A longitudinal investigation of self-other discrimination and the emergence of mirror self-recognition

The aim in this study was to investigate the association between infants' developing interest in their self-image and the onset of mirror self-recognition (MSR). A longitudinal study was conducted with 98 infants who were seen at intervals of 3 months from 9-24 months of age. At each session, the infants were administered a preferential-looking test whereby they were presented with a video image of themselves alongside a video image of a same-aged peer in two conditions, unmarked and marked. From the 12-month session onwards, the infants were also administered a version of the standard mark test of MSR. The infants showed a significant preference for looking at images of themselves in both conditions coincident with the onset of MSR. This result indicates that developing an interest in the self-image is an important component in the development of MSR. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-regulatory behaviors in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children measured using the Goodman Lock Box

Self-regulation has been identified as an area of difficulty for those with mental retardation. The Goodman Lock Box provides measures of two critical aspects of self-regulation-planfulness and maintenance of goal-directed behavior. In this study, the Lock Box performance of 25 children with Down syndrome was compared with that of 43 typically developing children, matched for mental age (24-36 months). Children in both groups showed similar levels of competence, planfulness and distractibility. However, children with Down syndrome displayed more task-avoidant behavior. Some issues related to the measurements obtained from the Lock Box are raised. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The need for competence tests : Queensland judicial perspectives on non-accused child witnesses in criminal proceedings : Part 1.

To examine the question of whether Queensland judicial officers endorse the need for competence tests for non-accused child witnesses in criminal proceedings, a mail survey was sent to judicial officers - questions considered the need to distinguish between children's sworn and unsworn evidence - relevance of age to competence - desirability of competence test formalities.

Pretend play, mirror self-recognition and imitation: A longitudinal investigation through the second year

The aim in the current study was to investigate the emergence of pretend play, mirror self-recognition, synchronic imitation and deferred imitation in normally developing human infants. A longitudinal study was conducted with 98 infants seen at three-monthly intervals from 12 through to 24 months of age. At each session the infants were tested on a range of tasks assessing the four target skills. Deferred imitation was found to emerge prior to synchronic imitation, pretend play and mirror self-recognition. In contrast, the latter three skills emerged between 18 and 21 months and followed similar developmental trajectories. Deferred imitation was found to hold a prerequisite relation with these three skills. Synchronic imitation, pretend play and mirror self-recognition were not closely associated and no prerequisite relations were found between these skills. These findings are discussed in the context of current theories regarding the development of pretend play, mirror self-recognition, synchronic imitation and deferred imitation in the second year. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cultural and gender influences on age identification

Age identification plays a significant role in young adults" mass, interpersonal, intergenerational, and intercultural communication. This research examines cultural and gender influences on young people's age identity by measuring the social age identity of male and female young adult members of five cultures varying in individualism/collectivism (Laos, Thailand, Spain, Australia, and the U.S.A.). We found cultural influences on age identity to be both unexpected in nature and modest in effect. American and Laotian respondents had similar and nominally higher levels of age identity than Australian, Thai, and Spanish respondents, with all having a markedly different age identities than those of Japanese respondents as reported by other researchers. No direct effect for gender on age identity emerged, though American females were more age identified than all other respondents. Across cultures, the social identity scale was found to be a reasonably adequate measure of age identity.

The development of preferences for specific body shapes

Research with adults has shown a preference for average-weight female figures with waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) of 0.7, and average weight male figures with waist-to-hip ratios of 0.9. This study investigated the development of preferences for WHR sizes as well as preferences for specific body weights. Five-hundred eleven children ranging in age from 6 to 17 were presented with drawings of 12 male and 12 female silhouettes varying in weight and WHR and asked to select one they thought looked the nicest or most attractive. The youngest children showed preferences for the underweight figures, changing to consistent preferences for the average weight figures in the teenage years. The developmental curves for waist-to-hip ratio preferences were linear, changing gradually over time to become more adult-like. Potential developmental models for the development of preferences for specific body shapes are considered in relation to these data.

Origins and early development of human body knowledge

As a knowable object, the human body is highly complex. Evidence from several converging lines of research, including psychological studies, neuroimaging and clinical neuropsychology, indicates that human body knowledge is widely distributed in the adult brain, and is instantiated in at least three partially independent levels of representation. Sensori-motor body knowledge is responsible for on-line control and movement of one's own body and may also contribute to the perception of others' moving bodies; visuo-spatial body knowledge specifies detailed structural descriptions of the spatial attributes of the human body; and lexical-semantic body knowledge contains language-based knowledge about the human body. In the first chapter of this Monograph, we outline the evidence for these three hypothesized levels of human body knowledge, then review relevant literature on infants' and young children's human body knowledge in terms of the three-level framework. In Chapters II and III, we report two complimentary series of studies that specifically investigate the emergence of visuospatial body knowledge in infancy. Our technique is to compare infants' responses to typical and scrambled human bodies, in order to evaluate when and how infants acquire knowledge about the canonical spatial layout of the human body. Data from a series of visual habituation studies indicate that infants first discriminate scrambled from typical human body pictures at 15 to 18 months of age. Data from object examination studies similarly indicate that infants are sensitive to violations of three-dimensional human body stimuli starting at 15-18 months of age. The overall pattern of data supports several conclusions about the early development of human body knowledge: (a) detailed visuo-spatial knowledge about the human body is first evident in the second year of life, (b) visuo-spatial knowledge of human faces and human bodies are at least partially independent in infancy and (c) infants' initial visuo-spatial human body representations appear to be highly schematic, becoming more detailed and specific with development. In the final chapter, we explore these conclusions and discuss how levels of body knowledge may interact in early development.

Perception of faces and bodies: Similar or different?

Human faces and bodies are both complex and interesting perceptual objects, and both convey important social information. Given these similarities between faces and bodies, we can ask how similar are the visual processing mechanisms used to recognize them. It has long been argued that faces are subject to dedicated and unique perceptual processes, but until recently, relatively little research has focused on how we perceive the human. body. Some recent paradigms indicate that faces and bodies are processed differently; others show similarities in face and body perception. These similarities and differences depend on the type of perceptual task and the level of processing involved. Future research should take these issues into account.

Training school personnel to implement a universal school-based prevention of depression program under real-world conditions

The present study evaluated the impact of a universal prevention of depression program [the Resourceful Adolescent Program (RAP)] when implemented under real-world conditions in a school setting. Prior research has found the RAP program to be beneficial for high-school students when the program was implemented by university staff selected, trained, and supervised by a research team. The present study evaluated the RAP program when implemented by existing school personnel. Separately, we measured the impact of a training program for facilitators, the quality of subsequent program implementation, and the student's response to the RAP Program. Results showed that, in response to the training program, facilitators believed they had acquired the knowledge and confidence to implement the program and that the quality of program implementation was acceptable. The study did not demonstrate a beneficial impact of the RAP program for the students. The results raise important questions regarding the extent of training and ongoing supervision facilitators require if the beneficial outcomes for students are to be maintained when interventions are implemented under real-world conditions in school settings. (C) 2004 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Theory-of-mind development in oral deaf children with cochlear implants or conventional hearing aids

Background: In the context of the established finding that theory-of-mind (ToM) growth is seriously delayed in late-signing deaf children, and some evidence of equivalent delays in those learning speech with conventional hearing aids, this study's novel contribution was to explore ToM development in deaf children with cochlear implants. Implants can substantially boost auditory acuity and rates of language growth. Despite the implant, there are often problems socialising with hearing peers and some language difficulties, lending special theoretical interest to the present comparative design. Methods: A total of 52 children aged 4 to 12 years took a battery of false belief tests of ToM. There were 26 oral deaf children, half with implants and half with hearing aids, evenly divided between oral-only versus sign-plus-oral schools. Comparison groups of age-matched high-functioning children with autism and younger hearing children were also included. Results: No significant ToM differences emerged between deaf children with implants and those with hearing aids, nor between those in oral-only versus sign-plus-oral schools. Nor did the deaf children perform any better on the ToM tasks than their age peers with autism. Hearing preschoolers scored significantly higher than all other groups. For the deaf and the autistic children, as well as the preschoolers, rate of language development and verbal maturity significantly predicted variability in ToM, over and above chronological age. Conclusions: The finding that deaf children with cochlear implants are as delayed in ToM development as children with autism and their deaf peers with hearing aids or late sign language highlights the likely significance of peer interaction and early fluent communication with peers and family, whether in sign or in speech, in order to optimally facilitate the growth of social cognition and language.

Attentional bias toward fear-related stimuli: An investigation with nonselected children and adults and children with anxiety disorders

Research investigating anxiety-related attentional bias for emotional information in anxious and nonanxious children has been equivocal with regard to whether a bias for fear-related stimuli is unique to anxious children or is common to children in general. Moreover, recent cognitive theories have proposed that an attentional bias for objectively threatening stimuli may be common to all individuals, with this effect enhanced in anxious individuals. The current study investigated whether an attentional bias toward fear-related pictures could be found in nonselected children (n = 105) and adults (n = 47) and whether a sample of clinically anxious children (n = 23) displayed an attentional bias for fear-related pictures over and above that expected for nonselected children. Participants completed a dot-probe task that employed fear-related, neutral, and pleasant pictures. As expected, both adults and children showed a stronger attentional bias toward fear-related pictures than toward pleasant pictures. Consistent with some findings in the childhood domain, the extent of the attentional bias toward fear-related pictures did not differ significantly between anxious children and nonselected children. However, compared with nonselected children, anxious children showed a stronger attentional bias overall toward affective picture stimuli. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.