scholarly journals Is the most representative skunk the average or the stinkiest? Developmental changes in representations of biological categories

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Foster-Hanson ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Extreme Values ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Biological Reasoning

People often think of categories in terms of their most representative examples (e.g., robin for BIRD). Thus, determining which exemplars are most representative is a fundamental cognitive process that shapes how people use concepts to navigate the world. The present studies (N = 669; ages 5 years – adulthood) revealed developmental change in this important component of cognition. Studies 1-2 found that young children view exemplars with extreme values of characteristic features (e.g., the very fastest cheetah) as most representative of familiar biological categories; the tendency to view average exemplars in this manner (e.g., the average-speeded cheetah) emerged slowly across age. Study 3 examined the mechanisms underlying these judgments, and found that participants of all ages viewed extreme exemplars as representative of novel animal categories when they learned that the variable features fulfilled category-specific adaptive needs, but not otherwise. Implications for developmental changes in conceptual structure and biological reasoning are discussed.

scholarly journals Epistemic trust: Modeling children’s reasoning about others’ knowledge and intent

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Shafto ◽  
Baxter Eaves ◽  
Danielle Navarro ◽  
Amy Perfors
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Epistemic Trust ◽  
Trust Modeling ◽  
The World

A core assumption of many theories of development is that children can learn indirectly from other people. However, indirect experience (or testimony) is not constrained to provide veridical information. As a result, if children are to capitalize on this source of knowledge, they must be able to infer who is trustworthy and who is not. How might a learner make such inferences while at the same time learning about the world? What biases, if any, might children bring to this problem? We address these questions with a computational model of epistemic trust in which learners reason about the helpfulness and knowledgeability of an informant. We show that the model captures the competencies shown by young children in four areas: (1) using informants’ accuracy to infer how much to trust them; (2) using informants’ recent accuracy to overcome effects of familiarity; (3) inferring trust based on consensus among informants; and (4) using information about mal‐intent to decide not to trust. The model also explains developmental changes in performance between 3 and 4 years of age as a result of changing default assumptions about the helpfulness of other people.

scholarly journals Developmental changes in strategies for gathering evidence about biological kinds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Foster-Hanson ◽  
Kelsey Moty ◽  
Amanda Cardarelli ◽  
John Daryl Ocampo ◽  
Marjorie Rhodes
Keyword(s):  
Inductive Reasoning ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Gradual Shift ◽  
The World

How do people gather samples of evidence to learn about the world? Adults often prefer to sample evidence from diverse sources—for example, choosing to test a robin and a turkey to find out if something is true of birds in general. Children below age 9, however, often do not consider sample diversity, instead treating non-diverse samples (e.g., two robins) and diverse samples as equivalently informative. The current study (N = 247) found that this discontinuity stems from developmental changes in standards for evaluating evidence—younger children chose to learn from exemplars that best approximate idealized views of what category members are supposed to be like (e.g., the fastest cheetahs), with a gradual shift across age towards samples that cover more within-category variation (e.g., cheetahs of varying speeds). Implications for the relation between conceptual structure and inductive reasoning, and for the mechanisms underlying inductive reasoning more generally, will be discussed.

Children show adult-like hippocampal pattern separation for familiar but not novel events

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Benear ◽  
Elizabeth A. Horwath ◽  
Emily Cowan ◽  
M. Catalina Camacho ◽  
Chi Ngo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Pattern Separation ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Similarity Analysis ◽  
Separation Processes ◽  
Parahippocampal Cortex ◽  
Pattern Similarity

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) undergoes critical developmental change throughout childhood, which aligns with developmental changes in episodic memory. We used representational similarity analysis to compare neural pattern similarity for children and adults in hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex during naturalistic viewing of clips from the same movie or different movies. Some movies were more familiar to participants than others. Neural pattern similarity was generally lower for clips from the same movie, indicating that related content taxes pattern separation-like processes. However, children showed this effect only for movies with which they were familiar, whereas adults showed the effect consistently. These data suggest that children need more exposures to stimuli in order to show mature pattern separation processes.

scholarly journals ‘I was really, really shocked’: A sociological exploration of the transition experiences of English Youth Academy male footballers from school to work

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022110054
Author(s):  
Nicola Hague ◽  
Graeme Law
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
School To Work ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Professional Experiences ◽  
Transitional Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types

The world of football arguably brings together and unites people in support of their teams and countries, while inspiring young children and adolescents to dream of a professional career. Existing research in the field has sought to begin to understand what professional footballers experience on their journey through the game. However, much of this UK-based research has focused on first team players and their professional experiences, including transitions from youth team to first team and to retirement. This study, therefore, aimed to examine players during their youth academy scholarship at one English Championship club. This study focused on the transitional experiences of youth players from school to the academy and their resulting embodying of a footballer’s identity. Twelve semi-structured interviews with players aged 17–19, were conducted and then analysed by thematic analysis using figurational sociology concepts. Three different types of transition were identified. Among other reasons, early specialisation in football was a prevalent factor that partly influenced the way the players experienced their transition. The transition into the academy coincided with the transition from youth to adulthood that was arguably anything but linear as players managed the dominant sub-cultures present in the club.

Toward Islam Through Political Parties, Ideology, and Democracy: A Discourse Analysis on Turkey’s AK Party, Tunisian Ennahda, and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Md. Nazmul Islam ◽  
Yılmaz Bingöl ◽  
Israel Nyaburi Nyadera ◽  
Gershon Dagba
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Islamic Political Parties

This article aims to examine the legacy and policy of AK Party in Turkey, Ennahda’s political movement in Tunisia, and Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) in Bangladesh, which is ostensibly identified with Islamic political ideology and acquainted with the world as a ‘moderate-conservative political Islam party.’ The study interrogates the nature, processes, and the characteristic features of the three countries’ administrative system, comparatively from three regions of the world, particularly from the Middle East and Europe region, Africa and Arab region, and the South Asian region. This study also highlights these political parties’ history, political ideology differences, and their practices reflective of democratic principles from a theoretical perspective on politics, policy, and philosophy. It also acknowledges whether the political development of Turkey from 2002 onward is feasible for Bangladeshi and Tunisian Islamic political parties to accept as a role model in their political arena.

scholarly journals Best interests: The ‘best’ way for courts to decide if young children should act as bone marrow donors?

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 3-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Ning Then
Keyword(s):  
Bone Marrow ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Potential Donor ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Potential Child ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychological Harm ◽  
Continued Use

Young children who are called upon to donate regenerative tissue – most commonly bone marrow – to save the life of a sick relative are in a unique position. The harvest of tissue from them is non-therapeutic and carries the risk of physical and psychological harm. However, paediatric donation is relatively common medical practice around the world. Where some doubt exists over the legality of allowing a child to donate, courts can be asked to authorize the procedure and in doing so will apply the ‘best interests’ test in making their decision. How are a young child’s rights recognized in such a situation? This article considers whether the best interests test is the ‘best’ test to be applied by courts when cases of potential child donors come before it. The approach of courts in three jurisdictions is analysed, and problems in the application of the test in this context are discussed. While the continued use of the test by courts is supported, the way the test has been used by courts is critiqued and recommendations made to better respect the rights of the potential donor child.

scholarly journals The weirdest people in the world?

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Henrich ◽  
Steven J. Heine ◽  
Ara Norenzayan
Keyword(s):  
Visual Perception ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
The World ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Phenomenon

AbstractBehavioral scientists routinely publish broad claims about human psychology and behavior in the world's top journals based on samples drawn entirely from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Researchers – often implicitly – assume that either there is little variation across human populations, or that these “standard subjects” are as representative of the species as any other population. Are these assumptions justified? Here, our review of the comparative database from across the behavioral sciences suggests both that there is substantial variability in experimental results across populations and that WEIRD subjects are particularly unusual compared with the rest of the species – frequent outliers. The domains reviewed include visual perception, fairness, cooperation, spatial reasoning, categorization and inferential induction, moral reasoning, reasoning styles, self-concepts and related motivations, and the heritability of IQ. The findings suggest that members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Many of these findings involve domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of psychology, motivation, and behavior – hence, there are no obviousa priorigrounds for claiming that a particular behavioral phenomenon is universal based on sampling from a single subpopulation. Overall, these empirical patterns suggests that we need to be less cavalier in addressing questions ofhumannature on the basis of data drawn from this particularly thin, and rather unusual, slice of humanity. We close by proposing ways to structurally re-organize the behavioral sciences to best tackle these challenges.

Feasting Ritually: An Ethnography on the Implications of Feasts in Religious Rituals

2021 ◽  
pp. 0972558X2110571
Author(s):  
Anil Gopi
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
The People ◽  
Religious Festivals ◽  
The World ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
And Gender

Food and feast are integral and key components of human cultures across the world. Feasts associated with religious rituals have special social and cultural significance when compared to those in any other festivities or celebrations in people’s life. In this study, an approach is made to comparatively analyze the feasts at religious festivals of two distinctive groups of people, one with a characteristic of simple society and the other of a complex society. The annual feast happening at the hamlets of the Anchunadu Vellalar community in the last days of the calendar year is an occasion that portrays the egalitarian nature of the people. While this feast is restricted within a single community of particular caste affiliation and geographical limitations, the feast associated with the kaliyattam ritual of village goddess in North Malabar is much wider in scope and participation. The enormous feast brings the people in a larger area and exhibits a solidarity that cuts across boundaries of religion, caste and community. Beyond the factors of social solidarity and togetherness, these events also illustrate its divisive characters mainly in terms of social hierarchy and gender. A comparative study of both the two feasts of two different contexts reveals the characteristic features of religious feasts and the value of food and feast in social life and solidarity and also how it acts as a survival of their past and as a tradition.

Impact of Day Care on the Child

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-228
Author(s):  
Bettye M. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Child Characteristics ◽  
Care Research ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Care Family

In the world of day-care research, the status of our knowledge is sufficiently shaky that we must continue to keep an open mind about the service. The knowledge base is growing rapidly, but the conceptual structure that supports it is flimsy and insubstantial. Fortunately, current research efforts are improving this situation. Regardless of whether we like or dislike day care, it is, like the family, here to stay. That realization alone should strengthen our resolve not to compromise on the type of service we create. We have to continue to identify parameters of quality and become good matchmakers in terms of child care, family, and child characteristics. Through such efforts, a network of educare programs that will foster favorable development in children can become a national and global reality.

PROBLEMS OF PLASTIC PARKING SOLUTIONS IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.G. Shipilov ◽  
◽  
T.S. Kuzmenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Use Of Space ◽  
The World ◽  
Characteristic Features

This article deals with the problem of designing car parks in the modern urban environment. Special attention is paid to the search for architectural expressiveness. The article reveals the methods of achieving architectural expressiveness. The characteristic features of plastic solutions for car parks based on the world experience in the construction and construction of such buildings and structures are highlighted and described separately. The author's solution of car Parking on the selected site with the use of space-rod construction of the coating, as one of the techniques of plastic solutions, is given.

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