scholarly journals Investigating Adolescent Discourse in Critical Thinking: Monologic Responses to Stories Containing a Moral Dilemma

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 630-643
Author(s):  
Adele K. Wallis ◽  
Marleen F. Westerveld ◽  
Allison M. Waters ◽  
Pamela C. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Developmental Task ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Language Sampling ◽  
Older Adolescents

Purpose The adolescent developmental task of establishing autonomy from parents is supported through various aspects of executive functioning, including critical thinking. Our aim was to investigate younger and older adolescent language performance in form, content, and use in response to a moral dilemma task. Method Forty-four typically developing adolescents completed a language sampling task, responding to stories that contained a moral dilemma for one of the characters. Two age groups participated: younger adolescents ( n = 24, 12;2–13;11 [years;months]) and older adolescents ( n = 20, 16;1–17;11). Participants produced a monologue in response to an open-ended question prompt. Responses were transcribed and analyzed for discourse production on measures of form (verbal productivity and syntactic complexity) and content (semantic diversity and word percentages in three semantic domains: affective, social, and cognitive). Language use was evaluated using a coding system based on Bloom's revised taxonomy of thinking. Results There were no significant group differences in performance on measures of syntactic complexity and semantic diversity. Significant differences were found in adolescents' language using Bloom's revised taxonomy. The younger adolescents demonstrated a significantly higher proportion of utterances at Level 1 (remembering and understanding) compared to older adolescents, while the older age group produced a higher proportion at Level 3 (evaluating and creating). Conclusions The moral dilemma task was effective in demonstrating the growth of adolescent language skills in use of language for critical thinking. The results highlight the clinical utility of the moral dilemma task in engaging adolescents in discourse involving critical thinking, whereas the associated coding scheme, based on Bloom's revised taxonomy of thinking, may differentiate levels of critical thinking and provide direction for intervention.

How Adolescents Interpret the Moral Messages of Fables: Examining the Development of Critical Thinking

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1212-1226
Author(s):  
Marilyn A. Nippold ◽  
Scott LaFavre ◽  
Kristin Shinham
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Core State ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Language Sampling ◽  
The Common

Purpose Critical thinking pervades formal educational benchmarks in the United States, including the Common Core State Standards. However, little information is available on how it develops. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the development of critical thinking in adolescents using a written language-sampling task. We also examined related aspects of development: verbal productivity, syntactic complexity, and metacognitive verb use. Method The participants included two groups of adolescents, aged 13 and 16 years ( n = 40 per group). All testing took place in classrooms at a middle school or high school. Participants read four fables by the Greek storyteller Aesop (circa 620–560 B.C.) and explained in writing why they agreed or disagreed with the moral message of each story. To examine critical thinking, we evaluated their explanations using a unique 0- to 4-point scoring system. We also examined each participant's transcript for verbal productivity, syntactic complexity, and metacognitive verb use. Results On the critical thinking task, the 16-year-olds outperformed the 13-year-olds, providing explanations that were more elaborate and detailed. However, there were many individual differences within groups, and even the older group did not consistently perform at the highest level, indicating that critical thinking is a late-developing ability. Age-related gains also occurred on verbal productivity and metacognitive verb use but not on syntactic complexity. Conclusion Information gleaned from this study demonstrates how critical thinking develops during adolescence but remains incomplete. The study also has implications for assessing critical thinking in adolescents and knowing how to prompt complex language and thought. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12100989

scholarly journals Moral Orientation Dynamics in Adolescence and Youth

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 134-146
Author(s):  
S.V. Molchanov ◽  
O.S. Markina
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Young Adolescents ◽  
Moral Orientation ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Different Levels

The problem of moral development is actual for modern psychology. Modern conception of moral development defines two main principles in the basis of moral orientation: care principle and justice principle. Adolescence and youth are sensitive period to develop moral orientation. 139 subjects from three age groups: young adolescents, older adolescents and youth took part in the investigation. Results shows age dynamic of moral judgments preferences, moral dilemma solving with different levels of motivation to achieve and be approved.

scholarly journals The Development of Syntactic Complexity in Thai Children’s Narratives

MANUSYA ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-74
Author(s):  
Suthasinee Piyapasuntra
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Children's Narratives ◽  
Language Pattern ◽  
Accurate Comparison

This article aims to present two essential points. Firstly, syntactic complexity value is an indicator of language development of children, especially in relation to narratives due to maturation and increased cognitive development. Secondly, complexity is measurable and assessable. This article argues that syntactic complexity as numerically measured has benefits for studying the close development of children in different age groups in which differences of language pattern and innovation may not be readily discerned. In order for a more accurate comparison between different age groups, the information employed was narratives of Thai children in the CHILDES database, Thai Frog Story series. The age groups were divided into 4 tiers: 4, 6, 9 and 11 years old respectively. Each group contained ten children which were compared to ten adults. The study found that syntactic complexity of children’s narratives develops increasingly until it resembles to that of adults.

scholarly journals Comparison of epidemiology, treatments, and outcomes in pediatric versus adult ependymoma

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aladine A Elsamadicy ◽  
Andrew B Koo ◽  
Wyatt B David ◽  
Victor Lee ◽  
Cheryl K Zogg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Radiation Treatment ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Anatomical Location ◽  
Seer Database ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
All Cause Mortality ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Mounting evidence supports the presence of heterogeneity in the presentation of ependymoma patients with respect to location, histopathology, and behavior between pediatric and adult patients. However, the influence of age on treatment outcomes in ependymoma remains obscure. Methods The SEER database years 1975–2016 were queried. Patients with a diagnosis of ependymoma were identified using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, Third Edition, coding system. Patients were classified into one of 4 age groups: children (age 0–12 years), adolescents (age 13–21 years), young adults (age 22–45 years), and older adults (age >45 years). The weighed multivariate analysis assessed the impact of age on survival outcomes following surgical treatment. Results There were a total of 6076 patients identified with ependymoma, of which 1111 (18%) were children, 529 (9%) were adolescents, 2039 (34%) were young adults, and 2397 (40%) were older adults. There were statistically significant differences between cohorts with respect to race (P < .001), anatomical location (P < .001), extent of resection (P < .001), radiation use (P < .001), tumor grade (P < .001), histological classification (P < .001), and all-cause mortality (P < .001). There was no significant difference between cohorts with respect to gender (P = .103). On multivariate logistic regression, factors associated with all-cause mortality rates included males (vs females), supratentorial location (vs spinal cord tumors), and radiation treatment (vs no radiation). Conclusions Our study using the SEER database demonstrates the various demographic and treatment risk factors that are associated with increased rates of all-cause mortality between the pediatric and adult populations following a diagnosis of ependymoma.

scholarly journals Effects of semantic plausibility, syntactic complexity and n-gram frequency on children's sentence repetition

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Kamila POLIŠENSKÁ ◽  
Shula CHIAT ◽  
Jakub SZEWCZYK ◽  
Katherine E. TWOMEY
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
N Gram ◽  
Semantic Plausibility ◽  
Post Hoc

Abstract Theories of language processing differ with respect to the role of abstract syntax and semantics vs surface-level lexical co-occurrence (n-gram) frequency. The contribution of each of these factors has been demonstrated in previous studies of children and adults, but none have investigated them jointly. This study evaluated the role of all three factors in a sentence repetition task performed by children aged 4–7 and 11–12 years. It was found that semantic plausibility benefitted performance in both age groups; syntactic complexity disadvantaged the younger group but benefitted the older group; while contrary to previous findings, n-gram frequency did not facilitate, and in a post-hoc analysis even hampered, performance. This new evidence suggests that n-gram frequency effects might be restricted to the highly constrained and frequent n-grams used in previous investigations, and that semantics and morphosyntax play a more powerful role than n-gram frequency, supporting the role of abstract linguistic knowledge in children's sentence processing.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Speaking Rate in Preschool Children Who Stutter

1999 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1367-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Dailey Hall ◽  
Ofer Amir ◽  
Ehud Yairi
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Preschool Age ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Rate Of Speech

Both clinical and theoretical interest in stuttering as a disorder of speech motor control has led to numerous investigations of speaking rate in people who stutter. The majority of these studies, however, has been conducted with adult and school-age groups. Most studies of preschoolers have included older children. Despite the ongoing theoretical and clinical focus on speaking rate in young children who stutter and their parents, no longitudinal or cross-sectional studies have been conducted to answer questions about the possible developmental link between stuttering and the rate of speech, or about differences in rate development between preschool children who stutter and normally fluent children. This investigation compared changes in articulatory rate over a period of 2 years in subgroups of preschool-age children who stutter and normally fluent children. Within the group of stuttering children, comparisons also were made between those who exhibited persistent stuttering and those who eventually recovered without intervention. Furthermore, the study compared two metrics of articulatory rate. Spontaneous speech samples, collected longitudinally over a 2-year period, were analyzed acoustically to determine speaking rate measured in number of syllables and phones per second. Results indicated no differences among the 3 groups when articulation rate was measured in syllables per second. Using the phones per second measure, however, significant group differences were found when comparing the control group to the recovered and persistent groups.

The Differentiation of Coping Traits in Adolescence

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Kavsěk ◽  
Inge Seiffge-Krenke
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Avoidance Coping ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Cognitive Components ◽  
Older Adolescents ◽  
Over Time

The present study investigates the process of coping with daily problems during adolescence. Coping is conceptualised as a trait-like construct and, as such, is seen as being stable over time. This assumption is tested by constructing coping factors for two different age groups of adolescents (11- to 16 year-olds vs. 17- to 19-year-olds). According to the results, the younger subjects use approach and avoidance coping factors. However, for the older adolescents, the approach dimension is differentiated into behavioural and cognitive components, whereas the avoidance dimension remains the same. The results also indicate that the girls in both age groups have significantly higher values in approach-oriented coping than boys.

A Pragmatic Aspect of Language Sampling

1979 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O. Haynes ◽  
Elizabeth Purcell ◽  
Maureen D. Haynes
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Language Sampling ◽  
Picture Description ◽  
Pragmatic Aspect ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

This investigation studied language sampling with normal four- and six-year-old children in three conditions: (1) conversation; (2) picture description with the experimenter and child looking at the stimuli; and (3) picture description with the experimenter unable to view the stimuli with the child. The results show statistically significant differences in Developmental Sentence Score and MLU between the age groups and among the experimental conditions. They suggest that children of these ages are able to alter their linguistic behavior as a result of the listener’s perspective. Implications for language sampling and future research are discussed.

Lifespan Differences in Adult Thinking about Hypothetical and Personal Moral Issues: Reflection or Regression?

1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
Gail Golding ◽  
Patricia Kerig
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Role Taking ◽  
Older Subjects

Recent work on aging and moral judgment has investigated the claim that older adults may show a regression in their average stage level of moral judgment, compared with younger groups. A second line of work has suggested that at least some elderly adults may be more reflective in their thinking regarding moral and ethical issues (e.g. Kohlberg, 1973). The present research was designed to investigate these issues with respect to hypothetical and real-life moral judgment. Subjects were 60 adults in three age groups: 18-24 years, 30-45 years, and 60-75 years. Each responded to the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview and to the personal moral dilemma task of Gilligan. Measures of stage level and of reported use of perspectivetaking processes, as well as analyses of the content of personal dilemmas, were obtained. Results showed no average stage level differences between the age or sex groups. Hypothetical stage scores were significantly higher than real-life scores overall. There were no age differences in reported role-taking processes on hypothetical dilemmas, though there were sex differences, with men more likely to report adopting a third-party, observer role. Finally, older subjects produced significantly more varied reflections on their personal dilemmas.

Sex differences in syntactic development: Evidence from Cantonese-speaking preschoolers in Hong Kong

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 509-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shek Kam Tse ◽  
Carol Chan ◽  
Sin Mee Kwong ◽  
Hui Li
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Utterances produced during spontaneous play activities by 180 Cantonese-speaking children, ranging in age from 3 to 5 years, were analysed with the focus on declaratives. Syntactic development was gauged in terms of changes in the mean length of utterance, sentence type and structure, syntactic complexity, and verb pattern, and age-related develpments in these were found. Significant sex differences were found in syntactic development, with girls outperforming boys in mean utterance length, some sentence types and structures, and syntactic complexity, with a significant age by sex interaction in the group of 4-year-olds. The period between age 3 and age 4 was identified as critical for syntactic development, as many linguistic changes occurred in this time. Growth in the ability to use compound sentences was found to be the most significant contributor to increased mean length of utterance. Biological, psychological, and sociocontextual factors influencing these sex differences in language performance are explored and discussed. The generality of the educational implications is discussed.

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