Semiotic aspects of cognitive development: Illustrations from early mathematical cognition.

The premise of this article is that cognitive development involves both conceptual and semiotic achievements. From this perspective, the authors emphasize the distinctness of the semiotic issues and develop a differentiated appreciation of semiotic aspects of cognition, particularly in the field of elementary mathematical cognition. The authors provide semiotic analyses of the differences between counting, adding, and multiplying and of the conventional place-value sign system. The authors introduce the concept of the field of reference of a sign, the differentiation of the field into foreground and background, and the dynamics within the field of reference. Finally, the authors relate these ideas to the dynamics between 2 dimensions of semiotic relations: the sign–referent dimension and the sign–sign dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Environment, biology, and culture: Implications for adolescent development.

This special issue, "Development, Transitions, and Adjustment in Adolescence," examines the roles of socialization, biology, and culture as they bear on adaptive and maladaptive developmental outcomes. Problems of adolescence that are addressed include, but are not restricted to, antisocial behavior, depressive symptoms, substance abuse, low achievement, and eating problems. Factors implicated in successful adaptation, as well as psychopathology, are considered, with an emphasis on both risk and protection. The investigations and commentaries highlight conceptual and methodological progress in understanding variations in patterns of adjustment as adolescents move toward assumption of adult roles. Limitations in the current knowledge base also are indicated, which may serve to inform future theoretical and empirical work on adolescent development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research with the deaf: Implications for language and cognition.

Deaf people who are deprived of linguistic experience during the formative years seem to provide a unique opportunity to psychologists concerned with the language-cognition relationship. Empirical studies of deaf people's performance on nonverbal cognitive tasks were reviewed. Deaf were found to perform similarly to hearing persons on tasks where verbal knowledge could have been assumed a priori to benefit the hearing. Such evidence appears to weaken a theoretical position which attributes to language a direct, general, or decisive influence on intellective development. The poorer performance of the deaf on some tasks is parsimoniously attributed to either lack of general experience which is no longer manifest by adulthood or to specific task conditions which favor linguistic habits. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschool instruction and children's emergent literacy growth.

Preschoolers' (N = 156) classroom language and literacy experiences, defined across multiple dimensions, and their vocabulary and emergent literacy development were investigated. Videotaped classroom observations revealed substantial variability in amount and types of language and emergent literacy activities, across classrooms and for individual children within classrooms. Generally, more time in emergent code-focused activities was associated with preschoolers' alphabet and letter-word recognition growth, whereas more time in meaning-focused activities (e.g., book reading) was related to vocabulary growth. Only teacher- and teacher-child-managed activities were associated with alphabet and letter-word growth, whereas child-managed experiences, including play, were also associated with vocabulary growth. Overall, the effect size for student-level, code-focused instruction (small group) was about 10 times greater than was its classroom-level (whole-class) counterpart. There were Child × Instruction interactions, with the impact of different activities varying with preschoolers' incoming vocabulary and emergent literacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adults' expectancies about children's emotional responsiveness: Implications for the development of implicit theories of affect.

96 undergraduates and preschool, 3rd-grade, and 6th-grade children were presented with vignettes depicting 8 types of experiences and were asked what would be their own (for children) or a preschool, 3rd-grade, or 6th-grade child's (for adults) emotional reaction. Without exception, adults' expectancies agreed with those of 3rd and 6th graders. However, adults' expectancies about preschoolers' affect varied significantly from preschoolers' own accounts for vignettes presenting experiences of success, dishonesty that is discovered, dishonesty that is not discovered, being the target of aggression, and unjustified punishment. Adults and preschoolers did agree in predicted affective responses to failure, nurturance, and justified punishment. Overall, adults did not differentiate their predictions as a function of the age of the child whose affective reactions they were asked to predict, indicating an absence of developmental considerations in their implicit theories of children's emotional responsiveness. Results are discussed within a framework of social cognition, focusing on the nature and development of implicit theories about affect. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

European American and Chinese parents' responses to children's success and failure: Implications for children's responses.

The authors examined cultural differences in parents' responses to their children's performance. In Study 1 (N = 421), Chinese 5th graders reported that their parents de-emphasized their academic success and emphasized their academic failure, whereas their American counterparts reported that their parents did the opposite. This partially accounted for Chinese (vs. American) children responding less positively to success and more negatively to failure. In Study 2 (N = 128), Chinese and American mothers' responses to their 4th and 5th graders' performance were observed in the laboratory. The cultural differences in children's reports of parents' responses documented in Study 1 were replicated; mothers' responses were also associated with children's subsequent performance. In addition, Chinese mothers were more involved than were American mothers, but their affect was similar. Taken together, the results suggest that parents' responses to children's performance may be a channel for cultural transmission and perpetuation of responses to performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of instruction in narrative structure on children's writing.

Examined the possibility that direct instruction in story constituents and their interrelations could enhance 4th-grade children's organization in story writing. Whether the special instruction might affect quality, coherence, use of temporal and causal relations, and creativity in writing was also examined. 19 4th graders who scored at a low level on measures of knowledge of narrative structure were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments—instruction in knowledge of story structure or instruction in dictionary-word study. The instruction included a short-term, intensive phase with 6 sessions during 2 wks and a long-term, intermittent phase with 10 sessions during 5 wks. Instruction in narrative structure had a strong positive effect on organization in storywriting and also enhanced quality. There were no differential effects of the 2 treatments on coherence, use of temporal or causal links in writing, or creativity. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in language development: Implications for development and language.

Reviews literature on differences in characteristics of language development. Some children have been found to emphasize single words, simple productive rules for combining words, nouns and noun phrases, and referential functions; others use whole phrases and formulas, pronouns, compressed sentences, and expressive or social functions. The evidence for 2 styles of acquisition and their continuity over time is examined. Explanations in terms of hemispheric functions, cognitive maturation, cognitive style, and environmental context are considered, and an explanation in terms of the interaction of individual and environment in different functional contexts is suggested. Implications for development and the mastery of complex systems are discussed. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of computer programming on young children's cognition.

Assessed the effects of learning computer programming on the cognitive style (reflectivity, divergent thinking), metacognitive ability, cognitive development (operation competence, general cognitive measures), and ability to describe directions of 18 1st graders. Ss were pretested to assess receptive vocabulary (PPVT—R), impulsivity/reflectivity, and divergent thinking (the Figural Test of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking). Ss were randomly assigned to computer programming or computer-assisted instruction for 12 wks. Posttesting included the McCarthy Screening Test and measures of awareness of comprehension failure, operational competence, and describing directions. Results show that the programming group scored significantly higher on measures of reflectivity and divergent thinking. This group outperformed the computer-assisted group on measures of metacognitive ability and ability to describe directions. No differences were found on measures of cognitive development. It is concluded that computer programming can increase some aspects of problem-solving ability. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention improves under stress: Implications for theories of social cognition.

Three influential perspectives of social cognition entail conflicting predictions regarding the selectivity of performance under stress. According to the attention view, selectivity to the task-relevant attribute improves under stress because of reduced utilization of task-irrelevant attributes. According to the capacity-resource approach, stress depletes attentional resources wherefore selectivity fails for all but chronically accessible information. A third perspective, ironic process theory, similarly holds that selective attention fails under stress but adds that task-irrelevant information is rendered hyperaccessible. The theoretical derivations were tested in a series of experiments using 2 classes of selectivity measures, with special care taken to control for hitherto neglected factors of context. The results showed that the selectivity of attention improved under stress, consistent with the prediction of the attention view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of alphabet-letter instruction on young children's word recognition.

This study examined the influence of letter-name instruction on beginning word recognition. Thirty-three preschool children from low-socioeconomic-status families participated in 16 weeks of letter-name or comprehension-focused instruction. After instruction, children's ability to learn 3 types of word spellings was examined: words phonetically spelled with letters children had been taught (e.g., BL for ball), words phonetically spelled with letters children had not been taught, and words with visually distinct letter spellings that were nonphonetic. Children who received letter-name instruction learned words phonetically spelled with letters included in instruction significantly better than other words. Children receiving comprehension instruction performed significantly better on visually distinct word spellings. Results demonstrate the beneficial effects of alphabet-letter instruction on beginning phonetic word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stable and transient determinants of students' perceived control: Implications for instruction in the college classroom.

Stable uncontrollability and transient loss of control were examined in conjunction with quality of college instruction. Students with internal and external loci of control received no training or either contingent or noncontingent feedback. We manipulated the quality of instruction by using a ?-hr videotaped lecture that varied in expressiveness (low and high). The dependent measures were student achievement and achievement attributions. For those who received no prelecture feedback, expressiveness improved the achievement of internal- but not external-locus students on a test after the lecture. Expressiveness effects on achievement and causal attributions also differed, depending on whether students previously received contingent or noncontingent feedback before the lecture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instruction begins in the home: Relations between parental instruction and children's self-regulation in the classroom.

The study examined the effectiveness of 3 aspects of parental instruction for predicting children's self-regulation in school. Fathers, mothers, and their children (52 families) were visited in their homes the summer before the child entered 3rd grade. Metacognitive content (task and strategy information), manner of instruction (small steps at an appropriate pace), and emotional support were coded from parents' instructions to their children for a problem-solving task. Children's self-regulatory behaviors in the classroom were assessed the following school year. Two patterns of relations were observed. Manner of instruction predicted children's attention to instructions and help-seeking in the classroom. Metacognitive content of instructions did not predict these aspects of self-regulation. In contrast, metacognitive content of instructions presented in an understandable manner with emotional support predicted children's monitoring and metacognitive talk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cytokines for psychologists: Implications of bidirectional immune-to-brain communication for understanding behavior, mood, and cognition.

The brain and immune system form a bidirectional communication network in which the immune system operates as a diffuse sense organ, informing the brain about events in the body. This allows the activation of immune cells to produce physiological, behavioral, affective, and cognitive changes that are collectively called sickness, which function to promote recuperation. Fight–flight evolved later and coopted this immune–brain circuitry both because many of the needs of fight–flight were met by this circuitry and this cooptation allowed the immune system to respond to potential injury in anticipatory fashion. Many sequelae of exposure to stressors can be understood from this view and can take on the role of adaptive responses rather than pathological manifestations. Finally, it is argued that activation of immune–brain pathways is important for understanding diverse phenomena related to stress such as depression and suppression of specific immunity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition.

The authors present a new approach to culture and cognition, which focuses on the dynamics through which specific pieces of cultural knowledge (implicit theories) become operative in guiding the construction of meaning from a stimulus. Whether a construct comes to the fore in a perceiver's mind depends on the extent to which the construct is highly accessible (because of recent exposure). In a series of cognitive priming experiments, the authors simulated the experience of bicultural individuals (people who have internalized two cultures) of switching between different cultural frames in response to culturally laden symbols. The authors discuss how this dynamic, constructivist approach illuminates (1) when cultural constructs are potent drivers of behavior and (2) how bicultural individuals may control the cognitive effects of culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarian parenting in individualist and collectivist groups: Associations with maternal emotion and cognition and children's self-esteem.

Mothers and children between the ages of 7 and 12, from individualist (Western European) and collectivist (Egyptian, Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani) backgrounds, completed assessments of children's self-esteem, maternal authoritarianism, and mothers' thoughts and feelings about their children. Collectivist mothers endorsed authoritarian parenting more than did individualist mothers but did not feel or think more negatively about their children, and collectivist children were not lower in self-esteem. Within both groups, maternal negative affect and cognition were associated with lower self-esteem in children. However, maternal authoritarianism was associated with maternal negative emotion and cognition only in the individualist group. The results suggest that maternal negative thoughts and feelings, associated with authoritarianism in individualist but not collectivist groups, may be more detrimental to children's self-esteem than is authoritarianism in and of itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-care quality and children's social development.

This study examined the influence on children's social development of variation in the quality of their child-care environments. The sample consisted of 166 children attending representative child-care centers that varied widely in quality. Possible relations associated with age, child-care experience, and family background were controlled using hierarchical multiple regression. Both global estimates of child-care quality and specific program features, such as director experience, ratios, and verbal interactions, were obtained from observational measures and staff questionnaires. Measures of social development were derived from parent and caregiver ratings of the children. Of greatest importance is the finding that overall quality, caregiver–child verbal interactions, and director experience were each highly predictive of the children's social development in child care. Family background measures were also significantly predictive of several of the social outcomes, whereas child-care experience showed few significant effects. The implications for social policies and future research in child care are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Father absence and children's cognitive development.

Reviews literature showing detrimental effects of father absence on children's cognitive development as assessed by standardized IQ and achievement tests and school performance. Differential effects associated with characteristics of the absence (cause, duration, onset), the child (age, sex, race, socioeconomic status), and the skill tested (quantitative, verbal) are examined. The evidence suggests that financial hardship, high levels of anxiety, and, in particular, low levels of parent–child interaction are causes of poor performance among children in single-parent families; sex role identification, however, does not play an important role. An alternative hypothesis concerns the representativeness of father-absent families. The mother's ability to compensate for loss of the father is also considered. (77 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of children's functioning at school entry.

The author examines the construct of emotionality, developmental relations between cognition and emotion, and neural plasticity and frontal cortical functioning and proposes a developmental neurobiological model of children's school readiness. Direct links are proposed among emotionality, use-dependent synaptic stabilization related to the prefrontal cortex, the development of executive function abilities, and academic and social competence in school settings. The author considers research on the efficacy of preschool compensatory education in promoting school readiness and recommends that programs expand to include curricula directly addressing social and emotional competence. Research should focus on the ontogeny of self-regulation and successful adaptation to the socially defined role of student, the development of prevention research programs to reflect this orientation, and interdisciplinary collaborations that integrate scientific methods and questions in the pursuit of comprehensive knowledge of human developmental processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)