Childhood peer status as predictor of midadolescence peer situation and social adjustment

This longitudinal study examined the relation between stable sociometric status among same‐gender classmates at age 10–11 and peer situation and social adjustment at age 15. Rejected, popular, and average groups of both genders (N = 90) were selected from a representative school sample. Rejected boys and girls preserved their low position among same‐gender class peers at age 15. They also had low status among cross‐gender class peers. Furthermore, rejected children perceived their peer situation as worse compared to other children. As expected, adolescents had most of their peers in ordinary or conventional peer categories, that is, same‐age peers, class peers, and other school peers. Rejected participants had a smaller number of conventional peers than other children in some categories (same‐age and school peers). There were, however, no peer‐status differences in nonconventional peer categories, like different‐age and antisocial peers; neither were there differences in own antisocial tendencies. Antisocial deviancy seems to be more common among boys and their peers than among girls. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 745–757, 2005.     

How temporal and spatial aspects of presenting visualizations affect learning about locomotion patterns

Two studies investigated the effectiveness of dynamic and static visualizations for a perceptual learning task (locomotion pattern classification). In Study 1, seventy-five students viewed either dynamic, static-sequential, or static-simultaneous visualizations. For tasks of intermediate difficulty, dynamic visualizations led to better classification performance than static-sequential visualizations, but not than static-simultaneous visualizations. To test whether the temporal aspects of presenting static-simultaneous visualizations (i.e., their permanent visibility) or their spatial aspects (i.e., their arrangement in rows) accounted for this effect, Study 2 investigated three additional static-simultaneous conditions. Seventy-five students viewed static-simultaneous visualizations presented either in columns, matrices, or circles. For tasks of intermediate difficulty dynamic visualizations outperformed pictures presented in columns, matrices, and circles, but not the rows format. Accordingly, for learning about locomotion patterns, dynamic visualizations are better suited than most, but not all static visualization formats. From a practical point of view, effort should be invested into the design of static-simultaneous visualizations to further optimize instructional materials.     

Debt: the reality of student life

During the 1980s, a political consensus developed concerning the need to increase participation in higher education (Walker and Wright, 1990). How to finance this increase, however, was a matter of contention. While successive Conservative governments demonstrated a commitment to increasing the number of students, this aim was subordinate to their central concern of controlling public expenditure, which meant they were not prepared to meet the cost of expansion totally from the public purse. As a consequence, alternative ways of financing students were introduced which, as this paper will demonstrate, have led to a higher education system subsidized by student debt.     

Interaction of sample dimension and sample-comparison mapping on pigeons’ performance of delayed conditional discriminations

Coding strategies developed in the acquisition of delayed conditional discriminations can be assessed by independently manipulating sample and comparison memory load. Two stimulus dimensions that can affect memory load were examined: Number of stimuli in the sample and comparison sets (two vs. four) was manipulated between groups in a 2×2 design, and discriminability of sample and comparison stimuli (hues vs. lines) was manipulated between counterbalancing subgroups and within subjects. The results indicated large effects of sample discriminability but not of comparison discriminability, evidence for retrospective coding. There was also a significant effect of number of stimuli in the comparison set (although only with hard-to-discriminate samples) but not of number of stimuli in the sample set, evidence for prospective coding. These findings suggest evidence for retrospective coding with easy-to-discriminate samples, independently of number of stimuli in the comparison set, and evidence for prospective coding with hard-to-discriminate samples.     

Intimate partner violence during infancy and cognitive outcomes in middle childhood: Results from an Australian community-based mother and child cohort study

The cognitive functioning of children who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) has received less attention than their emotional-behavioral outcomes. Drawing upon data from 615 (48.4% female) 10-year-old Australian-born children and their mothers (9.6% of mothers born in non-English speaking countries) participating in a community-based longitudinal study between 2004 and 2016, this study examined the associations between IPV in infancy and cognition in middle childhood (at age 10). Results showed that IPV in the first 12 months of life was associated with lower general cognitive ability and poorer executive attention but not working memory skills. IPV in middle childhood (in the 10th year postpartum) was not associated with cognition. This study provides evidence for the long-term impact of early life exposure to IPV on children's cognition, and points to the importance of early intervention to optimize development.     

Angle and rotation: Effects of different types of feedback on the quality of response

The study compares the levels of response to angle/rotation problems presented on screen with a Logo microworld with the levels of response to similar problems presented on paper. Pairs of children aged from 9 to 11 who had little or no experience of Logo completed the problems in about 40 minutes. Pairs of children completed the problems over a period of eight weeks. The responses, classified using the SOLO taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes), suggested that the effect of the immediate feedback of the screen turtle heading was to inhibit moves to a higher level of response compared to those levels of response reached when responding to paper tests.     

The Art of the Impossible? A Case Study and Reflections on the Experience of Art in a Rural Kenyan Primary School

The arguments for, and justification of, the value of teaching art in school have been made previously, but contextually these are often situated in Western affluence. This article explores the issues with a strikingly contrasted setting. The rural school in the study is approximately 30 minutes' drive from the nearest town, and the pupils are drawn from the surrounding rural bush area which is itself developmentally and materially poor in comparison to the UK. In school, the poverty seemed initially to relate to a lack of educational resources, but the reality experienced in the classroom may have also been linked to other issues. These included the desperate preoccupation with survival in difficult climatic conditions, a postcolonial legacy and the delicate balance of utilising resources without waste. What conclusions might then be drawn about the teaching of art? Utilising the work of others who have considered the issues in Kenya, this small‐scale ethnographic case study is presented with personal reflection and observations. The author would be pleased to hear from others with similar experiences or who have recognised additional issues in seemingly challenging circumstances.