Fermino Fernandes Sisto

PEER ACCEPTANCE AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

To verify whether development of cognitive skills and peer acceptance are necessarily linked, 212 students of low socioeconomic status in the first, second, and third grades of a public school in Brazil were studied. A sociometric evaluation of peer group acceptance in play and study situations was conducted. The cognitive tasks were the mental imaging and conservation of mass and length (operative casks) as well as location of dice and equidistancing arrangements (creation of possibilities tasks). Analysis showed the children identified as desirable study companions had highly developed general cognitive abilities, and those chosen as desirable for both study and play not only had highly developed general cognitive abilities but also highly developed operativeness. Children who were socially isolated, however, had even higher mean cognitive assessment score in relation to both creation of possibilities and general cognitive development than did those with ratings of negative or positive salience.

Analysis of the school anxiety inventory in Brazil using the Rasch rating scale model.

This study assessed the quality of the items of the School Anxiety Inventory using the Rating-Scale Rasch model. The Inventory was administered to 253 grade school pupils, ranging in age from 9 to 12 yr. (M = 10.2 yr., SD = 0.98); most were girls (52.8%). The results showed that the items and participants adequately fit the Rasch model. The average anxiety of these children was 0.32 logits (SD = 1.60). The inventory items revealed good reliability (Item Reliability Index = 0.98; Cronbachs α = .74), and the fit indicators for the response categories were adequate for 50% of the items, while the other items revealed dichotomous responses. No item functioned differentially for boys and girls. The psychometric properties of the inventory were good enough to encourage plans for further development.

Estudo Psicométrico de Escalas de Depressão (EDEP e BDI) e o Inventário de Percepção de Suporte Familiar (IPSF)

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo encontrar evidencias de validade para o conjunto de descritores intitulado inicialmente de Escala de Depressao –EDEP em relacao a outras variaveis, que foram o Inventario de Depressao de Beck (BDI) e o Inventario de Percepcao do Suporte Familiar (IPSF) e evidenciar o quanto as variaveis sexo, estado civil, idade e escolaridade do chefe da familia contribuem para essas relacoes. A coleta de dados resultou em um total de 165 estudantes universitarios dos cursos de Direito e Enfermagem do interior do Estado de Sao Paulo, com idades entre 18 e 52 anos (M= 24,6; DP= 6,74). As analises foram realizadas pela a estatistica parametrica, a qual denotou correlacoes boas e positivas entre a EDEP e o BDI, assim como correlacoes fracas e negativas entre a EDEP e IPSF. Isso permitiu concluir que a EDEP mostra-se como um instrumento pro- missor no cenario da testagem psicologica. Por ser este um estudo que visa apenas um tipo de evidencia de validade, sugere-se que outras pesquisas sejam realizadas com a EDEP, a fim de se avaliar outras evidencias de validade.

Defasagem de desenvolvimento e transferência de aprendizagem construtivista

The present study investigated the effects of age, intervention type, and immediate or delayed post tests in the transference of learning from conservation of mass to conservation of liquid. Participants were 48 non operative children, five to seven years old, selected on the basis of the two conservation tasks. They were randomly assigned to two groups. One was trained in verbal cognitive conflict, and the other in cognitive conflict with demonstration. The results suggested that age affected the transfer, the amount of learning had just an immediate effect, and the techniques of cognitive conflict made no difference. Thus, the transfer would not occur independently, but it would be linked to some conditions of the cognitive system to give support to the process.