Generating and understanding jokes by five- and nine-year-olds as an expression of theory of mind

The main aim of the presented research is to describe children's ability to generate and understand humorous stories and pictures drawn by their peers and older or younger children. From the perspective of research on children's theories of mind, we assume that in middle childhood we will observe a transition from the basic, copy theory of mind to the interpretative one (Carpendale & Chandler, 1996). We examined 60 five- and nine-year-old children in two phases. During the first phase, the children were asked to draw a funny picture and then justify what made it funny and they had also to present the funny story. Two months later, the children were presented with some pictures chosen after the first phase as the most typical one. They had to justify why these pictures are funny. The obtained results indicate that there is a relation between the age of the subjects and the kind of interpretations of funny pictures which are consistent with the author's intentions. Significantly more nine-year-olds than five-year-olds accurately understood the author's intentions when interpreting his picture. The presented data indicate that changes in the theory of mind take place also in middle childhood and lead to a complex, interpretative theory of mind which can be discovered when researching children's understanding of jokes

Syntactic abilities in old age and their relation to working memory and cognitive flexibility

The aim of the study was to describe the syntactic abilities of elderly people taking into account possible differences between young-olds (67–75; M = 72.55, SD = 1.99) and old-olds (76–90; M = 79.88, SD = 2.92) in this area. Spontaneously produced narrations were assessed taking into account the grammatical correctness, complexity and coherence. Working memory and cognitive flexibility (visual shifting and verbal fluency) were also measured. The analysis showed that the young-olds differ from the old-olds only in the coherence of their narrations. The relation between using anaphors and working memory capacity was also proved

Repetition of FDG PET study in the same day after appropriate patient preparation revealed two new cancer localizations: a case report

A positron emission tomography scan with fluorodeoxyglucosecan be affected by several factors. Skeletal muscle activation andphysiological presence of radioactivity in urine frequently causedifficulties in images interpretation. We report a case of a patientwith a non-operable left lung cancer, who was scheduled forFDG PET examination for radiotherapy planning purposes. In thefirst scan performed in the morning both elevated muscular andurinary uptake were present. For this reason another examinationwas performed on the same day. A new dose of radiopharmaceutical was given five hours after the first FDG injection and the patient was instructed to drink a large quantity of water in themeantime. The second PET scan clearly revealed two new lesions not visible at the time of the first examination: a synchronous bladder cancer, previously not known, and a mediastinal metastasis of the primary lung cancer. This case emphasizes the importance of correct patient preparation and shows the possibility to repeat PET examination on the same day

Językowa zewnętrzna i wewnętrzna kontrola działania

External and internal language control of activityThe paper discusses the relationship between language, cognition and behavior. It shows language as an external activator (the control function of speech) and an internal organizer of thoughts (private speech, inner speech). A. Luria’s research on the control function of speech has been continued in the study of the understanding of directives; L.S. Vygotsky’s concept of forms of speech has resulted in the imaginative research on private speech conducted since the 1980s, revealing the specifi city of private speech and the important part it plays in development, while studies of inner speech have helped to explain the role of language in thinking. Research on the executive functions allows us to track links between higher cognitive processes and language. It turns out that language and communication skills and vocabulary not only correlate with the developmental level of the executive functions, but are a good predictor of their development

Wspomnienie o doktorze Janie Łuczyńskim (1957–2010)

Jan Łuczyński był związany z Krakowem i Uniwersytetem Jagiellońskim. W Krakowie się urodził, zdobył wykształcenie, założył rodzinę i rozpoczął swoją karierę naukową. Ukończył V Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Augusta Witkowskiego, a następnie podjął studia psychologiczne na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Pracę doktorską przygotowywał pod kierunkiem prof. dr hab. Marii Przetacznik-Gierowskiej, kontynuatorki badań Stefana Szumana nad rozwojem dziecka. W Zakładzie Psychologii Rozwojowej i Wychowawczej, gdzie pracował od roku 1982, pełnił funkcję asystenta i adiunkta. W 1997 roku przeniósł się do Zakładu Zarządzania w Oświacie na Wydziale Zarządzania, gdzie pełnił funkcję kierownika Zakładu oraz zastępcy dyrektora Instytutu Spraw Publicznych do spraw studenckich. Na tym wydziale był współtwórcą zarządzania humanistycznego

Czy warto dzisiaj czytać dzieła klasyków?

Prezentacja autora Stefana Szumana i jego książki Osobowość i charakter. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. Biblioteka Klasyków Psychologii. Warszawa 201

Recenzja

Recenzja: Jan Wnęk, 2012, Dziecko w polskiej literaturze naukowej 1918–1939. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Aspra – J