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PubMed1992

How to build a baby: II. Conceptual primitives.

A mechanism of perceptual analysis by which infants derive meaning from perceptual activity is described. Infants use this mechanism to redescribe perceptual information into image-schematic format. Image-schemas create conceptual structure from the spatial structure of objects and their movements, resulting in notions such as animacy, inanimacy, agency, and containment. These earliest meanings are nonpropositional, analogical representations grounded in the perceptual world of the infant. In contrast with most perceptual processing, which is not analyzed in this fashion, redescription into image-schematic format simplifies perceptual information and makes it potentially accessible for purposes of concept formation and thought. In addition to enabling preverbal thought, image-schemas provide a foundation for language acquisition by creating an interface between the continuous processes of perception and the discrete nature of language.

Child↗
PubMed1986

Non-verbal behaviour and body organ fantasies. Their relation to body image formation and symptomatology.

A deliberate analytic approach to various non-verbal manifestations may in some cases be a point of departure for exploring idiosyncratic representations of body organs and body image. Relevant clinical material is presented to illustrate how such representations may be developed. Further, I have attempted to suggest how the roots of body image formation reflect early levels of concept formation influenced by primary process and derived from an amalgamation of what has been called enactive and imagic modes of thinking (McLaughlin, 1984). The enactive mode comprises a combination of affective processes entwined with proprioceptive, visceral, motoric and sensory feeling. The imagic mode refers to visual, auditory, tactile and gustatory impressions (Horowitz, 1983). The pre-oedipal and oedipal determinants of an analysand's symptomatology and of his body image pathology are examined. Moreover, the pre-oedipal antecedents of his Oedipus and castration complex are illuminated. The psychic and somatic implications of his particular 'testicularization' of his body and of his body image fantasies are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Levels of abstraction in orangutan (Pongo abelii) categorization.

Levels of abstraction have rarely been manipulated in studies of natural concept formation in nonhumans. Isolated examples have indicated that animals, relative to humans, may learn concepts at varying levels of abstraction with differential ease. The ability of 6 orangutans (Pongo abelii) of various ages to make natural concept discriminations at 3 levels of abstraction was therefore investigated. The orangutans were rewarded for selecting photos of orangutans instead of humans and other primates (concrete level), primates instead of other animals (intermediate level), and animals instead of nonanimals (abstract level) in a 2-choice touch screen procedure. The results suggest that, like a gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) tested previously (Vonk & MacDonald, 2002), orangutans can learn concepts at each level of abstraction, and unlike other nonhumans, most of these subjects rapidly learned the intermediate level discrimination.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

[The concept of disease and preservation of health of a population of teachers and first grade students].

In view of the fact that information about how teachers and students conceptualize illness and their ideas of health preservation have important implications of health education, these two concepts were studied in a sample population of teachers and pupils, of a school course of up to 14-year-olds, representative of the northern area of Rio de Janeiro County. The results obtained are discussed in the light of two approaches: (a) the contributions from the cognitive theories of concept formation; (b) the influence of the social context in the acquisition, development and characterization of the concepts studied. This study was undertaken with a view to contributing to the field of health education by means of critical review and reflection on the concept of the health illness process in schools, in view of the complex and multidimensional aspects involved in the process.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Form-function correspondences in children's inference.

Perceptual similarity among concept members has been viewed as inadequate to motivate concept formation. Instead, it has been argued that intuitive beliefs about the world offer more structured motivation for concepts. Our research explores children's beliefs about the relations between perceptually based similarity among things and their predicted behaviors. We focus on form-function correspondences as fundamental components of very young children's belief systems. Groups of 2- and 4-year-old children were asked to choose which of 2 line-drawn animals evidenced a particular "function," a special behavior. Even the youngest children showed sensitivity to form-function correspondences by selecting the animal whose form afforded the particular function. A second study investigated how form-function correspondences affect the relative influences of perceptual similarity and shared labels over patterns of children's inference. Perceptual similarity, if "motivated" by intuitive beliefs about correspondences between form and function, was found to be sufficient basis for inference and a more robust basis than shared labels when children attributed meaningful functions to novel animal forms.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Psychopathology in the light of brain injury: a case study.

A case study of late onset psychopathology following brain injury is presented to illustrate the effects of cognitive and perceptual loss on personality functions. Based on Hughling Jackson's (1884/1958) notion of the duality of the symptom, we proposed a model of the development and process of psychopathology following brain injury, which views the development of the psychopathological behavior as a product of acquired cognitive and perceptual defects and ensuing compensatory strategies. For the present case study of paranoia, this involved defects in long-term memory, conceptual ability, and compensatory strategies of confabulation and self-referential orientation. Neuropsychological testing established defects in concept formation tasks including the Raven Progressive Matrices, the Leiter International Performance Scale, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, as well as long-term memory defects where cognitive reorganization was needed. The paranoid process was understood as a product of disordered conceptual ability in interpersonal situations, and a self-referential conceptual classification system, which took time, and changed social relations, to emerge. The implications of this model for psychotherapy with brain injury is elaborated in our case study, in which psychotherapeutic intervention included training on interpersonal hypothesis formation.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

A neural network model for cognitive activity.

A consideration of the storage of information as an energized neuronal state leads to the development of a new type of neural network model which is capable of pattern recognition, concept formation and recognition of patterns of events in time. The network consists of several layers of cells, each cell representing by connections from the lower levels some combination of features or concepts. Information travels toward higher layers by such connections during an association phase, and then reverses during a recognition phase, where higher-order concepts can redirect the flow to more appropriate elements, revising the perception of the environment. This permits a more efficient method of distinguishing closely-related patterns and also permits the formation of negative associations, which is a likely requirement for formation of "abstract" concepts.

Association Learning↗
PubMed2006

Lexical knowledge and lexical use in autism.

One aspect of autistic language that has been infrequently researched is vocabulary and the conceptual knowledge underpinning individual words or word types. In this descriptive study we investigate anomalous vocabulary use in a 70,000-word corpus of conversational autistic language and examine evidence that concept formation, and hence vocabulary, is abnormal in autism. Particular attention is paid to the expression of artifact and temporal concepts which some believe may develop abnormally in autism. Little evidence is found of anomalous use of artifact terms, though errors with temporal (and also spatial) expressions are relatively common. We discuss why this may be and consider several potential explanations for why underlying lexical knowledge in autism may not necessarily be reflected in lexical use.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Psychometric properties of Russell's short form of the Booklet Category Test.

Russell's short form of the Booklet Category Test was administered to 26 diagnosed schizophrenic patients and 14 normal individuals along with a test of premorbid intelligence. IQ correlated significantly (inversely) with errors and in particular with Subtests 3, 4, and 6. Age related directly to errors, especially for Subtests 3, 4, and 5. The mean Cronbach coefficient alpha was .71, indicating moderate item homogeneity across subtests. In sum, the shortened form appears to be an efficient and effective measure of concept formation among schizophrenic individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Effects of chronic marijuana use on human cognition.

Impairments of human cognition and learning following chronic marijuana use are of serious concern, but have not been clearly demonstrated. To determine whether such impairments occurred, this study compared performance of adult marijuana users and non-users (N = 144 and N = 72, respectively) matched on intellectual functioning before the onset of drug use, i.e., on scores from standardized tests administered during the fourth grade of grammar school (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills). Subjects were given the twelfth grade versions of these tests (Iowa Tests of Educational Development) and other, computerized cognitive tests in successive test sessions. "Heavy" marijuana use (defined by use seven or more times weekly) was associated with deficits in mathematical skills and verbal expression in the Iowa Tests of Educational Development and selective impairments in memory retrieval processes in Buschke's Test. The retrieval impairments were restricted to words that were easy to visualize. Impairments depended on the frequency of chronic marijuana use, i.e., "light" and "intermediate" marijuana use (defined by use one to four and five to six times weekly, respectively) were not associated with deficits. Intermediate use was associated with superior performance in one condition ("fuzzy" concepts) of a Concept Formation test.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

The development of an auditory concept of speed.

Forty pairs of tape-recorded car sounds were given to boys and girls (total N = 80) from kindergarten, grades two, four, and six to demonstrate an auditory concept of speed independent of visual cues. The stimulus pairs could vary on intensity, frequency, both, or not at all. The task was a verbal indication that the second car of a pair was travelling "faster," "slower," or the "same" speed. A developmental trend in ability to judge speed solely on auditory cues was found. Analyses indicated that Ss in grade two considered intensity to be relevant, and were most accurate on intensity shifts. Older Ss seemed more aware of frequency and frequency-intensity relationships, and on the whole accuracy on frequency shift trials increased across grades. However, when asked for explanations, all grades seemed to have difficulty with the frequency shifts, and in fact there were grade related increases in the use of intensity explanations on these trials. The implications for use of modalities other than the visual in speed, and other concept formation research are discussed.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1993

Premorbid functioning, cognitive functioning, symptoms and outcome in schizophrenia.

In this study we examined the relationship between premorbid functioning, outcome, cognitive functioning and positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Cognitive functioning and symptoms were examined longitudinally in a sample of 39 subjects with schizophrenia (according to the DSM-III criteria). Subjects were assessed at admission to hospital and six months later during a period of relative remission. Premorbid functioning was significantly associated with negative symptoms but not with positive symptoms at both the acute phase and the remitted phase of the illness. Outcome was also associated with negative symptoms at admission and with both positive and negative symptoms at follow-up. Deficits on cognitive tests of verbal reasoning and concept formation were significantly associated with poor premorbid functioning and outcome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Concepts and transformational knowledge.

The effect of exposure to principled change in concept formation was investigated in four experiments. In Experiment 1, participants were trained on either patterns that transformed systematically or control patterns that were distorted randomly. Training on transformational patterns produced concepts that were more resistant to false intrusions and decay. Experiment 2 separated the relative influences of transformational knowledge and pairwise similarity. Participants were able to identify the next pattern in a transformational sequence even though the foils were closer to the training patterns. Experiment 3 investigated whether participants use transformational information in a speeded categorization task. Participants were faster at classifying patterns that continued a transformational path than patterns that fell off the path, only if they had trained on the transformational patterns in a systematic order. Experiment 4 used multidimensional scaling to explore the psychological structure of transformational knowledge following training. Analyses revealed clear evidence of a transformational path with systematic training. Implications for theories of similarity and categorization are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Theory-based correlations and their role in children's concepts.

Recent accounts of conceptual development have emphasized the important role intuitive theories play in concept formation; however, it is still not clear exactly how these theories exert their influence. We present evidence that elementary school age children use theories to link together specific features associated with individual concepts. The results of our first experiment indicate that theory-based correlations play a prominent role in typicality judgments and in decisions about category membership. In a second experiment, we demonstrate that children's theories play an important role in determining which attributes will be considered most central to the concept. The results of these studies suggest that feature correlations can serve to link children's concepts with their intuitive theories of the world.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Learning perceptual organization in infancy.

It has been demonstrated that older infants (6- to 7-month-olds), but not younger infants (3- to 4-month-olds), use form similarity to organize stimuli consisting of X and O elements. We investigated whether utilization of form similarity is governed by maturation or experience by contrasting how infants perform when familiarized with a single exemplar versus multiple exemplars depicting a particular organization. In Experiment 1, 3- to 4-month-olds failed to organize alternating columns or rows of squares and diamonds or Hs and Is, respectively. In Experiment 2, same-aged infants familiarized with all three patterns (X-O, square-diamond, H-I) displayed evidence of organization. The results suggest that 3- to 4-month-olds can use form similarity to organize visual patterns in a concept-formation task. The findings imply that perceptual organization based on form similarity is learned through experience with multiple patterns depicting a common arrangement, rather than immediately apprehended in an individual pattern.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed2006

Event-related brain potentials as a measure of performance on WISC-III and WAIS-R NI similarities sub-tests.

Communication difficulties are a common consequence of brain injury and neuropathological processes. Equally common is the inability to assess intellectual functioning in many communication-impaired populations because the aphasia and physical disability of such patients prevents measurable performance on traditionally administered tests of mental functioning. This study demonstrates that concept formation abilities can be assessed using event-related brain potentials. It also provides further evidence for the efficacy of this innovative assessment method in which standardized and validated psychometric tests are formatted for computer presentation and simultaneous recording of neural activity, which serves as the response measure in lieu of verbal/behavioral responses.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

The role of cognition in understanding gender effects.

Cognitive approaches, such as schematic processing theory, have been heuristic in a number of ways for bettering our understanding of how and why gender effects are so apparent in childhood. First, they provide a new and different perspective. Rather than concentrating on discovering all the instances of gendered information in our worlds and then assuming that this overwhelming amount of information accounts for children's behavior and thinking, cognitive theorists studying gender have reversed the emphasis. That is, we assume that thinking processes influence the world of information that is available to children. Furthermore, the nature of that world of information is then seen to influence behavioral choices. Second, cognitive approaches have been heuristic in providing some understanding of the mismatches that occur between available information and children's gender cognitions. More broadly stated, such approaches have been useful for discovering the reasons that gender cognitions are inaccurate--why some information is misperceived, misremembered, and selectively learned. Third, cognitive approaches have been useful for elaborating the development of children's gender knowledge. Finally, cognitive approaches have been useful for illustrating how cognition may influence behavior. If we go beyond gender for a moment, we see that cognitive approaches can also be useful for our understanding of the broader realm of all types of stereotypes. For instance, they are helpful in understanding the early origins of stereotypes. Why do children and adults develop stereotypes? Given the overwhelming amount of information we must deal with every day, how do we ever notice real but usually minor co-occurrences of group membership and attributes? Furthermore, why do stereotypes contain information that is not grounded in reality? To begin to answer these questions, we need to move cognitive approaches to a higher order of generality, that is, away from the specifics of gender and on to the broader case of concept formation about social groups. When cognitive notions are used in this way, children and adults appear to form higher order schemas concerning the nature of social groups. One such schema is the "if they differ in one way, they differ in other ways" schema. Another such schema represents the flip side: "If they are in the same group, they are the same in many other ways." Exposure to information about groups surely must lead to the formation of these higher order schemas. Once formed, they surely must influence how new information about specific groups is acquired by increasing perceivers' vigilance in noticing and creating supportive information.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Child↗