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Attention and Cognitive Style in Children
Abstract
Invariably, whether growing out of the psychoanalytic concept of ego functions (Klein, 1958; Gardner, Holtzman, Klein, Linton, & Spence, 1959), the Wernerian construct of psychological differentiation (Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, & Karp, 1962), or Kagan’s notion of conceptual tempo (Kagan, Rosman, Day, Albert, & Phillips, 1964), research on cognitive styles is based on perceptual tasks that reflect individual differences in some aspect of perceptual selectivity. Most influential in determining the direction of current research were Kagan (Kagan, Moss, & Sigel, 1963; Kagan et al, 1964) and Witkin (Witkin et al., 1962). Initially, Kagan and his colleagues were concerned primarily with the development of children’s categorizing behavior, and this work led to the Conceptuad Style Test. It is probably not too unfair to say that this test has not proved as useful as might have been expected given its intuitive appeal.
... Individuals can be classified into cognitive styles, not only by field dependence or field independence, but by their tendencies to deploy either broad attention, which refers to processing stimuli globally, or narrow attention, which refers to breaking stimuli down into components (Zelniker and Jeffrey, 1979). This article proposes that individuals who tend to perceive information, including sounds, with narrow attention are more likely to develop AP. ...
... This article proposes that individuals who tend to perceive information, including sounds, with narrow attention are more likely to develop AP. According to one estimate, about 40 percent of young children have the tendency to process information with narrow attention (Adams and Shepp, cited in Zelniker and Jeffrey, 1979). If approximately 40 percent of the population has the potential to develop AP, that would explain why even the highest reported rates of AP among musicians (whether Canadian, Japanese, or Asian American) generally do not exceed 50 percent (Gregersen et al., 2000;Kendall, 1996;Miyazaki, 1988;Sergeant, 1969). ...
Absolute pitch (AP), the ability to identify or sing pitches without an external reference, is apparently neither completely inherited nor completely teachable. Based on AP research findings and the literature on cognitive development and cognitive style, this article proposes that the reason why some musicians have AP and others do not depends on both the developmental age at which music instruction began and individual differences in cognitive style; children who had a particular type of music training before the ages of 5 to 7 years, and who have a more analytical cognitive style, are most likely to develop AP. In light of the proposed explanation, there is discussion of a possible neurological correlate of AP in the brain, and of research on AP with individuals who are blind, have Williams syndrome, or are autistic. Some directions for future research are suggested. Copyright
... Preschool children can produce various hypotheses in order to find a solution when faced with any problem. The various hypotheses that children form arise from differences in their cognitive tempo (Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1979). The process involving a child's choice to react quickly or slowly when producing a solution to a problem is termed cognitive tempo and has two types: impulsive and reflective. ...
Coding activities support cognitive thinking skills by increasing children's imagination and creativity, improving their problem-solving skills, enabling them to produce different solutions to an problem situation, and transferring these solutions to similar problem situations. This research aims to examine the effects of coding activities on the cognitive styles of preschool children. This research is an experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group. Consists of a total of 25 children, 13 of whom are in the experimental group and 12 of whom are in the control group, studying in a public kindergarten in Selçuklu district of Konya province. The data collection tool used in this study to determine the cognitive tempo of participating children was KRISP-A (Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers, Form A), developed by Wright (1971) and adapted into Turkish by Seçer and colleagues (2010). A total of 20 sessions of Coding Activities were carried out with the children in the experimental group twice a week for ten weeks. No study was conducted with the control group, and the preschool program continued. The study concluded that coding activities shortened the response time of the children in the experimental group; in other words, coding activities supported the children's ability to respond faster.
... Differences in attentional style can account for the differences in momentary clumsy behavior in terms of how individuals prefer to allocate attention. Individual differences in distributing attention were described as cognitive styles by Santostefano (1969) and such differences in processing have been recognized by other researchers (Goldstein et al., 1986;Kogan & Saarni, 2017;Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1979). Attentional style may describe how an individual attends across a broad range of stimuli, for example, perceptual stimuli or internal working memory concepts, and may cut across different types of attention (e.g., visual, object, etc.). ...
Typically, explorations into risk-taking involve the conscious undertaking of actions that are potentially harmful. Rarely considered in such risk-taking contexts, however, are everyday, innocuous behaviors that nevertheless have the potential to cause some level of harm to actors; such behaviors could be considered as lying on a continuum of risky activity. The current study explored individual and developmental differences in one such category of behavior, entitled “momentary clumsiness”. Momentary clumsiness refers to a tendency to perform movements involving non-optimal motor control, such as knocking over a glass of liquid or tripping while walking up stairs. This project explored the link between such behaviors and attentional factors. Specifically, twenty participants in three age groups (7- and 8-year-olds, 11- and 12-year-olds, and young adults) completed the experiment in 2 testing sessions. Momentary clumsiness was assessed by a 2-week daily phone interview, and was correlated with Stroop performance. The incidence of momentary clumsiness remained steady with age and was not related to motor ability or anthropometric measures. A high incidence of momentary clumsy behaviors was associated with a narrow focus of attention, and specifically, the tendency to ignore irrelevant and distracting stimuli. These findings are interpreted with respect to the relation between action and attentional focus, and provide a basis for extending our conceptualizations of injury proneness and risk-taking into a continuum of behaviors, varying in their degree of riskiness.
... Attributional beliefs and self-esteem may be of particular importance in explaining metacognitively based behaviors of underachieving students because underachievers generally have low self-esteem and external attributional orientations (Fine, 1967;Shaw & Black, 1960). In terms of their strategic and metacognitive performance, underachievers are less persistent in the accomplishment of goals (Terman & Oden, 1947), fail to use appropriate strategies, and underestimate task demands (Piontkowski & Calfee, 1979;Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1979), especially with difficult learning assignments (e.g., Anderson & Jennings, 1980;Dweck, 1975;Jennings, 1979). Hence, underachievers appear to be inefficient strategy users as opposed to being strategy deficient. ...
The goal of this study was to compare and predict academic performance in achieving and under-achieving students on the basis of motivational, affective, and metacognitive processes. Ninety-eight underachievers and 102 achievers were tested on multiple measures of ability, attributions, self-esteem, reading awareness, and reading performance. Achievers were discriminated from underachievers on the basis of mean differences in beliefs about the utility of effort, in self-esteem, in enhanced reading awareness, and in strategic performance. Achievement status moderated the relationship between attributions and ability: In contrast to underachievers, achievers associated their extant knowledge and skills with positive attributional beliefs about the importance of effort in determining performance. The failure of underachievers to develop an enriched, functional metacognitive system was ascribed, at least partially, to their negative attributional beliefs.
... I potenziali evocati umani sono molto specifici per ogni individuo e i loro parametri sono abbastanza stabili. Caratteristiche principali dell'attività cognitiva di ogni individuo dipendono, prima di tutto, dalle peculiarità dell'elaborazione dell'informazioni sensoriali, dalla selezione e isolamento delle caratteristiche principali, dal controllo sull'implementazione e sulla definizione di una risposta (Zelniker and Jeffrey, 1979). Quindi, per ottimizzare la trasformazione efficace dell'input all'output in Second Language Acquisition (ed ogni altro tipo di apprendimento), bisognerebbe analizzare le caratteristiche dell'attività cognitive degli studenti per consentirgli la trasformazione input/output in modo più ergonomico. ...
Various research convincingly demonstrated positive influence of certain sports and physical exercises on brain and brain functions in general, and on cognitive functions in particular. As it has been demonstrated, efficient and well-developed cognitive functions enhance all human activities and are of crucial importance for learning. In particular, this paper focuses on the positive correlation between certain sports and language learning and its relevance to the Second Language Acquisition studies (SLA). In SLA, students' ability to process input strongly depends on their cognitive abilities, namely, their abilities to process audio and visual input. As various researchers demonstrated, some sports enhance sportsmen's abilities of audio and visual perception; these developed cognitive abilities may, in turn, enhance SLA process. The paper analyses some data collected during the experiments with three groups of students, age 20-23: basketball players, judo wrestlers and control group whose members practiced sports only 2h/week. Three groups were exposed to three types of stimuli: (reverse chess pattern, tone click, flash of light); their brain activity was monitored by EEG. The obtained results demonstrated that basketball players manifested better-developed cognitive abilities responsible for the perception of audio and video stimuli. They were also faster in making decisions on the basis of the video/audio stimuli perceived. Similar results were obtained by American psychologists (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign). Their study involved 87 Brazilian volleyball players and 67 persons who don't practice sports. The results were published in Frontiers in Psychology. Experiments have shown that athletes are usually better in controlling their reactions and are able to slow down their reactions, if necessary. According to the professor of Psychology Arthur Kramer, one of the authors of the research, "Athletes can perceive information faster and switch quicker between different tasks than those who don't practice sports." During the experiment, all the participants were asked to perform tasks to test their cognitive abilities (information perception, memory, reactions). The most interesting discovery was that the athletes had significant cognitive advantages over women and men who had not practiced sports. Volleyball players were faster in reactions, in noticing differences in the pictures, in identifying the missing details in puzzles. The process of auditory and visual perception and processing involves many neural structures: from primary units of signal processing sensors to higher levels of processing, responsible for stimuli recognition and decision-making. As it is known, individual waves of cognitive evoked potentials reflect the involvement of certain neural mechanisms of visual and auditory systems in processing and recognition of stimuli of corresponding modality. Wave characteristics can indirectly indicate working speed of specific units of the neural circuit and the number of neurons involved; it may allow measuring the influence of various sports training loads on the development of neural chains involved in audio/video stimuli perception, processing and decision-making. These aspects are also considered important for input processing in SLA. The paper analyses positive contribution of certain sports to learning in general, and Second Language Acquisition in particular, using neuroscience, psychological and socio-cultural approaches.
... Les enfants réfléchis (selon le test de Kagan) commettent moins d'erreurs dans la condition « détails » que dans la condition « global », alors que les enfants impulsifs présentent la performance opposée. Zelnicker et Jeffrey (1979) ont également montré que les enfants réfléchis sont meilleurs que les enfants impulsifs dans des tâches où le traitement du détail est nécessaire, mais les enfants impulsifs et réfléchis ont des performances comparables pour des tâches impliquant un traitement global, révélant une asymétrie entre les deux types de traitement. Selon Kemler Nelson et Smith (1989), ces travaux de Zelnicker et Jeffrey (1976) peuvent être mis en relation avec les modes de traitement analytique et holistique : le traitement holistique serait caractéristique des enfants impulsifs, tandis que les enfants plus réfléchis traiteraient l'information analytiquement. ...
The present paper presents a review of the literature on the development of concept learning by children. We analyze the development of different general cognitive factors such as attention, memory, inhibition and flexibility, involved in the selection and evaluation of dimensions relevant to categorize stimuli. The role of relevance and of salience of dimensions is also addressed. We discuss the relation between children's cognitive characteristics and the way they treat stimuli. The impact of category structure (defined by necessary and sufficient features, or by family resemblance) on the way concepts are represented (by stored exemplars or feature abstraction) and on the mode of processing stimuli (analytic vs. holistic) is examined. Finally, we address the role of naive theories and their influence on concept learning by children.
... Se señalaron diversas causas que podrían influir en el estilo cognitivo. Por un lado, se ha indicado que el estilo cognitivo dependería de factores biológicos tal como la especialización hemisférica del cerebro (Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1979). Asimismo, a favor de la hipótesis orgánica, se ha encontrado una asociación entre la impulsividad y la actividad de la Monoaminooxidasa (MAO) (Stoff et al., 1989). ...
En los últimos años las investigaciones sobre la pobreza y su impacto en el desarrollo cognitivo y emocional se han incrementado notoriamente. Estudios previos han indicado que el vivir en la pobreza influye en el desarrollo cog - nitivo y socioemocional de los niños y en su de - sempeño en tests cognitivos. El trabajo que se informa tiene como propósito presentar el diseño de estrategias de intervención y su implementación a través de su integración al currículo escolar, para fortalecer recursos cognitivos y lingüísticos en niños que se encuentran en situación de riesgo por pobreza extrema...
... Psychophysiological studies demonstrated that impulsive and reflective children mainly classify visual objects on the basis of the holistic image and the analysis of details, respectively [6,7]. There is a notion [8] that the characteristics of attention underlie the division into the reflective and impulsive cognitive styles. The differences between reflective and impulsive subjects with respect to the parameters of selective attention are observed throughout primary school age and are even more marked in 12-year-old than in 8-year-old children [9]. ...
A sample of seven-year-old children was divided into reflective and impulsive groups using the matching familiar figures test (MFFT). Event-related potentials of different regions of the cerebral cortex were studied in children from these groups performing classification of visual-object shapes on the basis of only one discriminative feature or with the use of additional information. Comparison of the success of visual-stimulus identification in reflective and impulsive children under the conditions of alternative choice (MFFT) and classification according to a specified discriminative feature demonstrates differences in the mechanisms of both selection and analysis of the sensory characters of the stimulus. When the shape of a visual object is classified according to the discriminative feature, the initial stages of analysis in impulsive children are accompanied by the emergence of wave N80 in the left hemisphere, which may reflect the higher rate of detection of the discriminative feature by these children. Impulsive children are also characterized by an earlier development and a higher amplitude of component P300 compared to reflective children. In the latter, waves N250 and N350, indicating continuing information processing, are superposed on this positive component. If the picture presented to children contains an element consistent with the discriminative feature, the N350 amplitude in the right temporo-parieto-occipital region and the negative shift corresponding to the N350 wave in the left temporo-parieto-occipital region are increased in reflective and impulsive children, respectively. Additional information increased wave N400 in the left frontal region.
... Differences in attentional style can account for the differences in momentary clumsy behaviour in terms of how individuals prefer to allocate attention. Individual differences in distributing attention were described as cognitive Attentional Influences 8 styles by Santostefano (1969) and such differences in processing have been recognized by other researchers (i.e., Zelniker and Jeffrey, 1979). Attentional style may describe how an individual attends across a broad range of stimuli, for example, perceptual stimuli or internal working memory concepts, and may cut across different types of attention (e.g., visual, object, etc.). ...
By the end of the first year, infants show dramatic increases in manual skill. In this study we tested one factor likely to contribute to this change: an increase in the capacity for observational learning, which may enable infants to learn new behaviors and practice ones that they already possess. Thus, we evaluated change in imitation between 10 and 12 months of age. Twelve 10-month-olds and twelve 12-month-old infants were shown different kinds of manual actions on a variety of objects; infants also manipulated objects during a free play control condition. Results indicated that older infants benefited more than younger ones in the Demonstration condition and that at both ages, infants performed the target action more quickly after observing a demonstration. We hypothesize that observational learning can help manual skill development by enabling infants to learn new actions and select and practice ones already in their skill set.
... Attributional beliefs and self-esteem may be of particular importance in explaining metacognitively based behaviors of underachieving students because underachievers generally have low self-esteem and external attributional orientations (Fine, 1967;Shaw & Black, 1960). In terms of their strategic and metacognitive performance, underachievers are less persistent in the accomplishment of goals (Terman & Oden, 1947), fail to use appropriate strategies, and underestimate task demands (Piontkowski & Calfee, 1979;Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1979), especially with difficult learning assignments (e.g., Anderson & Jennings, 1980;Dweck, 1975;Jennings, 1979). Hence, underachievers appear to be inefficient strategy users as opposed to being strategy deficient. ...
The goal of this study was to compare and predict academic performance in achieving and under-achieving students on the basis of motivational, affective, and metacognitive processes. Ninety-eight underachievers and 102 achievers were tested on multiple measures of ability, attributions, self-esteem, reading awareness, and reading performance. Achievers were discriminated from underachievers on the basis of mean differences in beliefs about the utility of effort, in self-esteem, in enhanced reading awareness, and in strategic performance. Achievement status moderated the relationship between attributions and ability: In contrast to underachievers, achievers associated their extant knowledge and skills with positive attributional beliefs about the importance of effort in determining performance. The failure of underachievers to develop an enriched, functional metacognitive system was ascribed, at least partially, to their negative attributional beliefs.
This report presents the results of a study concerning psychological studies of individual differences in attention. The subjects were 40 fourth-grade children. They performed on the MFF test. Ss were classified as “Fast/Accurate”,“Slow/Accurate”,“Fast/Inaccurate” and “Slow/Inaccurate” groups. The vigilance task was a simple 20-minute discrimination one. Analysis of variance was performed on each of the vigilance scores. As predicted, significant differences were noted between Ss with different attentional styles, with FA and SA Ss detecting a significantly smaller percentage of false detections than did SI Ss. Moreover performance differences between FA or SA and FI Ss on reaction times were found significant. YG personality test was later administered. The results suggested that accurate (FA, SA) and inaccurate (FI, SI) Ss differed significantly in personality. The inaccurates were identified as inferiority feeling, non-nervousness and social extraversion Ss. The evidence for the conclusion might be summarized as follows. Individual differences in attention appeared to be associated with both inter-individual differences in vigilance and personality characteristics.
El artículo presenta una revisión del constructo reflexividad-impulsividad. Esta dimensión es operativa en tareas que implican incertidumbre en la respuesta, es decir, en problemas que tienen varias soluciones posibles. Tras una larga polémica sobre la validez del test de emparejamiento perceptivo de figuras conocidas (MFF) se ha desarrollado una versión más fiable, el MFF20, que consigue puntuaciones con consistencia interna, fiabilidad y estabilidad elevadas. El estilo cognitivo reflexividad-impulsividad no se considera un problema de tiempos de reacción, sino que hay que situarlo en las diferentes estrategias de que se sirven los sujetos para procesar la información. Los datos procedentes de diversos estudios apoyan la hipótesis de un mejor desempeño escolar en los reflexivos frente a los impulsivos. Los factores motivacionales juegan un papel importante, sobre todo el problema de la ansiedad. Algunos autores señalan que no debería hablarse de estilo cognitivo, sino de nivel evolutivo. Por último, se señala la importancia de las variables culturales.
This research contrasted 2 possible relations between reflection-impulsivity and analytic or holistic modes of processing. First, a holistic predisposition could cause the child to look impulsive in some highly analytic tasks. Second, broadly impulsive, less effortful cognition could produce holistic processing in some tasks. Reflective and impulsive children (on Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test) were observed on 2 tasks that tap holistic processing, as conceived within the literature on dimensional integrality. These were a classification task and a color matching test that was modeled after the MFFT. In addition, items from Zelniker and Jeffrey's "global" matching test were included. Although impulsive children were more holistic in the classification task, they made more errors than reflectives on all the matching tests, regardless of whether the content favored holistic processing. The results suggest that impulsivity cannot be explained exhaustively as a holistic processing disposition. Instead, holistic processing is conceived as the result of an impressionistic, less effortful cognitive approach that broadly characterizes the impulsive child.
Forty-one reflective and forty-five impulsive third-grade boys were administered a social reasoning task. Impulsives chose assertive responses to conflicts less often than reflectives. However, no style group differences were found for other types of self-rated responses or for teacher and male peer ratings of social behavior. Impulsives were rated by their female peers as more physically aggressive on the playground and more verbally aggressive, likely to leave social conflicts, and assertive in the classroom. Highly reliable group differences were found for the teacher, peer, and experimenter ratings of motivation, with impulsive being rated as less motivated than reflectives. The fact that impulsives demonstrated maladaptive social behavior and inadequate motivation, in spite of their adequate social reasoning, is noteworthy. These findings, supported by a growing body of research, imply that the traditional social cognitive skill deficit model of maladaptive behavior is inadequate. As well, they suggest that control deficits (e.g., impulsivity) and production deficits (e.g., low motivation) merit consideration in our treatment of maladaptive behavior in general and impulsivity in particular.
This review article considered the nature of styles and strategies and then surveyed work on cognitive styles. Different researchers have used a variety of labels for the styles they have investigated. Analysis of the way in which they assessed style, its effect on behaviour and performance, and studies of the relationship to other labels, suggested that the labels may be grouped into two principal cognitive styles. These were labelled the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbialiser‐Imager dimensions. A computer presented method of assessing the position of an individual on these dimensions was described.
The historical roots of cognitive styles are traced in differential psychology, psychoanalytic ego psychology, Gestalt, and cognitive-developmental psychology to illuminate the varied theoretical issues that energize (and fragment) style research. Optimal measurement of cognitive styles as information-processing regularities and as intraindividual contrasts of abilities or other attributes is discussed in terms of both typical performance and contrasted performance on measures of opposing ends of bipolar style dimensions, with special emphasis on the contrasted measurement of field independence versus field dependence. The role of styles as both performance variables and competence variables in learning and teaching is examined, as are various critiques of style research that appear to be excessively polarized in either supporting or undercutting styles as meaningful constructs. This polarization appears to reflect different stances not just with respect to scientific evidence but also with respect to ideology. Concluding remarks broach the issue of how styles are organized, not just within an information-processing framework but within the structure of personality.
*The present paper represents a revised and updated version of a chapter entitled “Kognitive Stile” originally published in German. The latter appeared in G. Steiner (ed.), Piaget und die Folgen, Vol. 7 (pp. 445‐465) in a 15‐volume collection entitled Die Psychologic des 20 Jahrhunderts, Zurich: Kindler Verlag, 1978. We would like to thank Donna Palumbo for her assistance in the preparation of this chapter.
Riding has proposed two families of cognitive styles: Wholist‐Analytic and Verbaliser‐Imager. Although the supporting empirical evidence has been demonstrated, the issue not fully addressed is whether the families are also theoretical valid. The task here is to evaluate the W‐A family against cognitive style theory, as proposed by Witkin and other style theorists. Several ideas are discussed: (1) Overall, the W‐A family provides a useful catalyst to styles research; (2) Despite the envisioned success of the W‐A family, reflection‐impulsivity may be a much less supportive member, having several differences with W‐A theory; (3) These have important implications for the continuing strength of styles theory and research. It also has strong implications for the application of cognitive styles in educational settings.
This study constitutes the first stage of the Spanish adaptation of the Matching Familiar Figures Test 20 (MFFT-20; Cairns & Cammock, 1978). The normative data for reflexivity-impulsivity and efficiency-inefficiency were obtained by means of the Salkind and Wright formula (1977). The study sample was composed of 700 Spanish children, aged 6 to 12. This paper presents the results for reliability and latency-error correlation. The development of errors and latencies at older ages and gender differences were also analyzed. No significant differences between boys and girls were observed with respect to any of the variables. A high reliability was established for errors as well as for latencies. Errors decreased and latency increased with age. It is important to note that the data for both sexes at 8, 9, and 10 years of age reveal a stabilization in the latencies even though the errors continue to decrease. The psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the MFFT-20 are discussed. Results are analyzed by examining the instrument's validation using the normative data presented here. The study concludes that the MFFT-20 is a reliable and valid measure of reflexivity-impulsivity.
In an attempt to illuminate the interrelatedness of noncognitive and cognitive domains—or, more pointedly, of affection, conation, and cognition—emphasis is placed on variables that not only operate across these domains but are also potentially integrative. Prominent among such variables are personal styles, particularly cognitive styles. The properties and problems of cognitive styles are examined, with special emphasis on field independence versus field sensitivity and on two stylistic dimensions of attentional scanning. The role of cognitive styles as both competence variables and performance variables is addressed, along with the difficulty of disentangling style from ability because of reciprocal determinism in their development. The educational implications of cognitive styles are explored, especially as they bear on the problem of the match between student characteristics and educational experiences and on the value-laden nature of style-based pedagogical decisions.
Underachieving students often display inappropriate affective states, dysfunctional attributional beliefs, and impoverished metacognitive knowledge that combine to handicap their academic achievements. In the present study, 52 underachieving children participated in an intervention program comparing the effects of strategy-plus-attribution training, strategy-only training, and no training conditions on reading comprehension. The addition of attributional components to a comprehension strategy training program produced significant gains in strategy use, recall, reading grades, and attributional beliefs. Reading awareness increased in both strategy-plus-attribution and strategy-only groups, indicating that strategy training influenced selected aspects of metacognition. The addition of attributional components to strategy training improved reading performance by providing the impetus, via modified effort-related attributions, for the generalized use of the trained strategies.
This study is an item analysis of the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20. We examined error scores in the Matching Familiar Figures Test-20 to determine the influence of the difficulty of the test on the assessment of reflection–impulsivity. The sample included 700 participants aged between 6 and 12 years. The results obtained from the corrected item–total correlation showed moderate but significant values for the discrimination index in all age groups, although the lowest values were found in the 6-year-old group. The item difficulty data show that the test is quite difficult for 6-year-old participants and quite easy for 12-year-old participants, and more likely to show individual differences between these ages. The results suggest that the difficulty of the MFFT20 is appropriate for children between 6 and 12 years. However, because of some floor and ceiling effects, the results of this test for ages 6 and 12 should be interpreted very cautiously, especially for the 6-year-old group.
This work is adressed to check the effect of a long training in a computarized task, where one of the main processes involved is mental rotation. 63 university students, 44 women and 19 men solved a set of computarized spatial problems during 13 weekly sessions. Only the results of the sessions 1, 7 and 13 were computed. Results show that, although in all the experimental sessions men are faster and they make less errors than women, differences of time and errors among sexes are minimized when the training increases. A closer view of the results provides some cues that point to factors of social, cultural nature, and not so much to biological explanations.
The DSM III category of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity is considered within a framework of Rutter's (1977) outline of criteria for adequacy of psychiatry classification. Discussion of problems with the operationalization and definition of 'attention deficit' and the difficulty of using this rubric in distinguishing between ADDH and other related childhood disorders, along with the consequent failure to meet other important criteria, leads to the conclusion that the concept needs re-appraisal.
Twenty children at each of grades K, 1, 3, and 5 were interviewed in order to sample their knowledge concerning various memory or memory-related phenomena (metamemory). In the present study, metamemory referred primarily to the child's verbalizable knowledge of how certain classes of variables act and interact with one another to affect the quality of an individual's performance on a retrieval problem. Examples of such variables include the relations among the items to be learned, how much study time is allotted, and how exactly they must be reproduced on the recall test. The results of this exploratory study tentatively suggest that children of grades K and 1 can often articulate the intuition that decay from shortterm memory (STM) can be very rapid; there are apt to be savings in the relearning of previously learned but subsequently forgotten information; retrieval performance is affected by amount of prior study time, by properties of individual items (e. g., familiarity), and especially by the number of items to be retrieved. Younger as well as older subjects also showed a striking tendency to think of external mnemonic resources, such as written records and other people, when proposing solutions to various preparation-for-retrieval and retrieval problems. Children of grades 3 and (especially) 5 appear considerably more planful and self-aware in their approach to both kinds of problems and also command a wider variety of solution procedures. Specific acquisitions include a more differentiated concept of self and others as mnemonic organisms and a better understanding of how relations among items (as contrasted with their individual properties) can variously facilitate or interfere with retrieval.
It was predicted that (a) Ss with an analytic cognitive style would out-perform Ss with a global cognitive style on compound-cue problems which could be learned by either a conditional rule or a color rule, and (b) global and analytic Ss would perform equally on a single-cue problem which could be solved only by a conditional rule. 36 analytic and 36 global Ss learned one of the two problems. Analysis showed that analytic Ss performed significantly better than global Ss only on the compound-cue problem. The results suggested that the better performance of analytic Ss is limited to problems which require some degree of stimulus differentiation. It was further suggested that additional research on hypothesis-testing might help clarify the differences in performance between analytic and global Ss.
A series of studies with children in Grades 1-4 inquired into the immediate and historical determinants of a preference for analytic conceptual groupings. An analytic concept is based upon shared similarity in a particular objective component among a set of stimuli (e.g., animals with 1 car, people with hats on). Results revealed that 2 more fundamental cognitive dispositions each contributed variance to the production of analytic concepts: the tendency to reflect over alternative solutions or classifications in situations in which several response alternatives arc available simultaneously, and the tendency to analyze visual arrays into their component parts. These 2 dispositions are relatively independent of each other, orthogonal to verbal skills; and each influences the frequency of errors in perceptual recognition tasks. Degree of reflection over alternative solution hypotheses (as measured by response time) displayed remarkable generality across a variety of tasks and marked intraindividual stability over a 1-yr. period. There was an inverse relation between the production of analytic concepts and extreme degrees of hyperactivity and distractibility contemporaneously as well as during the 1st 8 yr. of life.
Hale, G. A., & Piper, R. A. Developmental trends in children's incidental learning: Some critical stimulus differences. Princeton, N. J.: ETS Research Bulletin 72‐24, May 1972, 23 pp.
Incidental learning in 8‐ and 12‐year‐old children was assessed with a variety of stimulus materials. Experiment 1 compared two types of material–(a) geometric figures, whose central and incidental components were shape and color, respectively and (b) stimuli whose components were separate pictures, as in the typical developmental study of this topic. Incidental learning was found to increase significantly across ages when measured with the colored shapes but not with the pictorial materials. To identify the factors responsible for this difference, Experiment 2 employed these same two types of stimulus along with three others, including shape outlines on colored backgrounds. Again, the task with colored shapes proved to be unique, in that the incidental learning scores for this measure tended to increase across ages and were significantly higher overall than those for the other tasks. Also, correlational analyses based on data from both experiments indicated a positive relation between central and incidental learning with the colored shapes but not with the pictorial materials. These results were interpreted to suggest that stimulus materials whose components are integrated into a single unit, such as color and shape, are functionally different from stimuli with spatially or conceptually independent components.
A color-form salience task was presented to 277 Ss, 6-19 yr. of age. Ss were free to choose a comparison stimulus that was like a standard stimulus in form or to choose a 2nd comparison that matched the standard in color. No feedback was given by the E regarding the Ss' choices. A concept-identification problem with either form or color relevant was then presented to a selected sample of Ss for whom form was assessed to be more salient. Analyses of errors indicate that the performance of the 2 youngest groups who had a color-relevant problem did not differ, but that both of these groups made more errors than any other group. No differences in performance among the other groups were found. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Responds to various arguments advanced by J. Kagan and S. B. Messer (see record
1975-21125-001) in their rebuttal to the present authors" review and research focusing on the interpretation of the Matching Familiar Figures Test. On a number of the issues raised, the respective perceptions and emphases continue to differ. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Studies of reflection-impulsivity (RI) suggest that the tendency is correlated with performance on a variety of similar tests. They predict the quality of problem solving under conditions of response uncertainty, except in the case of preschoolers who have not yet learned to delay and scrutinize alternative hypotheses. It is noted that the response time component of RI is relatively independent of IQ, whereas the error component is moderately related. Shortcomings of the major test (the Matching Familiar Figures Test) used to measure RI are described, and norms to guide the researcher are presented. Studies of scanning behavior show that reflectives gather more information more carefully and systematically than do impulsives. Attempts to relate this variable to personality and social variables have been only partially successful. RI is related to certain clinical syndromes including hyperactivity, brain damage, epilepsy, and mental retardation. It also affects school performance, as evidenced by the greater impulsivity of children with reading difficulties, learning disabilities, and school failure. Impulsivity has been found to be modifiable: The most consistently successful strategy in this regard is to teach impulsives improved scanning strategies by means of appropriate training materials while having them verbalize such strategies aloud. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated whether altering attributions for failure would enable learned helpless children to deal more effectively with failure in an experimental problem solving situation. 12 8-13 yr olds with extreme reactions to failure were identified by school personnel and were given intensive, relatively long-term experience with 1 of 2 training procedures. It was hypothesized that a procedure which taught the helpless children to take responsibility for failure and to attribute it to lack of effort would result in unimpaired performance following failure in the criterion situation, but that a procedure which provided success experiences only (as in many programmed learning and behavior modification programs) would lead to changes of a lesser magnitude. Results reveal that following training, Ss in the Success Only treatment continued to evidence a severe deterioration in performance after failure, while Ss in the Attribution Retraining treatment maintained or improved their performance. In addition, Ss in the latter condition showed an increase in the degree to which they emphasized insufficient motivation versus ability as a determinant of failure. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Used N. Mackworth's (see 41:6) eye-marker camera to record eye fixations of impulsive and reflective 3rd graders (N = 18) and undergraduates (N = 16) while these Ss dealt with 2 types of items: Modified Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test items and pair items. During the 1st 6 sec. of performance on MFF items, reflective children and impulsive adults allocated to the standard a significantly larger portion of their regard than did the other 2 groups. By response time, reflective Ss had looked at a larger portion of the stimulus figures, and in greater detail, than had impulsive Ss. They also made about twice as many comparisons between or among homologous parts of different figures. Adults differed from children in appearing more "reflective." Results for pair items paralleled those found for MFF items, with 1 clarification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that the nature of the stimulus is an important variable determining how information is processed. 2 major stimulus concepts are discussed: dimensional integrality vs. separability, and state vs. process limited stimuli. These concepts relate to the effects of stimulus redundancy on discrimination. There will be a gain with redundancy: (a) if the need for redundancy is due to a process limitation and the redundant dimensions are integral, or (b) if the need for redundancy is due to state limitation and the redundant dimensions are separable. Redundancy can also lead to improvement in discrimination if the stimulus elements can be integrated into a gestalt whole. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Compared 60 6-, 8-, and 10-yr-old boys on measures of the cognitive styles reflection-impulsivity (Matching Familiar Figures Test) and field dependence-independence (Children's Embedded Figures Test). A story completion test eliciting responses to the threat of frustration was also administered. All measures showed developmental changes. Older Ss were more reflective, field independent, and optimistic about the outcome of potentially frustrating events. Ss scoring high on measures of impulsivity were also more field dependent and pessimistic in the face of threatened frustration. Implications for personality theory and education are discussed. (French summary) (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that a discrepancy exists between J. Kagan's conceptualization of reflection-impulsivity and his operationalization of reflection-impulsivity using the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). A review of the literature reveals little clear evidence for the reflection-impulsivity interpretation of MFF performance. A study with 100 children is reported in which the separate contributions of latency and accuracy were evaluated. Results indicate that accuracy had important personality concomitants; latency was inconsequential. Fast-Inaccurate children were anxious, hypersensitive, vulnerable, and structure-seeking; they were not impulsive, minimally concerned, and unanxious as conjectured by Kagan. Some implications of the study are drawn. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Attempts to clarify issues raised by J. Block et al (see record
1975-03118-001) regarding the conceptualization, validity, and interpretation of reflection-impulsivity. It is suggested that Block et al selectively emphasized reviews of studies on preschool rather than school-age children and did not distinguish among the various sources of anxiety that mediate performance on tests with response uncertainty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Identified 30 reflective and 30 impulsive 2nd graders from scores on the Matching Familiar Figures Test. In a matrix-solution task, Ss were shown 16 drawings of flowers and told to locate the correct flower by asking questions that could be answered by "yes" or "no." Each S solved 3 problems, which were each scored for the use of 1 of 4 strategies: testing 1 stimulus attribute on each informative trial (focusing strategy); testing 1 stimulus at a time in an orderly fashion (scanning strategy); testing specific stimuli without a discernable pattern (random strategy); and using any combination of these strategies (mixed strategy). Results show that 73% of the reflectives used a focusing strategy and 55% of the impulsives used random or mixed strategies; few Ss used a scanning strategy. Data support the conclusion that reflective children consider several alternative hypotheses and use a strategy that tests the relevance of conceptual categories, while impulsive children use information in a random, trial-and-error manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Administered modified traditional salience tasks to 408 5-12 yr. Olds to assess the developmental hierarchies on the dimensions of form, color, number, and position. Several task measures were compared with respect to the relations between them and the descriptive power provided by each. An identity task was also presented to determine the relation between the assessed hierarchy and performance on a simple problem-solving task. It was found that hierarchies changed with development, and that the relative salience of a dimension was negatively associated with both rt of choice and number of errors on the identity task. Implications for the role of perceptual salience in problem solving are discussed. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter presents a collection of theoretical and empirical arguments against the separation of testing from a theory of cognition. It describes a general model of cognition and presents some of its implications for individual differences. The chapter presents a number of experiments, which relate the model to the present tests of intelligence and considers the implications of these results for both psychometrics and cognitive psychology, indicating some directions for future research. The theoretical model used is the Distributed Memory model, which is representative of a class of models acceptable to the majority of experimental psychologists interested in cognition. The theoretical approach underlying the distributed memory model is that the brain can be thought of as a computing system, and that as such it has a physical and implied logical construction which is called its system architecture. The physical structures comprising the system architecture are exercised by control processes analogous to programs in an actual computer.
The hypothesis that impulsive children differ from reflective children in their preferred strategy of information processing, based on extent of stimulus analysis, was investigated. The experiments employed different age groups and a variety of tasks, including matching, grouping, recall, and concept attainment. Stimuli were presented both visually and auditorily and included both visually and aduitorily and included both verbal and pictorial matrials. The tasks required verbal and nonverbal responses and varied in the level of stimulus analysis necessary for successful performance. The subjects' strategy was assessed by the quality of their performance on tasks requiring detail versus global processing, and by the strategy they chose to adopt in tasks where either detail or global processing led to successful performance. While reflective children performed better on tasks requiring detail analysis than on tasks requiring global analysis, impulsive children showed the reverse trend. Furthermore, when successful solutions could be reached via either a global- or a detail-processing strategy, impulsive children who adopted the former were equally as successful as reflective children who adopted the latter strategy. It was concluded that, contrary to existing views, impulsive children are not inferior to reflective children in general potential or problem-solving ability. Rather, the inferior performance of impulsive children frequently reported in the literature may be due to incompatibility between their preferred global-processing strategy and the detail analysis typically required for successful performance.
This chapter discusses the attention–retention (A–R) theory of retardate discrimination learning. A simplified picture of the overall structure of the theory can be seen in an information-flow, block diagram of the principal events, and transformations to which the theory is addressed. Stimulus information in the discriminative display is conceived in part to be dimensional in nature. The dimensions, such as color, form, position, size, etc., are not defined independently. In the chapter, the theory is discussed together with empirical support in the form of 40 experimental effects deducible from the theory. The two processes of attention and retention are not the only ones postulated to occur; the name A–R theory was chosen because the inclusion of these two processes distinguishes A–R theory from the other models of discrimination. A qualitative outline of the A–R theory is discussed in the chapter, followed by a concise quantitative statement of the theory and an outline of the data domain of the theory. Thirteen sections then follow, each identifying a basic issue, on which theorists of discriminative processes have taken opposing stances.
The hypothesis that impulsive children differ from reflective children in their preferred strategy of information processing, based on extent of stimulus analysis, was investigated. The experiments employed different age groups and a variety of tasks, including matching, grouping, recall, and concept attainment. Stimuli were presented both visually and auditorily and included both verbal and pictorial materials. The tasks required verbal and nonverbal responses and varied in the level of stimulus analysis necessary for successful performance. The subjects' strategy was assessed by the quality of their performance on tasks requiring detail versus global processing, and by the strategy they chose to adopt in tasks where either detail or global processing led to successful performance. While reflective children performed better on tasks requiring detail analysis than on tasks requiring global analysis, impulsive children showed the reverse trend. Furthermore, when successful solutions could be reached via either a global- or a detail-processing strategy, impulsive children who adopted the former were equally as successful as reflective children who adopted the latter strategy. It was concluded that, contrary to existing views, impulsive children are not inferior to reflective children in general potential or problem-solving ability. Rather, the inferior performance of impulsive children frequently reported in the literature may be due to incompatibility between their preferred global-processing strategy and the detail analysis typically required for successful performance.
Developmental changes in two broad classes of memory-related phenomena were studied, using nursery school, kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade children as Ss: (1) the production and strategic deployment over time of various types of memorization activities; (2) S's knowledge concerning his own memory. With regard to (1), only the older Ss in this study tended to show a specific, fairly complex memorization strategy when given unlimited time to study a set of items to the point of perfect serial recall. The strategy appeared to consist of first naming the items to oneself to initiate the learning process, and of subsequently using systematic anticipation and rehearsal procedures to monitor and maintain one's gradually increasing state of recall readiness. As for (2), the older Ss were likewise better able than the younger ones, both to predict their own memory span in advance of any concrete memorization experience, and to assess their readiness to recall after such experience. It was concluded that the two phenomena are intimately interrelated in the older child's memorization activities, and that the nature and development of S's knowledge and awareness of his own memory system is a particularly important and timely research problem.
Twenty-seven boys with serious learning and behavioral disorders and 25 boys with moderate learning problems were evaluated in terms of constructs of “field dependence-independence” and “reflection-impulsivity” using a portable rod and frame test, a pattern walking test, and the Matching Familiar Figures Test. Compared to available normative data for normal-achieving children, LD boys were found to be highly field dependent; extreme LD boys were also impulsive. Field dependence associated with rapid response rate appears incompatible with success in most educational tasks. Analysis of children's perceptual and cognitive styles is proposed as a tentative but promising approach to understanding the educational problems of LD children.
In an attempt to evaluate the psychometric credibility of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) as the operational measure of reflection-impulsivity, a study of the short-term (1 week) reliability of different versions of the MFFT for boys and girls at kindergarten, second, and fifth grades was conducted. The relations between time 1 and time 2 latencies and errors separately for males and females at all 3 grade levels, while significant, were low. Canonical correlations and test-retest correlations based on combining raw time and error scores into a standard score were approximately .65-.75. The χ2 analyses indicated that approximately 45%-70% of the subjects classified as impulsive or reflective at time 1 were classified in the same way at time 2. Reliability at the kindergarten level was particularly poor and suggests that the MFFT should not be used with children at that age. Mean differences were found among different forms of the MFFT and across grade level.
2 statistical characteristics of the Matching Familiar Figures test produce methodological problems in reflection-impulsivity research. The first characteristic is low reliability of error rates which results in 4 problems: frequent errors of classification, regression effects in repeated-measures designs not employing a control group, statistically insignificant effects in small sample studies when error rate is manipulated, and underestimation of correlations between errors and other variables unless corrected for attenuation. The second characteristic is the moderate negative correlation between latency and error rate which makes 2 X 2 analyses of variance on latencies and errors problematic. The main and interaction effects resulting from such an analysis may be confounded, and artificial dichotomization of continuous variables such as latency and errors results in loss of statistical power.
Selective attention was assessed in second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade reflective and impulsive children with an incidental learning task. By the sixth grade, reflective children displayed less incidental learning and greater central learning than impulsive children. Reflective children showed a trade-off of incidental learning for central learning but impulsive children did not appear to attend selectively. The findings were related to Hagen's 2-stage model of selective attention. The possibility that impulsive children are not adept at utilizing feedback to determine relevant and irrelevant components is discussed.
Reflective and impulsive children were instructed to hasten or delay their responses on a test of hypothesis-seeking and constraint-seeking conceptual strategies. Latency of response data on pre-, training, and immediate posttests showed that the attempts to hasten or delay responses were successful in changing response latencies. Furthermore, children who were instructed to hasten their responses were found to increase their use of hypothesis-seeking strategies; children who were instructed to delay their responses did not change their strategy. The results are interpreted in terms of White's temporal stacking model. The study indicates that cognitive tempo may be 1, though by no means an exclusive, factor underlying conceptual strategy.
Children classified as either reflective, impulsive, or nonextreme were administered tests with an increasing number of alternative responses in order to determine whether or not they would retain their preferred mode of decision-making behavior independent of task complexity. The children's tendency to be reflective or impulsive was a remarkably stable feature of their problem-solving behavior and was a better predictor of errors than the number of alternative responses. The educational implications of the findings were discussed, and it was suggested that educational research acknowledge the importance of the preferred strategy of the learner.
This paper examines the concept of decalage from two cognitive-change positions (structures of logical thought and attentional and verbal mediators) and proposes an alternative explanation for decalage from a perceptual-change point of view. The term decalage is used to summarize the relation between differences in performance of various age groups and differences in information contained in problem-solving tasks that have the same solution requirements. According to the cognitive change position, age-related performance differences are assumed to result from different cognitive structures that evaluate the same information. However, this position cannot adequately explain decalage relations such as 8-year-olds conserving mass while 10-year-olds cannot conserve volume. In the perceptual-change position, decalage relations are assumed to be a source of information about developmental changes in the perceptual system and how that system determines what information is processed by cognitive structures. Two studies are described in which the dimensional salience of task components was manipulated in order to assess the role of perception in tasks usually used to measure cognitive change (matrix solution and relevant versus incidental recall). The results were interpreted as showing that perceptual salience was a significant determinant of the obtained decalages and it was suggested that perceptual characteristics could explain decalages found in other cognitive-change research. (JMB)
Psychological differentiation and integration are essential attributes for adequate adjustment. The foregoing statement serves as the basis for a large number of investigations which fall into 3 major areas: self-consistency in individual functioning as an expression of extent of differentiation; the contribution of life experiences and characteristics present in early infancy to pace development of differentiation; and stability of individual patterns of functioning during development. Extensive descriptions of method and results are presented as well as exemplary case studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
60 Ss. 6 control principles (leveling-sharpening, tolerance for unrealistic experiences, equivalence range, focusing, constricted-flexible control, and field dependence-independence) are defined and 14 experimental tasks used to measure them are described. Factor analyses of the results are reported. The authors discuss the relation of leveling to repression and scanning to isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)