Control of humorous affect in relation to children's conceptual tempo.

56 reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate, and slow-inaccurate 4th graders viewed a videotape of an adult telling a series of jokes, half of which were followed by audience laughter. Spontaneous mirth and ratings of joke funniness were recorded. Whereas all Ss showed greater mirth to socially facilitated jokes than to nonfacilitated jokes, the effect was greater for impulsives than for reflectives or fast-accurates. Multiple regression analysis indicated the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) error (but not MFFT latency) predicted affective behavior. Discussion of the results focuses on the generalizability of conceptual tempo to areas of affect control as well as on the controversy over the defining criteria for this cognitive style. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral development and children's appreciation of humor.

Examined the relationship between level of moral development, as conceptualized by Piaget, and children's appreciation of humor based on varying levels of quantity and intentionality of damaging outcomes in 3 studies. Studies 1 and 2 investigated this relationship using 192 2nd graders at both the heteronomous and autonomous level of moral development. Study 3 used 168 Ss in Grades 4 and 8 and in college, assuming progressively greater lengths of time functioning at the autonomous level. Results show that heteronomous children consistently found stories with highly damaging outcomes funnier than stories with less damaging outcomes. For autonomous children, this trend was found only when damage occurred unintentionally. In general, autonomous children found accidental damaging outcomes funnier than intentional ones. It is concluded that while increased naughtiness or moral unacceptibility of an outcome or event adds to its funniness for heteronomous children, it detracts from humor appreciation in adults and morally more mature autonomous children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between conceptual tempo and depression in children.

The Matching Familiar Figures Test performances of 53 5th–6th graders identified as being depressed on the basis of self-report questionnaires (e.g., the Self-Esteem Scale and the Children's Depression Inventory) were compared to the performances of 53 nondepressed children. The depressed group had longer latencies, made more errors, and was less efficient, even when intellectual differences were taken into account. Implications for childhood depression are discussed. (13 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)     

Reflection-impulsivity: The generality and dynamics of conceptual tempo.

3rd-grade children previously classified as either reflective or impulsive were administered a serial learning task under 3 different conditions. After administration of 2 lists, 1 group was told their performance was poor, a 2nd was told that the next lists were difficult, and controls were given no special communication. Impulsive Ss in all groups reported more incorrect words before and after experimental intervention. Reflective boys who were told the next lists were difficult showed the largest increase in incorrect words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of conceptual understanding in children's addition problem solving

The study examined the relationship between children's conceptual understanding and addition problem-solving procedures. Forty-eight 6- to 8-year-olds solved addition problems and, in a 2nd task, were prompted to judge whether a puppet could use the arithmetic properties of one problem to solve the next problem. Relational properties between consecutive problems were manipulated to reflect aspects of additive composition, commutativity, and associativity principles. Conceptual understanding was assessed by the ability to spontaneously use such relational properties in problem solving (Task 1) and to recognize and explain them when prompted (Task 2). Results revealed that conceptual understanding was related to using order-indifferent, decomposition, and retrieval strategies and speed and accuracy in solving unrelated problems. The importance of conceptual understanding for addition development is discussed.     

Cognitive mastery and children's humor.

Reviews theory and research dealing with cognitive aspects of children's humor. Alternate means of defining cognitive mastery are discussed, and it is suggested that a Piagetian theoretical framework may offer the most promising approach to studying the relationship between cognitive mastery and the comprehension and appreciation of humor. Special attention is given to the operation of the cognitive congruency principle in children's humor. Suggestions for future theoretical and research efforts are made. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of tempo and familiarity on children's affective interpretation of music.

When and how does one learn to associate emotion with music? This study attempted to address this issue by examining whether preschool children use tempo as a cue in determining whether a song is happy or sad. Instrumental versions of children's songs were played at different tempos to adults and children ages 3 to 5 years. Familiar and unfamiliar songs were used to examine whether familiarity affected children's identification of emotion in music. The results indicated that adults, 4 year olds and 5 year olds rated fast songs as significantly happier than slow songs. However, 3 year olds failed to rate fast songs differently than slow songs at above-chance levels. Familiarity did not significantly affect children's identification of happiness and sadness in music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on conceptual tempo: Relationship between cognitive style and performance as a function of task characteristics.

Reflectives have been shown to outperform impulsives on tasks that require a cautious, systematic approach. A study was conducted to determine whether reflectives, particularly high-anxious reflectives, would show superior performance on speeded tasks; i.e., whether they would exhibit flexibility vs continued caution at the expense of performance. 46 male and 54 female 4th graders, selected by their scores on the Test Anxiety Scale for Children and the Lie Scale for Children as being reflective and impulsive, high and low anxious, were presented with speeded tasks of increasing difficulty. Results reveal that contrary to prediction, high-anxious reflectives performed as well as low-anxious reflectives and both were generally faster and more accurate than impulsives. Only for girls on the most difficult task was there evidence that reflection in combination with high anxiety resulted in overly cautious behavior and impaired performance. Results suggest a definition of cognitive style that stresses the strategy used rather than the disposition for long or short decision times. In addition, a model is proposed to predict the relative speed and accuracy of reflectives and impulsives as a function of the strategy required and the degree of intertrial transfer on the task. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of cognitive development in children's explanations and preferences for skin color.

One Black and 1 White female examiner assessed 72 White 2.5–10.5 yr old children to investigate children's understanding of the origins of race and explore the developmental concomitants of skin color preferences. Ss' understanding of the origins of race followed a developmental hierarchy and correlated significantly with performance on previously researched measures of physical conservation, physical causality, and social identity. Both physical conservation and physical causality appeared to be developmental prerequisites to understanding the origins of race. Significant Race?×?Cognitive Developmental Level interactions indicated that pro-White bias was significantly lower for higher levels of cognitive development when the examiner was Black. The possibility that skin color preference is influenced by social desirability is discussed. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of strategic visual attention in children's drawing development

The many variables that affect the production of visually realistic drawings in children (such as instructions and contrasting models), have been widely documented in the research literature. The experiments reported here assess one variable that has been largely ignored, namely the attention that the child pays towards the drawing model. First, it was shown that the progression from intellectual to visual realism occurred between six and eight years of age, and was accompanied by a spontaneous increase in attention towards the drawing models. A second experiment showed that the drawing performance of the 6-year-olds was enhanced by contrasting tasks and explicit instructions. At all ages, explicit instructions increased attention towards the model, and the use of an efficient attentional strategy was associated with visually realistic drawings. These studies provide further evidence that intellectual and visual realism are not distinct developmental stages, but may instead reflect the use of different attentional strategies by children.     

The role of theories in conceptual coherence.

In order to answer the question of what makes a concept coherent (what makes its members form a comprehensible class), accounts based on similarity, features correlations, and various theories of categorization are reviewed. In general, the similarity-based approach is seen to require a minimum of conceptual organization and relations, whereas the theory-based approach emphasizes both. It is concluded that each theory provides an inadequate account of conceptual coherence (or no account at all), because none provides enough constraints on possible concepts. The authors propose that concepts are coherent to the extent that they fit people's background knowledge or naive theories about the world. These theories help to relate the concepts in a domain and to structure the attributes that are internal to a concept. Evidence of the influence of theories on various conceptual tasks is presented, and the possible importance of theories in cognitive development is discussed. (109 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of the stimulus in Rorschach responses.

"It is apparent, from the studies reviewed, that the definition of Rorschach stimulus effects is more a task for the future than an accomplishment of the past. In fact, empirical concern with this question appears to have been something of an afterthought with users of the technique. Variation in the stimulus, in order to define an independent variable, has been such a standard procedure in psychological research that it is surprising to find it being applied only during very recent years to an analysis of the Rorschach. Other methods, as indicated, have contributed to the clarification of this problem, but they have not, as yet, gone very deeply." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Joking riddles: A developmental index of children's humor.

Administered joking riddles selected for aggressive, dependent, and neutral content to a total of 48 children of bright normal intellect in Grades 1, 3, and 5. From Grade 1 to Grade 5, comprehension of joking riddles increased linearly, while enjoyment decreased modestly. S's enjoyment of arbitrary nonjoking riddles also declined with age although more sharply. In both instances this decline was attributed to the diminishing appeal of these riddles to older Ss with more complex cognitive structures. No major sex differences were found in riddle comprehension or enjoyment. No major relationships between intellectual level and enjoyment of joking riddles and nonjoking riddles were revealed, although comprehension of joking riddles was significantly related to intelligence. Enjoyment of joking riddles was not significantly correlated with their comprehension. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of experience in judging children's photographs.

3 groups of Ss—undergraduates, parents, professional psychologists—ranked photographs of 10 children on intelligence, sociability, activity, sensitivity, and mental health. In comparison with a child psychologist who had observed the children over a 2-year period, Ss, as groups, made consistent judgments of intelligence, sociability, and health; but, as individuals, their judgments were of low validity. Judgments of children's photographs are not related to practical experience or to professional training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations.

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations using a computer-based scientific reasoning task was investigated in this study. Seventy 4th-grade students were assigned to work alone or with a same-sex partner for 1 20-min session. Half of the children in each condition (alone and dyads) were asked to talk as they worked, and half were not. Significant performance differences between groups were present, although there were no significant differences in experimental activity. Talk dyads generated better hypotheses than no-talk alones and no-talk dyads, and talk alones did not generate better hypotheses than no-talk alones. Analyses of children's talk showed that talk dyads produced more talk overall and more interpretive types of talk than talk alones. The importance of peer collaborations as a social context that supports interpretive cognitive processes was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of meaning in children's descriptive terms.

"… we would expect that correlated attributes would appear in experienced speakers' usage, in situations of prediction and metaphorical extension, but not in detonation where the evidence for attribute discrimination is available. In new learners, however, one term may apply to both attributes, which are not in fact discriminated, or both terms may appear as interchangeable synonyms for the two undiscriminated attributes… . A reduction with age is predicted with respect to the use of the wrong terms when a difference in only one attribute of the correlated set is present." The hypothesis received support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical effects on phonetic categorization: The role of stimulus naturalness and stimulus quality.

A series of experiments was conducted to determine whether the effects of lexical status on phonetic categorization were influenced by stimulus naturalness (replicating M. W. Burton, S. R. Baum, and S. E. Blumstein, 1989, who manipulated the intrinsic properties of the stimuli) and by stimulus quality (presenting the stimuli in white noise). The experiments compared continua varying in voice onset time (VOT) only to continua covarying VOT and amplitude of the burst and aspiration noise in no-noise and noise conditions. Results overall showed that the emergence of a lexical effect was influenced by stimulus quality but not by stimulus naturalness. Contrary to previous findings, significant lexical effects failed to emerge in the slower reaction time (RT) ranges. These results suggest that stimulus quality contributes to lexical effects on phonetic categorization, whereas stimulus naturalness does not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of physical and conceptual properties in preserving object continuity.

Six experiments investigated the nature of the object-file representation supporting object continuity. Participants viewed preview displays consisting of 2 stimuli (either line drawings or words) presented within square frames, followed by a target display consisting of a single stimulus (either a word or a picture) presented within 1 of the frames. The relationship between the target and preview stimuli was manipulated. The first 2 experiments found that participants responded more quickly when the target was identical to the preview stimulus in the same frame (object-specific priming). In Experiments 3, 4, 5, and 6, the physical form of the target stimulus (a word or picture in 1 frame) was changed completely from that of either preview stimulus (pictures or words in both frames). Despite this physical change, object-specific priming was observed. It is suggested that object files encode postcategorical information, rather than precise physical information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social stimulus value on academic achievement and social competence: A reconsideration of children's first-name characteristics.

Tested the hypothesized connection between children's 1st-name characteristics and their academic and social functioning in 2 studies with 24,602 2nd–12th graders. In Study 1, 721 male names and 1,030 female names of 23,878 2nd–21th graders were rated by 9 adults on desirability. Analyses of the degree of association between name frequency and name desirability and 4 measures of academic achievement showed that 1st-name characteristics were unrelated to academic achievement, even in the most extreme cases, so long as a confound was prevented between name frequency or desirability and S's ethnicity. In Study 2, using 724 9th–22th graders, the relationship between S's 1st name characteristics and S's social competence in handling challenging social situations (as judged by peers, teachers, and Ss themselves) was explored. Data show little evidence for an impact of name characteristics in social competence. It is suggested that previous studies that have reported significant positive relationships between name characteristics and indices of personal functioning have focused on name desirability and have not controlled for ethnic status. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)