Behavioral correlates of mental growth: Birth to thirty-six years.

Reports findings of the Berkeley (California) Growth Study, a 36-yr longitudinal study of mental development. 74 full-term, healthy infants of White English-speaking parents, were studied over 7 mo. 63 Ss were followed for at least 3 yrs, 48 Ss were seen regularly over 18 yrs, and 54 Ss were interviewed and tested at age 36 yrs. Measures included newly developed tests of 1st-yr mental precocity, the Block Q-Sort, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). Results reflect stability over the 36 yrs in both personality variables and mental abilities. Boys' high verbal scores correlated with calmness, positive responsiveness, and activeness: Girls' high verbal scores correlated with shyness at 10–24 mo and possibly unhappiness at 10–22 mo. While boys' behaviors and intelligence correlated with maternal behavior in the 1st 3 yrs through age 18 yrs, girls' corresponded to parental abilities. This suggests that girls are more resilient and less permanently affected by early experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training the elderly on the ability factors of spatial orientation and inductive reasoning.

Examined the effects of cognitive training with 132 female and 97 male Ss (aged 64–95 yrs) who were classified as having remained stable or having declined over the previous 14-yr interval on each of 2 primary abilities, spatial orientation and inductive reasoning. Ss who had declined on one of these abilities received training on that ability; Ss who had declined on both abilities or who had remained stable on both were randomly assigned to the spatial orientation or inductive reasoning training programs. Training outcomes were examined within an ability-measurement framework with empirically determined factorial structure. Significant training effects, at the level of the latent ability constructs, occurred for both spatial orientation and inductive reasoning. These effects were general in that no significant interactions with decline status or gender were found. It is concluded that training interventions were effective both in remediating cognitive decline on the target abilities and in improving the performance of stable Ss. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contact with the dominant culture and cognitive competence in Canadian Indians and Whites.

Tests of 3 different kinds of cognitive competence were administered to 49 White 1st-3rd graders, 48 Indian classmates of the Whites who lived on a reserve, and 63 Indian 1st-3rd graders attending a residential school with isolation from both White and Indian societies. The Whites surpassed both Indian groups on abstract verbal reasoning in the English language, surpassed only the residential-school group on nonverbal reasoning, and scored at about the same level as the Indian Ss on concrete nonverbal skills. The 2 groups of Indian Ss obtained similar mean scores on all 3 tests. Findings suggest a continuum of contact with the dominant White society that interacts with the cognitive competencies sampled by tests, lowest mean scores resulting from testing the components that are most strongly culture-based, in children most isolated from the dominant society. The data also raise the possibility of qualitatively different "intelligences" in the 2 racial groups. (French summary) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental rotation of facial profiles: Age-, sex-, and ability-related differences.

48 adults (mean age 28 yrs 4 mo), 48 8th graders, and 48 4th graders determined what the left–right orientations of rotated facial profiles would be were the profiles upright. There were 24 males and 24 females in each group. Ss were all administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and the Picture Vocabulary and Spatial Ability subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery. Results indicate that rate of mental rotation and combined rate of encoding, comparison, and response increased with age. Findings are consistent with a speed–accuracy tradeoff explanation of previous discrepancies in developmental studies of mental rotation. Female Ss' rates of mental rotation were slower on average and more variable than male Ss. Within the entire sample, there was a modest correlation between the ability test scores and both latency and error parameters derived from the rotation task. Only error rate was discriminantly related to spatial ability, however. Patterns of correlations between processing parameters and test scores differed between age groups and, within age groups, between sexes. Mental rotation showed a significant relation to spatial ability only in 4th graders. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of referential communication: Deciding that a message is uninformative.

Investigated whether young children typically attend to the age of the speaker when they lack knowledge of other communicative rules. Two experiments compared how children evaluate 3 types of uninformative messages (ambiguous, incomplete, inconsistent) and whether and why the speaker's age affects the evaluation of each. In Exp I, 22 1st and 22 4th graders played a referential communication game with either a peer or an adult speaker. In Exp II, 22 1st graders played the same referential communication game used in Exp I, but Ss who were interacting with the peer speaker were told that the speaker was very smart and Ss who were interacting with the adult speaker were told that the speaker was very stupid. Overall results indicate that incomplete messages were the easiest to evaluate and inconsistent messages were the most difficult. The evaluation of ambiguous messages was affected by the age of the S and the age of the speaker. Although older Ss attended solely to the quality of the message, 1st graders based their evaluations of ambiguous and inconsistent messages on the age of the speaker. Adult speakers' messages were evaluated more positively than peers' because the young Ss thought the adults were smart and therefore more likely to be good communicators. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and secondary reinforcement in 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate the 1st author's cognitive theory of secondary reinforcement effects, which predicts that Ss of a preoperational age (i.e., younger than 7 yrs) should not necessarily learn responses followed by a stimulus object previously instrumental in obtaining a reward, while Ss of a postoperational age should do so. Using 24 1st and 24 5th graders in 2 learning tasks, the prediction was confirmed. Furthermore, verbal responses indicated that the logical operations that presumably influenced the behavior of the older children actually did occur. In Exp II, using 28 2nd and 15 6th graders, the training task was simplified in order to try to facilitate logical reasoning, but the behavior of the younger Ss was not affected. It is concluded that secondary reinforcement of a stimulus–response associative type has yet to be demonstrated, and that secondary reinforcement of a cognitive type is heavily dependent on reasoning ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning about certainty and uncertainty in concrete, causal, and propositional contexts.

Examined children's comprehension of certainty and uncertainty within the context of concrete and propositional reasoning tasks. 69 1st, 3rd, and 5th graders were given G. Pieraut-LeBonniec's (1980) box task and a multisufficient causality task to assess reasoning about certainty and uncertainty in concrete contexts. Ss were also given conditional syllogisms to assess this ability in a propositional context. Half of the Ss at each grade were given contramanded syllogism task statements intended to block erroneous conversational inferences made about these conditional statements. Results indicate that there were no developmental differences in reasoning about concrete certainty, but significant improvement occurred with age in reasoning about concrete uncertainty. On syllogisms, only the 5th graders benefited from contramanding and thus demonstrated an understanding of propositional uncertainty. Correlational and error analyses showed that the discrimination between certainty and uncertainty was mastered in concrete contexts prior to the time when this discrimination occurred in propositional contexts. It is concluded that reasoning about concrete certainty and uncertainty requires a different competence than that required for reasoning about propositional certainty and uncertainty. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cross-cultural examination of some of Jensen's hypotheses.

Examined Level 1 and 2 intelligence in Inuit and White 2nd–5th graders through an examination of several of Jensen's major hypotheses. The sample consisted of 559 80–150 mo old students. Of the 559, there were 148 middle-class urban White children, 173 low socioeconomic urban children, 175 White children living in Labrador, and 63 Inuit children also living in Labrador. The Level 1 and Level 2 intelligence measures were a series of digit span tests and the Raven Progressive Matrices, respectively. Results do not support the generality of some of A. R. Jensen's propositions. However, there can be no clear-cut rejection of the genetic hypothesis based on the present results. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal and cross-cultural validation of the belief-discrepancy reasoning construct.

Conducted 2 studies to validate the construct of belief-discrepancy reasoning, or the judgments people make about others who disagree with them. In Study 1, 83 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders were assessed and then retested 1 yr later. Assessment was conducted with an objective, standardized forced-choice scale of belief discrepancy. Ss heard a recording of a dilemma as well as a peer's solution, one that contradicted the S's. Longitudinal trends were significant. The trends supported a 4-stage sequence of level 0 (not understanding that one can judge a disagreeing other), Level 1 (intolerance toward the other), Level 2 (total open-mindedness toward the other), and Level 3 (a willingness to judge the other as good or bad with more information about the other's belief). There was a faster rate of growth for the children (Grades 1 and 4) than for the adolescents (Grades 7 and 10). In Study 2, 34 4th and 7th graders from Kinshasa, Zaire were administered a belief-discrepancy scale. There were significant differences between the grades favoring the 7th graders. Implications for belief-discrepancy reasoning development are discussed. Results support the theory that the intolerance construct is developmental and has stagelike features. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Can decline in adult intellectual functioning be reversed?

Examined whether or not cognitive decline in the elderly that has been reliably demonstrated over a 14-yr period can be reversed. 97 male and 132 female participants (aged 64–95 yrs) in a long-term longitudinal study were classified into those who had declined (n?=?122) and those who had remained stable (n?=?107) on the abilities of inductive reasoning and spatial orientation, based on their performances on the Primary Mental Ability Reasoning and Spatial Orientation Tests. Ss were assigned to 5-hr training programs on either ability in a pretest–posttest design that used Ss trained on 1 target ability as controls for those trained on the other. Results show that cognitive training techniques reliably reverse decline in spatial and reasoning ability documented over a 14-yr period in a substantial number of Ss. Training procedures also enhanced the performance of many Ss who had remained stable. Training improvement on spatial orientation was found to be greater for decliners than for those who remained stable and greater for females than for males. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of political attitude to constraint-oriented and prosocial moral reasoning.

Investigated the relationship between prosocial and constraint-oriented moral reasoning and liberal and humanistic political attitudes. 76 White middle-class 7th-12th graders from a Presbyterian church and a Jewish camp completed a 41-item political questionnaire and a written objective test of moral reasoning based on L. Kohlberg's (1969) conceptualizations. Chi-square analyses revealed that older Ss were significantly more liberal and humanitarian than younger Ss, and older Ss exhibited a significantly higher level of moral reasoning. Correlations between political attitude scores and moral indices partially supported the hypothesis that higher levels of moral reasoning are associated with more liberal and humanistic attitudes: Liberalism scores were significantly related to the prosocial, constraint, and combined moral indices; humanitarian scores were significantly related to the prosocial and combined indices, but not the constraint index. Further research is needed to determine whether findings generalize to other social strata. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age difference patterns of psychometric intelligence in adulthood: Generalizability within and across ability domains.

Cross-sectional data from the 5th wave (1984) of the Seattle Longitudinal Study are reported with regard to the generalizability of age differences in psychometric intelligence within and across ability domains. Ss were 1,628 community-dwelling individuals drawn from a Pacific Northwest HMO. Age difference patterns of 9 groups with mean ages from 29 to 88 yrs are examined for the ability domains of verbal ability, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, numeric ability, verbal memory, and perceptual speed. Each ability is marked by 3 or 4 observed variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and extraversion in Turner's Syndrome.

Administered the Maudsley Personality Inventory to 5 groups of female Ss: (a) 13 Turner Syndrome Ss (mean age 19 yrs 2 mo) with karyotype 45X, (b) 18 Turner Syndrome (TS) Ss (mean age 26 yrs 11 mo) with other types of sex chromosomal abnormalities, (c) 16 sisters of Ss (mean age 24 yrs 2 mo), (d) 9 Ss with growth retardation and primary amenorrhea (mean age 22 yrs 4 mo), and (e) 19 nurses (mean age 22 yrs 8 mo). The results are compared to English and American normative values. The total group of TS Ss obtained a low Neuroticism (N) score compared to the control groups. When the total group was divided on the basis of their karyotypes, the low N score could be referred solely to Ss with karyotype 45X, who scored significantly lower than any other group tested so far with the MPI. TS Ss with chromosomal abnormalities other than 45X scored within normal limits. No variables other than karyotype 45X were related to an extremely low N score. It is concluded that exceptional emotional stability, as reflected in a very low N score on the MPI, is concomitant with the total absence of one sex chromosome, which is probably due to a developmental abnormality of the CNS. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatial memory in pigeons (Columba livia) in an open-field feeding environment.

Tested 10 White Carneaux pigeons' spatial working memory abilities in 2 multiple-goal open-field test environments. The 1st (Exp I) involved an open room with 8 elevated food sites that Ss could fly to and eat from; the 2nd (Exp II) involved an open room with ground-feeding sites, arranged in a circle or in rows that Ss could walk to and eat from. Unlike the radial arm maze, these environments allowed the S to choose its own path between food sites. Within only a few trials, Ss displayed evidence of reasonably accurate spatial working memory in the flight apparatus and showed high levels of accuracy in the ground-feeding apparatus. It is concluded that pigeons can display accurate spatial memory, but their preparedness to do so may be facilitated by the use of test environments that resemble the natural feeding habitats of the species. It is suggested that the ground-feeding apparatus developed here offers advantages for studying the organization of spatial memory in pigeons. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some cognitive abilities of Eskimo, White, and Indian-Metis pupils aged 9 to 12 years.

Factor analysis of ability tests for Eskimo, White, and Indian-Metis 9-12 yr. old pupils indicated for each sample 2 highly correlated oblique factors labelled v:ed and reasoning from nonverbal stimuli. When native Ss were scored on white T-score norms, least ethnic differences and least decline with age relative to white Ss occurred in the latter abilities. Written memory was an outstanding exception. There were almost no sex differences for any of the samples. (French summary) (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between selected cognitive abilities and learning: A second look.

Examined the relationship between learning strategies and cognitive abilities in 3 experiments using a total of 420 3rd-12th graders from rural school as Ss. Ability tests given to Ss included Raven's Progressive Matrices and a digit span test. Based on the argument that such relationships ought to follow predictable and differentiated patterns, different strategy manipulations were used in an attempt to moderate the relationship between reasoning and memory abilities and free recall and paired associate learning. Results suggest that meaningful differential interrelations can be demonstrated as long as the processes and strategies forming the link between learning and ability test performance are both potent and well understood. Implications for future research into the cross-linkages between intelligence and learning tasks are discussed. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial identity and preference in Native and White Canadian children.

56 White and 44 Native (Indian) kindergartners and 1st graders were asked by a White or Indian experimenter to answer questions about their racial identity and preferences. Consistent with predictions from accessibility theory, Ss of both races made more accurate self-identifications when tested by an Indian experimenter, this effect being greater for Native Ss. Racial preferences showed a strong White bias, results consistent with both the escape and the light color bias hypotheses. Results are discussed in term of R. B. Zajone's (see record 1980-09733-001) distinction between cognitive and affective processes. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race differences on nonverbal analogy test performance as a function of verbal strategy training.

Hypothesized that the relatively poor performance of Black students on nominally nonverbal reasoning tests (A. R. Jensen's Level II) (see record 1974-24027-001) may be due to their failure to use verbal problem-solving strategies efficiently and spontaneously. 200 4th and 5th graders, both Black and White, showed no race differences on Level I ability (digit-span memory). Half of the Ss of each race were then trained to use a verbal strategy on nonverbal analogies. For Ss who received no special training there were significant race differences on the analogies test (p     

The performance of kibbutz- and city-reared Israeli children on two role-taking tasks.

Two tasks requiring communicative role taking were administered to 96 1st- and 5th-grade Israeli children in 2 kibbutzim or a large city. It was predicted that the greater peer interaction experienced by Ss in the kibbutz would enhance their role-taking abilities. Results confirm this prediction. Ss from the kibbutz were better able to decenter in formulating a novel message to a listener (Task I) and to differentiate better between a child and adult listener in formulating a message (Task 2). 5th graders performed better on both tasks than 1st graders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social behavior on interracial acceptance.

To test children's use of race and social behavior as cues in social acceptance, 128 Black and White male kindergartners and 1st graders rated 6 unknown videotaped target children for likability. Targets varied factorially on race (Black or White) and exhibited either positive, negative, or neutral classroom social behavior. Across age, socioeconomic status, and race, Ss used behavior as a cue, accounting for 50% of likability variance. Positive targets were liked equivalently, but Black neutral and negative targets were liked less than White counterparts. Racial but not socioeconomic status differences in the use of behaviors as social cues were found. Negative targets were liked more by Blacks than Whites and neutral targets were liked more by Whites than Blacks. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)