Organizing stories: Effects of development and task difficulty on referential cohesion in narrative.

Two experiments examined the effects of age and task difficulty on the referential cohesion of story retellings. In Exp I, analyses of referential error rates showed that 20 4-yr-olds produced more inappropriate introductory phrases than did 20 6-yr-olds, though rates for ambiguities in already-introduced referents did not differ significantly. Other types of referential errors were infrequent. Exp II investigated the impact of task difficulty on referring by systematically varying mode of story presentation (verbal vs video), familiarity/practice (1 vs 3 presentations), and S's cognitive style (reflective vs impulsive) as measured by the Matching Familiar Figures Test. It was hypothesized that increased task difficulty would lead to higher error rates for all S groups: 16 1st graders, 16 3rd graders, and 16 college students. Results indicate a higher incidence of errors with videotape rather than verbal presentation and for Ss with an impulsive style. Practice lowered the rate of introductory problems for young children, as expected, but failed to affect ambiguity rates. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postfailure reflectivity/impulsivity and spontaneous attention to errors.

We tested the idea that paying close attention to errors leads to improved performance on an inference task. We operationalized "attention to errors" as postfailure reflectivity, the ratio of the mean postfailure and post-success latencies on a self-paced inference task, where the interstimulus interval was subject controlled. Subjects were 9-, 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old children (N?=?378). Results reveal that (a) postfailure and reflectives show high cognitive performance during their initial exposure to the inference task; (b) postfailure impulsives have lower scores than postfailure reflectives on IQ, Raven, a test for attentional capacity, an arithmetic test, and teacher's evaluations in percentiles; and (c) "fast" versus "slow thinkers," as defined by J. Kagan's (1966) cognitive style construct, do not form homogeneous groups: fast–accurate children are postfailure reflective, and slow–inaccurate children are postfailure impulsive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive style differences in children's spatial perspective taking.

Examined spatial perspective taking in a total of 80 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-yr-old reflective and impulsive children (as indentified by scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test) using a modification of Piaget's 3 mountain task. Results indicate that reflectives made more mature errors at 6 yrs of age and were more accurate in predicting another's perspective at 8 yrs of age, but they did not differ from impulsives in performance at 4 or 10 yrs of age. Results suggest that the development and expression of children's cognitive structures, at least in the spatial realm, is mediated by cognitive style factors. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching behaviors of 9- and 11-year-old girls in mixed-age and same-age dyads.

Examined the hypothesis that the accommodations made by tutors according to the age of their tutees are not specific to the CA of the tutors themselves. Ss were 32 11-yr-old, 32 9-yr-old, and 16 7-yr-old females. Ss who were 9 and 11 yrs old, having learned the rules governing a board game, were asked to teach other Ss to play the game. Nine-year-old tutors taught 9- and 7-yr-old tutees; 11-yr-old tutors taught 11-, 9-, and 7-yr-olds. The tutees' behaviors did not vary among these dyads, but the behaviors of their tutors did. Tutors instructing younger Ss used repetitions, strategic advice, progress checkups, direct assistance, and praise more frequently than tutors who instructed same-age tutees. Overall, results are consistent with the hypothesis that elementary school children possess an implicit "theory of teaching," which assumes that younger children require more cognitive structuring and more supportive and corrective feedback than same-age children. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of cognitive style in a cognitive task: A case favoring the impulsive approach to problem solving.

A task that favored the impulsive approach to problem solving was given to impulsive, reflective, fast/accurate, and slow/inaccurate male 3rd and 4th graders. Ss learned to choose 1 of a pair of multidimensional stimuli based upon a single cue. In 1 condition, the stimuli were composed of many dimensions; in the 2nd condition, the stimuli were composed of few dimensions. Reflective Ss solved the task with few dimensions more quickly than impulsive Ss, whereas impulsive Ss solved the task with many dimensions in fewer trials. Fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate Ss solved problems in an intermediate number of trials but also reversed positions as a function of the number of dimensions. Both speed and accuracy components of cognitive style contributed to performance in the cognitive task. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between cognitive tempo and selective attention in learning disabled children

The relationship between cognitive tempo and selective attention in 29 learning disabled children was investigated. The performance of the 9 reflective and the 9 impulsive children on selective-attention tasks was compared. An examination of t tests and correlations between variables for each task showed a relationship between cognitive tempo and selective attention. This relationship was stronger for central than for incidental recall.     

An evaluation of two hypotheses concerning the dynamics of cognitive impulsivity: Anxiety-over-errors or anxiety-over-competence?

To test the appropriateness of the anxiety-over-errors and the anxiety-over-competence hypotheses in explaining reflective and impulsive behavior, 85 8–11 yr olds were classified as reflective or impulsive on the basis of their performance on 1 form of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). Half of each cognitive style group was randomly assigned to a failure or control group. Ss in the failure group were given failure feedback concerning their performance on the 1st 10 items of an alternate form of the MFFT and were then tested on the 2nd 10 items. Control Ss were given a short rest period between the 2 10-item test administrations. All Ss rated their expectancy of success and completed the Test Anxiety Scale for Children. Teacher ratings of the children's reflection–impulsivity, confidence, and concern over errors were also obtained. Results support the anxiety-over-errors hypothesis: The impulsives in the failure group showed a significant decrease in errors from pre- to posttest, whereas controls did not differ in this respect. The reflectives in the failure group did not differ from those in the control group in their pre–post error rates. MFFT performance measures were significantly correlated with teacher ratings of concern over errors but not with confidence ratings. It is concluded that impulsive behavior may stem from a lack of motivation to perform well. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral judgments, behaviour and cognitive style in young children.

Assessed level of moral maturity in 2 studies with middle-class 6-7 yr olds (n = 29), middle-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 35), and lower-class 3-4 yr olds (n = 37). For the older Ss, stories were used to elicit judgments about relative goodness or badness. Level of moral maturity was scored on the basis of S's awareness of the intentions of the actor as opposed to his reliance on consequences. For the younger Ss, a group of films depicting similar situations were shown. All Ss were then given a battery of tests (e.g., the Children's Embedded Figures Test) measuring cognitive style and rated by their teachers on behavior and personality items. In 6 yr olds, level of moral maturity was found to relate to the cognitive styles of reflection-impulsivity and field dependence-independence, but not to verbal intelligence. Ss characterized as immature in their moral judgments were more impulsive and field-dependent. Ss with higher-level moral judgments were also rated by their teachers as more attentive and reflective. In preschool samples, Ss highest on moral maturity were rated as less aggressive by their teachers, least impulsive in cognitive style and in the lower-class sample, more field-independent. (French summary) (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is the failure to monitor comprehension an instance of cognitive impulsivity?

Third and fifth graders' ability to monitor comprehension was measured with the error detection paradigm. Subjects read three passages, each containing incongruent information. Subjects' performance at detecting these contradictions was recorded. Subjects were also given a multiple-choice recall/comprehension test after each passage. Cognitively reflective and impulsive children were identified with the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). Reflective children detected significantly more inconsistencies than impulsive children across grade levels. Although there were no significant reflective-impulsive differences on the overall recall/comprehension test, reflectives recalled significantly more information necessary for identifying the inconsistencies. These results are interpreted in an analytic-global processing framework. It is argued that comprehension monitoring failure of impulsives is in part due to their failure to adopt a suitable analytic reading strategy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of perceptual salience on reflective-impulse performance differences.

Examined the relationship between perceptual salience and cognitive style in 31 1st graders, 37 3rd graders, and 37 5th graders who had been classified as impulsive or reflective based on scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. After determining salience hierarchy scores, Ss were given a modified matching test. This test consisted of 3 trial types on which the S's most salient, least salient, or both most and least salient dimensions were necessary for making a correct match. Impulsives made more errors than reflectives only on trials requiring the use of the least salient dimension. These performance differences decreased with age. Cognitive style did not affect latencies on the modified matching task. It is concluded that (a) perceptual features of the stimulus situation can markedly influence impulsives' performance, (b) cognitive style effects were not attributable to differences in the salience hierarchies of reflective-impulsive Ss, (c) cognitive style differences can occur in the absence of latency differences, and (d) sensitization to perceptual features may be an effective means of improving impulsives' performance. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of communication encoding: Age, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability.

Assessed 144 7-, 8-, and 9-yr-olds in lower, middle, and upper socioeconomic status (SES) groups on 4 cognitive variables—classification, class inclusion, conservation of number, and conservation of substance—and on communication encoding effectiveness. It is shown that in addition to age and SES, general cognitive ability accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in communication encoding. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a more reliable version of the Matching Familiar Figures Test.

Because of the inadequate reliability of Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) error scores, a longer, more reliable version was developed. As a result of item analysis of 30 MFFT-type items, 20 were selected on the basis of item—total error correlations and ability to discriminate reflective from impulsive 11-yr-old boys. Two subsequent studies with Ss of similar ages showed that split-half correlations for the new 20-item MFFT over 2 wks were .91 for latency and .89 for errors, while test–retest correlations over 5 wks were .85 and .77 for latency and errors, respectively. These results plus those of a further study with 7- and 9-yr-old boys and girls suggest that the new test (the MFF20) is suitable for use with children in the age range 7–21 yrs. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental capacity and cognitive functioning: Developmental and social class differences.

Hypothesized that social class performance differences of same-age children would be negligible on pure mental (M) capacity measures but would be greater on tasks that confound other variables with M capacity. This hypothesis is anchored in a neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development (J. Pascual-Leone; see record 1971-07908-001), which gives a central role to an attentional mechanism of limited M capacity that grows monotonically with age. 268 Israeli 8-, 10-, and 12-yr-olds of low or high SES completed 10 cognitive developmental tasks that measured pure M capacity, short-term memory, verbal IQ, and spatial-analytic ability. Results show that M capacity developed similarly in same-age Ss, regardless of SES. Significant differences among the investigated populations were found only in performing tasks that confounded factors of learning and style. Results support the notion that a cognitive development process exists that is universal in stage sequences and in the rate and timing of development. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hidden costs of reflectiveness: Aspects of successful scientific reasoning.

We tested a prediction of Baron's (1985) rationality theory: that reflectiveness is directly related to creative problem-solving performance. In two experiments, subjects solved a series of four induction problems involving conventional rules, followed by an induction problem involving an unconventional rule. Subjects who had been extremely reflective or extremely impulsive on successfully solving conventional problems performed more poorly on solving the unconventional problem than did subjects who had been moderately reflective or moderately impulsive on conventional problems. This U-shaped relationship between degree of reflectiveness/impulsiveness on conventional problems and problem-solving performance on an unconventional problem conflicts with predictions of rationality theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive style in two modalities: Vision and audition.

Administered the visual Matching Familiar Figures Sequential Presentation Task (MFF-SPT) and the Auditory Impulsivity Task (AIT), 2 match-to-sample tasks designed to measure cognitive style, to 81 4th graders. A moderate negative correlation was found between errors and latencies on the AIT, thus indicating that longer latency did not always result in better performance. A high negative correlation was found on the MFF-SPT. 55% of the Ss maintained their classification as reflective, impulsive, fast–accurate, or slow–inaccurate across the 2 modalities, providing evidence that the 2 tasks were measuring somewhat different abilities. Ss employed the same search strategy in both modalities. It is suggested that auditory cognitive style be investigated for relationships with reading ability. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surface similarity and relational similarity in the development of analogical problem solving: Isomorphic and nonisomorphic transfer.

Surface and relational similarity were examined in 2 experiments involving isomorphic and nonisomorphic analogical transfer. Each study included a direct-mapping condition, in which surface features of the base mapped directly to surface features in the target, and a cross-mapping condition, in which surface features of the base and target were reversed. Exp 1 involved transfer between analogs of the missionaries-cannibals (MC) problem among kindergarten, 3rd-grade, and 6th-grade children. The 3rd and 6th graders in the cross-mapping condition exhibited mappings based on relational similarity significantly more frequently than the kindergartners. Exp 2 examined performance of 4- to 6-yr-olds vs 6- to 8-yr-olds in nonisomorphic transfer between jealous husbands and MC problems. In the cross-mapping condition, most children exhibited mappings based on surface similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive bases of children's moral judgments.

Conducted 4 experiments with 140 3-, 4-, 5-, and 9-yr-olds to examine the cognitive bases of children's judgments of morality. Moral dilemmas consisting of information about a character's motives and the consequences of these actions were devised such that the order, concreteness, and imageability of information were systematically varied. Results show that 5-yr-old males, but not females, favored recent information while the other variables had no impact on Ss' moral judgments. Overall, the number of 5-yr-olds who used motive information was not significantly different from the number who used outcome information. In the 4th study, the reasoning strategy was examined rather than the content of children's judgments. Three distinct strategies of reasoning were observed: (a) focusing on either the motive or outcome to the exclusion of the other, (b) switching focus from one piece of information to the other, and finally (c) considering both aspects of the dilemma at a time. These abilities had significant parallels in a spatial rotation task. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detection of linguistic ambiguity by reflective, impulsive, fast/accurate, and slow/inaccurate children.

Investigated the relation of conceptual tempo to children's detection of linguistic ambiguity. After completing the Matching Familiar Figures Test, 96 4th and 7th graders were classified as reflective, impulsive, fast/accurate, and slow/accurate and were asked to paraphrase the meaning of ambiguous sentences and then to indicate their meaning through a selection of pictures. Results indicate that reflective children were more successful than impulsive and slow/inaccurate children (a) in spontaneous paraphrasing of the multiple meanings of sentences and (b) in detecting the various ambiguities on the picture measure. In contast, on the paraphrase measure, prompting by the examiner to consider alternative meanings for the sentences eliminated differences among conceptual tempo groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training impulsive children to talk to themselves: A means of developing self-control.

Examined the efficacy of a cognitive self-instructional (SI) training procedure in altering the behavior of impulsive school children. Study I, with 15 2nd graders, employed an individual training procedure which required the impulsive child to talk to himself, initially overtly and then covertly, in an attempt to increase self-control. Results indicate that the SI group improved significantly relative to attentional and assessment control groups on the Porteus Maze Test, performance IQ on the WISC, and on a measure of cognitive impulsivity. The improved performance was evident in a 1-mo follow-up assessment. Study II, with 8 kindergartners and 7 1st graders, examined the efficacy of the components of the cognitive treatment procedure in altering the impulsive child's performance. Results indicate that cognitive modeling alone was sufficient to slow down the impulsive child's response time for initial selection, but only with the addition of SI training was there a significant decrease in errors. Treatment and research implications of modifying S's cognitions are discussed. (45 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the conception of economic inequality: II. Explanations, justifications, and concepts of social mobility and change.

720 6-, 11-, 14-, and 17-yr-olds from 4 social classes were interviewed about their concepts of economic inequality. Adolescents were more likely than children to explain and justify inequality by referring to equity and were more fatalistic in their conceptions of change and in justifying wealth and poverty. Younger Ss were more likely than adolescents to claim that individual mobility and social change could be achieved through others giving money and less likely to say that social change could be achieved by changing the social structure. Upper-middle-class Ss were more likely than others to claim that poverty cannot be changed and that poverty is due to equity or wasting money, and less likely than lower-class Ss to claim that the poor should not suffer. Lower-class 17-yr-olds were more likely than any other group to claim that the rich would resist social change. Blacks were less likely than Whites to claim that poverty is due to bad luck or fate. Findings are discussed in terms of cognitive–developmental trends, functionalist effects, and conflict theory. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)