Higher Levels Of Cognitive Development Research Articles

Features of the quality of life of first graders taking into account gender differences and cognitive abilities

The purpose of the study: To study the features of the quality of life of first-graders, taking into account gender differences and cognitive abilities. Design: An open prospective non-randomized comparative clinical trial. Materials and methods: 631 children were examined, students of the first grades of secondary schools without a specialized bias № 110, 83, 75, 67, 9 Rostov-on-Don using the international questionnaire PedsQL 4.0 – Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory. To assess the cognitive development of children, the D. Wexler scale was used with the determination of the intellectual coefficient. Results: First-graders with a high level of cognitive development have reduced indicators of physical and emotional functioning, as well as the overall quality of life score. Girls with a high intellectual coefficient, in comparison with boys, have lower physical, emotional, school functioning and higher indicators of social functioning. The indicators of quality of life in children with a high level of cognitive development do not reflect the same in children who do "excellent". Conclusion: The revealed features of the quality of life of first-graders with different levels of cognitive development require differentiated medical, psychological and pedagogical support of children in this age period and further study of their health.

Creation of modern educational multilingual space on foreign language lessons in educational institutions: achievements and challenges

The article considers the points of multilingual education development in Ukraine, the results of All-Ukrainian experiment "Formation of multilingualism in children and students: progressive European ideas in the Ukrainian context", the challenges for linguists due to the successful development of multilingualism. Еducational institutions formed experimental long-term curricula for each age group, supplemented and adjusted them, choosing effective methods and forms of work during the process of implementing the experiment. It should be emphasized that multilingual education programs help to increase the competitiveness of students, give students the opportunity to participate in All-Ukrainian competitions, international projects. Students of experimental groups showed a higher level of cognitive development, language skills, communicative interaction in groups, learning the material of non-language subjects, empathy and tolerance for linguistic diversity.
 Different types of programs were analyzed due to the methods used in multilingualism. The advantages of creating a multilingual educational space as a special educational environment, its role in the formation of world and national cultures have been carefully studied.
 As a conclusion, we can state that there is a certain pedagogical achievement in creating a multilingual space at foreign language lessons in Ukraine. It suits the world experience and requirements of pedagogy and teaching methods. There are various types of programs used in multilingualism techniques: transition programs, prestigious bilingual education programs, immersion programs, development programs, support programs, dual language programs. Their usage depends on the educational level of students and teachers.

Features of the quality of life of achievers with different levels of cognitive development

One of the urgent problems of medicine is the relationship between the main aspects of the quality of life and the cognitive abilities of primary school children. This problem also covers issues of pedagogy, psychology and social aspects of the life of the child population. The results of the study led to the conclusion about the main aspects of the quality of life (PedsQL 4.0 questionnaire), interrelated with the level of intellectual development (D. Wexlers method modified by A.Yu. Panasyuk (1973)) and academic performance (questionnaire) of first-graders at the beginning and at the end school year. The material was processed using the Mann Whitney U-test and the Wilcoxon W-test, for dependent and independent variables. A significant tendency towards a decrease in social and school functioning, psychosocial health, as well as emotional functioning at the end of the school year is shown, which indicates a decrease in adaptive mechanisms in younger students. The discrepancy between the level of IQ indicators and school performance of children was revealed. It was determined that children doing well at school had higher quality of life indicators. The most vulnerable for all the children studied was the psychosocial aspect of health. It was shown that in children with a high level of cognitive development, the emotional aspect of health decreased during the year, in primary school children with a low level of cognitive development, school functioning, and with an average, an increase in indicators of physical functioning. Given the identified features of the quality of life, which depend on the level of cognitive development, it is important to observe an individual approach to training, with the involvement of specialists from the psychological level.

Effect of dietary components and nutritional status on the development of pre-school children.

The preschool period is a time of intensive changes: physical, motoric, cognitive, emotional and social development of the child. The diet should provide optimal energy andnutrient levels. Due to their properties, some of the dietary components may be particularly important in child development procesess. These include omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, vitamin D, antioxidants, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and copper. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of selected dietary components, the nutritional status and sleep duration in children at pre-school ages (3-6-years old) on their emotional sphere, as well as the cognitive, physical and social development. Anonymous research was carried out among 75 randomly selected children aged 3-6 years old in the Municipal Kindergarten in Ruciane-Nida. Research methods consited of a questionnaire, a 3-day food record, growth charts, and standardized development observation sheets. Software used for evaluation and analysis of obtained results was Diet 5.0. and Statistica 13. It was observed that the increase of the BMI percentile correlated with a lesser social development of children. Children who slept a recommended number of hours presented higher level of cognitive developmnent. High level of cognitive development was more common in children supplementing vitamin D. Higher intake of folates, vitamin D, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc and copper correlated positively with a higher level of cognitive development. Application of the proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle principles supports a proper child development. All dietary components should be balanced, however some nutrients are of especial significance during the childhood development and therefore their optimal intake is essential for this developmental period.

The technique of project activity: A new approach in Russian preschool

The project-activity approach is widely used today not only in school education but also in work with small children (for example, Grzegorzewska & KoniecznaBlicharz, 2011; Katz & Chard, 2000; Kogan & Pin, 2009). Although project activity has been a part of Russian school education since the 1990s, in preschool education it hasn't been recognized as a separate tool for organizing children's activity.Historical backgroundProject activity in Russia originated as a technique for working with intellectually gifted children and was developed by a team of researchers under the scientific guidance of L. Venger (1988). Venger based his research on the cultural-historical theory of L. Vygotsky. According to Vygotsky (1978), child development is a gradual entry into human culture through the mastery of cultural tools--that is, through the development of opportunities to explore the world and interact with it using culturally available methods. These culturally available tools are used not only to change the child's interaction with the world but also to change the child. Vygotsky's student A. N. Leontiev (2000) defined children's psychological development as a process of mastering various types of activity, such as play and productive activity (building, drawing, sculpting, and so forth); in other words, child development is conditioned by activity and occurs during it. Therefore, the products of children's activity are not deemed to seriously affect their development (for example, a drawing made by a child is a part of drawing activity, which exists outside the system of social interactions).We began our work in 1998 in the city of Novouralsk with 2 preschools and 50 children who were 5 years of age (27 girls and 23 boys, M = 62 months). The city was a scientific center with a large population of highly skilled specialists. The proportion of children with a high level of cognitive development in the city's kindergartens was higher than the proportion in the rest of the country's preschools.Our research showed the existence of two opposing approaches in educational work with preschool children (Veraksa & Bulicheva, 2003). In the first one, children are given maximal freedom of action; in the other their activity is rigidly determined by the grown-ups. Both approaches have, in our opinion, serious shortcomings. In the first one the entire activity of children, although encouraging their individuality, doesn't realize itself in cultural forms and therefore precludes children's proper acquisition of cultural tools and of socialization. In the second approach, even though activity is entirely cultural, it is absolutely deindividualized. For this reason there is a particular need not only to get children acquainted with the culture but also to give them the opportunity to meaningfully express their individuality in cultural forms.Our task was to combine these two approaches in a way that encourages children's initiative. Our work resulted in project activity, in the frame of which children create socially significant products using culturally acceptable means. We turned to project activity in our work with gifted children because the need for socially meaningful cultural expression of their individuality was vivid and clearly presented. Project activity is not something a child does (drawing, reading, sculpting) but the process for doing so. In other words, the participating kindergartens had to rethink children's activity within the framework of the project approach (as a rule, project activity in kindergarten was presented one to two days a week). Later this technique proved to be effective for children at various levels of cognitive development.Main features of project activityThe first feature of project activity is that it is used only where there is a problem situation that cannot be resolved by direct action. By direct action we mean an action that is performed without a preliminary orientation to the situation and that does not require identification of resources (everything necessary for performing the action is available to the child). …

African-American Parenting Characteristics and Their Association With Children’s Cognitive and Academic School Readiness

When compared to risk factors, less is known about family characteristics that enhance developmental outcomes among low-income African-American children. The current study explored elements of African-American parenting and their relationship to early childhood academic readiness. Using a predominantly low-income African-American subsample from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care (N = 105), this investigation examined associations between three maternal factors–beliefs, confidence, and warmth and children’s cognitive and early academic development. We hypothesized that the children of African-American parents who reported more traditional authoritarian beliefs, maternal confidence, and maternal warmth would display higher levels of cognitive development and achievement at school entry. Multiple regression analysis indicated that maternal confidence and warmth were predictive of cognitive development and achievement. Traditional beliefs were found to be inversely related to academic readiness. Together, the predictive variables explained 36% of the variation in cognitive functioning.

Liability for Animals: An Historico-Structural Comparison

This account of civil liability for animals in a range of ancient, mediaeval and modern legal systems (based on a series of studies conducted early in my career: (s.1)) uses semiotic analysis to supplement the insights of conventional legal history, thus balancing diachronic and synchronic approaches. It reinforces the conventional historical sensitivity to anachronism in two respects: (1) (logical) inference of underlying values from concrete rules (rather than attending to literary features of the text) manifests cognitive anachronism, an issue manifest in biblical scholarship’s discussion of the stoning of the homicidal ox in Exod. 21:28 (s.2); (2) similarly, we see from analysis of Exod. 21:35 that the application of modern notions of literal (rather than narrative) meaning not only manifests a semiotic anachronism but here also obscures the institutional origins of many of the rules in a system heavily reliant on self-help and informal settlement (s.3). At the same time, we find in the patterning of remedies exemplification of a basic Saussurean principle: the meaning of a term (here, a rule) is a function of its relationship to other terms in the same semantic system. In this context, there is a structural principle which correlates degrees of remedy with degrees of fault. However, in the history of their literary reception from the ancient sources, we find that particular rules (particularly where liability is based on scienter) take on new meanings in the context of the system into which they are received (s.4). In addition to the goring ox/pauperies/scienter/traditions, the legal systems here studied also offer remedies for depasturation. The relationship between the two sets of remedies is discussed in terms of a Greimassian-inspired analysis of the “narrative typifications of action” which underlie them, and which help to explain (at a factual or narrative, rather than doctrinal level) why some cases appear “easy” while others present themselves as “hard” (s.5). This is distinguishable from the doctrinal formulations of the distinctions between these sets of remedies, which in both the Jewish and Roman sources import an Aristotelian, teleological conception of nature (reflecting contingent social values, themselves analysable, in semiotic terms, as modalities), which only in later times was modified in favour of a more purely descriptive conception. These doctrinal accounts reflect professionalisation not only in their forms of discourse, but also in the institutional structures they presuppose (s.6). I conclude (s.7) with an attempt more precisely to formulate this correlation between the semiotic and institutional development, insisting that professional dogmatic discourse should not be understood simply as reflecting a higher level of cognitive development, but must also take account of the pragmatics of the particular professional discourse.

Stress reactivity in 15-month-old infants: links with infant temperament, cognitive competence, and attachment security.

In a sample of eighty-five 15-month-old infants, salivary cortisol was obtained prior to and following a potentially stressful episode in which the child was confronted with a stranger and with a frightening robot. Infant characteristics such as anger proneness, cognitive competence, and attachment security were expected to be related to cortisol reactivity during the stressful event. The results showed higher cortisol reactivity in more anger-prone infants and in infants with higher levels of cognitive development as assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (N. Bayley, 1969). Attachment security, assessed with the Attachment Q-Set (AQS; E. Waters, 1995), was found to moderate the relation between cognitive level and cortisol reactivity; the positive relation between cognitive development and cortisol response was found in only infants with low AQS security scores. The findings may have important implications for research in the development of self-regulation in humans as well as in studies with animals.

Cognitive Characteristics for Learning Visual Basic

This research investigated the cognitive characteristics for learning a visual programming language, Visual Basic. It replicated an earlier study by White (72) that used C++, an object-oriented programming language. The two cognitive characteristics investigated in this research with Visual Basic were 1) cognitive development, as measured by the Proposition Logic Test (PLT) and 2) cognitive hemispheric style, as measured by the Hemispheric Mode Indicator (HMI). Prior research has shown that object-oriented and procedural programming involves a high level of cognitive development and that procedural programmers are left brain hemispheric style thinkers. The findings from this study using a visual programming language, contradicts prior research with other programming paradigms. This study found visual programming being left cognitive hemispheric style, just like procedural programming. However, cognitive development was unimportant. While procedural and object-oriented languages require a high cognitive development level, visual programming languages require a lower level. This supports the theory that different programming language paradigms require different cognitive characteristics (73).

Cognitive Characteristics for Learning C++

This research investigated the cognitive characteristics for learning C++. The two cognitive characteristics investigated in this research were 1) cognitive development, as measured by the Proposition Logic Test (PLT) and 2) cognitive hemispheric style as measured by the Hemispheric Mode Indicator (HMI). Prior research has shown that programming involves logic, a high level of cognitive development and that programmers are left brain thinkers. The findings from this study support prior research for logic and cognitive development characteristics for programming. What was different was cognitive hemispheric style. This study found C++ as being cognitive hemispheric style friendly. Right and whole brain thinkers can learn C++. This contradicts prior research. The only difference between this study and prior research is that C++ uses object-oriented concepts. Prior research used procedural programming languages. Further research with the cognitive characteristics of object-oriented programming is warranted.

Influence of Culture-Related Experiences and Sociodemographic Risk Factors on Cognitive Readiness Among Preschoolers

A national sample of 4-year-old preschoolers (N = 1,710) extracted from the 1993 National Household Education Survey (National Center for Education Statistics) was analyzed to investigate factors that influence cognitive readiness. Results indicated that exposure to culture-related activities may ameliorate the absence of a center-based program for low-risk children. For children typically considered to be "at risk," culture-related experiences were associated with (a) higher levels of cognitive development, regardless of program attendance and (b) lower variability in cognitive readiness. This suggests that culture-related activities are potentially more beneficial for at-risk children with initially lower levels of cognitive readiness. Results also suggest that parental involvement is more likely to enhance a child's cognitive development when the activities consist of culture-related activities. This may be attributed to (a) culture-related activities being better ways to enhance the cognitive skill of a child, or (b) a lack of such activities in center-based programs.

Comparison of the development of formal thought in adolescent cohorts aged 10 to 15 years (1967-1996 and 1972-1993).

Five standard Piagetian tests were administered to 180 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 15 years. The results were compared with those obtained in 1967 and in 1972 for similar participant samples. At equal ages, today's adolescents exhibited a higher level of cognitive development than the adolescents of 20 or 30 years ago. The amount of gain observed varied across tasks, being very large for combinatory thought but mixed for conservation. This acceleration of cognitive development can partially explain the continuous rise in intelligence test performance (Flynn effect).

Supervising the child care counselor: A cognitive developmental model

A cognitive developmental model of counselor supervision was used to create a curriculum specific to the challenges facing supervisors in residential treatment settings for aggressive/assaultive youth. A significant body of research indicates that higher levels of cognitive development predict successful functioning in areas related to counseling and supervision, including greater empathic communication, more autonomy and interdependence, and more flexible counseling and teaching methods. Evaluations of the model were positive; supervisors reported feeling rejuvenated and more confident about providing supervision. The 14-week program model and curriculum are described, and implications for further application in the child care field are explored.

Cognitive development and problem solving of Afro‐American students in chemistry

AbstractThe aims of this study were to investigate the level of cognitive development of Afro‐American students enrolled in general chemistry courses at the college level and to determine the strategies used by both successful and unsuccessful Afro‐American students in solving specific types of stoichiometric problems. It was found that the choice of a strategy is not significantly related to cognitive development of the student in specific types of stoichiometric problems. However, the following trend was noted: Students who are formal‐operational in thought are more likely to be successful when solving mole‐volume problems and complex mole‐mole problems than are their concrete‐operational counterparts. Additionally, a systematic strategy proved to be successful for the students, regardless of the cognitive development, when balancing simple and complex chemical equations. Also, algorithmic/reasoning strategies were needed to solve the mole‐volume problem. A higher level of cognitive development and reasoning may be crucial factors in solving the more sophisticated types of problems in stoichiometry.

Cognitive Development and the “One Foundation” Controversy

Abstract Accreditation standards for graduate and undergraduate social work programs are based on the policy that there is a single professional foundation. But is this an appropriate policy if the undergraduate and graduate students are quite different in their developmental levels? This study compared the cognitive development of students beginning their social work education at the bachelor's level with that of students beginning at the graduate level. Although the groups were similar in their levels of commitment and empathy, graduate students scored significantly higher in their ability to see situations in more mature and complex ways. If further research supports our contention that graduate students are at a higher level of cognitive development, is the same foundation content (which includes knowledge, skills, values, and experiential learning in the field) appropriate at both levels?

The relationships among cognitive development, locus of control, and gender

Research has shown that perhaps 50% of all adults in this country are not able to perform abstract reasoning tasks described as formal opertions in the Piagetian cognitive developmental framework. Abstract reasoning is related to an individual's ability to perceive contingencies between their actions and subsequent outcomes. This pattern is seen as crucial for the development of an internal locus of control. Fifty-eight male and female undergraduates completed the Rotter Internal-External scale and a Cognitive Developmental Level assessment. For women, a highly significant inverse relationship was demonstrated between cognitive developmental level and locus of control. Women with higher levels of cognitive development were more likely to be internal. For men, no such relationship was found. Such results suggest that locus of control develops differently in men and women.

Emotional and Social Problem-Solving Thinking in Gifted and Average Elementary School Children

Summary Matched populations of intellectually gifted and average elementary aged children were administered measures of social and emotional problem-solving thinking to examine the theoretical notion that, after age 11, cognitive development, and cognitive problem-solving skills development are interrelated, with development in one area facilitating the others. An analysis of the Means-Ends Problem-Solving scores of both groups supports the notion that a high level of cognitive development does play a role in advanced interpersonal and intrapersonal cognitive problem-solving skill development. The intellectually gifted child appears to have advanced cognitive ability, especially at an age when formal operational abstract thinking is possible.

Developmental changes in sensitivity to the content, formal, and affective dimensions of paintings

The ability of children, adolescents, and adults to analyze the content, formal, and affective dimensions of paintings was determined by asking subjects to describe similarities and differences between paintings. Content or subject matter was an important criterion of similarity for all subjects but was most salient for the preoperational aged children. Content can be regarded as the surface structure of the painting because its perception involves a direct correspondence between physical objects and events and their pictorial representations. Older children, adolescents, and adults operating at higher levels of cognitive development mentioned similarities in formal qualities such as line, shape, style, etc., and in affective or emotional qualities more often than did the younger children. Formal and affective dimensions can be regarded as the deep structure of the painting, since the perception of these elements requires the understanding that paintings also represent ideas, feelings, and experiences about reality.