Driven by both applied and theoretical goals, scientific interest in canine cognition has experienced a rapid surge in popularity, especially over the last 15 years (Morell, 2009). Here we provide the most comprehensive review to date of dog cognition research, capturing all the articles (285) we could find on the subject going back to 1911. We begin by summarizing general research trends, first documenting the rapid recent growth in dog cognition research (particularly in the domain of social cognition), and then identifying a number of trends in terms of the cognition topics and dog populations studied. Next, we summarize and synthesize the substantive conclusions emerging from research on non-social (discrimination learning, object permanence, object learning, categorization, object manipulation, quantitative understanding, spatial cognition, memory) and social (responses to human cues, perspective taking, dog-human communication, social learning) cognition. In light of burgeoning research on individual differences in cognition and on the biological organization of cognitive domains, we highlight the potential impact of these topics on dog cognition. Finally, based on our syntheses, we outline some ideas for future research, including recommendations that studies focus on: (1) incorporating multiple sensory modalities (most notably olfaction); (2) using more diverse populations of subjects; (3) replicating studies where current knowledge is based on small study sets or on small samples; (4) identifying fundamental developmental patterns of cognitive development; (5) identifying individual differences in cognitive ability; and (6) identifying potential cognitive constraints (e.g., cognitive abilities that are non-independent due to pleiotropic biological organization). / text

Background. Earthquake is a natural event that can happen all around the world. And significant ones would cause great fatality, morbidity and huge economic damage to the local society. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common psychiatric condition among the earthquake survivors. Some former studies indicated that being female experienced a higher risk of depression, a psychiatric symptoms after traumatic events, while others did not. It is not sure that whether females tend to be more easily suffer from PTSD after earthquakes. So the aim of the study is to conduct a systematic review to examine the sex difference of PTSD prevalence among surviving population after earthquake. Method. A keyword searching was performed using ‘earthquake’ and ‘PTSD’, ’posttraumatic stress disorder’ as keywords. Articles published in recent 5 years, in English and the ones full text could be accessed were included in the study. Among the articles being selected according to the inclusion criteria, those ones which fulfilled the exclusion criteria would be eliminated. Results. 11 articles included in this systematic review. In terms of the age of the subjects, there are seven articles studying the adult population and the remaining four studied children and adolescents. Six articles investigated the survivors from Chinese population after 2008 Wunchuan earthquake. Others studied survivors from local population after 2005 Pakistan earthquake(n=2), 2007 Peru earthquake(n=1), 2009 L’Aquila earthquake(n=1) and 1999 Jiji earthquake (n=1). On the other hand, the sex difference in earthquake-related PTSD in children and adolescents were inconsistent. Conclusion. Women tended to experience higher risk of PTSD after earthquake than men, while result on sex difference was not consistent in the children/adolescent population. Further studies are needed to examine PTSD prevalence between boys and girls. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Generally, females are regarded as the group who has better verbal and reading abilities (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974; Denno, 1982), although there are still some disagreements on particular aspects or language systems (Hyde & Linn, 1988; Hetherington & Parke, 1986). We asked whether gender differences of reading ability exist in Chinese children and if so, how the difference may be demonstrated. In addition, we investigated whether the development of reading ability follows a hierarchical model (Gough &Hillinger, 1980; Ehri, 1980; Ehri & Wilce, 1985), according to which, the gender differences may vary with age and reading experience. We tested children’s character reading ability and phonological awareness in a Shandong primary school. Fifty-five second graders and forty-three fourth graders performed behavioral tasks containing a Chinese character reading test, a Chinese onset-rime oddity test and an English onset-rime oddity test. We found that Chinese children exhibited a significant gender difference in Chinese character reading ability. However, we have not found gender differences on onset-rime level phonological awareness. Thus, gender differences of reading ability exist in Chinese children, even if the differences only cover partial phonological or orthographic skills. The present data have also yielded the predicted result that the development of gender differences change with age and reading experience. Specifically, the gender difference on Chinese character reading ability emerged after Grade 2. In terms of the onset-rime oddity task, the performances of boys and girls showed no striking difference at any grades. These results reveal that gender differences of reading ability exist in Chinese children, especially in children in higher grades (Grade 4). Different types of verbal skills and learning attitude should be taken into account, and be examined in the future. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

The focus of this research is on gendered discourse in fairy tales with particular reference to identity formation in very young readers. Both the modern culture industry of adult consumption and children’s culture constantly take up and recycle fairy tale themes in visual entertainment, literature and merchandising. Without being overly deterministic it is credible to claim that fairy tales exert an influence on the collective consciousness in many societies. Moreover since fairy tales frequently from the backbone of early reader schemes in both first- and second-language programmes, it is important to study the language used to define the relationship between children and culture. Critical Discourse Analysis serves as the best approach to investigate how gender is constructed through language in my analysis of current renditions of three popular princess fairy tales. This linguistic analysis examines character action and character description through a transitivity analysis, an appraisal of attitudinal lexis and an investigation of stylistic markers. The findings from this research provide evidence of three gendered discourses, identified as ‘The Passive Princess’, ‘Women beware women’ and ‘The Beauty Contest’. An examination of how these discourses operate to align the reader indicates that they are potentially damaging to women, men, girls and boys and gender relations. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the three prevailing discourses position children and they may enjoy or resist this subject positioning in part or total. This dissertation recommends that Critical Literacy strategies be adopted in school in order to prevent gender privileging when using fairy tales. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Current research has identified various cases of gender difference in perception and adoption of technology in general and language learners’ use of technology for second language learning. To understand these differences, this study investigated the use of technology out-of-class to enhance their second language learning of the students in a Chinese high school in Chengdu, Sichuan. It was showed that males and females have some differences in using technology for affection regulation, technology for culture regulation, technology for metacognition regulation and technology for resource regulation. In addition, this study unraveled the factor of family background that influenced students’ perception and selective use of technology in second language learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Although the status of Putonghua is perceived to be on the rise progressively in post-colonial Hong Kong, the tremendous social prestige enjoyed by English language is still dominating this city, which resulted in educationalists’ attention on students’ achievements in English language, especially after female students were found to out-compete their male counterparts in English studies for years. In order to yield more reference for educationalists concerning this phenomenon, a newly developed approach, namely the Motivational Self System Model (Dörnyei, 2009), was adopted to investigate the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ motivation and their English achievements in Hong Kong. 30 male and 30 female freshmen studying in various departments in the University of Hong Kong participated in this study. Their level of motivation in English learning was measured through a questionnaire consisted of 30 questions scored on a 7-point Likert scale. Interviews were conducted afterwards to generate qualitative data so as to assist quantitative analysis. By using independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that female respondents showed higher levels of language learning experience than male respondents, but learners’ English achievements were only positively correlated to their levels of ideal self. The relationship of gender, motivation and English achievement was therefore re-examined. It was discovered that Arts students tended to out-perform their Science peers in English studies. Meanwhile, male and female learners were found to dominate Science stream and Arts stream respectively owing to the social facet of their ideal selves. As a result, the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ English achievements were highly likely to be originated from males’ domination in Science stream and that of females in Arts stream. This brought about pedagogical implications for educators, in that more resources should be reallocated for Science students regarding English learning. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

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Gender is the strongest and most consistent correlate of crime and delinquency, but the reason is unclear and traditionally understudied in criminology. The current study tests the ability of a general theory of crime and deviance, general strain theory (GST), to explain gender differences in responses to strain. Preliminary research suggests that while girls and boys share many of the same types of strain, they also are exposed to qualitatively different types of strain and experience different types of negative emotions that may lead to gendered patterns of behavioral problems. Moreover, girls are thought to have fewer internal coping resources with which to cope. Using a sample of 1,915 adolescents from Wave 2 of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Longitudinal Cohort Study (1994-2001), I assess the effects of exposure to violence, sexual victimization, loss of close others, school strain, and fear of victimization on a range of behavioral outcomes including aggressive delinquency, running away, minor theft, substance use, suicidal behavior, and high risk sexual behavior. I also examine the extent to which these effects are mediated by anger, and the conditioning effects of depression and self-efficacy. Results indicate that girls are more exposed to sexual victimization, loss of close others, and fear of victmization, and boys are more exposed to general violence and school strain. However, girls and boys are equally vulnerable to exposure to violence and loss of close others, but respond in gendered ways. Depression and self-efficacy play important roles in explaining the nature of girls' problem behaviors: depression amplifies the effects of exposure to violence, sexual victimization, and loss of close others on running away and suicidality, while reducing the effect of anger on aggressive delinquency. Self-efficacy reduces the effects of exposure to violence and loss of close others on most outcomes, as well as the effect of depression on running away. This research advances the effort to explain how gender influences the complex relationships among strain, negative emotion, selfefficacy, and problematic coping behaviors, and makes a broad contribution to both criminology and the sociology of mental health.