Professional Development in Social Justice: Analysis of American Counseling Association Conference Programming

This study was designed as a content analysis of 2012–2017 American Counseling Association conference sessions to examine how social justice was presented. Four findings emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (a) rates of social justice sessions varied over time; (b) there were more multicultural sessions than social justice sessions; (c) populations that were addressed least often and most often were identified; and (d) there was a decline in the number of social justice content sessions. Implications are presented.     

识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读发展中的相对重要性

本研究基于简单阅读观理论,以两个样本共计666名大班至四年级的汉语儿童为研究对象,探索了识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读能力发展中的作用及相对重要性的变化。结果显示,在阅读学习早期,识字量对阅读理解的重要性高于词汇知识。随着年级的升高,识字量的重要性降低,而词汇知识的重要性增加。这一发现证实简单阅读观理论也适用于解释汉语阅读能力的发展,并对今后的语文教学具有重要的启示意义。     

A developmental study of the bat/ball problem of CRT: How to override the bias and its relation to executive functioning

In two experiments, we explored the nature of the bias observed in the bat/ball problem of the cognitive reflection test (Frederick, 2005, J. Econ. Perspect., 19, 25), how to override it, and its relation to executive functioning. Based on the original bat/ball problem, we designed two additional isomorphic items. In Experiment 1, for four age groups, including 7-, 11-, and 15-year-olds and adults, we determined that the bias is related to the System 1 intervention; the performance in this item was not a matter of mathematical ability and it could be facilitated by changing the order in which the problems were presented. In Experiment 2, we determined that for 15-year-olds, good and bad performances in the item were related to executive functioning, particularly response-distractor inhibition, updating information in working memory, and the regulation of attention; however, subtle differences were identified when the problem was performed in a facilitative context compared with a non-facilitative context. The results indicated that cognitive abilities are a necessary but non-sufficient condition to resolve the problem.     

Do developmental and temperamental characteristics mediate the association between preterm birth and the quality of mother-child interaction?

BackgroundThe current study aims to evaluate the association between preterm birth and the quality of mother-child interaction of very preterm-, moderate preterm-, and full-term-born children at 18 and 36 months and to determine whether developmental and behavioral characteristics mediate the association between preterm birth and the quality of mother-child interaction.MethodParticipants included 110 preterm-born children and 39 full-term-born children assessed at ages 18 and 36 months. Mother-child free play interactions, the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire were administered.ResultsSignificant associations between preterm birth and the quality of mother-child interaction were found at 18 and 36 months. The mother-child interaction quality was less optimal for the preterm-born children compared with the full-term-born children, mainly so for the very preterm-born children. Unlike behavioral characteristics, cognitive development was found to mediate the association between the gestational age-based group and the quality of mother-child interaction.ConclusionsIntervention programs for preterm-born children and their families, should consider maternal and children’s behaviors during mother-child interactions, in addition to cognitive, language, motor and emotional regulation abilities, and particularly so with very preterm-born children, who exhibit slower cognitive development.     

Building reciprocity: From safety‐net to social transformation programmes

Topics of societal concern such as mental health and poverty reduction increasingly require action programmes that operate within broad psychosocial and social justice perspectives. Models of practice centred in individual needs, although important, are not powerful enough to bring about social change when they operate in isolation. In this article, we present the findings resulting from the observation of programmes engaged in collaborating with socio‐economically disadvantaged individuals, families, and communities. The programmes selected for study were nationally or internationally recognized for the quality and innovation of their methodologies or for having been subjected to scientific attention; some met both criteria. Altogether, 15 programmes were visited, in North and South America and Europe. Through a grounded theory methodology, the processes of data collection and analysis led to the development of a theoretical framework that identifies a continuum of programmes aimed at supporting the development of individuals, families, and communities and that has at its core the central process of building reciprocity. This article presents and describes the continuum of programmes and how each type relates to the process of building reciprocity and establishes links with other relevant and significant concepts in the framework. Finally, implications for further research are explored.     

Young children are more likely to cheat after overhearing that a classmate is smart

Research on moral socialization has largely focused on the role of direct communication and has almost completely ignored a potentially rich source of social influence: evaluative comments that children overhear. We examined for the first time whether overheard comments can shape children's moral behavior. Three‐ and 5‐year‐old children (N = 200) participated in a guessing game in which they were instructed not to cheat by peeking. We randomly assigned children to a condition in which they overheard an experimenter tell another adult that a classmate who was no longer present is smart, or to a control condition in which the overheard conversation consisted of non‐social information. We found that 5‐year‐olds, but not 3‐year‐olds, cheated significantly more often if they overheard the classmate praised for being smart. These findings show that the effects of ability praise can spread far beyond the intended recipient to influence the behavior of children who are mere observers, and they suggest that overheard evaluative comments can be an important force in shaping moral development.     

Children can optimally integrate multisensory information after a short action‐like mini game training

Combining information across different sensory modalities is of critical importance for the animal's survival and a core feature of human's everyday life. In adulthood, sensory information is often integrated in a statistically optimal fashion, so that the combined estimates of two or more senses are more reliable than the best single one. Several studies have shown that young children use one sense to calibrate the others, which results in unisensory dominance and undermines their optimal multisensory integration abilities. In this study we trained children aged 4–5 years with action‐like mini games, to determine whether it could improve their multisensory as well as their visuo‐spatial skills. Multisensory integration abilities were assessed using a visuo‐haptic size discrimination task, while visuo‐spatial attention skills were investigated using a multiple object tracking task (MOT). We found that 2‐weeks training were sufficient to observe both optimal multisensory integration and visuo‐spatial enhancements selectively in the group trained with action‐like mini games. This plastic change persisted up to 3 months, as assessed in a follow‐up. Our novel findings reveal that abilities that are commonly known to emerge in late childhood can be promoted in younger children through action‐like mini games and have long‐lasting effects. Our data have clinical implications, in that they suggest that specific trainings could potentially help children with multisensory integration deficits.     

Individual differences in neonatal “imitation” fail to predict early social cognitive behaviour

The influential hypothesis that humans imitate from birth – and that this capacity is foundational to social cognition – is currently being challenged from several angles. Most prominently, the largest and most comprehensive longitudinal study of neonatal imitation to date failed to find evidence that neonates copied any of nine actions at any of four time points (Oostenbroek et al., [2016] Current Biology, 26, 1334–1338). The authors of an alternative and statistically liberal post‐hoc analysis of these same data (Meltzoff et al., [2017] Developmental Science, 21, e12609), however, concluded that the infants actually did imitate one of the nine actions: tongue protrusion. In line with the original intentions of this longitudinal study, we here report on whether individual differences in neonatal “imitation” predict later‐developing social cognitive behaviours. We measured a variety of social cognitive behaviours in a subset of the original sample of infants (N = 71) during the first 18 months: object‐directed imitation, joint attention, synchronous imitation and mirror self‐recognition. Results show that, even using the liberal operationalization, individual scores for neonatal “imitation” of tongue protrusion failed to predict any of the later‐developing social cognitive behaviours. The average Spearman correlation was close to zero, mean r_s = 0.027, 95% CI [?0.020, 0.075], with all Bonferroni adjusted p values > .999. These results run counter to Meltzoff et al.'s rebuttal, and to the existence of a “like me” mechanism in neonates that is foundational to human social cognition.     

La cross-évaluation : une approche d’évaluation et de développement des processus de travail inter-équipes

Organizational agility has become an increasing focus for companies and has led to the emergence of new developmental methods. This article presents the cross-evaluation as an approach to evaluating and developing inter-team interface efficacity. Though 360 degrees feedback collective processes are being evaluated, and during reflexive workshops they decide what improvements to make in their team functioning. Based on a literature review and more specifically on the theories of social identity and groupthink this article describes the scientific bases of the cross-evaluation method and the biases that can be involved and how to reduce them. It suggests new avenues of research and practical suggestions for practitioners about an inter-team development method.