The search for evidence of cognitive abilities in young children that have been previously detected only in the performance of older children and adults has been a target of study by many cognitive developmental psychologists. Early competency views suggest that aspects of cognitive fundamentals are present very early in life and are in some aspects developmentally invariant. Often, the focus of research is on the delineation of the constraints which direct and restrict deployment of early intellectual abilities to illuminate the regularities and patterns in observed developmental change. The purpose of this research was to examine children's proficiency with mental rotation tasks that involved the reorientation of complex multi-component stimuli. Specifically, the existence of stimulus effect and determination of which stimulus components prove problematic under taxing performance conditions was investigated. Sixteen students, eight first graders and eight third graders, participated in a two-choice discrimination task. Each student was assessed individually on 360 test trials in eight 20-minute sessions. Three test conditions included (1) perception, (2) memory, and (3) rotation. Two multi-component stimuli were used in which the experimenter-defined components included (A) an external protrusion on the edge of a circle, and (B) an internal axis system within the interior of the circle. The two stimuli varied in the placement of the internal axes which was either orthogonally or obliquely orientated. Test items in the memory and the rotation conditions included stimuli orthogonally oriented (90°, 180°, 270°) obliquely oriented (45°, 135°, 225°, 315°). Error scores were analyzed in a four-way analysis of variance. A main effect for foil type was found significant with axis foils being more difficult than protrusion foils. Furthermore, a significant four-way interaction effect was detected indicating that as stimulus characteristics and task demands increased in difficulty, performance declined particularly for the younger age group.

Young children are limited in their usage of comparative adjectives and ordinal numbers, typical ways of describing ordinal relationships. However, research in a number of areas suggests the possibility of a precursor level of ordinal concept. To facilitate the search for precursor ordinal skills, ordinal ability was defined in ordinal measurement terms. Only "greater than - less than," asymmetric judgements were required. Additionally, linguistic demands were reduced by using family-role terms as size designators. Experimental manipulations included variations in scale size and in the complexity level of ordinal conceptualization. Solution strategies based on "good form" and on "pairwise comparison" were precluded by using pictures of randomly placed objects which could not be manipulated by the child. Ninety-six 3-6 year old children pointed to "Daddy," "Mommy," "Big boy/girl," "Little boy/girl," and "Baby" when shown sets of 3 to 5 circles or squares which differed only in size. Tasks were of three types: Identification, mapping labels onto a single set of objects; Coordination, mapping labels onto two identical sets of objects in which corresponding "family members" are the same size; and Transposition, mapping labels onto two separate sets in which corresponding family members are of different sizes. Data were analyzed in an Age (3), by Scale Size (3), by Complexity Level (3), by Shape (2) mixed design ANOVA, and significant main effects were obtained for all variables. Tasks became more difficult with increases in scale size, and in complexity level. Square objects were slightly more difficult than circular, and older children were more proficient than younger ones. Post hoc tests generally supported the obtained main effects. Finer grained analysis using Latent Trait procedures supported the global ANOVA results, and supported the hypothesis that the end points of a scale are easier than the central positions. Response patterns indicated that errors were size-related, and suggested transitional levels of performance. The present study demonstrates that children as young as three can demonstrate a precursor ordinal concept when the task is framed in familiar terms and is placed in a context which is meaningful for them.

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in selected children's Graphing Response Patterns to elemental changes in compositions in theme and variation form. The research problems were (1) to determine points and degrees of elemental change in the compositional structure of the musical examples; (2) to determine number, degree, and nature of changes in subjects' graphing response pattern to aurally presented musical examples; (3) to determine percentages of agreement between changes in graphing response patterns and points of elemental change within the compositional structures; (4) to determine the relationship of changes in subjects' graphing response pattern to the quality and magnitude of elemental change within the compositional structure. Twenty second- and fourth-grade children were individually videotaped as they listened to and graphed a series of aurally-presented musical examples. Each musical example was analysed according to such parameters as timbre, range/interval size, texture, tempo/meter, attack/rhythmic density, key/mode, dynamic level, and melodic presentation. Change in each parameter was scored using an interval scale reflecting change/no change and degree of change. Changes in graphing response pattern were determined by an interval scale which reflected the presence of change/no change and amount of change, using as analytical units speed, size, shape, type, and pause. The following conclusions were made: findings showed an observable, quantifiable relationship between changes in children's graphing response patterns and elemental changes in music parameters. This relationship encompassed not only change/no change judgements but also magnitude of response. Overall, frequency and magnitude/degree of student response was proportionate to the frequency and magnitude of change in the music parameter/s. Results indicated the existence of high-ranking correlations between student response and certain parameters regardless of the degree-of-change/points-of-change ratio. Findings showed that one degree of change in a single music parameter was not sufficient to cause an observable change in the attention of the young listener.

Empirical work investigating children's temporal representations has included investigations of children's awareness of the past, present and future; their understanding of temporal order and their representation of duration. Previous work on children's temporal awareness leads to the question of whether children can access cognitive representations of durations in situations where the temporal aspects of the task are not made directly apparent either in the information given prior to stimulus presentation or in the subsequent question. There is very little evidence to indicate whether these representations might be accessed in the absence of any specific reference to the temporal aspects of the procedure. The empirical work in this thesis focuses on children's developing representation of duration in a procedure that avoids making specific reference to the temporal aspects of the task, in a context more closely analogous to their real world experiences where durations occur in the absence of salient prompts and cues. Results Data from over three hundred children who participated in the seven experiments in this series are encouraging and suggest that by the age of six years children do become able to differentially represent durations of 10 and 25 seconds in a procedure where no explicit reference was made to the temporal aspects of the experience, and the ability to differentially represent durations of 25 and 40 seconds, in this context, emerges later in development, at around eight years of age. 2 Conclusions This series 0 xperiments indicates that by six years of age children are able to represent durations in the absence of explicit reference to the temporal aspect of the task, and they are able to differentially represent durations of 10 and 25 seconds. Around eight years of age they are able to differentially represent durations of 25 and 40 seconds However whilst these findings indicate that children of six years and above may be able to differentially represent durations in this range.the inconsistencies in performance in the series of experiments suggest that the ability may be fragile. Whilst children in this age range are able to demonstrate the ability to code durations the limiting factors on their ability to do so in real world contexts remain unclear. Short abstract. Word count: 363.

已有文獻指出幼兒能夠根據他人的意圖、慾望和信念以解釋對方的行為。本硏究的主要目的為探究幼兒能否理解音樂所傳達的情緒以及能否運用情緒來推測對方的行為，並了解這兩種能力之間的關係。在第一項測試中，我們用了Phillip et al.（2002）的注視時間飾演方範式（looking-time paradigm)來測試幼兒能否透過觀察他人的情緒(包括面部表情及說話)來推斷他的行為。在此項測試中，幼兒會觀看兩種情景（一）實驗人員首先會笑著面向物件甲說話，跟著手抱該物件（一致的情況）；（二）實驗人員首先會笑著面向物件甲說話，但接著手抱另一物件（不一致的情況）。因為在不一致的情況下實驗人員的面部表情與她的行為不協調，假若幼兒能夠理解實驗人員的情緒與行為之間的關係，幼兒將會對這種情況比較感到驚訝，因而注視時間會較長。在另一項測試中，我們運用了跨感官比對飾演方範式（intermodal matching paradigm）來探究幼兒能否理解音樂所表達的情緒。我們在播放開心的音樂之後，幼兒同樣地會觀看兩種情景：（一）螢幕中的實驗人員面露笑容地講話（一致的情況）；（二）螢幕中的實驗人員面帶哀傷地說話（不一致的情況）。由於在不一致的情況下音樂傳達的情緒與實驗人員的面部表情不相符，如果幼兒能夠理解音樂中的情緒，他們對這種情況的注視時間將會較長。此外，鑬於幼兒的語言能力與理解他人的行為及想法有著密切的關連，我們亦要求家長填寫《漢語溝通發展量表》來評估幼兒的語言溝通能力。是次硏究對象為三十五名十八個月大幼兒（平均年齡為十八月及四天）。硏究結果顯示，（一）當實驗人員對一件物件面露笑容時，她便會手握該物件；（二）當實驗人員聽到開心的音樂時，她會面露笑容；相反，當她聽到悲傷的音樂時她便會愁眉苦臉。結果亦顯示幼兒在以上兩項測試中的表現並沒有正向的關聯，即與我們的假設不相符。由於我們認為次序效應（order effect）影響了本硏究的結果，因此我們建議在量度幼兒對音樂中的情緒之理解，以及對情緒與行為之間的關係的理解應作出適當的修改。總括而言，是次硏究把動作及視覺經驗延伸至聽覺經驗，以及由理解意向和信念延伸至理解情緒，因此本硏究對了解自身經驗和理解他人行為及想法之間的關係潛在莫大的貢獻。 / Prior studies demonstrated infants’ precocious mentalistic reasoning of attributing others’ behaviours to intentions, desires and beliefs. However, fewer studies looked at infants’ interpretation of behaviours in terms of agents’ emotional expressions. The present study examined the relationship between infants’ perception of emotions in music and their understanding of behaviours as motivated by emotional states. In Task 1, we adapted Phillips et al.’s (2002) looking-time paradigm to assess infants’ use of emotional information to predict agent’s action. Infants were shown an actress with positive emotional-visual regard directed towards one object and subsequently grasping the same object (consistent event) or the other one (inconsistent event). If infants appreciated the connection between actress’ affect and her action, they should show greater novelty response to inconsistent events in which the actress’ expressed emotion contradicted the expected action. In Task 2, an intermodal matching paradigm was used to test whether infants are sensitive to emotions conveyed in music. We exposed infants to happy or sad music and later showed them an actress portraying either happy or sad dynamic facial expressions on a monitor. If they could discern the emotions embedded in the musical excerpts, they should look longer when the actress’ posed emotion is inconsistent with the emotion represented in the music. Parental report of language skills as measured by the Mac-Arthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories was also obtained to partial out the effect of language ability on psychological reasoning. Results from 35 18-month-olds (M = 18 months 4 days) revealed that as a group (a) they recognized that the actress tended to grasp the object with which she had positively regarded previously, and (b) they appreciated that the actress tended to show happy face upon hearing positive music excerpts whereas sad facial expression was displayed when listening to sad music. Contrary to our hypothesis, we failed to find a positive correlation between these two conceptual understanding. We speculate that the result was obscured by order effects, and suggestions have been proposed to ameliorate the measurement of infants’ looking preferences as reflecting their conceptual understanding. Despite the null result, the current study is potentially significant in corroborating the role of first-person experience in social cognition by extending from motor and visual experience to auditory experience on the one hand, as well as from intention and belief attribution to emotion attribution on the other. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Siu, Tik Sze Carrey. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-84). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Introduction --- p.11 / Infants’ Early Psychological Reasoning --- p.11 / Self-experience as a Mechanism underlying Infants’ Psychological Reasoning --- p.14 / Infants’ Attribution of Behaviours to Emotions --- p.17 / Music as a Language of Emotions --- p.23 / The Perception of Emotions in Music among Young Children and Infants --- p.25 / The Hypothesis of the Present Study --- p.29 / Method --- p.32 / Participants --- p.32 / Apparatus and Materials --- p.33 / Chapter Task 1 --- : Ability to predict agent’s action based on expressed emotion --- p.33 / Chapter Task 2 --- : Ability to decode emotions in music --- p.33 / Musical stimuli --- p.33 / Facial expressions --- p.34 / The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories --- p.35 / Procedure --- p.36 / Chapter Task 1 --- : Ability to predict agent’s action based on expressed emotion --- p.36 / Chapter Task 2 --- : Ability to decode emotions in music --- p.38 / Reliability Coding --- p.39 / Results --- p.41 / Chapter Task 1 --- : Ability to Predict Agent’s Action Based upon Expressed Emotion --- p.41 / Familiarization --- p.41 / Test events --- p.41 / Chapter Task 2 --- : Ability to Decode Emotions in Music --- p.42 / 42 / Test events --- p.42 / The Link between Task 1 and Task 2 --- p.43 / Discussion --- p.46 / Limitations and Further Research --- p.53 / Significance and Implications --- p.59 / Conclusion --- p.60 / References --- p.62 / Appendices --- p.85 / Table --- p.85 / Figures --- p.86

Auditory sensitivity was associated with speech perception which influenced Chinese word reading mainly through morphological awareness and rapid automatized naming. In contrast, for English word reading, the best model required an additional direct path from suprasegmental sensitivity (in Chinese) to English word reading on the basis of the proposed model. To be specific, auditory sensitivity was fully mediated by segmental and suprasegmental speech perception which further impacted English word reading mainly through phonological awareness; in addition, suprasegmental perception or speech prosody (in Chinese) was directly associated with word reading. Third, stress sensitivity in English was highly associated with speech prosodic sensitivity in Chinese. Hierarchical regressions also showed that suprasegmental speech perception failed to account unique variance for English word reading beyond phonological awareness when stress sensitivity was further controlled, suggesting that Chinese suprasegmental speech sensitivity may influence English word reading at least partly through its overlap with stress sensitivity. / This study investigated the associations of auditory sensitivity, speech perception, Chinese reading as a first language (L1) and English reading as a second language (L2) in Hong Kong Chinese children. Participants were 180 second and third graders (98 boys and 82 girls, mean age=98.6months). Apart from auditory sensitivity (both temporal and rhythmic processing measures), English stress sensitivity and English word reading, children were also tested on Chinese tasks of speech perception (both segmental and suprasegmental tasks), phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (digit), verbal short-term memory, morphological awareness and Chinese word reading. I proposed a four-stage model, in which auditory sensitivity is fully mediated by speech perception at both the segmental and suprasegmental levels. These further impact word reading through phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, verbal short-term memory and morphological awareness. A series of nested model comparisons were conducted to test this model for both Chinese and English word reading using structural equation modeling. For Chinese word reading, the proposed four-stage model was demonstrated to be the best model. / Zhang, Juan. / Advisers: Catherine A. McBride-Chang; Him Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-118). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

by Wong Mui Fong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-48). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.2 / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.3 / LIST OF TABLES --- p.4 / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.5 / ABSTRACT --- p.6 / ABSTRACT (CHI) --- p.7 / Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- PROCESSING OF SPEECH IN CHINESE CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT READING ABILITIES: AN FMRI STUDY --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- METHOD --- p.18 / Participants --- p.18 / Imaging Technique --- p.18 / Other Apparatus --- p.18 / Procedure --- p.19 / Testing --- p.19 / Data Analysis --- p.22 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- RESULTS --- p.23 / Behavior data --- p.23 / Functional MRI data-group data --- p.24 / Functional MRI data-individual data --- p.32 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- DISCUSSION --- p.36 / REFERENCES --- p.41 / APPENDIX 1 --- p.49

Yim, Nga Kin Edward. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-53). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Table Captions --- p.v / Figure Captions --- p.vi / Abstract --- p.vii / Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1 / "The ""Awareness"" Approach to Tapping Influence of Morphemes" --- p.2 / "Inadequacies of the ""Awareness"" Approach" --- p.6 / "The ""Processing"" Approach to Tapping Influence of Morphemes" --- p.7 / Measuring Eye Movements in Linguistic Research --- p.10 / The Present Study --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method --- p.15 / Participants --- p.15 / Stimuli and Apparatus --- p.16 / Design and Procedure --- p.19 / Data Analyses --- p.20 / Chapter Chapter 3: --- Results --- p.22 / Literacy Tasks --- p.22 / Experimental Session 1 (Picture) --- p.23 / Experimental Session 2 (Printed Words) --- p.28 / Comparison between Picture and Printed Word session --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion --- p.34 / Reliability and Validity of the Measure --- p.34 / Grade Differences in Morphemic Processing --- p.35 / Mechanisms of Morphemic Ambiguity Resolution and Speech Processing in Children --- p.38 / Stimulus Differences --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter 5: --- Conclusion --- p.43 / Theoretical and Methodological Contributions --- p.43 / Limitations and Future Directions --- p.44 / References --- p.46 / Appendix --- p.54

The purpose of this study was to compare the speechreading abilities of elementary school-age children with mild to severe articulation disorders with those of children with normal articulation. Speechreading ability, as determined by a speechreading test, indicates how well a person recognizes the visual cues of speech. Speech sounds that have similar visual characteristics have been defined as visemes by Jackson in 1988 and can be categorized into distinct groups based on their place of articulation. A relationship between recognition of these visemes and correct articulation was first proposed by Woodward and Barber in 1960. Dodd, in 1983, noted that speechread information shows a child how to produce a sound, while aural input simply offers a target at which to aim.

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