Individual differences in preschoolers' spatial thinking: Comprehension of dimensional adjectives and their relation to children's performance on non-verbal spatial tasks

The current study explores whether individual differences in the dimensional adjectives (e.g., big, tall) children understand, relates to individual differences in two non-verbal spatial abilities, an extrinsic spatial task (i.e., spatial scaling) and an intrinsic spatial task (i.e., mental rotation) in two studies that looked at spatial scaling and mental transformations respectively. Ninety-two Spanish-English bilingual children between 37.65 and 71.87 months (42 male) participated in Study 1 and with 79 of the children aged 48- to 72-months (40 male) also participating in study 2. Results show number of dimensional adjectives preschool children comprehend utilizing a new interactive, tablet-based task relates to performance on non-verbal spatial tasks. Children may use language when solving spatial tasks, or language may be indicative of overall stronger understanding of spatial relations.

PSYCHOCULTURAL TRAINING OF SENIOR PUPILS TO ADEQUELY PERCEIVE THE MEDIA SPACE CHALLENGES

The aim: The research consists in the theoretical substantiation and experimental verification of the cultural and mental transformations of senior pupils under the influence of works of art, the media; highlighting the steps of forming the media literacy of pupils in the lessons of Ukrainian literature and in the after lessons in the process of independent activity of pupils to acquire their values and moral orientations. Materials and methods: The complex of methods is used in the work: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, simile, comparison, systematization, generalization) and empirical (observations, conversations, questionnaires). Results: It is established, that media tools have manipulative character in the minds of teens, which is both destructive and constructive and also carry propaganda of deceptive spirituality ; education and science are the main tools to counteract speculative juggling of information. The necessity of formation of media literacy, media competence, their theoretical and methodological foundations for the protection of senior students from emotional manipulation is substantiated. The author’s vision of the definitions of “manipulation” of consciousness, “media education” is presented on the basis of research of scientific sources. Significant is the proposed steps to overcome stress as a result of emotional and cognitive transformations. Conclusions: Educational activities of teachers, aimed at understanding of the media manipulation means by the pupils, the essential features of the art of words, will promote to preserve the health of pupils, serve the formation of their moral values, the formation of media literacy and media competence.

Selective facilitation of egocentric mental transformations under short-term microgravity

ABSTRACTUnderstanding the impact of microgravity on human cognitive performance is crucial to guarantee the safety and success of future long-term manned missions. The effects of weightlessness on key mental processes such as spatial abilities are in particular not fully characterized. In this study, we examine the influence of microgravity on perspective-taking abilities—a type of mental operation especially relevant in the context of collaborative teamwork between ‘free-floating’ astronauts. Twelve subjects performed a cooperative task in virtual-reality under both normal and short-term microgravity conditions during a parabolic flight. The task involved various degrees of mental transformations, and required subjects to perform actions instructed by a fellow astronaut aboard a virtual spacecraft. The experimental design allowed us to control for nuisance variables, training effects, and non-gravity related factors of parabolic flights. Overall, our results indicated that microgravity has a facilitatory effect on perspective-taking abilities. Notably, this facilitation was selective to conditions requiring subjects to rotate their perspective around their line of sight, i.e., for mental rotations in the frontal plane. Moreover, microgravity affected subjects differently depending on their visual field dependence, as determined via a classic rod-and-frame test. Specifically, improvement in performance was more pronounced in field-independent subjects. Together, these results shed light on a long standing debate about the impact of microgravity on egocentric mental imagery, and have direct operational consequences for future long-term missions.

Psychological Distance

Last week, I told you that compared to 50 years ago, kids today are better at delaying gratification. Why is the capacity for self-control on the rise? Stephanie Carlson, the scientist responsible for this discovery, is one of my close collaborators. I called to ask her what she thinks. “Children today are better at symbolic thinking,” Stephanie told me. “And symbolic thinking facilitates self-control.” “Symbolic thinking means mentally representing objects and events in ways that extend beyond the here-and-now,” Stephanie explained. “These mental transformations help put psychological distance between you and temptations.”

Pitch Imitation Ability in Mental Transformations of Melodies

Previous research suggests that individuals with a Vocal Pitch Imitation Deficit (VPID, a.k.a. “poor-pitch singers”) experience less vivid auditory images than accurate imitators (Pfordresher & Halpern, 2013), based on self-report. In the present research we sought to test this proposal directly by having accurate and VPID imitators produce or recognize short melodies based on their original form (untransformed), or after mentally transforming the auditory image of the melody. For the production task, group differences were largest during the untransformed imitation task. Importantly, producing mental transformations of the auditory image degraded performance for all participants, but were relatively more disruptive to accurate than to VPID imitators. These findings suggest that VPID is due partly to poor initial imagery formation, as manifested by production of untransformed melodies. By contrast, producing a transformed mental image may rely on working memory ability, which is more equally matched across participants. This interpretation was further supported by correlations with self-reports of auditory imagery and measures of working memory.

DEMİR-ÇELİK SEKTÖRÜNDE ÇALIŞAN İŞÇİLERİN SOSYO-EKONOMİK DURUMLARI, İŞ TATMİNLERİ VE SEKTÖR VİZYONLARI: KARABÜK ÖRNEĞİ

There are lots of studies conducted in Karabuk province, one of the most important iron-steel manufacturing center in Turkey, and the developing iron-steel sector in this province. However, the privatization of the national iron-steel factory, KARDEMIR, the establishment of Karabuk University and the like, have been causing rapid mental transformations which activate the transformations in iron-steel sector. Especially, the training programs for workers which have been practiced in Karabuk University and The Institute of Iron and Steel founded in Karabuk University indicate that this ongoing transforming process would continue rapidly and favorably. As a result, renewing the studies about the iron-steel sector in Karabuk periodically is a must. In this article, the socio-economic conditions of workers employed in iron-steel sector, their work satisfactions, their visions about iron-steel sector and the like varieties are examined empirically.