Glyn M. Collis

Dogs as catalysts for social interactions: Robustness of the effect

It is known that pet dogs can act as catalysts for human social interactions, and it has been suggested that this may enhance feelings of well-being. Two studies were carried out to establish the robustness of this effect. In Study 1, a highly trained dog was used to ensure that the dog itself did not solicit attention from passers-by, and data were collected across a range of normal daily activities in which a dog could be included, not confined to conventional dog walking areas as in previous studies. Being accompanied by a dog increased the frequency of social interactions, especially interactions with strangers. In Study 2, also using a trained dog, a different (male) participant observer was dressed either smartly or scruffily. Although there were significantly more interactions when he was smartly dressed, the greatest effect was between the Dog present and No Dog conditions irrespective of the handlers dress. It is concluded that the social catalysis effect is very robust, which opens the way for investigating possible consequences of the effect for well-being and health.

Familiar face and voice matching and recognition in children with autism.

Relatively able children with autism were compared with age- and language-matched controls on assessments of (1) familiar voice-face identity matching, (2) familiar face recognition, and (3) familiar voice recognition. The faces and voices of individuals at the childrens schools were used as stimuli. The experimental group were impaired relative to the controls on all three tasks. Face recognition and voice recognition correlated significantly with voice-face identity matching, but not with each other, suggesting that the recognition impairments jointly cause the matching impairment. Neither chronological age nor verbal mental age were consistently related to the recognition and matching impairments.

Imitation and representational development in young children with Down syndrome

Competence in object search and pretend play are argued to reflect young childrens representational abilities and appear delayed in children with Down syndrome relative to social and imitative skills. This paper explores the effects on object search and play of this social strength in children with Down syndrome. Three experiments compared performance on traditional tasks with modified tasks designed to assess the role of imitation in object search and pretend play. Children with Down syndrome, relative to typically-developing children, were able and willing to imitate hiding actions when no object was hidden (Experiment 1). When imitation was prevented in object search, children with Down syndrome searched less effectively than typically-developing children (Experiment 2). In play, children with Down syndrome expressed more willingness to imitate a counter-functional action, modelled by the experimenter, despite apparent competence in spontaneous functional play (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that object search and play behaviours of children with Down syndrome rely more heavily on imitation than is the case for typically-developing children. The implications for the development of children with Down syndrome and models of representational development are discussed.

Companion animal separation and loneliness

Abstract It is widely believed that companion animal ownership can help to alleviate loneliness. This study explored whether companion animal separation leads to increased levels of loneliness. Among new students who had been at university for three weeks, no evidence was found that companion animal separation was associated with increased levels of loneliness, irrespective of the self-reported “closeness” of the owner–companion animal relationship before separation. Because prior to leaving home companion animal owners and non-companion animal owners may have somehow differed, a comparable sample of companion animal owners and non-companion animal owners was tested immediately prior to the time of moving to university. No difference in loneliness was found due to companion animal ownership, irrespective of the self-reported degree of closeness of the relationship. As both samples may have been atypical, the impact of moving to university on loneliness was explored and a highly significant increase in loneliness was found. Overall, these findings suggest that companion animal separation does not contribute to the increase in loneliness observed when students leave home to start at university.

New methods for studying blind children’s understanding of familiar space

Two previous studies have indicated that until the teenage years blind children understand the relationships between familiar locations in and around their home in terms of the routes between them rather than in terms of straight line directions. Given the practical implications of these findings, it is important that they are replicated. The present paper describes some new ways of exploring blind childrens understanding of space and reports some preliminary data from three blind children, two severely visually impaired children and a small group of sighted children. These data indicate that blind children can understand the straight line relationships between different locations at a younger age than previously reported. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Classes of dialogue theory for the learning process: a commentary

Abstract This paper argues that evaluation should involve an examination of learning processes as well as outcomes, and examines the potential utility of dialogue in gaining insights into the learning process. It is argued that there is a good deal to be learned about the processes of learning using computers from the study of dialogue, but that such study has to be grounded in a theoretical perspective on the relationship between dialogue and knowledge change/acquisition. The possible relationships between dialogue and learning are explored, raising a number of important issues, such as the importance of meta-representational structures.

HAND DOMINANCE OF PARENTS AND OTHER RELATIVES OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Hand preferences of 219 mothers and 186 fathers of autistic children were assessed using the Annett Handedness questionnaire. Subgroups of 54 mothers and 57 fathers with a family history of language‐related developmental disorders were identified. Parents also reported the handedness of other relatives. Mothers (but not fathers) in the main group were significantly more likely to be consistently right‐handed than females in the general population, but this was not specifically associated with a family history of language problems. There was no evidence of an increased incidence of consistent left‐handedness in either the whole group of parents or the subgroups. Reported handedness of other relatives showed no abnormal distribution in relation to a comparison group. The findings are discussed in relation to theories about genetic factors in language‐related developmental disorders in general, and autism in particular.

Evaluative explanations in childrens' narratives

Labov and Waletzky ( 1967) identified two basic constituents of a narrative sequence; narrative and evaluative clauses. Narrative clauses refer simply to a statement of the actual events as they occur in a story, listed in a sequential order. Evaluative clauses go beyond a straightforward sequential analysis of events and attempt to evaluate the outcome of particular events, moving away from a simple description towards an analysis of why events might have taken place. According

Young children's understanding of the cognitive verb forget

Investigation of childrens understanding of the cognitive verb forget has shown that young children do not consider the role of prior knowledge when using this verb. Thus, someone may be said to have forgotten a fact despite not ever having previously known it. However, forget can also be used to refer to a failure to recall a prior intention. Three experiments examined the role of prior intention as well as prior knowledge in the comprehension of forget by 160 young children aged four to eight years. The results showed that children initially have two interpretations of forget: as an unfulfilled desire rather than a failure to recall a prior intention, and as a state of not knowing rather than a failure to recall prior knowledge. Explanations for the late comprehension of forget are discussed in terms of representation of knowledge and intention, processing capacity and exposure to pragmatic usages.

BLINDNESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, 0-10 YEARS Vicky Lewis previews a Symposium at Warwick University, 5th and 6th September 1995

A key difficulty in evaluating the quality of integrated provision is the absence of clear benchmarks against which to measure it. John Hosegood, HMI with responsibility for Visual Impairment, concentrated on the concept of evaluation itself rather than discussing in depth the criteria involved in good quality provision, arguing that evaluation is not something imposed by professional inspectors from the outside but is a continuous process involving the pupil, parents and professionals involved.