James P. Byrnes

Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 150 studies in which the risk-taking tendencies of male and female participants were compared. Studies were coded with respect to type of task (e.g., self-reported behaviors vs. observed behaviors), task content (e.g., smoking vs. sex), and 5 age levels. Results showed that the average effects for 14 out of 16 types of risk taking were significantly larger than 0 (indicating greater risk taking in male participants) and that nearly half of the effects were greater than .20. However, certain topics (e.g., intellectual risk taking and physical skills) produced larger gender differences than others (e.g., smoking). In addition, the authors found that (a) there were significant shifts in the size of the gender gap between successive age levels, and (b) the gender gap seems to be growing smaller over time. The discussion focuses on the meaning of the results for theories of risk taking and the need for additional studies to clarify age trends.

Perspectives on language and thought : interrelations in development

Part I. Introduction: 1. Perspectives on thought and language: traditional and contemporary views James P. Byrnes and Susan A. Gelman Part II. Relations Between Word Learning and Categorization: 2. Acquisitional principles in lexical development Eve V. Clark 3. The whole-object, taxonomic, and mutual exclusivity assumptions as initial constraints on word meanings Ellen M. Markman 4. Convergences between semantic and conceptual organization in the preschool years Sandra R. Waxman 5. Language and categorization: the acquisition of natural kind terms Susan A. Gelman and John D. Coley 6. Theories, concepts, and the acquisition of word meaning Frank C. Keil Part III. Logical, Causal, and Temporal Expressions: 7. Language and the career of similarity Dedre Gentner and Mary Jo Rattermann 8. The matter of time: interdependencies between language and thought in development Katherine Nelson 9. Constraints on the acquisition of English modals Marilyn Shatz and Sharon A. Wilcox 10. Acquisition and development of if and because: conceptual and linguistic aspects James P. Byrnes Part IV. The Role of Social Interaction: 11. The language of thinking: metacognitive and conditional words Ellin Kofsky Scholnick and William S. Hall 12. Parent-child collaboration in young childrens understanding of category hierarchies Maureen A. Callanan 13. Beginning to talk with peers: the roles of setting and knowledge Lucia French, Marylou Boynton and Rosemary Hodges.

The Educational Relevance of Research in Cognitive Neuroscience

The benefits of incorporating findings from cognitive neuroscience into the field of educational psychology are considered. The first section begins with arguments against the idea that one can ignore the brain when positing a model of student learning or motivation. The second section describes limitations in the methods used to reveal brain-cognition relations. In the third section, properties of the brain and brain development are described. The fourth section summarizes the cognitive neuroscientific research on attention, memory, reading, and math. Finally, areas of future research in cognitive neuroscience are suggested that would help answer important questions about individual and developmental differences in student learning.

Reasoning about Certainty and Uncertainty in Concrete, Causal, and Propositional Contexts.

The present study examined childrens comprehension of certainty and uncertainty within the context of concrete and propositional reasoning tasks. First, third, and fifth graders were given PierautLeBonniecs (1980) box task and a multisufficient causality task to assess reasoning about certainty and uncertainty in concrete contexts. Children were also given conditional syllogisms to assess this ability in a propositional context. Half of the children at each grade were given contramanded syllogism task statements intended to block erroneous conversational inferences made about these conditional statements. Results indicated no developmental differences in reasoning about concrete certainty, but significant improvement occurred in reasoning about concrete uncertainty. On syllogisms, only the fifth graders benefitted from contramanding so as to demonstrate an understanding of propositional uncertainty. Correlational and error analyses showed that the discrimination between certainty and uncertainty is mastered in concrete contexts prior to the time when this discrimination occurs in propositional contexts. These findings support the position that reasoning about concrete certainty and uncertainty requires a different competence than that required for reasoning about propositional certainty and uncertainty.

The Role of Contextual and Personal Factors in Children's Risk Taking.

The primary aims of the present studies were to (a) add to the sparse developmental database on risk taking and (b) conduct initial tests of a self-regulation model (SRM) of risk taking. According to the SRM, inappropriate risk taking is associated with overconfidence, falling prey to dysregulating influences (e.g., impulsivity, peer presence, etc.), and an insensitivity to outcomes. Experiment 1 tested these proposals by assessing the effects of peer presence and 4 personal factors on the risk taking of 3rd, 5th, and 7th graders. Results generally supported the predictions of the SRM. In Experiment 2, the SRM gained further support from the finding that 5 variables correlated with risk taking in 4th, 6th, and 8th graders: ability beliefs, a preference for thrill seeking, peer nomination, competitiveness, and interest. The discussion focuses on the meaning of age and gender differences in risk-taking as well as the interventional implications of the SRM.

The development of decision-making

PURPOSE To describe what is currently known and not known about the development of decision-making skills during adolescence. METHODS The author provides a definition of competent decision-making, gives a brief overview of the literature on the development of this competence, and describes the kinds of studies that should be conducted in the near future. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Although the literature is still too sparse to be conclusive at present, the literature as a whole suggests that adolescents may have less decision-making competence than adults in certain areas (i.e., advice-seeking, evaluation processes, adaptive goal-setting, and learning) but may have similar levels of competence in other areas (i.e., knowledge of options in familiar areas, response to certain moderating factors, and making choices in a number of areas). Moreover, age differences in deliberative aspects of competence have not yet been linked to age differences in the tendency to pursue good options, although one recent study did find a possible link between a post-decisional process (i.e., learning from decisions) and age differences in the selection of good options. Additional studies are needed to firm up the tentative conclusions that can be drawn from the extant research and determine which kinds of interventions improve decision-making in adolescents and which do not.

Factors Predictive of Mathematics Achievement in White, Black, and Hispanic 12th Graders.

In this study, a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress was conducted to provide insight into ethnic differences in 12th-grade math achievement. Using the 3 conditions model (3C model) of achievement as a guide, regression analyses showed ethnicity accounted for less than 5% of the variance in math performance once indices of socioeconomic status, exposure to learning opportunities, and motivation were controlled. In contrast, variables central to the 3C model accounted for 45%-50% of the variance. The implications of these results for theories of ethnic differences and for reform efforts are discussed. The findings suggest that schools can do a great deal to close achievement discrepancies among White, Black, and Hispanic students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Young Children's Comprehension of Modal Expressions

The present study assessed childrens knowledge of how speakers use modal auxiliaries such as might and have to to indicate their degree of belief in the truth of their statements (epistemic modality), and to socially regulate behavior (deontic modality). We also considered whether modals comprise a semantic system that is progressively attained in a way similar to other semantic systems. Children aged 3 to 5 years were given two tasks: one that assessed comprehension of modal expressions for the epistemic domain (here, the spatial location of objects), and one that assessed comprehension of such expressions for the deontic domain (i.e., permission for the restrictions on behavior). Results showed that even 3year-olds comprehend partial aspects of meaning of epistemic expressions considered individually. Development occurred primarily between the ages of 3 and 4 in the ability to make judgments of the relative strength and synonymy of pairs of modal expressions. These results, which show a progressive attainment of the meaning of modals, indicate metacognitive and social cognition ability not usually attributed to preschoolers.

Learning to Make Good Decisions: A Self-Regulation Perspective

Two studies were conducted to determine the extent to which feedback could improve the decision-making of adolescents and adults. In Experiment 1, 96 eighth graders and adults engaged in a task that required a choice between easy and hard questions. Two types of feedback (i.e., verbal and outcome) were used to help participants identify the type of question that would be most likely to earn them points. Results showed that (1) neither group benefited from verbal feedback, and (2) adults benefited more from outcome feedback than eighth graders. In Experiment 2, two types of feedback were once again employed in the context of a medical decisionmaking task. Fifty-five adults and adolescents participated. As was found in Experiment 1, adults seemed to benefit more from feedback than adolescents. In addition, intelligence was unrelated to performance. The results are interpreted within the perspective of a self-regulation model of decision-making.

Explaining gender differences on SAT-math items.

This study used a cognitive process approach to explain gender differences on the math subtest of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). This approach specifies that gender differences exist because male students may carry out certain cognitive operations (e.g., knowledge access, strategy assembly) more effectively than female students. High school students were given SAT items and measures of their prior knowledge and strategies. Results showed that male students performed better than female students on the SAT items. Regression analyses, however, showed that whereas prior knowledge and strategies explained nearly 50% of the variance in SAT scores, gender explained no unique variance