Visualization of database structures for information retrieval

This paper describes the Book House system, which is designed to support children's information retrieval in libraries as part of their education. It is a shareware program available on CD‐ROM or floppy disks, and comprises functionality for database searching as well as for classifying and storing book information in the database. The system concept is based on an understanding of children's domain structures and their capabilities for categorization of information needs in connection with their activities in schools, in school libraries or in public libraries. These structures are visualized in the interface by using metaphors and multimedia technology. Through the use of text, images and animation, the Book House encourages children ‐ even at a very early age ‐ to learn by doing in an enjoyable way, which plays on their previous experiences with computer games. Both words and pictures can be used for searching; this makes the system suitable for all age groups. Even children who have not yet learned to read properly can, by selecting pictures, search for and find those books they would like to have read aloud. Thus, at the very beginning of their school life, they can learn to search for books on their own. For the library community, such a system will provide an extended service which will increase the number of children's own searches and also improve the relevance, quality and utilization of the book collections in the libraries. A market research report on the need for an annual indexing service for books in the Book House format is in preparation by the Danish Library Centre A/S

Novel ways to measure future-oriented cognition: Using parent-report measures and open-ended responses to explore young children’s future thinking development

Future-oriented cognition encompasses a set of key abilities that children must develop for successful functioning in daily life including, saving, prospective memory, episodic foresight, planning, and delay of gratification. These future thinking abilities are supported by memory systems (e.g., semantic, episodic), as well as constructive processes, self-projection, and executive functions. Research primarily measures young children’s future-oriented abilities through behavioural tasks, which have various limitations and may not engage future thinking. The current studies introduce new methods to overcome some of these limitations: developing a parent-report questionnaire and examining children’s open-ended responses. In Study 1 (N = 101; Mazachowsky & Mahy, 2020), 3-to 7-year-old’s future thinking was examined to establish the psychometric properties of a new parent-report measure, The Children’s Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ). The CFTQ detected development of children’s future thinking and is a reliable and valid measure. Study 2 (N = 48; Mazachowsky et al., 2020) examined 3-to 5-year-old children’s episodic foresight using a novel, open-ended version of the Picture-book task. Results showed that children were able to generate items for future use and were more successful with age. Children’s explanations for their generated items were typically present-focused and included both episodic and semantic details. Expanding on Study 2, Study 3 (N = 158; Mazachowsky et al., revisions requested) explored 3-to 5-year-old’s explanations for their item choices on two episodic foresight tasks to determine the degree to which these tasks engaged children’s episodic and future-oriented processes. Children provided more future-oriented explanations on the Picture-book task compared to the Spoon task, but episodicity did not differ between tasks. Further, children’s Picture-book task explanations included more first-person personal pronouns compared to the Spoon task, but explanations did not differ in other pronoun use. Together, these studies show that use of a parent-report measure and examination of children’s open-ended responses offer unique insight into the development of young children’s future thinking and engagement in future-oriented processes

Verb similarity: comparing corpus and psycholinguistic data

Similarity, which plays a key role in fields like cognitive science, psycholinguistics and natural language processing, is a broad and multifaceted concept. In this work we analyse how two approaches that belong to different perspectives, the corpus view and the psycholinguistic view, articulate similarity between verb senses in Spanish. Specifically, we compare the similarity between verb senses based on their argument structure, which is captured through semantic roles, with their similarity defined by word associations. We address the question of whether verb argument structure, which reflects the expression of the events, and word associations, which are related to the speakers' organization of the mental lexicon, shape similarity between verbs in a congruent manner, a topic which has not been explored previously. While we find significant correlations between verb sense similarities obtained from these two approaches, our findings also highlight some discrepancies between them and the importance of the degree of abstraction of the corpus annotation and psycholinguistic representations.La similitud, que desempeña un papel clave en campos como la ciencia cognitiva, la psicolingüística y el procesamiento del lenguaje natural, es un concepto amplio y multifacético. En este trabajo analizamos cómo dos enfoques que pertenecen a diferentes perspectivas, la visión del corpus y la visión psicolingüística, articulan la semejanza entre los sentidos verbales en español. Específicamente, comparamos la similitud entre los sentidos verbales basados en su estructura argumental, que se capta a través de roles semánticos, con su similitud definida por las asociaciones de palabras. Abordamos la cuestión de si la estructura del argumento verbal, que refleja la expresión de los acontecimientos, y las asociaciones de palabras, que están relacionadas con la organización de los hablantes del léxico mental, forman similitud entre los verbos de una manera congruente, un tema que no ha sido explorado previamente. Mientras que encontramos correlaciones significativas entre las similitudes de los sentidos verbales obtenidas de estos dos enfoques, nuestros hallazgos también resaltan algunas discrepancias entre ellos y la importancia del grado de abstracción de la anotación del corpus y las representaciones psicolingüísticas.La similitud, que exerceix un paper clau en camps com la ciència cognitiva, la psicolingüística i el processament del llenguatge natural, és un concepte ampli i multifacètic. En aquest treball analitzem com dos enfocaments que pertanyen a diferents perspectives, la visió del corpus i la visió psicolingüística, articulen la semblança entre els sentits verbals en espanyol. Específicament, comparem la similitud entre els sentits verbals basats en la seva estructura argumental, que es capta a través de rols semàntics, amb la seva similitud definida per les associacions de paraules. Abordem la qüestió de si l'estructura de l'argument verbal, que reflecteix l'expressió dels esdeveniments, i les associacions de paraules, que estan relacionades amb l'organització dels parlants del lèxic mental, formen similitud entre els verbs d'una manera congruent, un tema que no ha estat explorat prèviament. Mentre que trobem correlacions significatives entre les similituds dels sentits verbals obtingudes d'aquests dos enfocaments, les nostres troballes també ressalten algunes discrepàncies entre ells i la importància del grau d'abstracció de l'anotació del corpus i les representacions psicolingüístiques

Schemata for reading and reading comprehension performance

Bibliography: leaves 51-56Supported by the National Institute of Educatio

Children's acquisition of science terms: simple exposure is insufficient

The ability of school children (N = 233) to acquire new scientific vocabulary was examined. Children from two age groups (M = 4;8 and M = 6;5) were introduced to previously unknown words in an educational video. Word knowledge was assessed through accuracy and latency for production and comprehension over a nine month period. A draw and write task assessed acquisition of domain knowledge. Word learning was poorer than has previously been reported in the literature, and subject to influences of word type (domain-specificity) and word class. The results indicate that the acquisition of scientific terms is a complex process moderated by lexical, semantic and pragmatic factors

The development of reasoning heuristics in autism and in typical development

Reasoning and judgment under uncertainty are often based on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than formal logic or rule-based argumentation. Heuristics are low-effort mental shortcuts, which save time and effort, and usually result in accurate judgment, but they can also lead to systematic errors and biases when applied inappropriately. In the past 40 years hundreds of papers have been published on the topic of heuristics and biases in judgment and decision making. However, we still know surprisingly little about the development and the cognitive underpinnings of heuristics and biases. The main aim of my thesis is to examine these questions. Another aim is to evaluate the applicability of dual-process theories of reasoning to the development of reasoning. Dual-process theories claim that there are two types of process underlying higher order reasoning: fast, automatic, and effortless (Type 1) processes (which are usually associated with the use of reasoning heuristics), and slow, conscious and effortful (Type 2) processes (which are usually associated with rule-based reasoning). This thesis presents eight experiments which investigated the development of reasoning heuristics in three different populations: typically developing children and adolescents between the age of 5 and 16, adolescents with autism, and university students. Although heuristic reasoning is supposed to be basic, simple, and effortless, we have found evidence that responses that are usually attributed to heuristic processes are positively correlated with cognitive capacity in the case of young children (even after controlling for the effects of age). Moreover, we have found that adolescents with autism are less susceptible to a number of reasoning heuristics than typically developing children. Finally, our experiments with university students provided evidence that education in statistics increases the likelihood of the inappropriate use of a certain heuristic (the equiprobability bias). These results offer a novel insight into the development of reasoning heuristics. Additionally, they have interesting implications for dual-process theories of reasoning, and they can also inform the debates about the rationality of reasoning heuristics and biases

Knowledge Selection in Category-Based Inductive Reasoning

Current theories of category-based inductive reasoning can be distinguished by the emphasis they place on structured and unstructured knowledge. Theories which draw on unstructured knowledge focus on associative strength, or temporal and spatial contiguity between categories. In contrast, accounts which draw on structured knowledge make reference to the underlying theoretical frameworks which relate categories to one another, such as causal or taxonomic relationships. In this thesis, it is argued that this apparent dichotomy can be resolved if one ascribes different processing characteristics to these two types of knowledge. That is, unstructured knowledge influences inductive reasoning effortlessly and relatively automatically, whereas the use of structured knowledge requires effort and the availability of cognitive resources. Understanding these diverging processes illuminates how background knowledge is selected during the inference process. The thesis demonstrates that structured and unstructured knowledge are dissociable and influence reasoning in line with their unique processing characteristics. Using secondary task and speeded response paradigms, it shows that unstructured knowledge is most influential when people are cognitively burdened or forced to respond fast, whereas they can draw on more elaborate structured knowledge if they are not cognitively compromised. This is especially evident for the causal asymmetry effect, in which people make stronger inferences from cause to effect categories, than vice versa. This Bayesian normative effect disappears when people have to contend with a secondary task or respond under time pressure. The next experiments demonstrate that this dissociation between structured and unstructured knowledge is also evident for a more naturalistic inductive reasoning paradigm in which people generate their own inferences. In the final experiments, it is shown how the selection of appropriate knowledge ties in with more domain-general processes, and especially inhibitory control. When responses based on structured and unstructured knowledge conflict, people’s ability to reason based on appropriate structured knowledge depends upon having relevant background knowledge and on their ability to inhibit the lure from inappropriate unstructured knowledge. The thesis concludes with a discussion of how the concepts of structured and unstructured knowledge illuminate the processes underlying knowledge selection for category-based inductive reasoning. It also looks at the implications the findings have for different theories of category-based induction, and for our understanding of human reasoning processes more generally

Typicality and Familiarity Effects in Children\u27s Memory: the Interaction of Processing and the Knowledge Base.

Third- and sixth-graders and adults participated in an experiment based upon Hunt and Einstein\u27s (1981) theory which relates study activities or processing task to subsequent memory performance. Participants performed a processing task designed to emphasize either relational or item-specific information. In addition, the information about the words available in each subject\u27s knowledge base was measured in two ways: relational information was assessed with a typicality rating task and item-specific information was assessed with an attribute listing task. The experiment consisted of three phases. In the first phase subjects performed one of two processing tasks on a list containing typical, atypical and unfamiliar exemplers of a semantic category. One group of subjects sorted the words into categories (the relational task) the other group rated the words for pleasantness (the item-specific task). In the second phase, subjects\u27 memory for the words was tested on a free recall test. In the third phase the knowledge base assessment tasks were performed. The knowledge base measures indicated: the relative amount of relational versus item-specific information available for typical, atypical and unfamiliar words is different for each type of word and that amount of relational and item-specific information in the knowledge base changes with age. As predicted by the theory, recall was influenced by the interaction of word type with processing task. Finally, parallels between free recall results and the knowledge base measures indicated that knowledge base development interacts with the processing task to influence what is recalled by subjects at the three age levels

Vocabulary and Phonological Awareness in 3- to 4-Year-Old Children: Effects of a Training Program

The impact of a preschool training program that combined a vocabulary instruction strategy with phonological awareness activities and instruction in the alphabetic principle, as well as incidental teaching of basic vocabulary items was evaluated using a pretest-posttest design with a control group. This language and literacy (LL) training targeted three to four year-old English as a second language (L2) learners and monolingual (L1) English speakers (n = 63) and was conducted twice a week for two hours, for a total of 24 weeks. Both language groups contained a low socioeconomic status (SES) and a middle SES groups. The children in the control group attended a math intervention (n= 17) or general Early Years programs (n = 6). The results of analyses, controlling for non-verbal reasoning, show that children in the LL training group significantly outperformed the children in the control group on performance on the posttest measures of standardized vocabulary (PPVT-III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997) and letter-sound identification. It is remarkable that at posttest the English L2 children had scores similar to the range of English L1 children at pretest. That is, with this LL training program, at posttest the English L2 children reached the pretest levels of English L1 children. These are the levels of vocabulary knowledge that native speakers will typically have when they start kindergarten. One of the implications of this research is that only an early provision of a vocabulary training program in which conceptual linkages between words are emphasized in a flexible and rich manner can lead to meaningful changes in vocabulary development. In contrast, teaching words does not meaningfully increase general vocabulary knowledge, a result that is supported by a plethora of research to date