Alexander W. Siegel

Social-cognitive and cognitive correlates of depression in children.

The present investigation examined depression and its social-cognitive and cognitive correlates in a sample of 108 elementary school children: 36 children in each of grades 1, 4, and 8. Children were classified as depressed and nondepressed according to their scores on the Childrens Depression Inventory (CDI). Depression appeared stable over a 3-week time interval. Depressed children reported a higher number of “masking” symptoms, were rated as more depressed by their teachers, and perceived their family environment to be more distressed. As posited, when compared to nondepressed children, depressed children have lower self-esteem, a more depressive attributional style, and more self-control deficits. Further, they have impaired performance on some cognitive tasks (block design, coding digit span) but not all (vocabulary). The prediction that depression would be manifested differently in first-, fourth-, and eighth-graders was not supported.

Attributional style and self-control behavior in depressed and nondepressed children and their parents

Do the reformulated model of learned helplessness and the self-control model apply to clinically depressed children? Are the related cognitive patterns specific to depression? Are the cognitive deficits associated with depression learned from ones parents? To address these questions this investigation examined three groups of children (ages 8–12) and their parents: nonclinic (n =25),nondepressed clinic (n=22),and depressed clinic (n=15).Children were diagnosed depressed on the basis of Kiddie-SADS interview data. Depressed clinic children self-reported more depression, had a more depressive attributional style, and had more self-control problems. There were more depressed mothers in the clinic than in the nonclinic sample. Depressed clinic children had more depressed mothers than did nondepressed clinic children. There were no differences among the three groups of parents in their cognitive patterns. No relationship was found between the attributional style and self-control behavior of children and their parents.

Developmental issues in cognitive mapping: the selection and utilization of environmental landmarks.

2 studies were conducted to investigate developmental differences in the ability to select and use environmental landmarks for cognitively organizing distance information from a walk. In experiment 1, second-grade, fifth-grade, and college subjects viewed a simulated walk and selected scenes that were high in potential landmark value. In experiment 2, children from the same grade levels first viewed the walk and then ranked distances among either the test scenes most frequently selected by their peers or those selected most frequently by adults. Results indicated that (a) adults and children may not spontaneously select the same features as real-world landmarks; (b) children are less capable than adults in judging the value of potential landmarks as distance cues; and (c) the ability to use environmental landmarks as cues for distance information developmentally precedes the ability to assess this potential information value.

Way finding and cognitive mapping in large-scale environments: A test of a developmental model

First, fourth, and seventh graders (7, 10, and 13 years of age, respectively) were given a series of tasks to assess their spatial competency in and their cognitive mapping of their school campus. Measures of way-finding, landmark, route, and configurational knowledge were obtained and analyzed to (1) assess way-finding skills in the same environment as that in which their cognitive representations were inferred and assessed; (2) determine the validity of the hierarchical model of cognitive mapping development proposed by Siegel and White by examining individual childrens performance patterns as well as between-group performance; and (3) investigate the relationship between grade level and familiarity within an environment where familiarity within subsets of the environment varied by grade. Subjects were asked to create and walk three novel and efficient routes, to select photographs of scenes belonging to the three routes, to correctly order and metrically relate those scenes, and to make bearing and distance estimates from four sighting locations to six targets within the environment. Results indicated that all children were extremely competent way finders. Guttman scale analysis revealed that 93% of all children exhibited performance patterns predicted by the proposed model. Further support of the model was found in grade level differences on cognitive mapping measures. Reversals in the developmental trend were found, however, on some portions of the route and configuration measures, and were significantly related to degree of familiarity within the environment.

Developmental Differences in Cognitive Mapping: Configurational Knowledge of Familiar Large-Scale Environments.

Abstract In order to investigate the development of cognitive mapping of familiar large-scale environments. First-, fifth-, and eighth-grade children were asked to make bearing and distance estimates to six targets from three sighting locations in their school. Correlations between estimated and actual bearings and distances were extremely high at all grade levels, indicating that (a) children at all grade levels could reliably make such estimates, and (b) route knowledge of even the youngest children was quite high. Bearing accuracy increased between first- and fifth-grade and showed little improvement thereafter. Increases in a measure of configurational accuracy were found between first- and fifth-grade and between fifth- and eighth-grade. Differential accuracy as a function of the demands of particular sighting locations was found only for the younger children.

Depression and perception of family functioning in children and their parents

Abstract This investigation examined depression and other forms of psychopathology, perception of family functioning, and marital satisfaction in nonclinic, nondepressed clinic, and depressed clinic children and their parents. Children with greater pathology came from families with greater pathology. Mothers of depressed children were more chronically depressed than mothers of the other children. Clinic children have more negative perceptions of their families and have parents who are less satisfied with their marriages than do normal controls, and depressed clinic children perceive their families in a more negative light than do nondepressed clinic children.

Developmental changes in the speed and effects of acoustic and semantic encoding

An incidental learning procedure was used with 8-, 11-, and 19-year-olds to identify processing changes that might underlie a developmental shift in feature encoding. Presentation of each of 32 words was accompanied by a question designed to induce either acoustic or semantic encoding. Tests of recall and recognition followed an intervening task. Acoustic encoding was faster than semantic encoding at all ages, but this difference decreased with age. Semantic encoding resulted in greater recall and recognition accuracy than acoustic encoding only for adults. It is argued that decreases in the difference between acoustic and semantic encoding speeds could contribute to the encoding shift effect. The retention data are interpreted as support for the notion that the encoding shift effect may also be due, in part, to memory processes other than encoding. Changes in encoding speeds and in memory processes related to retrieval are considered as complementary aspects of memory development.