对周围环境的注视位置, 也包括对他人是否在注视自己(即直视)的感知。诸多研究表明, 注视知觉过程受来自目光发出者与感知者多种因素的影响。从眼神沟通中不同角色角度出发, 将这些影响因素分为注视者因素和观察者因素。具体而言, 注视者因素主要探讨了眼部及头部物理特征及面孔情绪与吸引力对注视知觉的影响。而观察者因素则探讨了个体的心理或精神障碍、个体当前状态特征及观察者的性别、种族及文化差异对注视知觉的影响。未来研究可以从创新实验设计与任务出发, 探讨注视者刺激的实验材料与观察者特征的临床应用及跨文化差异等方面的问题。     

Intentional behaviour in dog-human communication: an experimental analysis of “showing” behaviour in the dog

Despite earlier scepticism there is now evidence for simple forms of intentional and functionally referential communication in many animal species. Here we investigate whether dogs engage in functional referential communication with their owners. “Showing” is defined as a communicative action consisting of both a directional component related to an external target and an attention-getting component that directs the attention of the perceiver to the informer or sender. In our experimental situation dogs witness the hiding of a piece of food (or a favourite toy) which they cannot get access to. We asked whether dogs would engage in “showing” in the presence of their owner. To control for the motivational effects of both the owner and the food on the dogs’ behaviour, control observations were also staged where only the food (or the toy) or the owner was present. Dogs’ gazing frequency at both the food (toy) and the owner was greater when only one of these was present. In other words, dogs looked more frequently at their owner when the food (toy) was present, and they looked more at the location of the food (toy) when the owner was present. When both the food (toy) and the owner were present a new behaviour, “gaze alternation”, emerged which was defined as changing the direction of the gaze from the location of the food (toy) to looking at the owner (or vice versa) within 2 s. Vocalisations that occurred in this phase were always associated with gazing at the owner or the location of the food. This behaviour, which was specific to this situation, has also been described in chimpanzees, a gorilla and humans, and has often been interpreted as a form of functionally referential communication. Based on our observations we argue that dogs might be able to engage in functionally referential communication with their owner, and their behaviour could be described as a form of “showing”. The contribution of domestication and individual learning to the well-developed communicative skills in dogs is discussed and will be the subject of further studies. Received: 3 April 2000 / Accepted after revision: 2 September 2000