Cognitive Cues Research Articles

Bilingualism and Divergent Thinking among Nigerian and Welsh School Children

Summary This investigation was focussed on the relationship between bilingualism and creativity. It was hypothesized that since language and thought are intimately related, the bilingual person, because he has two linguistic vantage windows or corridors to the world of phenomena, would ceteris paribus have an advantage over the monoglot in that aspect (divergent style) of cognitive functioning sometimes labelled “creativity,” since he would presumably have a greater repertoire of cognitive cues, signs, meanings, and relationships to draw upon. To test this hypothesis, two samples of primary school pupils in Nigeria and Wales were selected to reflect broadly a bilingual/monoglot dichotomy (total N = 289 boys and girls aged 9–11 years). A battery of tests of verbal and nonverbal creativity, verbal intelligence, and language proficiency was then administered to those samples. Broad indices of social class and home language environment were also taken. It was found that bilingual children were significantly h...

Autonomic arousal as a cognitive cue in stressful situations.

The need for further investigation and integration in a real world situation is demonstrated in a critical review of the literature on autonomic feedback and attribution of arousal in stressful situations. In the present study, actual autonomic arousal, arbitrary feedback of arousal, and attributions for arousal were manipulated in a dental clinic where the subjects were awaiting oral surgery. The main prediction was that cognized arousal (due either to perception of actual arousal or to arbitrary feedback about arousal level) in the absence of a nonemotional attribution for that cognized arousal would lead to higher subjective report of anxiety and to greater avoidance than would be found with either of these conditions unmet. The results on the subjective report measure generally supported this hypothesis. In addition, arbitrary feedback about arousal level did not interact with the actual arousal manipulation; nor did it produce changes in pulse rate or blood pressure, further supporting a cognitive interpretation of the effects of autonomic arousal on subjective report. However, the study illustrates difficulties in inducing beneficial beliefs in the real world. And the manipulations generally did not affect the behavioral measure, probably due to the expected consequences of that behavior.

The Effects of Generalizations as Cues on the Learning of Information from Graphs

This study investigated the effects of generalizing cues on the learning of material presented in bar graphs. Upper level college stu dents were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental condition. The experimental group was asked to inspect five graphs to determine the validity of two generalizations used as cues, and the control group was directed merely to notice the results of the experiments. All subjects were posttested using four different types of items designed to measure general inspection of the graph. Results showed that the control group scored significantly higher than the experimental group on all but one of the subtests. Success ful performance with the cues did not result in higher scores on the posttest. GRAPHS ARE OFTEN USED as supplements in sci ence books, and it is generally assumed that material in graphs helps to clarify points made in the regular text. However, research on the effectiveness of graphs (8,9) has shown that they often add little to the understanding of written material and may under certain conditions (10) have a deleterious effect on learning from the text. Research has also shown that supplementary questions and objectives can act as aids to learning from prose mate rials (2,3,4,7). The effectiveness of supplementary cues has been attributed to their ability to induce searching or attending behaviors in the reader. Such cues also help to focus the learners' attention on important aspects of the text. Most studies focusing upon the use of such cues have utilized prose materials, but one study (6) found that questions can also be used to increase the amount learned from graphs. In general, studies utilizing supplemental cues have focused on knowledge-level, recall-type learning rather than on higher level abilities. Two studies are exceptions to this trend. One (5) investigated the effect of analysis and evaluation level questions (1) on written social stud ies materials. This study found that higher level questions resulted in significantly higher performance on an evaluation-level subtest than a similar condition employ ing knowledge-level questions. Further, no differences were found on a knowledge-level test, which should osten sibly favor the group given knowledge-level questions. In a second study involving higher cognitive types of learning (11), high school seniors were presented written materials concerning psychological principles. The treatment con sisted of different types of supplementary questions. One group was asked to name the psychologist associated with a given principle ; a second group was asked to provide an example of the principle from the text; a third group was asked to provide new or original examples of the princi ple; and a control group merely read the text. The group that provided new examples scored significantly better on a posttest than all other groups. The results were explained in the following way: The authors believe that answering application questions facilitates later performance by encour aging students to process the content of the instruc tion more thoroughly, in fact to transform it, in the effort to apply it in a new situation (11: 393). The present study combined the previous lines of re search by measuring the effects of higher cognitive level cues on learning from graphical material. It was hypothe sized that judging the validity of graph-related generaliza tions would result in more thorough processing of the information in the graph and better consequent learning.

The Colored Blocks Test

A recently developed test of basic Piagetian stage abilities is described, and new data collected in rural Hawaii and in a working-class Chicago suburb are used to defend its validity. The test makes use of familiar test stimuli-blocks of different colors and shapes-which are reasonably salient cross-culturally. The use of (1) identical materials in assessment of all levels of cognitive development and (2) minimal verbal cues of simple construction serve to enhance (a) the internal consistency of the measure in tapping the child's full potential and (b) the measure's practical utility in a cross-cultural testing situation. The subtasks are designed to correspond to a theoretical description of the stages of cognitive development as defined by Piaget. In order to provide validation for the test, some preliminary empirical confirmation of the correspondence between the abilities tapped by the present test and those tapped by standard Piagetian tests is presented. Finally, data from all of the measures are used to argue that a stage of thinking with some, but not all, of the characteristics of formal operations may in fact be a universal development.

The Development of Intuitions about Cognitive Cueing

GORDON, F. ROBERT, and FLAVELL, JOHN H. The Development of Intuitions about Cognitive Cueing. CmHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1027-1033. Children 33 and 5 years of age were tested for their intuitive knowledege of the psychological fact that 1 mental event may trigger or cue another related mental event (called the concept of cognitive cueing). A child who had acquired this commonplace but important concept should recognize that a visible depicted object would be a good cue or marker for the location of a hidden depicted object if the 2 were associatively related in the searcher's experience, but would not be if the 2 were unrelated. Data from several location-marking tasks suggested that many of the 31-year-olds had not developed more than a very rudimentary level of understanding of the concept and that many of the 5-year-olds may have acquired only an intermediate level, behavioral-cueing precursor of it. There is reason to believe that it may emerge around the beginning of middle childhood.

The Development of Intuitions about Cognitive Cueing

The Development of Intuitions about Cognitive Cueing

Cognitions related to anxiety: a pilot study of treatment

In general, where anxiety appears to have a specific external focus, such as the situations which are avoided by phobic patients, treatment involving systematic exposure to those situations seems to be effective. This is less appropriate, or even impossible, where anxiety is not dependent on any external circumstance, but is described by the patient as occurring at any time or place, either chronically over long periods, or acutely in the form of ‘panic attacks’. These patients with ‘generalised’ anxiety often describe internal cues for anxiety either in the form of thoughts (e.g. worry over a current problem) or somatic (e.g. chest sensations interpreted as possible heart disease). Beck et al. (1974) has suggested that on interview, all patients diagnosed as suffering from diffuse or generalised anxiety can report specific ideas or other cognitive cues which are associated with anxiety. These usually concern possible traumatic events, such as illness and death, or social rejection. Clearly Beck has in mind the possibility that these cognitions have the effect of inducing anxiety, although even if the validity of the subjective reports were to be accepted, the problem remains of whether the relationship between mood state and cognitions is causal and if so, in which direction it operates. Obviously a causal relationship may also operate in both directions simultaneously, to form a ‘vicious circle’ in which each exacerbates the other. To establish whether there is a sense in which particular cognitions contribute causally to anxious mood, it would be necessary to find a method of manipulating the type or frequency of cognitions thought to be operating in this way. One obvious possibility is that of ‘thought-stopping’: that is, patients could be taught to identify thoughts which are associated with anxiety and stop them in the usual way (Wolpe, 1973, p. 211) e.g. by' shouting stop, and substituting an alternative thought. The present study was planned as a pilot experiment to determine (i) if appropriate anxiety related cognitions could be elicited from a series of patients with generalised anxiety, (ii) if the reported frequency of such thoughts could be modified by a thought-stopping technique, and (iii) if any changes in thought frequency were associated with improvements in mood. Clearly there are many ‘non-specific’ features involved in thought-stopping which could also have therapeutic effects on mood. For this reason it was necessary to include an alternative procedure, not directed at reducing thought frequency, but having the same degree of plausibility to patients, and preferably to therapists. The control procedure chosen for this purpose was modelled on desensitisation, in which patients were encouraged to allow the supposedly anxiety-provoking thoughts into their mind and tolerate them, rather than attempt to stop them. In summary, the study employed a relaxation training phase as a base-line, followed by a cross-over design in which the two treatment phases of thought-stopping and ‘cognitive desensitisation’ were given to each patient, in balanced order.

Effects of degree of obesity, age of onset, and weight loss on responsiveness to sensory and external stimuli.

Four experiments tested responsiveness to external and sensory stimuli in female human subjects who differed in degree of overweight and in age of onset of their obesity. The effects of weight loss upon external responsiveness were assessed by testing subjects before and after weight reduction in order to determine the role of energy deficit and deprivation in mediating heightened responsiveness to external cues. There was no significant positive correlation between degree of overweight and degree of external responsiveness. In general, the age of onset of the obesity was also not a relevant factor in the degree of externality. Weight loss did not change responses to visual and cognitive cue salience manipulations in measures of feeding, emotionality, time perception, and short-term recall, whereas responsiveness to variations in palatability increased following weight reduction. While external cue responsiveness does not appear to result from adiposity per se or from deprivation, responsiveness to taste stimuli may reflect these parameters. The role of external and sensory cues in the development and maintenance of obesity is discussed.

Differential cognitive cues in pictorial depth perception among Ugandan children

Four pictures from Hudson's Depth Perception Test containing size, super‐position or overlap, and linear perspective cues were administered to 240 Ugandan primary school children. The key question asked regarding the relationship of elements in each picture varied in terms of “Which (is/looks) (nearer/farther) to (man/you), the elephant or the antelope?”. Results suggested that depth in pictorial material was perceived significantly higher for the question variation “which is/looks farther” rather than “nearer.” In addition, the main effects of “grades” and “man/you” and the “grade x nearer/farther” interaction were statistically significant. Results are discussed in terms of culturally constituted experience and the effects of attentional factors and lexical markings inherent in the relational concepts used in the key question.

The effects of alcohol on eating behavior: Disinhibition or sedation?

Abstract An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of alcohol (administered without the subjects' awareness) on the eating behavior of normally restrained and unrestrained eaters. Consumption was assessed in a taste-rating context. The results indicated that when disinhibitory cognitive or social cues are unavailable, alcohol does not release the suppressed eating of restrained eaters, but rather counteracts the disinhibitory effects of anxiety. The experimental findings were interpreted as providing indirect support for Pliner & Cappell's (1974) labelling model of alcohol intoxication.

Effects of Method of Discipline, Timing of Punishment, and Timing of Test on Resistance to Temptation

LEIZER, JOSEPH I., and ROGERS, RONALD W. Effects of Method of Discipline, Timing of Punishment, and Timing of Test on Resistance to Temptation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 790-793. Parental disciplinary techniques have been divided into the broad categories of induction and sensitization. Induction procedures were differentiated into moral and cognitive components. A factorial experiment among 60 firstand second-grade males examined the effects of 3 methods of discipline, immediate versus delayed punishment, and immediate versus delayed measurement on resistance to temptation. Results showed that on each of 4 measures, induction techniques conferred greater resistance to temptation than sensitization methods. The superiority of the induction methods was still evident 2 weeks after the brief experimental session. The lack of support for the facilitative effect of a cognitive structure in mediating temporal delays was attributed to the self-generation of cognitive cues in each experimental group.

The Development of Class Awareness in Children

Class awareness on three dimensions (cognitive, behavioral, and evaluative) was tested among 216 children in grades one, four, and six of a public school system. On the cognitive test (perception of social differences), age and sex were found to be related to performance. On the behavioral test (recognition of behavioral correlates to cognitive cues), age, social and IQ are related to performance. The evaluative test (attachment of evaluations on the basis of cognitive cues), shows no significant results. Possible reasons for this are discussed. With the myriad of literature in social stratification, it is surprising that so little work has been done on the development of class awareness. Lasswell (1958, 1961; Lasswell and Parshall, 1961) suggested that most adults hold to popular conceptions of social classes which are comprised of sets of stereotypes, and he has found evidence to support this. There is also research suggesting that these stereotypes are well developed by the time a person reaches adolescence (Centers, 1950; Congatton, 1952; Himmelweit et al., 1952; Montague, 1954). However, little work has been done investigating the developmental process of acquiring the stereotypes-that is, little work has been done on the development of class awareness. Estvan (1952, 1958, 1965, 1966; Estvan and Estvan, 1959) has done extensive studies of what he calls children's social perception. He is interested in seeing how children view their social world, and in particular what they say about life situations presenting contrasts in rural and urban environment; in child and adult activities; and in upperand lowersocioeconomic background. With regard to social-status perception, Estvan finds increasing age to be related to increasing awareness of status symbols. He finds intelligence and rural-urban background of the child unrelated to perception of social status. There seem to be only two studies entirely focused on children's perceptions of social class. The first and most comprehensive is a work by Celia Stendler (1949). Stendler sampled children at four grade levels: first, fourth, sixth, and eighth. She stratified her sample by class position and sex, and tested class awareness in the children by several procedures. The major test was a picture test containing four sets of pictures illustrating homes, recreation, clothes, and jobs at three socioeconomic levels. Stendler found that the first-grade child is not yet dealing with the problem of social class, but that as the child grows older he becomes increasingly able to rate the pictures as do adult raters, and able to give sophisticated reasons for his ratings. She also found that social class and intelligence are related to the ability to correctly rate the pictures. The only other study in this area was done in 1959 by Gustav Jahoda. Jahoda's testing procedure involved making socially congruous pictures by assembling puzzle-like drawings, with lower-middle class drawings fitting together as well as lower-lower or middle-middle drawings. Unlike Stendler, Jahoda found that even at the first-grade level children were perceiving class differences. He also partialed out the effects of intelligence from social class and concluded that the relation between performance scores and social class of the child was largely the result of intelligence. The general problem of class awareness to be investigated in this study involves three dimensions: a cognitive dimension; a behavioral dimension; and an evaluative dimension. The cognitive component of social class awareness involves the simple perception or recognition of social differences. The behavioral dimension involves recognition that behavioral * This research was supported by a National Science Foundation grant, GS2520.

The relationship between cognitive, motor-kinesthetic, and oculomotor adaptation

The literature concerning adaptation to prism indicates that several adaptive mechanisms may be important. The particular mechanism or mechanisms involved depends (at least in part) upon the type of adaptive exposure. In the present study. three adaptive mechanisms (cognitive. oculomotor, and motor-kinesthetic) were investigated. Ss were asked to point in the dark at an illuminated target. The target was seen displaced from its veridical position due to a wedge prism placed before S’s right eye. The left eye was occluded. Ss then viewed their visual target pointing errors through the displacing prism without seeing any part of their bodies. One group of Ss was instructed to ignore these prism-induced errors and to continue pointing at the target’s visual position. A second group of Ss was instructed to compensate fully for their errors and to at tempt to eliminate them on all future trials. For the latter group errors were completely eliminated, while for Ss instructed to ignore their errors, relatively small improvement in visual target settings occurred. This improvement was called cognitive adaptation, since it depended on the S’s conscious control. In addition. for both conditions. evidence was found that allowing Ss to view their prism-induced pointing errors resulted in some form of motor-kinesthetic adaptation. This adaptation was hypothesized to represent a change in the judged position of the pointing hand relative to its felt position. It was concluded that this motor-kinesthetic adaptation was dependent, in part, upon cognitive information concerning the effects of the prism and that it serves to reduce conflict between cognitive and visual cues, i.e., between what S believes and what he sees.