An Analogical Paradox for Nonhuman Primates: Bridging the Perceptual-Conceptual Gap

Over the past few decades, the dominant view by comparative psychologists of analogical reasoning in nonhuman primates was one of dichotomy between apes, including humans, and monkeys: the distinction between the analogical ape and paleological monkey (Thompson & Oden, 2000). Whereas evidence for analogy proper by representation reinterpretation in monkeys is sparse and debated, the gap between that which is analogic and paleologic has been narrowed by the studies presented here. Representation of relational concepts important for analogy proves difficult for rhesus and capuchin monkeys without the ability to rely on a greater amount of perceptual variability, implicating a perceptually-bound predisposition in problem-solving (Chapters 2-3). A shift in attention from perceptual features to abstract concepts for employment in relational matching is again difficult, but not impossible given cognitive incentive in the form of differential outcomes to refocus attention on conceptual properties (Chapter 4). Finally, chimpanzees unlike monkeys appear more apt to reason by analogy, perhaps due to a more default conceptual focus (Chapter 5). Taken together, these studies provide an account for the emergence of analogical reasoning skills throughout the primate lineage in contrast to views regarding analogy a hallmark of human intelligence

An investigation of the effects of background television on attention, performance, learning and executive functioning in preschoolers

Given the omnipresence of television in children’s lives, it is important to know what effect it may have on attention, executive functioning (EF) and learning. This study investigated effects of background television (BTV) on attention to, and memory for, storybook details, a puzzle strategy, and performance on an EF task in 108 preschoolers during an adult-child interaction. Parents reported children’s BTV exposure and screen media use and rated their everyday EF. Results showed BTV reduced attention to all tasks but only on more challenging tasks was performance also affected. BTV interfered with encoding such that delayed but not immediate story recall was diminished. On the easier puzzle task, scores were equal across BTV conditions. On the EF task, children were slower, more variable, less accurate and less able to detect errors with BTV present. Very few children learned any BTV programming content, and nothing without performance cost. These results align with a limited capacity theory of attention and EF, and suggest that children can maintain performance when task demands and distractor salience combined do not overtax cognitive resources. Children with higher EF managed BTV better, though they too scored lower in its presence, suggesting EF becomes depleted when taxed. Parent reports revealed clusters of factors that correlated with EF. Specifically, in homes where BTV was more frequently on, children also watched more TV, used more devices and more often had a bedroom TV. These children were also judged by their parents as less distracted by BTV, even though they had lower EF according to task scores and parents’ own ratings on a standardized measure. BTV practices may reflect parenting styles. Parents who limit BTV may provide more of the kind of structure, such as rules and routines, that scaffolds EF development and the transition from other- to self-regulated. BTV interfered with stable, sustained, focused and shared attention on the kinds of tasks that require the most attention and effort and thus are most likely to drive cognitive development. Shared viewing of high quality children’s programming can be a part of the optimal caregiving environment, but BTV should not be

The role of mental state understanding in distinctively human cumulative cultural evolution

This thesis aimed to contribute to the existing literature exploring distinctively human cognitive mechanisms. Specifically, the aim was to investigate whether, and how, the distinctively human propensity for understanding the mental states of others (referred to commonly in the literature as ‘theory of mind’) facilitates cumulative cultural evolution. The general methodology used throughout this thesis involved grid search tasks in which participants searched for stimuli using vicarious information generated from a participant who had already attempted the same grid search. The first experimental chapter in this thesis explored the suitability of the grid search task for capturing search behaviour in response to vicarious information about search outcomes. The second experimental chapter explored adult transmission behaviour, and whether small amounts of intentionally produced information could facilitate cumulative culture relative to small amounts of inadvertently produced information. This methodology was extended to a sample of children in Chapter 4 in order to assess whether the ability to intentionally select beneficial information to facilitate cumulative culture increases with age. The final experimental chapter explored a similar task context, but instead of manipulating downward transmissions, manipulated upward transmissions to assess whether feedback from successors influences the quality of information sent by the predecessor. Together these studies explored the ability (which may be distinctive to humans) to tailor transmitted information to the needs of a specific receiver in order to best facilitate the retention of beneficial knowledge. This thesis found that the sharing of intentionally selected knowledge is sufficient for generating cumulative cultural evolution over generations, relative to circumstances where only inadvertent cues about a predecessor’s performance is available. Furthermore, the developmental trajectory found in this capacity suggests that it may be supported by distinctively human cognitive mechanisms. We believe that capacities for understanding others’ minds were responsible for the successful performance of the adults and older children in the transmission chain tasks, and we argue for the logical plausibility of this interpretation. However, other alternative interpretations of our results remain possible, and these are also discussed, along with potential future research ideas which might differentiate between competing explanations

Reward Effects and Response Latency in the Process of Internalization

Environmental Sciences - Child Developmen

The role of phonology in visual word recognition: evidence from Chinese

Posters - Letter/Word Processing V: abstract no. 5024The hypothesis of bidirectional coupling of orthography and phonology predicts that phonology plays a role in visual word recognition, as observed in the effects of feedforward and feedback spelling to sound consistency on lexical decision. However, because orthography and phonology are closely related in alphabetic languages (homophones in alphabetic languages are usually orthographically similar), it is difficult to exclude an influence of orthography on phonological effects in visual word recognition. Chinese languages contain many written homophones that are orthographically dissimilar, allowing a test of the claim that phonological effects can be independent of orthographic similarity. We report a study of visual word recognition in Chinese based on a mega-analysis of lexical decision performance with 500 characters. The results from multiple regression analyses, after controlling for orthographic frequency, stroke number, and radical frequency, showed main effects of feedforward and feedback consistency, as well as interactions between these variables and phonological frequency and number of homophones. Implications of these results for resonance models of visual word recognition are discussed.postprin

Interactive effects of orthography and semantics in Chinese picture naming

Posters - Language Production/Writing: abstract no. 4035Picture-naming performance in English and Dutch is enhanced by presentation of a word that is similar in form to the picture name. However, it is unclear whether facilitation has an orthographic or a phonological locus. We investigated the loci of the facilitation effect in Cantonese Chinese speakers by manipulating—at three SOAs (2100, 0, and 1100 msec)—semantic, orthographic, and phonological similarity. We identified an effect of orthographic facilitation that was independent of and larger than phonological facilitation across all SOAs. Semantic interference was also found at SOAs of 2100 and 0 msec. Critically, an interaction of semantics and orthography was observed at an SOA of 1100 msec. This interaction suggests that independent effects of orthographic facilitation on picture naming are located either at the level of semantic processing or at the lemma level and are not due to the activation of picture name segments at the level of phonological retrieval.postprin

The verbal behavior of the autistic child

Procedures were employed over a period of six months to develop communication in three non-verbal, emotionally-disturbed children who displayed autistic types of behavior as described by banner. The children were institutionalized, and, at the beginning of therapy, ranged in age from five years three months to eleven years seven months. The oldest was a girl with a hearing impairment who had been diagnosed at age four as schizophrenic (autistic type), and the two younger subjects were boys. The basic therapeutic method utilized was operant conditioning using food and social reinforcement. Negative reinforcement was a firm “No,” or immediate cessation of an activity

Development of routine and supervisory processes in sequential action control

The sequential actions that children and adults perform regularly if not daily (e.g., preparing for and going to school/work, preparing meals, and so on) are often un-der routine control in that they appear not to require overt attention. The study of routine action control in adults has benefited from influential theories, such as the Norman and Shallice’s (1986) dual-systems theory, supported by comprehensive computational models. Drawing on the latter theory, and comparing it with other existing accounts of sequential action selection, this thesis aims at improving our understanding of the development of routine action control throughout the school-age years. It investigates how children control complex action sequences, at several levels, and with the involvement of various supervisory functions (including inhibitory control and monitoring functions). It furthermore explores the interaction between the two hypothesised action control systems in children under the lens of the dual-systems theory, but also under the lens of the so-called model-free and model-based types of reinforcement learning. This is done by designing child-friendly tasks, developing a computational model, and proposing novel analysis methods for kinematics data. The findings in this thesis support the view that children use two modes of control which may follow different developmental trajectories, with a supervisory system following a more protracted development. The results furthermore suggest that the development of inhibitory control throughout the school-age years might reduce children’s propensity to interferences from environmental distractors, and might improve their abilities to select the appropriate action in an ambiguous context (e.g., when an action needs to be related more strongly to the overarching goal than to the preceding’s action) or under increased cognitive load. In conclusion, this thesis shows that by 5 or 6 years old, children readily use conjointly two modes of action control and are able to control action sequences in a routinised fashion, yet the supervisory mode of control seems to substantially improve throughout mid-childhood. It furthermore brings evidence for the fact that changes in executive functions underlie improvements in sequential action control with age

The association of early touchscreen media use with the development of visual attention and executive function

Attention plays a pivotal role in information processing by filtering the potential information available based on individual goals, states, and past experiences. Early attention control is thought to underpin and support executive functions (EFs), which in turn are predictive of later behavioural outcomes. The development of attention and EF is partly subject to environmental influences, such as the use of digital media. There is a rapid increase in accessibility and usability of mobile touchscreen devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets) in the family environment, but rigorous scientific research investigating the impact on the developing mind lags behind the widespread usage. To address this, children with different levels of touchscreen use were followed longitudinally at 12 months, 18 months, and 3.5 years, and tested on attention control (bottom-up, and top-down), and EF (updating, shifting, and inhibiting). Children with high touchscreen use were faster on single (i.e. pop-out) visual search, with the amount of concurrent use associated with the speed of bottom-up attention in a linear manner. This saliency bias was repeatedly found on saccadic control tasks, where steady longitudinal high use was associated with a quickening of attention to peripheral salient onsets with a resulting detriment to top-down performance, i.e. disengagement and inhibition of attention. Finally, top-down difficulties were also seen in EF tasks in high users at 3.5 years, particularly in processes of updating and shifting between abstract mental sets. These results point to an influence of touchscreens use on the emerging attention and EF systems, in a way that experience of salient and contingent digital content elicits automatic biases to bottom-up processing, and displaces competency of top-down control and/or increases reliance on stimulus-response pairings. Future studies are needed to demonstrate causality, and to understand long-term trajectories and the interplay between bottom-up and top-down processes over time