Young Children’s Ability to Produce Valid and Relevant Counter-Arguments

In collaborative problem solving, children produce and evaluate arguments for proposals. We investigated whether 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 192) can produce and evaluate arguments against those arguments (i.e., counter-arguments). In Study 1, each child within a peer dyad was privately given a reason to prefer one over another solution to a task. One child, however, was given further information that would refute the reasoning of their partner. Five-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, identified and produced valid and relevant counter-arguments. In Study 2, 3-year-olds were given discourse training (discourse that contrasted valid and invalid counter-arguments) and then given the same problem-solving tasks. After training, 3-year-olds could also identify and produce valid and relevant counter-arguments. Thus, participating in discourse about reasons facilitates children’s counter-argumentation.     

Children's Norm Enforcement in Their Interactions With Peers

This study investigates how children negotiate social norms with peers. In Study 1, 48 pairs of 3‐ and 5‐year‐olds (N = 96) and in Study 2, 48 pairs of 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds (N = 96) were presented with sorting tasks with conflicting instructions (one child by color, the other by shape) or identical instructions. Three‐year‐olds differed from older children: They were less selective for the contexts in which they enforced norms, and they (as well as the older children to a lesser extent) used grammatical constructions objectifying the norms (“It works like this” rather than “You must do it like this”). These results suggested that children's understanding of social norms becomes more flexible during the preschool years.     

鸡皮疙瘩探测器,感知你的情绪

正当人突然进到冷气十足的空调房或者感到恐惧时,手臂上就会冒出一大片鸡皮疙瘩。现在,来自韩国科学技术院的研究者们利用这一原理,开发出了一种可粘贴在皮肤上的鸡皮疙瘩探测器,这个探测器将可以在一定程度上感知佩戴者的情     

The Effects of Motivational Styles on Group Work and Discussion-based Seminars

The paper reports the effect of motivational styles on group work and discussion-based teaching in an environmental science course. The students' motivational styles were explored by a questionnaire whose items were written to correspond to four motivational patterns: achiever, curious, conscientious and sociable. A total of 180 university students from an Elementary Teaching Department participated in this study. The results showed that achiever students tended to dislike being involved in group work. On the other hand, curious, social and conscientious students tended to prefer working in groups. Discussion-based teaching appeared to be attractive for almost all students, although they have different motivational styles. The implications of the results for teaching and learning are discussed.     

Designing and validating an autoverification system of biochemical test results in Hatay Mustafa Kemal University,clinical laboratory

IntroductionAutoverification (AV) is a postanalytical tool that uses algorithms to validate test results according to specified criteria. The Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) document for AV of clinical laboratory test result (AUTO-10A) includes recommendations for laboratories needing guidance on implementation of AV algorithms. The aim was to design and validate the AV algorithm for biochemical tests.Materials and methodsCriteria were defined according to AUTO-10A. Three different approaches for algorithm were used as result limit checks, which are reference range, reference range ± total allowable error, and 2nd and 98th percentile values. To validate the algorithm, 720 cases in middleware were tested. For actual cases, 3,188,095 results and 194,520 reports in laboratory information system (LIS) were evaluated using the AV system. Cohen’s kappa (κ) was calculated to determine the degree of agreement between seven independent reviewers and the AV system.ResultsThe AV passing rate was found between 77% and 85%. The highest rates of AV were in alanine transaminase (ALT), direct bilirubin (DBIL), and magnesium (Mg), which all had AV rates exceeding 85%. The most common reason for non-validated results was the result limit check (41%). A total of 328 reports evaluated by reviewers were compared to AV system. The statistical analysis resulted in a κ value between 0.39 and 0.63 (P < 0.001) and an agreement rate between 79% and 88%.ConclusionsOur improved model can help laboratories design, build, and validate AV systems and be used as starting point for different test groups.     

A nonparametric term weighting method for information retrieval based on measuring the divergence from independence

In this article, we introduce an out-of-the-box automatic term weighting method for information retrieval. The method is based on measuring the degree of divergence from independence of terms from documents in terms of their frequency of occurrence. Divergence from independence has a well-establish underling statistical theory. It provides a plain, mathematically tractable, and nonparametric way of term weighting, and even more it requires no term frequency normalization. Besides its sound theoretical background, the results of the experiments performed on TREC test collections show that its performance is comparable to that of the state-of-the-art term weighting methods in general. It is a simple but powerful baseline alternative to the state-of-the-art methods with its theoretical and practical aspects.     

Preschool children’s use of meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions

In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers’ (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018–2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with “I know”; the other with “I think”. Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk (“She said she knows”). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because “I saw it move”, “she moved it”). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.     

Medical neglect of a child: challenges for pediatricians in developing countries

OBJECTIVE: To conceptualize the underlying causes of the medical neglect of children in a developing country and to provide suggestions for the management of neglect by pediatricians. METHODS: A case history of a 4-year-old boy from Turkey with neglect of the required treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia is used to examine the causes and management of medical neglect. Results: Although epidemiological studies on child neglect are lacking, this case exemplifies how in DEVELOPING countries, reasons for neglect or non-compliance with medical recommendations and the roles and actions taken by the health care and the social service systems may differ from western populations. Common to both western and developing countries, the characteristics of the child, family, and society may be reasons for medical neglect. However, cultural fatalistic beliefs profoundly present in the developing world may also contribute to the medical neglect of a child. Identification of the neglect, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary assessment emphasizing the strengths within the family and the society, and the determination of the pediatric team to act in the best interest of the child may result in resolution of the neglect even in circumstances where resources within systems are not sufficient. CONCLUSIONS: In developing countries, increased emphasis on child neglect, its prompt recognition and management within the pediatric profession as well as at a health care and social service system levels are needed to address this prevalent and potentially fatal child health problem.     

Attitudes of Turkish parents, pediatric residents, and medical students toward child disciplinary practices

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to: determine the attitudes of parents, pediatric residents, and medical students from a Turkish population toward childhood disciplinary methods; ascertain the association of participants' abusive childhood history with their attitudes toward discipline; and assess their attitudes about disciplinary actions, which should be reported as abuse. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Ankara University School of Medicine, Department of Social Pediatrics. Sixty-five parents, 39 pediatric residents, and 106 medical students completed a questionnaire (Survey of Standards of Discipline). This questionnaire was designed to measure sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes toward childhood disciplinary practices, and abusive childhood experiences. There were 43 different disciplinary acts in this questionnaire. The participants were expected to give responses to these acts in three categories: (a) acceptable as discipline; (b) unacceptable as discipline; and (c) unacceptable as discipline-would report to authorities as child abuse. Based on the responses to this questionnaire, we developed the Severity Scale. Using this scale, physical severity scores, verbal severity scores, and total severity scores were measured for each participant. RESULTS: None of the participants accepted life-threatening practices as discipline, but some declared certain abusive disciplinary practices as acceptable. Some forceful disciplinary methods were not considered as reportable by participants. All severity scores of both residents and students were found to be higher than those of the parents (for verbal severity scores p=.042). Also, both verbal and physical severity scores of parents with one child were higher than those of parents with two children (for verbal severity scores p=.044). Ninety-one participants (43.3%) indicated that beating was an acceptable form of discipline. Of parents, 66.9% reported abusive childhood history by their own criteria. Of medical students with an abusive childhood experience, 56.5% accepted beating as appropriate (p=.001). Both verbal and physical severity scores were found to be higher in participants with abusive childhood history. CONCLUSIONS: Abusive childhood history and lack of education regarding appropriate discipline techniques are linked to the acceptance of certain physical discipline practices. Turkey's cultural and traditional norms may be associated with the use of physical punishment, and in some cases, physical abuse. The lack of awareness of abusive discipline methods among physicians constitutes problems for child protection and must be addressed. Thus, educational programs on child disciplinary practices are required to provide an increased awareness of child abuse among health professional trainees and parents in Turkey.     

Five-year-old children value reasons in apologies for belief-based accidents

Accidents can be intent-based (unintended action-unintended outcome) or belief-based (intended action-unintended outcome). As compared to intent-based accidents, giving reasons is more crucial for belief-based accidents because the transgressor appears to have intentionally transgressed. In Study 1, UK-based preschoolers who were native English speakers (N = 96, 53 girls, collected 2020–2021) witnessed two intent-based or belief-based accidents; one transgressor apologized, the other apologized with a reason. Five-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, favored the reason-giving transgressor following a belief-based accident but not an intent-based accident (where an apology sufficed). In Study 2, 5-year-olds (N = 48, 25 girls, collected 2021) distinguished between “good” and “bad” reasons for the harm caused. Thus, 5-year-old children recognize when reasons should accompany apologies and account for the quality of these reasons.