Using analogy to improve abstract conditional reasoning in adolescents: not as easy as it looks

Abstract reasoning refers to the ability to reason logically with premises that do not allow reference to knowledge about the real world. This form of reasoning is complex and difficult, and at the same time, it is critical for understanding science and mathematics. Two studies examined the use of analogy as a method to bridge reasoning with familiar content and abstract reasoning among older adolescents. The results showed that the ability to make an appropriate analogy depends on reasoning ability. Neither of the two procedures used resulted in an improvement in abstract reasoning. However, generating an inappropriate analogy actually decreased abstract reasoning performance among students who showed greater initial levels of reasoning ability. These results highlight the problems associated with using familiar reasoning as a basis for learning abstract reasoning skills.     

Peer selection and socialization effects on adolescent intercourse without a condom and attitudes about the costs of sex

This study investigated peer selection and socialization effects on sexual behavior and attitudes using 1,350 15- to 18-year-old students participating in two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Regarding socialization effects, friends' intercourse without condoms predicted later individual intercourse without condoms positively. Friends' attitudes about the costs of sex predicted later individual attitudes positively and intercourse without condoms negatively. The latter relation was stronger for females than for males. Regarding selection effects, individual attitudes predicted later friends' attitudes positively, but the strength of this effect varied by ethnicity. The results suggest that adolescents socialize friends to have similar sexual attitudes and behavior but tend to select friends based on similar attitudes rather than similar behaviors.     

Young children's knowledge about printed names

Four experiments examined young children's knowledge about the visual characteristics of writing, specifically personal names. Children younger than 4 years of age, even those who could read no simple words, showed some knowledge about the horizontal orientation of English names, the Latin letters that make them up, and their left-to-right directionality. Preschoolers also had some familiarity with the shapes of the letters in their own first name, especially the leftmost letter. Knowledge of the conventional capitalization pattern for English names emerged later, after a period during which children preferred names in all uppercase letters. When tested with personal names, the kind of word they know best, young children are surprisingly knowledgeable about the visual characteristics of writing.     

Taking Care of Authenticity on the CBC’s Randy’s Vinyl Tap

This essay explores the radio program Randy’s Vinyl Tap, which is hosted by Randy Bachman and airs on CBC Radio 1 (2005-present). I argue that the show’s complex reception can be explained, in part, by the fact that it transgresses dominant conceptions of authenticity in both rock music and public broadcasting discourses. Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, I explore ways in which Bachman evokes a “carnivalesque” approach to public communication.     

Evaluation of a Study Skills Intervention Programme: A Mixed Methods Study

This article reports on a mixed methods study that evaluated the efficacy of a study counselling intervention programme at a South African university. Quantitative data, collected by means of the Learning and Study Strategy Inventory, indicated that the study skills intervention programme brought about statistically significant improvements in participants' study skills profiles. The qualitative findings that were collected from 10 participants served as a contextual lens to develop a more holistic understanding of the quantitative results. It is argued that multidisciplinary collaboration is required to address the heteregenous needs of students within the higher education context.     

Examining teachers’ perceptions of K‐11 students’ 21st century skills and student performance

This study examined the relationship of teachers’ ratings of students’ 21st century skills (i.e., persistence, curiosity, externalizing and internalizing affect, and cognition) via the Human Behavior Rating Scale: Brief (HBRS: Brief; Eaves & Woods‐Groves, 2011) with student performance. Midwestern K‐11 teachers (n = 96) rated students (n = 1,689) via the HBRS: Brief and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). Students’ academic (i.e., standardized tests) and behavioral (i.e., office discipline referrals [ODRs] and absences) performance was compared with HBRS: Brief ratings. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that teachers’ ratings of students’ 21st century skills were related to the following: (a) Persistence with SDQ conduct problems, academic performance, and absences; (b) curiosity with SDQ emotional symptoms; (c) externalizing affect with SDQ conduct problems, academic performance, and ODRs; (d) internalizing affect with SDQ emotional symptoms and academic performance, and (e) cognition with academics.     

Creepiness Creeps In: Uncanny Valley Feelings Are Acquired in Childhood

The uncanny valley posits that very human-like robots are unsettling, a phenomenon amply demonstrated in adults but unexplored in children. Two hundred forty 3- to 18-year-olds viewed one of two robots (machine-like or very human-like) and rated their feelings toward (e.g., “Does the robot make you feel weird or happy?”) and perceptions of the robot's capacities (e.g., “Does the robot think for itself?”). Like adults, children older than 9 judged the human-like robot as creepier than the machine-like robot—but younger children did not. Children's perceptions of robots’ mental capacities predicted uncanny feelings: children judge robots to be creepy depending on whether they have human-like minds. The uncanny valley is therefore acquired over development and relates to changing conceptions about robot minds.     

Longitudinal Theory of Mind (ToM) Development From Preschool to Adolescence With and Without ToM Delay

Longitudinal tracking of 107 three- to-thirteen-year-olds in a cross-sequential design showed a 6-step theory of mind (ToM) sequence identified by a few past cross-sectional studies validly depicted longitudinal ToM development from early to middle childhood for typically developing (TD) children and those with ToM delays owing to deafness or autism. Substantively, all groups showed ToM progress throughout middle childhood. Atypical development was more extended and began and ended at lower levels than for TD children. Yet most children in all groups progressed over the study's mean 1.5 years. Findings help resolve theoretical debates about ToM development for children with and without delay and gain strength and weight via their applicability to three disparate groups varying in ToM timing and sequencing.     

Hindrances for Parents in Enhancing Child Language

This review explores challenges and barriers to parent–child interaction which leads to language development in the first 3 years of the child's life. Seven databases yielded 1,750 hits, reduced to 49 evidence-based studies, many of which still had methodological imperfections. Evidence was quite strong in relation to socio-economic status, ethnicity and mental health, but weaker in relation to parental age and bilingualism. These factors pertain to the general demographic characteristics of parents, rather than their behavior. If parental behavior can be enhanced, better child language should follow, irrespective of these characteristics. This is an important lesson for professionals dealing with parents. Evidence was also weak in relation to television and the direction of baby buggies. These are areas where changes in parental behavior would make an immediate impact. Cost-effectiveness of interventions is extremely important and was reviewed. Recommendations for future research are followed by suggestions for parental action.     

Fields and pathways: Contrasting or complementary views of information seeking

This research contrasts two different conceptions, fields and pathways, of individual information behavior in context. These different approaches imply different relationships between actors and their information environments and, thus, encapsulate different views of the relationship between individual actions and contexts. We discuss these different theoretical views, then empirically compare and contrast them. The operationalization of these conceptions is based on different analytic treatments of the same raw data: a battery of three questions based on respondent’s unaided recall of the sources they would consult for information on inherited cancers, a particularly rich information seeking problem. These operationalizations are then analyzed in a nomological network of related concepts drawn from an omnibus survey of 882 adults. The results indicated four clusters for fields and 16 different pathways, indicating increased fragmentation of information environments, with different underlying logics and active ingredients, although the use of the Internet appears to be an emerging common theme. The analysis of the nomological network suggests that both approaches may have applications for particular problems. In the implications, we compare and contrast these approaches, discussing their significance for future methodological, analytical, and theoretical developments.