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Results for “Reality Testing”

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PubMed2004

A visit from the Candy Witch: factors influencing young children's belief in a novel fantastical being.

Factors hypothesized to affect beliefs in fantastical beings were examined by introducing children to a novel fantastical entity, the Candy Witch. Results revealed that among older preschoolers, children who were visited by the Candy Witch exhibited stronger beliefs in the Candy Witch than did those who were not. Among children who were visited, older children had stronger beliefs than did younger children. Among children who were not visited, those with a high Fantasy Orientation believed more strongly than did those with a low Fantasy Orientation. Belief remained high one year later. At both time points, the number of other fantastical beings in which a child believed was significantly related to belief in the Candy Witch.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Young children's understanding of multiple object identity: appearance, pretense and function.

Evidence from theory-of-mind tasks suggests that young children have substantial difficulty thinking about multiple object identity and multiple versions of reality. On the other hand, evidence from children's understanding of pretense indicates that children have little trouble understanding dual object identity and counterfactual scenarios that are involved in pretend play. Two studies reported here show that this competence is not limited to pretend play. Three-year-olds also understand the dual identity involved in unusual functional use (X is being used as Y), even though they have difficulty understanding deceptive appearance (X looks like Y). We suggest that children are able to distinguish extrinsic object properties from intrinsic ones (function vs. category-membership) better than they can distinguish superficial object properties from deep ones (appearance vs. category-membership).

Child↗
PubMed1989

Developing theories of the mind: children's and adults' concepts of mental activities.

8-year-olds', 10-year-olds', and adults' concepts of mental activities involved in acts of knowing were examined in an attempt to gain insight into developmental changes in underlying theories of mind. Subjects rated the similarity of how the mind is used in a variety of common activities, each of which primarily involved either memory, comprehension, attention, or inference. Analyses of conceptual structure revealed 2 developmental changes. Between 8 and 10 years of age, children came to see the most important relation among mental activities to be the degree to which they involved memory. Between 10 years of age and adulthood, Comprehension and Attention first appeared as distinct, coherent concepts. At all ages, Memory and Inference were seen as distinct types of mental activities. These findings suggested that a sophisticated understanding of the representational nature of the mind might not be acquired before the latter part of middle childhood and might be mediated by an understanding of the central role played by memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Children's understanding of epistemic conduct in self-deception and other false belief stories.

In self-deception persons accept false beliefs through a motivated disregard for countervailing evidence. Such epistemic misconduct renders them responsible for their own deception. It was hypothesized that children's understanding of this responsibility would be associated with an understanding of how evidence informs belief. In the study 4- to 9-year-old children's understanding of the relations between false belief, evidence, and epistemic responsibility was examined using stories involving self-deception, lying, and misleading appearances. Results indicated that younger children who understood false belief understood simpler types of deception, but that understanding self-deceivers' epistemic responsibility was limited to older children who understood the relevance of evidence to belief formation.

Awareness↗
PubMed2006

Decoupling neural networks from reality: dissociative experiences in torture victims are reflected in abnormal brain waves in left frontal cortex.

From a neuroscience perspective, little is known about the long-term effect of torture. Dissociative experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder are often the results of this experience. We examined psychological dissociation within a group of 23 torture victims and report its manifestations within neural networks in the human brain. In particular, we observed that dissociative experiences are associated with slow abnormal brain waves generated in left ventrolateral frontal cortex. Given that focal slow waves often result from depriving neural networks of major input, the present results may indicate decoupling of frontal affective processors from left cortical language areas. This interpretation is consistent with the fact that disturbed access to structured verbal memory concerning traumatic events is a core feature of the dissociative experience.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Is belief reasoning automatic?

Understanding the operating characteristics of theory of mind is essential for understanding how beliefs, desires, and other mental states are inferred, and for understanding the role such inferences could play in other cognitive processes. We present the first investigation of the automaticity of belief reasoning. In an incidental false-belief task, adult subjects responded more slowly to unexpected questions concerning another person's belief about an object's location than to questions concerning the object's real location. Results in other conditions showed that responses to belief questions were not necessarily slower than responses to reality questions, as subjects showed no difference in response times to belief and reality questions when they were instructed to track the person's beliefs about the object's location. The results suggest that adults do not ascribe beliefs to agents automatically.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Mode distinctions in knowing: the view from perception. Comments on Rönnberg (1990)

Information available for perception has been shown to be specific, to have validity extending over time, and to be meaningful. Thus, cognition cannot be distinguished as that which exclusively provides adaptive coherence of action and reliance on constraints. Transitions between perception and memory/cognition, as two qualitatively distinct modes of knowing, must instead be expected to occur for purposes of ensuring optimal utilization of information relative to its temporal validity and usefulness.

Cognition↗
PubMed1990

Differentiation and unification in perception and cognition.

It has been suggested that the development of distinctions between perception and cognition depends upon the perspective and the level of analysis chosen. Similarly, the unification of perception and cognition may be achieved from other perspectives and when other levels of analyses are applied. The fruitfulness, and disadvantages, of diverse suggestions for differentation/unification of perception and cognition are discussed briefly.

Child↗
PubMed1991

Mood and realism of confidence judgements of one's own answers to general knowledge questions.

This study examines the effect of a depressed mood on the realism of subjects' confidence judgements of the correctness of answers to general knowledge questions. Research conducted on how mood influences cognitive processes gives reason to expect that a depressed mood might increase the realism of individuals' confidence ratings. Sixty subjects were divided into three conditions, two of which were given mood induction, one condition into an elated-happy mood and one condition into a depressed-sad mood. As evidenced by subjects' responses to mood scales only the depressed condition was affected by the mood induction. All subjects answered 93 general knowledge questions and rated their confidence in the correctness of the answer given. Subjects were instructed to think aloud when answering the last 31 questions. The conditions did not differ with respect to the proportion of questions answered correctly, mean level of confidence, nor with respect to three measures of the realism in subjects' confidence ratings (calibration, over/underconfidence and resolution). The results were the same when questions answered with and without think aloud instructions were analysed separately.

Achievement↗
PubMed1994

Predicting and explaining behavior: a comparison of autistic, mentally retarded and normal children.

The relationship between performance on a false belief task and a new task designed to elicit explanations of human action was examined in two experiments. In the first study normal preschoolers' performance on both tasks was significantly correlated. The second experiment included matched groups of autistic, mentally retarded, and older normal children. The autistic subjects were significantly worse than controls at offering mentalistic explanations. Performance on the false belief and the explanation of action tasks was highly correlated for the autistic subjects. These findings are discussed in terms of the relationships between language and theory of mind.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1995

Theory of mind in children with autistic disorder: evidence of developmental progression and the role of verbal ability.

The present study investigated theory of mind in two groups of autistic children with markedly different verbal mental ages but comparable nonverbal ability and chronological ages, using a range of theory of mind belief tasks. The aims were to look for evidence of developmental progression of theory of mind ability in autistic children and to examine the role played by verbal ability in task performance. The results showed hierarchical patterns of performance across tasks, suggesting a developmental sequence of emerging aspects of theory of mind ability. There was clear evidence that verbal ability is an important contributor to successful task performance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Overly literal interpretations of speech in autism: understanding that messages arise from minds.

Children with autism and children with Down's syndrome watched the following enactment. A protagonist put one item in location A and another in location B and then left the scene. Subsequently, the items were swapped the other way round. Finally, the protagonist (who remained ignorant of the swap) requested the item in A. The observing child participant was asked to judge (1) which item the protagonist wanted and (2) which item the protagonist put in A. Unlike children with Down's syndrome, those with autism made more errors in judging that the speaker wanted the item in B than in judging that the item the speaker put in A is now in B; children with autism wrongly tended to interpret utterances literally, and they did this significantly more frequently than children with Down's syndrome. We conclude that children with autism have a difficulty making nonliteral interpretations that cannot be explained as (1) a realist bias, (2) an inability to inhibit a prepotent response, and (3) a failure to keep track of the exchange of items.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

The resurrection of a magical reality: treatment of functional migraine in a child.

A magical world view and logic were used in the treatment of a 10-year-old girl who was referred because of suicidal threats due to migrainous pain. The treatment consisted of a one-session intervention with three-week, six-month, and one-year follow-up indicating elimination of migraine. Within a strategic family therapy, a magical ritual was prescribed that derived from the preoperational logic explicated by Piaget and from the healing practices described in anthropological studies. Such a ritual casts the symptom in a different context, alters the meaning of migraine to the family system, and leads to different interactional patterns. Piaget's theory and anthropological data are discussed as sources of a magical world view to help families and children disengage from a symptomatic system of interactions.

Child↗
PubMed1984

How really real is real?

This paper takes issue with a number of family therapists who appear to hold that reality is entirely constructed out of our beliefs and that different views of reality can only be discriminated between on the basis of their usefulness for a particular purpose. Rather this paper argues for a co-constructivist position, that is, that the knower's beliefs and constructs are in an interpenetrating relationship with reality and that different views of reality can be discriminated between on the basis of their adequacy in describing that reality and that it is this adequacy that will determine their usefulness. These issues are not just of theoretical interest but have important implications for the practice of therapy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Integrative shifts for the theory and practice of family systems therapy.

This paper describes several disagreements among approaches to family therapy and proposes two conceptual shifts providing a more integrative perspective. The first shift focuses on the implications of different ways therapists orient themselves to the developing structures of the therapy system and to the disabled structures of the client system. The second shift reconsiders theoretical approaches in terms of the types of distance they require of the therapist and the types of information these distances provide and ignore. Finally, the paper also discusses a means for classifying the different types of goals therapists establish for their clients, emphasizing that these goals must be consistent with the clients' views of themselves and the world.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Examining the process and dilemmas of reality negotiation.

Reality negotiation is the process people use to examine information from their environment and make judgments about the accuracy and importance of that information. Although this process has been found to be inaccurate, nurses often express discomfort when clients hold perceptions of reality that run counter to their own views. Nurses in these circumstances see the client as denying or as having unrealistic hopes. This article examines reality negotiation in light of this clinical dilemma, focusing on three areas: 1) the assumptions made regarding the nature of reality; 2) the potential and real outcomes of different types of reality negotiation; and 3) the process by which reality is redefined and how unrealistic perceptions are threatened and/or abandoned. These issues are explored as they relate to nursing research and practice.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Violent and nonviolent suicide attempts--a controlled Rorschach study.

Rorschach records from 20 patients who had made active, violent suicide attempts were compared with records from 20 patients who had taken drug overdoses and 20 psychiatric control patients who had not made a suicide attempt. Ego function ratings showed that violent attempters were more paranoid than both other groups and less able to cope with conflict situations, to handle dysphoric affect and to differentiate between reality and imagination. Violent attempters had lower level of cognitive maturity than controls and tended to produce fabulized combination responses, suggesting cognitive slippage, and distorted human content responses, indicating pathological object relationships. Nonviolent attempters did not differ from controls. Six patients, all from the violent attempt group, completed suicide within a follow-up period of 4 years. Compared with the survivors, they were less tolerant of dysphoric affect and showed more pronounced decline of developmental level within cards. Completers could be identified on the Rorschach at 55% sensitivity and 93% specificity.

Adult↗