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Are thoughts impossible without the words to express them? It has been claimed that this is the case for thoughts about numbers: Children cannot have the concept of exact numbers until they know the words for them, and adults in cultures whose languages lack a counting vocabulary similarly cannot possess these concepts. Here, using classical methods of developmental psychology, we show that children who are monolingual speakers of two Australian languages with very restricted number vocabularies possess the same numerical concepts as a comparable group of English-speaking indigenous Australian children. cognitive development | linguistic determinism | mathematical cognition | number concepts

The well-known association between height and earnings is often thought to reflect factors such as self-esteem, social dominance, and discrimination. We offer a simpler explanation: height is positively associated with cognitive ability, which is rewarded in the labor market. Using data from the United States and the United Kingdom, we show that taller children have higher average cognitive test scores and that these test scores explain a large portion of the height premium in earnings. Children who have higher test scores also experience earlier adolescent growth spurts, so that height in adolescence serves as a marker of cognitive ability.

Philosophers and scientists seeking to conceptualize consciousness, and subjective experience in particular, have focused on sensation and perception, and have emphasized binding--how a percept holds together. Building on a constructivist approach to conception centered on separistic-holistic complexes incorporating multiple levels of abstraction, the present approach reconceptualizes binding and opens a new path to theorizing the emergence of consciousness. It is proposed that all subjective experience involves multiple levels of abstraction, a central feature of conception. This modifies the prevalent idea of sequential development from sensation through perception to conception. Further, this approach to mind and consciousness links constructivist theory to artistic activity and suggests that conception, subjective experience, aboutness (intentionality), and agency are linked together through separistic-holistic complexes. It also argues for change in the prevailing constructivist view that regards the process of production of new levels of conception as inherently directed towards better fit with the external environment. Key Words Binding * Conception * Consciousness * Constructivism * Piagetian theory

The conflict monitoring model of M. M. Botvinick, T. S. Braver, D. M. Batch, C. S. Carter, and J. D. Cohen (2001) triggered several research programs investigating various aspects of cognitive control. One problematic aspect of the Botvinick et al. model is that there is no clear account of how the cognitive system knows where to intervene when conflict is detected. As a result, recent findings of task-specific and context-specific (e.g., item-specific) adaptation are difficult to interpret. The difficulty with item-specific adaptation was recently pointed out by C. Blais, S. Robidoux, E. F. Risko, and D. Besner (2007), who proposed an alternative model that could account for this. However, the same problem of where the cognitive system should intervene resurfaces in a different shape in this model, and it has difficulty in accounting for the Gratton effect, a hallmark item-nonspecific effect. The authors of the current article show how these problems can be solved when cognitive control is implemented as a conflict-modulated Hebbian learning rule. Keywords: cognitive control, Hebbian learning

ABSTRACT This study examines the influence of a goal orientation model comprised of four factors on cognitive engagement, academic performance, and satisfaction. 657 participants completed an online survey assessing their [...]

Based on undergraduates' self-reports of mate preferences for various traits and self-perceptions of their own levels on those traits, Buston and Emlen [Buston PM, Emlen ST (2003) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:8805-8810] concluded that modern human mate choices do not reflect predictions of tradeoffs from evolutionary theory but instead follow a 'likes-attract' pattern, where people choose mates who match their self-perceptions. However, reported preferences need not correspond to actual mate choices, which are more relevant from an evolutionary perspective. In a study of 46 adults participating in a speed-dating event, we were largely able to replicate Buston and Emlen's self-report results in a pre-event questionnaire, but we found that the stated preferences did not predict actual choices made during the speed-dates. Instead, men chose women based on their physical attractiveness, whereas women, who were generally much more discriminating than men, chose men whose overall desirability as a mate matched the women's self-perceived physical attractiveness. Unlike the cognitive processes that Buston and Emlen inferred from self-reports, this pattern of results from actual mate choices is very much in line with the evolutionary predictions of parental investment theory. assortative mating | decision making | evolutionary psychology | sexual selection | speed-dating

J. Brooks-Gunn, W. J. Han, and J. Waldfogel (2002) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network (ECCRN; 2000b) came to different conclusions about the effects of maternal employment--although they were addressing similar questions using the same data set. Brooks-Gunn et al. concluded that maternal employment in infancy has a negative effect on children's cognitive abilities at age 3, whereas the ECCRN found that early nonmaternal care is not related to children's cognitive abilities in their first 3 years. The authors account for this difference by comparing 2 approaches to data analysis: a top-down testing of continuous variables (the approach used by the ECCRN, 2000b) and an a priori comparison approach that involves pairwise testing of specific dichotomous contrasts (the approach used by Brooks-Gunn et al., 2002). This comparison illustrates the critical importance of analytic approach. It also suggests that Brooks-Gunn et al.'s conclusion from this data set is overstated and should not be used on its own as the basis for practical or policy decisions. Keywords: maternal employment and child outcomes, analytic methods, multiple testing

Microscopic study of the human brain has revealed neural structures, enhanced wiring, and forms of connectivity among nerve cells not found in any animal, challenging the view that the human brain is simply an enlarged chimpanzee brain. On the other hand, cognitive studies have found animals to have abilities once thought unique to the human. This suggests a disparity between brain and mind. The suggestion is misleading. Cognitive research has not kept pace with neural research. Neural findings are based on microscopic study of the brain and are primarily cellular. Because cognition cannot be studied microscopically, we need to refine the study of cognition by using a different approach. In examining claims of similarity between animals and humans, one must ask: What are the dissimilarities? This approach prevents confusing similarity with equivalence. We follow this approach in examining eight cognitive cases--teaching, short-term memory, causal reasoning, planning, deception, transitive inference, theory of mind, and language--and find, in all cases, that similarities between animal and human abilities are small, dissimilarities large. There is no disparity between brain and mind. animal/human | Darwin

What leads humans to divide the social world into groups, preferring their own group and disfavoring others? Experiments with infants and young children suggest these tendencies are based on predispositions that emerge early in life and depend, in part, on natural language. Young infants prefer to look at a person who previously spoke their native language. Older infants preferentially accept toys from native-language speakers, and preschool children preferentially select native-language speakers as friends. Variations in accent are sufficient to evoke these social preferences, which are observed in infants before they produce or comprehend speech and are exhibited by children even when they comprehend the foreign-accented speech. Early-developing preferences for native-language speakers may serve as a foundation for later-developing preferences and conflicts among social groups. cognitive development

Purpose: According to the reserve perspective on cognitive aging, individuals are born with or can develop resources that help them resist normal and disease-related cognitive changes that occur in aging. The reserve perspective is becoming more sophisticated, but gaps in knowledge persist. In the present research, we considered three understudied questions about reserve: Is reserve primarily static (unchangeable) throughout the life course or dynamic (changeable, in terms of increases or decreases)? Can reserve be increased at any point in life, or are there optimal time periods--such as early life, midlife, or late life--to increase it? Does participation in different types of leisure and occupational activities in early life and midlife have different effects depending on specific domains of late-life cognitive functioning? Here we link early cognitive and activity data--gathered from archival sources--with cognitive data from older adults to examine these issues. Design and Methods: 349 participants, all mid-1940s graduates of the same high school, underwent telephone cognitive screening. All participants provided access to adolescent IQ scores; we determined activity levels from yearbooks. We used path analysis to evaluate the complex relationships between early life, midlife, and late-life variables. Results: Adolescent IQ had strong direct effects on global cognitive functioning, episodic memory, verbal fluency, and processing speed. Participants' high school mental activities had direct effects on verbal fluency, but physical and social activities did not predict any cognitive measure. Education had direct effects on global cognitive functioning, episodic memory, and, most strongly, processing speed, but other midlife factors (notably, occupational demands) were not significant predictors of late-life cognition. There were weak indirect effects of adolescent IQ on global cognitive functioning, episodic memory, and processing speed, working through high school mental activities and education. Verbal fluency, in contrast, was affected by adolescent IQ through links with high school mental activities, but not education. Implications: Our study suggests that reserve is dynamic, but it is most amenable to change in early life. We conclude that an active, engaged lifestyle, emphasizing mental activity and educational pursuits in early life, can have a positive impact on cognitive functioning in late life. Key Words: Cognition, Reserve, IQ, Activity level

In this study, the author examined whether family system functioning was associated with resilience in children exposed to negative environmental stress. In a sample of 55 low-income, urban families, greater differentiation of self among mothers predicted child competence--that is, better verbal and math achievement scores and lower aggression--after considering the effects of neighborhood violence and family life stress. No relations were observed between parent functioning and child academic self-concept. Furthermore, mothers' differentiation-of-self scores predicted children's cognitive skills, even after controlling for parent level of education. Implications, limitations, and directions for further research are discussed.

A research tests the predictions that cross-national differences in IQ scores would be positively correlated with education and negatively correlated with an agricultural way of life. Cross-national differences in IQ scores reveal that increasing cognitive demands in developed countries promote an adaptive increase in cognitive ability.

The debate on how limited-English-proficient children should be educated has continued across the nation. While the debate focuses on bilingual education in terms of culture and language maintenance, individual, community, national identity and fair access to social, economic and educational opportunities, scholars are considering the value of bilingual education in terms of cognitive development. Bilingual instruction in relation to cognitive development and cognitive processes in children is evaluated.

Assessment of the ability of three-, four-, five-year-olds and adults to perceive reachability of objects validated the hypothesis that spatial decentration and perspective taking are task specific and occur early in life. Children resemble adults in their display of allocentrism in their judgments about reachability pertaining to perceptual tasks.

A study of the intellectual competence of 300 children who were referred to day and inpatient psychiatric treatment showed that the intellectual ability of children undergoing inpatient treatment is similar to that of children in day treatment. WISC-R scores, scatter indices and factor structure of emotionally disordered children did not differ significantly from those for earlier standardization samples. Cluster analysis of the group also revealed three distinct cognitive profiles of children with serious disorders.

The performance of children with language-learning disabilities on two types of cognitive tasks was compared to that of two groups without language-learning disabilities, one matched for mental age and the other for language (vocabulary) age. The first task, Concept Formation, measured one's ability to identify and state the rule for a concept about a set of colored geometric figures when shown instances and noninstances of the concept. The second task, Analysis Synthesis, required the identification and use of a solution key to solve an incomplete logic puzzle. Both tasks involved increases in complexity as additional items were administered. Results indicate that the children with language-learning disabilities performed at a level commensurate with the language-matched group on the Concept Formation task, and at a level commensurate with the mental-age matched group on the Analysis-Synthesis task. The implications of these findings for the nature of language-learning disabilities are discussed.

In a sample of 216 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients, significant but low correlations were found between Goodenough-Harris (GH) drawing scores and both Full Scale IQs and academic achievement. The percentage of subjects correctly classified in appropriate IQ categories ranged from 35 to 44%; the percentage of misclassified subjects ranged from 56 to 65%. Consideration of visual-motor integration, using the Bender-Gestalt, did not improve the accuracy of G-H scores in predicting IQ scores in this sample. These results indicate that human figure drawings should not be substituted for other well-established intelligence and achievement tests nor used as an additional measure of these constructs when one is evaluating psychiatric patients.

Children have specific perceptions about the causes of illness and body function, which change as they get older. The differences in health perceptions between chronically ill and healthy children were assessed. The study included 49 children with seizure disorders, 47 children with orthopedic conditions (disorders related to body movement and posture), and 96 healthy children. All subjects had normal intelligence and ranged in age from 5 to 16 years. The differences in reasoning skills and understanding of disease causes and body function were assessed in relation to age and experience with illness. General reasoning and understanding of illness was more advanced in healthy children than in children with orthopedic conditions, regardless of age. Children with seizure disorders had similar reasoning skills but less understanding of illness than healthy children. However, chronically ill children had a better understanding of body function than healthy children. These findings show that chronic illness may influence aspects of cognitive awareness in children. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

'Right from the Start' is an 8-session parent group that can be used to enhance infant attachment security, which is a protective factor for future mental health, and maternal sensitivity. RFTS proved to be as effective as home visiting but when the costs were compared it proved to be more cost effective than home visiting.

The executives in some organizations view crises in the organizations as opportunities for improvement. Various factors that affect the tendency of executives to use crisis as an opportunity mindset are presented.

A survey was conducted with the help of data from a long-term follow-up study of specific language impairment (SLI) to analyze the use of IQ criteria in clinical diagnosis. The implications are discussed in relation to the dynamic development of systems along with the possible cognitive mechanisms such as working memory that might interact with language to create an SLI profile.

Four experiments where conducted to examine the flexibility and stability with which children and adults organize locations into categories based on their spatiotemporal experience with locations. It was concluded that children and adults could use spatiotemporal experience to organize locations into groups.

The idea that music makes you smarter has received considerable attention from scholars and the media. The present report is the first to test this hypothesis directly with random assignment of a large sample of children (N=144) to two different types of music lessons (keyboard or voice) or to control groups that received drama lessons or no lessons. IQ was measured before and after the lessons. Compared with children in the control groups, children in the music groups exhibited greater increases in full-scale IQ. The effect was relatively small, but it generalized across IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement. Unexpectedly, children in the drama group exhibited substantial pre- to posttest improvements in adaptive social behavior that were not evident in the music groups.

The central aim of research was to investigate the role of cognitive resources and the manner in which stereotypes influence social comprehension processes. The findings support the idea that stereotypes are especially likely to affect spontaneous trait inferences when resources are low.

The ability of children to assess their own understanding for different kinds of knowledge, particularly the illusion of explanatory depth, is examined. The illusion of explanatory depth was clearly seen to operate in the second and fourth graders in the case of mechanical devices but did not occur for knowledge of procedures.

A study of attachment relationships of infants reared in residential group care from birth and attachment quality, psychosocial development and caregiver sensitivity is carried out. The results obtained show residential care affects all aspects of infants' development and more frequent interaction with their caregivers.

The previously postulated inhibition account and the episodic memory account for the age-related increase in associatively based false memories are examined. It is observed that episodic memory completely mediates the influence of inhibition making the findings consistent with the episodic memory account.

The early development of autobiographical memory is used as a case study for examining relations between language and memory. This memory refers to explicit collections of past events and episodes in personal history.

The thesis that perception has a nonconceptual content is opposed. The nonconceptual content of perception is meant to be one species of representational content and it is a philosophical task to show that the holding of the correctness condition for the nonconceptual content in question ensures the holding of the correctness condition for the conceptual content.

We thank Ronchetti for his comments on our recent article (Hu et al. 2006). We are aware of what he noted was the wide scatter of points surrounding the correlation [...]

OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to evaluate detailed school-age language, nonverbal cognitive, and motor development in children with developmental language impairment compared with age-matched controls. METHODS. Children with developmental language impairment or normal language development (controls) aged 7 to 13 years were recruited. Children underwent language assessment (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4, Peabody Picture Vocabulary-3, Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2), nonverbal cognitive assessment (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV), and motor assessment (Movement Assessment Battery for Children). Exclusion criteria were nonverbal IQ below the 5th percentile or an acquired language, hearing, autistic spectrum, or neurologic disorder. RESULTS. Eleven children with developmental language impairment (7:4 boys/girls; mean age: 10.1 [+ or -] 0.8 years) and 12 controls (5:7 boys/girls; mean age: 9.5 [+ or -] 1.8 years) were recruited. Children with developmental language impairment showed lower mean scores on language (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4--developmental language impairment: 79.7 [+ or -] 16.5; controls: 109.2 [+ or -] 9.6; Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2--developmental language impairment: 94.1 [+ or -] 10.6; controls: 104.0 [+ or -] 2.8; Peabody Picture Vocabulary-3--developmental language impairment: 90.5 [+ or -] 13.8; controls: 100.1 [+ or -] 11.6), cognitive (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV--developmental language impairment: 99.5 [+ or -] 15.5; controls: 113.5 [+ or -] 11.9), and motor measures (Movement Assessment Battery for Children percentile--developmental language impairment: 12.7 [+ or -] 16.7; controls: 66.1 [+ or -] 30.6) and greater discrepancies between cognitive and language scores (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV/Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4--developmental language impairment: 17.8 [+ or -] 17.8; controls: 1.2 [+ or -] 12.7). Motor impairment was more common in children with developmental language impairment (70%) than controls (8%). CONCLUSIONS. Developmental language impairment is characterized by a broad spectrum of developmental impairments. Children identified on the basis of language impairment show significant motor comorbidity. Motor assessment should form part of the evaluation and follow-up of children with developmental language impairment. KEY WORDS. cognitive development, language disorders, developmental delay, motor development, language development., URL: www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2005-2761 Richard I. Webster, MBBS, MSc, FRACP, Caroline Erdos, MSc, Karen Evans, MSc, Annette Majnemer, PhD, OT, Eva Kehayia, PhD, Elin Thordardottir, PhD, Alan Evans, PhD, Michael I. Shevell, [...]

Methylmercury, the most biologically active mercury compound, is well known to cause serious health effects, particularly to the developing fetal nervous system. Effects can include attention deficits as well as [...]

An ongoing prospective cohort study in New York City reveals for the first time that prenatal exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos damages children's neurodevelopment with negative impacts on cognition, motor [...]