One means by which inhibitory control in selective attention may be studied is with the negative priming (NP) procedure. It is widely assumed that children are characterised by reduced capacity for inhibition (Diamond, 2002) and that inhibitory dysfunction is a key characteristic of children and adolescents with ADHD (Barkley, 1997). This should translate into reduced NP effects for these populations. In this dissertation, four studies using the NP procedure find no evidence for reduced inhibitory function in typical children or in adolescents with ADHD. Study 1 examined the magnitude of NP in children compared with adults. An important line of support for the idea that children suffer an inhibitory decrement has been based an empirical report suggesting that conceptual (identity or semantic) NP effects, assumed to reflect the by-product of distractor inhibition, while consistently found in adults are lacking in children (Tipper, Bourque, Anderson, & Brehaut, 1989). In Study 1, the opposite result was found. Study 2 compared NP effects between 7-year-old children and adults while replicating the respective methodologies of the only two studies to explore conceptual NP effects in developmental populations to date (Pritchard & Neumann, 2004, vs. Tipper et al., 1989) to determine the nature of the divergent results between these studies. In Study 2, it was found that distractor inhibition effects are comparable between children and adults when a NP task contains trials in which the distractor stimulus is consistently incongruent with the target stimulus, but that children may be more susceptible than adults to divide attention between target and distractor when a NP task contains a number of trials in which target selection difficulty is reduced. These are critical new findings, highlighting that reduced NP may often relate to methodological artifacts, and when considered in the light of current theories of NP, are also problematic for anti-inhibitory accounts of NP. Having distinguished more definitively the role of inhibition in developmental NP effects, Studies 3 and 4 explored whether the inhibitory process underpinning NP was implicated in young persons with ADHD. To date, evidence for NP in ADHD populations is equivocal. Study 3 found no evidence for a reduced NP effect in ADHD devoid of a corresponding diagnosis. Study 4 found that conduct and oppositional defiant disorders had the potential to confound the evaluation of NP in ADHD. Taken together, results in Studies 1 - 4 parallel very recent results in the literature on NP in older adults and adult psychopathology where presumed reductions of NP in these populations may also be accounted for by methodological artifacts (Buchner & Mayr, in press). It is concluded that NP may reflect a primitive and robust form of inhibitory processing, one that develops early and one that is often the last to deteriorate.

The nurturing of critical thinking skills is one of the cornerstones of Outcomes Based Education (OBE). This study investigated to what extent teachers create classroom climates that nurture the development of critical thinking abilities. A literature study was undertaken to highlight the importance and nature of the development of critical thinking skills, and to establish the relationship between classroom climate and the development of critical thinking abilities. The use of teaching methods and strategies, learning activities, questioning techniques, the role of the teacher and the role of the learner during teaching and learning in the classroom were explored. The literature review provided the conceptual framework for the study, as well as the framework for designing a questionnaire that was utilized to obtain the perceptions of teachers and learners regarding the opportunities provided by teachers for the development of critical thinking abilities in the classroom. By means of quantitative, non-experimental descriptive survey research, a self-constructed questionnaire was administrated to a convenient sample of a purposively selected group of Grade 9 and Grade 11 teachers (n=241) and learners (n=403) in the Sedibeng West District of the Gauteng Department of Education. The triangulation of learner and teacher data revealed differences and similarities in opinion related to the classroom climates that teachers create for nurturing critical thinking. In essence, the data revealed that teachers are, to some extent, creating classroom climates that nurture critical thinking through their choice of teaching methods and strategies, questioning techniques and the learning activities that they choose. However, the responses did not convincingly indicate to the researcher that the nurturing of critical thinking skills takes place on a regular and frequent basis. According to the learner responses, it appeared that teaching and learning methods and strategies that promote interactive learning, are underutilized by the teachers. This study is concluded with recommendations to teachers on how to create classroom climates that promote the development of critical thinking skills. Key words: cognition, cognitive development, critical thinking, classroom climate, teaching methods and strategies, learning activities, questioning techniques. / M.Ed., North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010

School and learning readiness are continually being placed under the spotlight in an attempt to protect the grade 1 learner from possible learning failures, since unsuccessful learning experiences have negative effects even on a person's adult life. A factor that plays a significant role in the current teaching situation in the RSA is the fact that many grade 1 leamers are not instructed in their mother tongue and that they are not familiar with the concepts which are used in the language of learning and teaching. Another important factor is the fact that since 2004 learners may enrol as grade 1 learners at primary schools if they are five and a half years old and did not attend a grade R class. In this study the problems experienced by grade 1 leamers in primary schools since the implementation of Outcomes-based Education in the RSA in 1998, were determined by means of a pilot study. It was followed up by a literature study on the brain and factors that influence the working of the brain among young learners, as well as learning and factors that cannot only promote learning among this age group, but also disadvantage it. The literature was also consulted to look at stimulation of the child's development in the early development stage (0-9 years). As cross control for the study, the influence of the implementation of the RNCS was determined by means of a Likert-type questionnaire that was sent to grade1 teachers. As a result of factors that were identified from the above-named literature study and from the information acquired from the pilot project and Likert-type questionnaire, a conceptual stimulation programme for multicultural grade 1 classes was developed to provide in the shortcomings that currently occur among grade 1 learners. The Aptitude Test for School beginners (ASB), a standarised school readiness test of the HSRC, was used as a measuring instrument to acquire a differentiated image in a scientific way of the grade 1 learners (n = 39) for the purpose of this study. Thereafter, the learners were divided into an experimental and a control group. The conceptual stimulation programme was presented to the experimental group for ten consecutive weeks. The AS6 test was then conducted again with all the grade 1 learners involved. Both the first and final tests were marked according to the prescribed marking keys, interpreted according to the norm tables and statistically processed. The pre and post test scores of the two groups were compared and the experimental group improved in all 8 sections of the test battery, namely perception, spatial, reasoning, numerical, Gestalt, co-ordination , memory and verbal comprehension. In each of these categories there was an increase of d = 0.5 and more which according to Cohen's d-values, can be regarded as practically meaningful. The above-mentioned results indicate that the effective presentation of a conceptual stimulation programme to a group of multicultural grade 1 learners provides positive results and that the didactical methods used during the presentation can be recommended to grade 1 teachers in the current multicultural schools in the RSA. The programme can serve as a prototype to adress the shortcomings identified in the practise (questionnaires) and the literature study. Keywords for indexing are: stimulation programme, schoolreadiness, schoolreadiness programme, cognitive development, learning theories, conceptual learning, brain development. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This dissertation originated out of a research interest in the role of moral-reasoning development in different types of crime. However, as this interest developed, it became apparent that the evidence that moral-reasoning development is differentially involved in different types of crime was a) somewhat weak and b) did not apply to all types of crime. In addition, as part of the developmental work for this dissertation, it was decided to re-analyze a previous Taiwanese study by the author. This reanalysis substantially supported what the previous research literature had indicated in terms of the, at best, modest role of moral-reasoning development in different types of crime. Furthermore, it was found that when the data were analysed ignoring the conventional moral norms that previous research had employed, there was evidence that question content had a role in differentiating different types of crime. This is at variance with structural approaches to moral-reasoning development. Taken together, these findings steered the development of this dissertation in the direction of social cognitive theories of deviant behaviour for which the research evidence is fairly compelling. Consequently, the dissertation moved from structural models of moral reasoning development to socio-cognitive explanations of why some offenders demonstrate a clear pattern of specialization in particular types of crime. This research aimed to assess different social cognitions about offending and moral reasoning ability and used them to predict characteristic types of offending. The participants were four hundreds and thirty two male (adult=302, juvenile= 130) prisoners incarcerated in seven correctional facilities in Taiwan. Based on the offenders' self-reported crime histories, crime specialism indexes (CSI) were calculated to represent offenders' crime propensities in drug abuse, theft, sexual and violent offending for each of respondents. Twenty-three of these respondents were questioned using semi-structural interviews. The qualitative aspect of the research was informed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In addition to moral reasoning competence measured by Gibbs's SRM-SF, five additional social cognitions were investigated including 1) normative beliefs, 2) crime cognitive beliefs, 3) moral domain placement, 4) crime episode judgments, and 5) criminal-identity. It was hypothesized that different cognitive representations predict decisions about types of offences committed. Research questions were, 1) What are the relationships between moral reasoning ability in overall, individual moral value, age, crime episode judgments, and CSIs? a) Juvenile offenders operated at immature moral reasoning level, while adults predominantly exhibited at mature stages. b) No significant correlations emerged between sociomoral reflection moral score (SRMS) and CS Is, except a positive relationship found with the juvenile sexual CS!. c) Comparatively arrested development was found in both age offenders' property & law and legal/justice than the rest of three moral values. d) Except one in the juvenile drug taking (SRMS), and two in life and legal justice, as well as one significant correlations showed in the adult legal justice in sexual offending context, there was no relationship found between the trend of responses towards crime episode questions and moral reasoning ability. 2) What are the relationships between offenders' crime perceptions, evaluations and CS Is? a) Only drug CSI correlated positively with the criminal identity, while negative relationships were found with theft and sexual CSIs. b) A self approval tendency in normative beliefs was found in all but the juvenile sexual CSIs. c) A self endorsement tendency was observed in cognitive beliefs scale in the adult group. d) Findings indicated that there were two differences in the adult drug and theft CSIs, with those offenders thinking drug taking and stealing behaviour as personal discretions being higher in these two acts CSIs than those regarded these two crimes as moral domains, respectively. 3) Is it possible to predict CSIs from sociocognitive factors considered? Multiple-regressions indicated that content-oriented cognitive appraisals predicted types of criminal behaviour, while structural variables did not, with two exceptions. In the case of adult violence CSI two moral reasoning level indicators accounted for some additional variance. In the case of juvenile violence, SRMS accounted for some additional variance. But in this latter case, a higher level of moral reasoning was associated with greater specialisation in violence. In the qualitative research questions, research question 4) What are the relationships between offenders' crime perceptions, evaluations and offending behaviour? Interviewees tended to approve their own behaviour more, particularly when compared with other crime patterns. Most of interviewees showed appreciations of Gibbs's mature moral reasoning forms. This seems to contradict with what they had done to others. Despite the meanings behind laws were recognised they largely based their justifications on heteronymous moral thinking. 5) How do offenders' explain the above conflicts, if any? Drug abusers tended to see there was more consistent than conflict, For example, it is a personal prerogative issue. Although theft and violent offenders admitted conflicts present, the former group tended to justify with reasons, such as if they do not harm other physically, stealing is not that bad behaviour, while the latter indicated they only use violence under threatening or legitimate circumstances. Although relatively little information was elicited from sexual offender interviewees on this issue, conflicts were expressed by them. In summary, a self-serving yet other-blaming tendency was observed in cognitive evaluations both in qualitative and qualitative data. The more intensive an offender's involvement in a specific type of crime the more likely were they to evaluate this type of crime more positively, legitimately and less moral concerns involved then any of the other crime types. Moral reasoning may simply accommodate to offenders' progressively firm crime social cognitions. Based on the research findings, a crime cognitive whirlpool model was proposed. This is an idea that offenders are being pulled down (socio-cognitively strapped) to crimes. The model illustrates how a differential relationship between content and structural social knowledge develops for specific crime commitment. Future research should explore in greater depth the specificity and versatility of social cognitive reasoning in this context. Also, the factors which intervene between beliefs about what is good and good behaviour need to be understood better.

This thesis investigates the strategies infants use to generalise labels to different objects in the early stages of lexical development. It aims to directly test the assumption that a taxonomic bias exists which guides infants to extend words to categories of objects instead of individual instances of them, against the hypothesis that infants discover the extension of words through exposure to multiple naming instances of different objects.Experiments One and Two attempted to teach two object-label pairings to infants at the end of their first year of life, and test generalisation of those labels to new objects from the same adult linguistic categories. This aim failed because infants showed evidence for prior knowledge of the words. Experiments Three and Four employed a more infant-controlled procedure using a habituation task during training; in the former a single exemplar from each adult category was used, whereas in the latter multiple exemplars from each category were used. In both Experiments evidence for word learning was provided at test, but infants failed to generalise the labels to other objects. Experiment Five used a training phase identical to Experiment Four but tested infants for perceptual categorisation in the absence of any labels. Some infants showed evidence for their ability to create such categories on the basis of the training set, suggesting that the inability to generalise in Experiments Three and Four was not due to a perceptual limitation. These findings suggest that infants at the end of their first year do not seem to be guided by any linguistic biases in their generalisation of labels. This thesis concludes that 10-month-old infants seem to have more advanced linguistic abilities than has previously been thought and constraint-like behaviour in later stages of lexical development might be a result of experience instead of a qualitative shift in cognitive processes.

Five experiments explored how we learn to read and recognise words with typical and atypical spelling-sound mappings and to generalize to novel words. In Experiment 1, adults learned to read pseudowords with typical or atypical pronunciations. There was some evidence that prior exposure to word meanings enhanced orthographic learning. However, interpretation was clouded by stimulus control problems that plague research using natural alphabets. In Experiment 2, an artificial orthography paradigm was developed to overcome these problems. Adults learned to read novel words written in novel symbols. Post-training, they could generalize, indicating extraction of individual symbol sounds. The frequency and predictability of symbol-sound mappings influenced learning and generalization, mirroring natural language findings. Experiment 3 found extended training to improve item recognition and generalization. In Experiment 4, pre-exposure to item sounds plus an object referent vs. item sounds provided equivalent benefit for orthographic learning. By the end of training, this was limited to items with low frequency unpredictable symbol-sound mappings. In Experiment 5, pre-exposure to novel definitions enhanced orthographic learning more than pre-exposure to item sounds, but by the end of training, both conditions were again equally beneficial.

God-concepts of 24 third to sixth grade evangelical Christian children were compared with the children‘s logical thinking abilities in a mixed-method study. Measurements included the Children‘s Interview and the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT). God-concepts among the children were Biblical, comforter, communicates, creator, empowering, protector, provider, purposeful, human characteristics, lives in heaven, male, counselor, God is Jesus, all-knowing, loving, perfect, powerful, real, and parental. The majority of concrete thinkers conceptualized God as a gracious guide. The majority of transitional thinkers viewed God also as a gracious guide as well as a distant divinity. Implications were given for religious educators to develop a model for age-appropriate instruction and curriculum and to equip parents to promote spiritual development with children at home.

The research presented in this thesis combined a number of aims. One was to investigate in detail the early typical development of individual cognitive domains including attention, literacy and numeracy, and consequently to investigate whether domain-general attentional abilities constrain the development of either literacy or numeracy skills in preschool to school-age children. A further aim was to test the development of the same cognitive processes in two groups of children with developmental disorders of known genetic origin; Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS). A combination of standardised tests, novel experimental paradigms, and questionnaire measures were employed in pursuit of these aims, and children were assessed both cross-sectionally and longitudinally one year later. In typically developing (TD) children, novel findings pointed to differential influences of cognitive constructs of sustained and selective attention on the one hand, and executive attention on the other, on reading and numeracy abilities longitudinally. In both of the atypically developing groups of children, novel and individual patterns of developmental relationships emerged in the domains of attention, literacy and numeracy. In addition, the investigation of cross-domain relationships between attentional abilities and literacy and numeracy skills evidenced typical patterns in DS children, but atypical patterns in WS children. These findings emphasize the importance of cross-syndrome, cross-domain, and fully developmental research to understand both typical and atypical profiles of cognitive development. Furthermore, teaching practice, early identification of difficulties, and interventions should consider the wider implications of potential constraints of broader cognitive domains, such as attention, on learning.

This thesis investigated the etiology of individual differences in Chinese language and literacy skills with a two-wave longitudinal design using a sample of 312 Chinese twin pairs aged 3 to 11 in Hong Kong. Children were individually given tasks of Chinese word reading, receptive vocabulary, phonological memory, tone awareness, syllable and rhyme awareness, rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, and orthographic skills, as well as nonverbal reasoning and audiometric screening tests. They were tested again on the same tasks, except nonverbal reasoning, one year after the initial testing. Children’s saliva was collected to perform SNP testing for zygosity determination. Also, their demographic information, home literacy environment profile, and motivation for learning text, were obtained from parent-rated questionnaires. Overall, there were four major findings on Chinese language and literacy abilities with the effects of age and nonverbal reasoning controlled for. First, genes and environments had differential influences on various skills, and there was a possibility of different etiology in language and reading development. Second, socioeconomic status and home literacy environment were plausible mediators but not moderators of general language and reading abilities. Third, the stability of various skills across a one-year time period was mainly mediated by genetic influences, but shared environmental factors also influenced syllable and rhyme awareness. Also, new genetic and environmental factors came into play at Time 2 for word reading, and results suggested new genetic influences and new shared environmental influences emerged at Time 2 for tone awareness and morphological awareness respectively. Fourth, both genes and environments contributed to parent-rated communicative ability and motivation for learning text. Furthermore, the link between word reading and parent-rated motivation was mediated by genetic processes. The universality of the genetic and environmental origins across languages and their specificity to Chinese, as well as the implications of these findings, were discussed.

The research presented in this thesis had two overarching aims; the first, to supplement our knowledge concerning the aetiological underpinnings of poor comprehension, and the second, to investigate the impact of being a poor comprehender on behavioural and educational outcomes in the school context. A combination of standardised test batteries, novel experimental paradigms, and questionnaire measures were used to obtain data that addressed hypotheses connected to these two aims. Poor comprehenders were found to have working memory deficits, as well as more specific deficits in suppressing irrelevant information from working memory. However, these deficits were largely confined to the verbal domain, giving credence to the theory that their poor performance on working memory and suppression tasks may be driven by underlying language difficulties. Poor comprehenders did show some evidence of broader executive deficits in both the verbal and non-verbal domains, raising the possibility that there might be subgroups of poor comprehenders with distinct aetiological profiles. In terms of behavioural and educational outcomes, poor comprehenders’ deficits were found to impact selectively on these areas, producing a distinct pattern of behavioural and educational impairments. These findings highlighted the need for early identification of, and effective intervention for, poor comprehenders.