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Mental Representations (mental + representation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	36%
Humanities and Social Sciences	36%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	13%
Medical Sciences	6%

Selected Abstracts

Further Correspondences and Similarities of Shamanism and Cognitive Science: Mental Representation, Implicit Processing, and Cognitive Structures

ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2003
Timothy L. Hubbard
Properties of mental representation are related to findings in cognitive science and ideas in shamanism. A selective review of research in cognitive science suggests visual images and spatial memory preserve important functional information regarding physical principles and the behavior of objects in the natural world, and notions of second-order isomorphism and the perceptual cycle developed to account for such findings are related to shamanic experience. Possible roles of implicit processes in shamanic cognition, and the idea that shamanic experience may involve normally unconscious information becoming temporarily available to consciousness, are considered. The existence of a cognitive module dedicated to processing information relevant to social knowledge and social interaction is consistent with cognitive science and with shamanism, and may help account for the extension of intentionality and meaning that characterize shamanic practice. Overall, findings from cognitive science and ideas from shamanism exhibit a number of correspondences and similarities regarding basic properties of cognition, and this suggests that shamanic and nonshamanic cognition may not be fundamentally different. [source]

The Efficacy of Third-Party Consultation in Preventing Managerial Escalation of Commitment: The Role of Mental Representations,

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004
KATHRYN KADOUS
Abstract Avoiding continued investment in poorly performing projects is an important function of management control systems. However, prior research suggests that managers fail to use accounting information indicating that a project is performing poorly to discontinue it; that is, they escalate commitment to the project. We perform two experiments to investigate the efficacy of a potential control mechanism, third-party consultation, in preventing managerial escalation of commitment. We hypothesize that the information-processing objective (that is, purpose) assigned to consultants influences the mental representations they construct to process and store information, which ultimately influences their recommendations regarding the continuation of a poorly performing project. Results suggest that consultants will not construct mental representations amenable to making high-quality project-continuation recommendations unless they are assigned that specific purpose. Results further suggest that applying additional effort likely will not overcome the adverse effects of having inappropriate mental representations when making project-continuation recommendations. An implication of our study is that third-party consultants likely will not prevent managerial escalation of commitment unless consultants have a specific mandate of making a project-continuation recommendation in mind when they encounter relevant accounting information. [source]

Educational Neuroscience: Defining a New Discipline for the Study of Mental Representations

MIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION, Issue 3 2007
Dénes Sz
ABSTRACT, Is educational neuroscience a "bridge too far"? Here, we argue against this negative assessment. We suggest that one major reason for skepticism within the educational community has been the inadequate definition of the potential role and use of neuroscience research in education. Here, we offer a provisional definition for the emerging discipline of educational neuroscience as the study of the development of mental representations. We define mental representations in terms of neural activity in the brain. We argue that there is a fundamental difference between doing educational neuroscience and using neuroscience research results to inform education. While current neuroscience research results do not translate into direct classroom applications, educational neuroscience can expand our knowledge about learning, for example, by tracking the normative development of mental representations. We illustrate this briefly via mathematical educational neuroscience. Current capabilities and limitations of neuroscience research methods are also considered. [source]

Are Concepts Mental Representations or Abstracta?

PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2004
JONATHAN SUTTON
I argue that thoughts and concepts are mental representations rather than abstracta. I propose that the most important difference between the two views is that the mentalist believes that there are concept and thought tokens as well as types; this reveals that the dispute is not terminological but ontological. I proceed to offer an argument for mental-ism. The key step is to establish that concepts and thoughts have lexical as well as semantic properties. I then show that this entails that concepts and thoughts are susceptible to the type/token distinction. I finish by considering some objections to the argument. [source]

Agitation and despair in relation to parents: activating emotional suffering in transference

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2007
Inga Reznik
Abstract Affect and motivation are known to arise in the social-cognitive process transference, which occurs when a new person minimally resembles a significant other, implicitly activating the mental representation of this significant other (Andersen, Reznik, & Manzella, 1996) and indirectly, the relational self (i.e. Andersen & Chen, 2002). Triggering the significant-other representation should also indirectly activate any self-discrepancy held from this other's perspective, resulting in shifts in discrete affect and self-regulation. Participants (n,=,110; 34 men, 76 women) with an actual-ideal or actual-ought self-discrepancy from their parent's perspective (Higgins, 1987) learned about a new person who did or did not minimally resemble this parent. As predicted, this evoked positive evaluation of the new person, that is, a positive transference, and yet, as a function of self-discrepancy, also increased discrete negative mood with ideal-discrepant individuals becoming more dejected and ought-discrepant individuals more hostile and less calm. Self-regulatory focus shifted as well in terms of motivation to avoid emotional closeness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Impaired motor imagery in patients with essential tremor: A case control study

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 4 2007
Yew-Long Lo MD
Abstract Motor imagery (MI), which refers to the process of mental representation of movements, has not been studied in patients with essential tremor (ET). We investigated the presence of impaired MI in ET patients compared with healthy controls. A group of drug-naive and nondemented ET patients and age-matched controls were studied using transcranial magnetic stimulation, while they were specifically instructed to try and imagine themselves performing two motor tasks. The various clinical and electrophysiological variables were evaluated and compared. Repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated a significant difference between ET patients and controls with respect to mean motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes (F(1,38) = 31.92, P < 0.005) during MI. The process of MI effectively facilitated MEP amplitude in controls but not in ET patients, regardless of side of stimulation or motor tasks. We provide evidence to demonstrate impairment of MI in a group of ET patients compared with healthy controls. The basis for this novel finding is unclear, and further studies are warranted to determine whether it is related to cerebellar or motor cortical dysfunction. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source]

Semantic integration in videos of real,world events: An electrophysiological investigation

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Tatiana Sitnikova
Event,related potentials (ERPs) discriminated between contextually appropriate and inappropriate objects appearing in video film clips of common activities. Incongruent objects elicited a larger negative,going deflection, which was similar to the N400 component described previously in association with words and static pictures and which has been argued to reflect the integration of semantic information into a mental representation of the preceding context. The onset of this potential occurred shortly after object presentation, indicating that semantic integration is a rapid online component of real,world perception. In addition, the anomalies in movies evoked a large late positive potential at posterior regions, suggesting that in event perception, semantic incongruity may trigger cognitive processes other than those mediating pure semantic integration. [source]

Further Correspondences and Similarities of Shamanism and Cognitive Science: Mental Representation, Implicit Processing, and Cognitive Structures

,So that we might have roses in December': The functions of autobiographical memory

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2009
John F. Kihlstrom
Autobiographical memory is not merely declarative and episodic in nature. It also entails explicit self-reference, chronological organization and causal relations. It entails conscious recollection, in terms of remembering, knowing, feeling or believing. Its functions may be agentic or nonagentic, but all are assigned, not intrinsic, and thus are observer-relative features of reality. Questions about function risk committing the adaptationist fallacy. Intrapersonally, autobiographical memory is a critical component in the mental representation of self. Interpersonally, autobiographical memory provides a basis for establishing and maintaining social relationships. Autobiographical memory is an individual right, and it may also be an ethical obligation. The popularity of memoir as a literary genre indicates that it is also a means of making money. In a future world of artificial minds with infinite capacity for data storage, there still will be no substitute for the human capacity to remember what really matters and forget what does not. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Efficacy of Third-Party Consultation in Preventing Managerial Escalation of Commitment: The Role of Mental Representations,

Psychological and psychophysiological considerations regarding the maternal,fetal relationship

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2010
Janet A. DiPietro
Abstract The earliest relationship does not begin with birth. Pregnant women construct mental representations of the fetus, and the feelings of affiliation or ,maternal,fetal attachment' generally increase over the course of gestation. While there is a fairly substantial literature on the development and moderation of psychological features of the maternal,fetal relationship, including the role of ultrasound imaging, relatively little is known about the manner in which maternal psychological functioning influences the fetus. Dispositional levels of maternal stress and anxiety are modestly associated with aspects of fetal heart rate and motor activity. Both induced maternal arousal and relaxation generate fairly immediate alterations to fetal neurobehaviors; the most consistently observed fetal response to changes in maternal psychological state involves suppression of motor activity. These effects may be mediated, in part, by an orienting response of the fetus to changes in the intrauterine environment. Conversely, there is evidence that fetal behaviors elicit maternal physiological responses. Integration of this finding into a more dynamic model of the maternal,fetal dyad, and implications for the postnatal relationship are discussed. Research on the period before birth affords tremendous opportunity for developmental scientists to advance understanding of the origins of the human attachment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Parental representations and subclinical changes in postpartum mood

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007
Linda C. Mayes
Parents commonly experience a depressed mood in the immediate postpartum period, and a smaller proportion experience clinical postpartum depression. Among other factors, mental representations of early parenting experience appear to contribute to the development of major depressive disorder. The present study examines the role of mental representations of early parenting in subclinical fluctuations of parental mood in the peripartum period. Forty-one middle-class mothers and thirty-six fathers were interviewed on three occasions from late in their pregnancy until three months postpartum. Ratings of social support and past history of depression were obtained along with ratings of parents' perceptions of their early parenting experiences. Parents' perception of their own maternal care was significantly predictive of peripartum fluctuations in mood. Parents who perceived their own mothers as less caring showed more dysphoria at 8 months gestation, and at 2 weeks and 3 months postpartum. Perceptions of maternal protectiveness or fathers' caring and protectiveness were not related to prenatal or postpartum mood fluctuations. Both mothers and fathers who perceived their mothers as affectionless and/or controlling were more likely to experience fluctuations in mood in the peripartum period. A past history of one or more episodes of major depression and ratings of perceived social support were also associated with more peripartum mood fluctuation. These findings suggest that early parenting experiences set the threshold for how vulnerable parents are in the peripartum period to the depressive costs of engaging with a new infant. [source]

Disorganized infant attachment and preventive interventions: A review and meta-analysis

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005
Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg
Infant disorganized attachment is a major risk factor for problematic stress management and later problem behavior. Can the emergence of attachment disorganization be prevented? The current narrative review and quantitative meta-analysis involves 15 preventive interventions (N = 842) that included infant disorganized attachment as an outcome measure. The effectiveness of the interventions ranged from negative to positive, with an overall effect size of d = 0.05 (ns). Effective interventions started after 6 months of the infant's age (d = 0.23). Interventions that focused on sensitivity only were significantly more effective in reducing attachment disorganization (d = 0.24) than interventions that (also) focused on support and parent's mental representations (d = ,0.04). Most sample characteristics were not associated with differences in effect sizes, but studies with children at risk were more successful (d = 0.29) than studies with at-risk parents (d = ,0.10), and studies on samples with higher percentages of disorganized attachment in the control groups were more effective (d = 0.31) than studies with lower percentages of disorganized children in the control group (d = ,0.18). The meta-analysis shows that disorganized attachments may change as a side effect of sensitivity-focused interventions, but it also illustrates the need for interventions specifically focusing on the prevention of disorganization. [source]

Experienced and Less-Experienced Nurses Diagnostic Reasoning: Implications for Fostering Students' Critical Thinking

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 2 2003
Catherine G. Ferrario DNSc
PURPOSE. To compare the use of mental representations (heuristics) in diagnostic reasoning of expert (,5 years' experience) and novice (<5 years' experience) emergency nurses. METHODS. Clinical simulations were completed by a nationwide randomly selected sample of 173 experienced and 46 less-experienced emergency nurses (N =229). FINDINGS. Experienced nurses used the heuristic, Judging by Causal Systems (diagnostic inferences deduced from systems of causal factors) significantly more did than less-experienced nurses. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Standardized nursing diagnoses may cut short the time needed to develop representational thinking and spare cognitive reserves for reasoning needed for complex patients. Faculty need to promote students' cognitive development through strategies that promote active, reflective, and integrative learning. Search terms: Clinical experience, diagnostic reasoning [source]

The role of cognition in classical and operant conditioning

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
Irving Kirsch
For the past 35 years, learning theorists have been providing models that depend on mental representations, even in their most simple, deterministic, and mechanistic approaches. Hence, cognitive involvement (typically thought of as expectancy) is assumed for most instances of classical and operant conditioning, with current theoretical differences concerning the level of cognition that is involved (e.g., simple association vs. rule learning), rather than its presence. Nevertheless, many psychologists not in the mainstream of learning theory continue to think of cognitive and conditioning theories as rival families of hypotheses. In this article, the data pertaining to the role of higher-order cognition in conditioning is reviewed, and a theoretical synthesis is proposed that provides a role for both automatic and cognitively mediated processes. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [source]

Designs of concept maps and their impacts on readers' performance in memory and reasoning while reading

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 2 2010
Jeng-Yi Tzeng
From the perspective of the Fuzzy Trace Theory, this study investigated the impacts of concept maps with two strategic orientations (comprehensive and thematic representations) on readers' performance of cognitive operations (such as perception, verbatim memory, gist reasoning and syntheses) while the readers were reading two history articles that argue from different perspectives about a historical incident that had a profound impact on Taiwan. The results show that the design and focus of the concept maps may influence the formation of mental representations, and that this may be facilitative or constraining in regard to the readers' memory formation and reasoning about the reading materials. Based on these findings, the meaning of constraining effects of concept maps is discussed, and an instructional method involving the progressive elaboration of concept map systems is recommended. [source]

Spongelike acquisition of sight vocabulary in beginning readers?

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2000
Morag Stuart
We report two training studies designed to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, sound-to-letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five-year-old readers. Effects of visual memory and of teaching methods are also explored. In our first study, novice five-year-old readers able to segment initial phonemes and with good knowledge of mappings between sounds and letters learned words more easily from repeated exposure to texts. Results suggested that visual memory influenced word learning in non-segmenting but not in segmenting children. Spelling regularity did not affect ease of learning. Nouns were easier to learn than function words. In the second study, although phonological awareness and sound-to-letter mapping knowledge still exerted a significant influence, all novice five-year-olds were able to learn words more easily if these were taught out-of-context singly on flashcards. Results support the view that mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological segments detected in the spoken word to letters in the printed word. [source]

Sociological consciousness as a component of linguistic variation1

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2008
Robin Dodsworth
While practice theory has provided a valuable framework for establishing connections between individual-level sociolinguistic variation and social structures, Bourdieu's (1977) formulation of practice theory has been argued to inadequately address subjectivity. The sociologist C. Wright Mills' (1959) concept of the sociological imagination , consciousness of links among personal experiences, social structures, and historical processes , is posited as a partial solution, as it offers a framework for modeling one aspect of subjectivity. Use of the sociological imagination concept is demonstrated through a quantitative acoustic analysis of /o/ fronting in Worthington, Ohio, a Columbus suburb confronting acute urban sprawl. The distribution of /o/ fronting across 21 speakers largely resists traditional sociolinguistic explanations. A close analysis of four speakers' mental representations of the local tensions surrounding urban sprawl reveals significant differences which are argued to account for their variable use of fronted /o/. [source]

Logical Form andthe Vernacular

MIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 4 2001
Reinaldo Elugardo
Vernacularism is the view that logical forms are fundamentally assigned to natural language expressions, and are only derivatively assigned to anything else, e.g., propositions, mental representations, expressions of symbolic logic, etc. In this paper, we argue that Vernacularism is not as plausible as it first appears because of non-sentential speech. More specifically, there are argument-premises, meant by speakers of non-sentences, for which no natural language paraphrase is readily available in the language used by the speaker and the hearer. The speaker can intend this proposition and the hearer can recover it (and its logical form). Since they cannot, by hypothesis, be doing this by using a sentence of their shared language, the proposition-meant has its logical form non-derivatively, which falsifies Vernacularism. We conclude the paper with a brief review of the debate on incomplete definite descriptions in which Vernacularism is assumed as a suppressed premise. [source]

Educational Neuroscience: Defining a New Discipline for the Study of Mental Representations

Are Concepts Mental Representations or Abstracta?

Actuality and Modal Rationalism

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1pt3 2007
Keith Hossack
Modal rationalism is the doctrine that possible worlds are merely mental representations, and that necessity and apriority are the same thing. As an objection to modal rationalism, Kripke and others have proposed cases of the necessary that seem not to be a priori, and cases of the a priori that seem not to be necessary. I argue that the proposed counterexamples are unconvincing; in particular, there is nothing in the logic of the word ,actually' that need lead us to reject modal rationalism. [source]

Exploring consumer knowledge structures using associative network analysis

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 4 2010
Thorsten A. Teichert
This paper offers a new perspective on consumer knowledge analysis that combines Human Associative Memory (HAM) models from cognitive psychology with network analytic approaches in order to gain deeper insights into consumers" mental representations, such as brand images. An illustrative case study compares the associative networks of a manufacturer brand with a retail brand and is used to demonstrate the application and interpretation of various network measures. Network analysis is conducted on three levels: Node-level analysis yields insights about salient brand image components that can be affected through short-term marketing activities. Group-level analysis is concerned with brand image dimensions that characterize a brand and can be strategically influenced in the medium term. Finally, network-level analysis examines the network structure as a whole, drawing parallels to brand imagery, which needs to be managed over the long term. Management implications are derived and suggestions for further research are provided. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Relaxation and guided imagery as an intervention for children with asthma: A replication

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 7 2005
Robin L. Dobson
Asthma is a pervasive inflammatory disorder of the bronchial airways that causes the normal functioning of the airways to become overreactive. This disorder affects approximately 8 million children in schools per year and accounts for a significant amount of absences. Researchers have speculated that pharmacological interventions are alone insufficient or overaggressive in treating asthma, and numerous studies have demonstrated a connection between emotions and asthma. It has therefore been suggested that psychological interventions may be appropriate for this population. One such intervention, relaxation and guided imagery (RGI), that incorporates mental representations as well as the senses in a process of relaxing all the parts of the body has been shown to be effective with children with asthma. The current study served as a replication and extension of this previous research. The purpose of the investigation was to examine the effectiveness of RGI with an elementary school sample as well as determine the overall improvement in happiness, anxiety, and quality of life of the participants. Results demonstrated that RGI significantly improved the lung functioning of 3 out of 4 participants in the study. Furthermore, overall happiness improved for 1 participant in the study, state anxiety decreased for 2 of the 4 participants, and trait anxiety decreased for all 4 participants. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 707,720, 2005. [source]

Auditory substitution of vision: pattern recognition by the blind

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2001
P. Arno
Pattern recognition in a computer environment was investigated in 6 early blind and 6 blindfolded sighted subjects using auditory substitution of vision. Subjects had to scan visual patterns displayed on a PC screen by moving the pen of a graphics tablet, which lead to corresponding displacements of the cursor on the screen. A small screen area centered on the pointer was then translated into sounds according to a visual-auditory transcription code. Subjects were trained to learn this code during 12 one-hour sessions. Performance of both groups significantly increased with practice. This indicates that mental representations of visual patterns can be acquired through the auditory channel, even in the absence of visual experience. Moreover, blind subjects performed significantly better than sighted subjects did. This could be interpreted as a result of partial compensation for their loss of vision. Pattern recognition in a computer environment is thus possible using a fairly natural vision-to-audition coding scheme. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Relationships between Knowledge Structures and Appraisals of Economically Disadvantaged Adolescents

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Gülden Güvenç
The study's objective was to test adolescents' self-regulation based upon Cervone, Shadel, Smith, and Fiori's (2006) knowledge and appraisal personality architecture model. Self-regulation was defined as the relationships between knowledge structures (enduring mental representations of the world) and appraisal processes (dynamic meanings constructed to evaluate various events). In our study, the knowledge variables were authoritarianism and locus of control while appraisal variables were categorized as personal orientation (coping, communication, self-esteem) and relational orientation (perspective taking, empathy, prosocial behavior tendency). The purpose of the study was to identify the relationships between these variables and compare gender differences for each indicator. The participants were 246 adolescents (125 males and 121 females) whose ages ranged between 12 and 15 and who were the inhabitants of a poor urban neighborhood in Ankara, Turkey. The results showed that external locus of control and authoritarianism were not related, while the former was negatively related to both personal and relational orientations and authoritarianism was positively related to only relational orientation. Boys' external locus of control was higher than girls', whereas girls' scores exceeded boys' in self-reliant coping with stress, open communication, and interpersonal reactivity. No gender differences were observed for authoritarianism, prosocial behavior tendency, and self-esteem. Notre projet était d'estimer l'autorégulation des adolescents à partir du modèle structurale de connaissances et d'évaluation de la personnalité de Cervone, Shadel, Smith et Fiori (2006). L'autorégulation recouvre les relations entre les connaissances (les représentations stables du monde) et les processus d'évaluation (les significations dynamiques élaborées pour apprécier différents évènements). Dans notre recherche, les variables de connaissances étaient l'autoritarisme et le locus of control tandis que les variables d'évaluation étaient regroupées sous les rubriques « orientation personnelle » (faire-face, communication, estime de soi) et « orientation relationnelle » (changement de point de vue, empathie, tendance à adopter un comportement favorable aux autres). Ce travail cherchait à identifier les relations entre ces dimensions et à comparer les différences dues au genre pour chacun des indicateurs. Les sujets étaient 246 adolescents (125 garçons et 121 filles) entre douze et quinze ans qui habitent un quartier pauvre d'Ankara (Turquie). Les résultats montrent qu'un locus of control externe et l'autoritarisme ne sont pas en rapport, alors que le premier est corrélé négativement aux orientations personnelle et relationnelle ; l'autoritarisme n'est lié positivement qu'à l'orientation relationnelle. Le locus of control externe des garçons est supérieur à celui des filles alors que les scores des filles dépassent ceux des garçons dans le traitement autonome du stress, la communication libre et la sensibilité interpersonnelle. Les deux genres se rejoignent sur l'autoritarisme, la tendance à adopter un comportement favorable aux autres et l'estime de soi. [source]

The association of unresolved attachment status and cognitive processes in maltreated adolescents

CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
Linda Webster
Abstract This exploratory investigation sought to gain a better understanding of the mental representations of attachment in maltreated adolescents, and how, if at all, unresolved attachment representations are related to cognitive processes in this population. Measures of cognitive functioning, attachment state of mind and parent ratings on attention were obtained from 38 adolescents with a history of maltreatment. Results showed that maltreated adolescents with unresolved states of mind in regard to attachment scored significantly lower on measures of cognitive processes of attention, working memory and cognitive efficiency, even when intelligence was controlled for in the analyses. Theoretical considerations, implications for future research and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Space and Time in the Child's Mind: Evidence for a Cross-Dimensional Asymmetry

COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010
Daniel Casasanto
Abstract What is the relationship between space and time in the human mind? Studies in adults show an asymmetric relationship between mental representations of these basic dimensions of experience: Representations of time depend on space more than representations of space depend on time. Here we investigated the relationship between space and time in the developing mind. Native Greek-speaking children watched movies of two animals traveling along parallel paths for different distances or durations and judged the spatial and temporal aspects of these events (e.g., Which animal went for a longer distance, or a longer time?). Results showed a reliable cross-dimensional asymmetry. For the same stimuli, spatial information influenced temporal judgments more than temporal information influenced spatial judgments. This pattern was robust to variations in the age of the participants and the type of linguistic framing used to elicit responses. This finding demonstrates a continuity between space-time representations in children and adults, and informs theories of analog magnitude representation. [source]

Human Symbol Manipulation Within an Integrated Cognitive Architecture

COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005
John R. Anderson
Abstract This article describes the Adaptive Control of Thought,Rational (ACT,R) cognitive architecture (Anderson et al., 2004; Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) and its detailed application to the learning of algebraic symbol manipulation. The theory is applied to modeling the data from a study by Qin, Anderson, Silk, Stenger, & Carter (2004) in which children learn to solve linear equations and perfect their skills over a 6-day period. Functional MRI data show that: (a) a motor region tracks the output of equation solutions, (b) a prefrontal region tracks the retrieval of declarative information, (c) a parietal region tracks the transformation of mental representations of the equation, (d) an anterior cingulate region tracks the setting of goal information to control the information flow, and (e) a caudate region tracks the firing of productions in the ACT,R model. The article concludes with an architectural comparison of the competence children display in this task and the competence that monkeys have shown in tasks that require manipulations of sequences of elements. [source]