Consensus information and fundamental attribution error: The role of development and in-group versus out-group knowledge.

24 4-yr-olds, 24 9-yr-olds, and 24 undergraduates watched a target actor select an item from an array, and other actors either agreed (high consensus) or disagreed (low consensus) with the choice. Actors were either peers or nonpeers of the Ss, and the target's choice did or did not match the S's own preference. Ss were asked why the actor liked the chosen object best. Ss in all age groups appropriately used the consensus information. Nine-year-olds and adults, however, were much less likely to use the consensus information when judging peers than when judging nonpeers, suggesting the use of self-provided consensus information. Four-yr-olds made greater entity attributions when they agreed with the target actor's choice than when they disagreed, suggesting that young children use self-reference as a basis for normative expectancies. There was also a developmental shift in general attributional bias. Nine-year-olds and adults had a person bias for peer targets, but they had no attribution bias for nonpeer targets. Four-year-olds had an entity bias for both peer and nonpeer targets. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's (Homo sapiens) understanding of knowledge formation in themselves and others.

Three- and 4-yr-old children were tested for comprehension of knowledge formation. In Exp 1, 34 Ss watched as a surprise was hidden under 1 of 4 obscured cups. The experimenter then pointed to the cup. All children searched under the correct cup, but no 3-yr-olds (in contrast to most 4-yr-olds) could explain how they knew where to look. Ss then discriminated between simultaneous pointing by 2 adults, one who had hidden a surprise and one who had left the room before the surprise was hidden. Most 4-yr-olds (but no 3-yr-olds) showed clear discrimination between the adults. In Exp 2, 16 Ss were tested with procedures designed to make the source of their own knowledge more obvious, but this had no effect on performance. It is concluded that studies using very similar procedures with chimpanzees and rhesus macaques were measuring an ability (or inability) to understand how knowledge states form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age and schematic differences in the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Examined the reliability of eyewitness testimony for the crime of shoplifting as a function of age, prior knowledge/expectations, and type of memory test. Study 1, with 100 10-yr-olds, 100 undergraduates, and 65 older adults (mean age 72.3 yrs), was designed to empirically establish Ss' expectations for common and unusual occurrences in shoplifting. Results from a rating task indicate that Ss had expectations for common and unusual occurrences of objects and actions but not person characteristics. In Study 2, 32 10-yr-olds, 32 undergraduates, and 29 older adults (mean age 67.6 yrs) viewed videotapes of staged shopliftings incorporating high and low probability-of-occurrence actions and objects. Incidental memory was tested 1 wk later under recall and recognition test instructions. All Ss' reports were more complete, but less accurate, for high than low probability-of-occurrence information. Children's reports were as complete as but less accurate than younger adults'. Older adults' reports were less complete than but as accurate as college students'. Age differences were greatest for completeness of recall measures. Implications for theories of memory development and for the use of eyewitness testimony in legal situations are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Flexibility in children's use of spatial and categorical organizational strategies in recall.

Two studies investigated flexibility in children's use of spatial and categorical clustering strategies in recall. In Study 1, 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-yr-olds and adults recalled the furniture from their home. 10-yr-olds organized furniture categorically, and 16-yr-olds and adults organized items spatially. 12- and 14-yr-olds exhibited equal levels of spatial and categorical organization. Study 2 investigated how encoding experiences and the recall task influenced the degree of spatial and categorical organization in 10- and 12-yr-olds' recall. When recalling objects, 10- and 12-yr-olds exhibited higher levels of categorical than spatial organization. When recalling objects and their locations, 12-yr-olds exhibited more spatial than categorical organization. Results are discussed in terms of age and task influences on flexibility of strategy use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Animism in childhood thinking: A new look at an old question.

48 preschool-aged children's knowledge of the distinctions between animate and inanimate objects was assessed by showing them stimulus films of animate and inanimate objects that moved in different ways. Responses gathered included attributions of animate or inanimate properties, justifications for attribution choices and accuracy in labeling objects as alive or not. Results indicate that 5-yr-olds and some 4-yr-olds performed near the levels of 16 college-aged adults, whereas 3-yr-olds did not, although the animate–inanimate distinction did mediate their behavior. A generalized "animistic" attitude was not found: rather, developmental changes appeared to accrue from increasing precision about the specific properties that do and do not distinguish animate from inanimate objects. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combining of stimulus dimensions in children's and adults' judgments of area: An information integration analysis.

Conducted 2 experiments to study developmental changes in the integration of stimulus dimensions in an area judgment task. In Exp I, 24 kindergartners and 10 adults judged 9 rectangles in a 3 (width)?×?3 (height) design. In Exp II, 10 each of 5-, 8-, 11-yr-olds, and adults judged 16 rectangles in a 4?×?4 design. Following functional measurement methodology, absolute judgments on a linear graphic rating scale were obtained. Data analyses showed that Ss at all ages based their area judgments on both width and height. The algebraic rule according to which these dimensions were combined, however, changed with age. Whereas the responses of the adults followed a multiplying integration model, the 5-yr-olds combined width and height additively. Between these age groups, there seems to be a gradual increase in the probability that a child will shift from an adding to a multiplying strategy. Implications for possible underlying processes are discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of function in conceptual development.

40 3-, 40 5-, and 40 7-yr-olds were administered a free-sorting task, a directed sorting task, a verbal labeling task, and a conversation task using 4 natural concepts: cup, scissors, money, and musical instrument. Results reveal that almost all Ss had a knowledge of the correct function for cup and scissors, and all but the 3-yr-olds knew similar information for money and musical instrument. However, none of the Ss used all of the knowledge they possessed to guide behavior in the free-sorting task. The 5- and 7-yr-olds could use their knowledge when cued in the directed sort and when forced to use it in the verbal labeling task. In comparison, the 3-yr-olds were relatively unable to use their knowledge to guide behavior in any of these 3 tasks. Inferences are drawn about both the structure of children's concepts and how that structure changes with development. (French abstract) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's knowledge about visual perception: Further evidence for the Level 1–Level 2 distinction.

Conducted 3 studies with 51 3-yr-olds to test the hypothesis that there is a development in early childhood from a less advanced (Level 1) to a more advanced (Level 2) form of knowledge and thinking about people's visual experiences. Study 1 replicated and further validated a finding by Z. S. Masangkay et al (see record 1977-02937-001) that 3-yr-olds perform very well on tasks that call for Level 1 knowledge but very poorly on those that require Level 2 knowledge. Study 2 showed that Ss did not perform better when critical aspects of Level 2 tasks were designed to be familiar to them and similar to what they might encounter in everyday life. Study 3 showed that most of the Ss who performed poorly on Level 2 tasks in Study 2 continued to perform poorly on a retest given 2–19 wks later. In addition, a brief training period following the retest proved largely unsuccessful in inducing Level 2 knowledge and thinking in these children. Results of the studies appear to provide strong support for the Level 1–Level 2 developmental hypothesis. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nucleotide-dependent movements of the kinesin motor domain predicted by simulated annealing

A frailty model for multivariate correlated life times is considered. The model both extends, in a rather straight-forward way, ordinary survival analysis with its emphasis on hazard modeling and incorporates well-known variance components models to account for the dependence between events of related individuals. Different approaches to estimation and inference are considered. An example from an ongoing study of genetic and environmental influences on premature death in adults serves to motivate and illustrate the model. Multivariate frailty models offer a conceptually simple and promising framework for analysis of correlated event times data, even if current knowledge is too sparse for such models to be tested critically.     

Effects of practice on speed of information processing in children and adults: Age sensitivity and age invariance.

In 2 experiments, children and adults were exposed to 4 different information-processing tasks. Consistent with the global trend hypothesis, age-sensitive linear relations were observed between child and adult latencies, and 10- and 11-yr-olds were approximately 1.7 and 1.6 times slower than 19-yr-olds as predicted by R. Kail's (see record 1991-20909-001) growth function. In Exp 1, the relation between child and adult latencies did not change over 4 sessions of practice, implying that practice has equivalent effects on corresponding processing steps in children and adults. In both experiments, an age-invariant linear relation between dispersion and central tendency was observed, indicating that children's greater within-S variability is entirely due to their slower speed of processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the appreciation of verbal jokes.

Studied the development of children's appreciation of verbal jokes within the framework of the incongruity and resolution theory of humor. 15 boys and 15 girls from each of 4 age groups (6, 8, 10, and 12 yrs) were presented with a series of original, resolution-removed, and incongruity-removed jokes of various resolution types. Measures of appreciation and comprehension of each joke were obtained. Results indicate that the 6-yr-olds appreciated the incongruity structure but not the resolution structure of the jokes, while the older Ss appreciated both structural components. This is considered as evidence for a developmental theory of humor which postulates an early stage characterized by the appreciation of pure incongruity and a later stage characterized by the appreciation of resolvable incongruity. Certain of the resolution types were better comprehended than others, and this is discussed in terms of related research on detection of linguistic ambiguity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception and conservation of length: Piaget and Taponier revisited.

Reports a developmental comparison of judgments of length made by 40 5-yr-olds, 40 8-yr-olds, and 40 adults (mean age, 27 yrs). Ss judged relative lengths of lines presented in pairs via animated films both in static views and under several transformation conditions. The secondary illusion found by Piaget was not replicated, but children were superior to adults in judging static unequal-length line pairs. In the transformation conditions, most 8-yr-olds and adults conserved length, whereas most 5-yr-olds did not. For lines that lengthened during displacement, no age differences were found. Results indicate greater interdependence of judging accuracy in the 2 conditions than suggested by Piaget's hypothesis and cast doubt on typical explanations of failure to conserve. Fine-grain analyses of accuracy data suggest that several stimulus factors and age shifts in guessing strategies are involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A featural analysis of preschoolers' counting knowledge.

Investigated preschoolers' knowledge of counting principles by examining their ability to discriminate between features that are essential for correct counting and features that are typically present but unessential. The standard counting procedure was analyzed into 1 essential feature, word/object correspondence (WOC), and 4 optional features: counting adjacent objects consecutively, pointing once to each object, starting at an end of a row, and proceeding in a left to right direction. In Exp I, 10 3-, 10 4-, and 10 5-yr-olds were asked to judge a puppet's counting that either violated the essential or unessential features or that conformed to the standard correct procedure. Ss who knew the WOC principle presumably would reject counts that violated it more often than counts that conformed to it. Each S's skill in counting rows of objects also was assessed. In Exp II, 16 3-yr-olds completed a similar task but were able to see an adult model perform the task before judging. Skill in executing the standard counting procedure preceded knowledge of the underlying principle. Four- and 5-yr-olds knew that WOC was essential, although a high percentage of them did not know that other typical features were unessential. An analysis of probable environmental input and of the features' utility in separating already-counted from to-be-counted objects is proposed to account for the relative probabilities that Ss knew that each of the 5 features of standard counting was essential or optional. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation between conceptual development and visual exploration of incongruity.

Investigated the relationship between conceptual development and visual exploratory behavior in 84 3-, 4-, and 8-yr-olds. All Ss were engaged in a picture-sorting task to determine whether they would spontaneously and readily discriminate between animate and inanimate objects. Only the 3-yr-olds failed to use this distinction. Three levels of incongruous stimuli were then constructed by combining elements from (a) 2 conceptually distant objects (Level 3: animate and inanimate), (b) 2 conceptually similar objects (Level 2: 2 animate or 2 inanimate), and by using normal, banal objects (Level 1). Patterns of visual selection were subsequently recorded as the Ss viewed pictures representing the 3 levels of incongruity. Results indicate that 3-yr-olds visually explored all incongruous pictures (Levels 2 and 3) longer than those that were banal, whereas 4-yr-olds viewed pictures of intermediate incongruity (Level 2) the longest. Older Ss displayed greater visual preference for progressively incongruous pictures. Findings are discussed in terms of the development of classificatory behavior and with reference to the schema-discrepancy and the informational-conflict-resolution models of visual selection. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pupillometry as a measure of visual sensitivity among infants, young children, and adults.

Proposes pupillometry as an objective measure of visual sensitivity for infants, young children, and adults. To study the possible close relationship between pupillary contraction and perceived brightness for infants and young children, photopic pupillary sensitivity was measured for 5 1-yr-olds, 5 3-yr-olds, and 5 adults. Results support the utility of pupillometry as a sensitivity measure for infants and children, based on the demonstrated close agreement between the children's and adults' data in the study and adult data obtained by more traditional psychophysical techniques. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of encoding and strategic knowledge on children's choices among serial recall strategies.

This study examined how encoding and strategy knowledge influence 5- to 9-yr-olds' choices among serial recall procedures. The 7- and 9-yr-olds encoded contiguity relations within lists of numbers more consistently than did the 5-yr-olds, and encoding was related to their strategy choices. Presentation of lists with striking contiguity relations led 5-yr-olds to encode the contiguity relations more consistently and to alter their strategy choices accordingly. The 5-yr-olds' more consistent encoding of the contiguity relations, but not their strategy choices, transferred to another type of list. Thus, encoding of relations within the lists was not sufficient to guarantee that the encoding would influence strategy choices. A model of strategy choice that was developed in the context of arithmetic was used to explain the developmental differences in adaptiveness of strategy choices on a task on which the individual items were unfamiliar. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitating children's syntax acquisition.

Investigated how adults assist children's acquisition of new syntactic forms. In this 2-mo study, when 12 21/2-yr-olds produced sentences, adults gave replies designed to speed acquisition of particular kinds of sentence structures that were lacking before intervention. Children received intervention that was selectively directed toward acquisition either of question forms or of verb forms. The impact of intervention also was selective. Ss who encountered verb intervention sessions acquired new forms of questions. This evidence appears to provide the 1st demonstration that adults' verbal interventions with children who are learning a first language can lead the children to acquire particular syntactic forms that they lacked before intervention. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of activity level in children revisited: Effects of mother presence.

D. K. Routh et al (see record 1974-25047-001) found a consistent decrease in children's activity in a standardized playroom over the ages 3–9 yrs. The present experiment (using 100 10 mo–5 yr olds) was an attempt to extend these findings downward to the age of 10 mo, which necessitated certain changes in procedures. Surprisingly, in Exp I there was a significant increase in activity level over the ages from 3 to 5 yrs. Exp II (96 3-, 4-, and 5-yr-olds) then varied factorially the procedural differences between the 1974 Routh et al study and Exp I, namely the furnishings (tables and chairs vs rugs), type of toys (child toys vs baby toys), and the presence or absence of the child's mother from a small adjoining cubicle. The anomalous findings of the other 2 studies were reproduced and found to be due to the effects of mother presence rather than the other factors varied. With mother present, 5-yr-olds (but not 3- or 4-yr-olds) were significantly more active than with mother absent. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantifying the performance limitations of older and younger adults in a target acquisition task.

In a stationary target acquisition task, both 65-year-old and 20-year-old adults exhibited a negatively accelerated curvilinear relationship between the spatial variability of submovement endpoints and average submovement velocity. For high velocities, the variability was greater for the older adults. This elevated motor noise is considered a primary cause of their slower performance. Both age groups also exhibited a linear relationship between submovement duration and the logarithm of submovement relative accuracy. A stochastic model indicates that the two age groups were similar in the strategies they used to compose single movements from a variety of submovements. However, when performing sequences of movements containing varied target distances, older adults exhibited a repetition effect whereas younger adults exhibited a contrast effect. Older adults may plan movements individually, whereas younger adults plan sequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture, socioeconomic status, and physical and mental health in Brazil

The association of socioeconomic variables with poor health status has been widely observed, if not well understood, and cultural dimensions of socioeconomic differences have rarely been incorporated into research models. In this article, a cultural dimension of socioeconomic status is examined in a Brazilian city through the use of ethnographic and social survey techniques. It suggests that lifestyle, defined in terms of the relative ability to accumulate consumer goods and the adoption of associated behaviors, is an important component of socioeconomic differences. Further research using cultural consensus analysis, a structured ethnographic technique that may be used to study shared cultural knowledge, demonstrates significant consensus regarding the definition of the successful lifestyle. Then, using that culturally defined model of the successful lifestyle as the central tendency, an individual-level measure of approximation to that lifestyle was developed for a representative sample of 250 persons. This culturally defined measure of lifestyle was inversely associated with arterial blood pressure (beta = -.216, p < .01), depressive symptoms (beta = -.236, p < .01), and globally perceived stress (beta = -.358, p < .01); furthermore, it absorbed the explained variability in these outcomes that is associated with conventional socioeconomic variables (occupation, education, income). For arterial pressure, cultural consonance explained almost 10 percent of the differences in blood pressure between individuals; for the psychological outcome variables, cultural consonance explained between 10 percent and 20 percent of the differences between individuals. Finally, its statistical effects were independent of other socioeconomic, dietary, anthropometric, and psychosocial variables. These results suggest that an individual's approximation to the cultural ideal of lifestyle, his or her "cultural consonance," mediates the observed effects of socioeconomic variables on health status.