Patricia M. Greenfield

Language, tools and brain: The ontogeny and phylogeny of hierarchically organized sequential behavior

During the first two years of human life a common neural substrate (roughly Brocas area) underlies the hierarchical organization of elements in the development of speech as well as the capacity to combine objects manually, including tool use. Subsequent ~rticd daerentiation, beginning at age two, creates distinct, relatively modularized capacities for linguistic grammar . . and more complex combination of objects. An evolutionary homologue of the neural substrate for language production and manual , . action is hypothesized to have provided afoundation for the evolution oflanguage before the divergence of the horninids and the great apes. Support comes from the discovery of a Brocas area homologue and related neural circuits in contemporary primates. In addition, chimpanzees have an identical constraint on hierarchical complexity in both tool use and symbol combination. Their . . performance matches that of the two-year-old child who has not yet developed the neural circuits for complex grammar and camplex manual combination of objects.

Cross-cultural roots of minority child development

Introduction to the Classic Edition * Independence and Interdependence as Developmental Scripts: Implications for Theory, Research, and Practice Part I: American Roots * Maternal Behavior in a Mexican Community: The Changing Environments of Children, F.M.T. Uribe, R.A. LeVine, S.E. LeVine * Socializing Young Children in Mexican-American Families: An Intergenerational Perspective, C. Delgado-Gaitan * Intergroup Differences Among Native Americans in Socialization and Child Cognition: An Ethnogenetic Analysis, R.G. Tharp. * Revaluing Native-American Concepts of Development and Education, J.R. Joe * From Natal Culture to School Culture to Dominant Society Culture: Supporting Transitions for Pueblo Indian Students, J.H. Suina, L.B. Smolkin Part II: African Roots * Socialization of Nso Children in the Bamenda Grassfields of Northwest Cameroon, A.B. Nsamenang, M.E. Lamb * Language and Socialization of the Child in African Families Living in France, J. Rabain-Jamin * Language Development and Socialization in Young African-American Children, I.K. Blake * Childrens Street Work in Urban Nigeria: Dilemma of Modernizing Tradition, B.A. Oloko Part III: Asian Roots * Individualism, Collectivism, and Child Development: A Korean Perspective, U. Kim, S-H. Choi * Mother and Child in Japanese Socialization: A Japan-U.S. Comparison, T.S. Lebra * Two Modes of Cognitive Socialization in Japan and the United States, H. Azuma * Cognitive Socialization in Confucian Heritage Cultures, D.Y.F. Ho * Moving Away From Stereotypes and Preconceptions: Students and Their Education in East Asia and the United States, H. Stevenson * East-Asian Academic Success in the United States: Family, School, and Community Explanations, B. Schneider, J.A. Hieshima, S. Lee, S. Plank * Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Socialization of Asian-Originated Children: The Case of Japanese Americans, R. Takanishi Part IV: Concluding Perspectives * From Cultural Differences to Differences in Cultural Frame of Reference, J.U. Ogbu * Ecologically Valid Frameworks of Development: Accounting for Continuities and Discontinuities Across Contexts, R.R. Cocking

The impact of computer use on children's and adolescents' development

In recent years, electronic games, home computers, and the Internet have assumed an important place in our lives. This paper presents a review of the research on the impact of home computer use on the development of children and adolescents. Time use data are presented along with a discussion of factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, which impact the time spent on computers as well as the activities engaged in. Research on the impact of computer use on cognitive skill and academic development, social development and relationships, and perceptions of reality and violent behavior is reviewed. The special role of the Internet in the lives of adolescents is brought out using data from the HomeNet study. The paper concludes with recommendations for future study in order to better understand the growing impact of computers on our youth. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Home Computer Use on Children's Activities and Development

The increasing amount of time children are spending on computers at home and school has raised questions about how the use of computer technology may make a difference in their lives--from helping with homework to causing depression to encouraging violent behavior. This article provides an overview of the limited research on the effects of home computer use on childrens physical, cognitive, and social development. Initial research suggests, for example, that access to computers increases the total amount of time children spend in front of a television or computer screen at the expense of other activities, thereby putting them at risk for obesity. At the same time, cognitive research suggests that playing computer games can be an important building block to computer literacy because it enhances childrens ability to read and visualize images in three-dimensional space and track multiple images simultaneously. The limited evidence available also indicates that home computer use is linked to slightly better academic performance. The research findings are more mixed, however, regarding the effects on childrens social development. Although little evidence indicates that the moderate use of computers to play games has a negative impact on childrens friendships and family relationships, recent survey data show that increased use of the Internet may be linked to increases in loneliness and depression. Of most concern are the findings that playing violent computer games may increase aggressiveness and desensitize a child to suffering, and that the use of computers may blur a childs ability to distinguish real life from simulation. The authors conclude that more systematic research is needed in these areas to help parents and policymakers maximize the positive effects and to minimize the negative effects of home computers in childrens lives.

Effect of video game practice on spatial skills in girls and boys

A study of the effect of video game practice on spatial abilities in girls and boys was carried out. Spatial performance, measured using two subtests of a computerized spatial skills battery, was significantly better in boys than in girls during pretest assessment. Subjects then practiced on an action video game, Marble Madness, or a computerized word game, Conjecture. Video game practice was significantly more effective than the word game in improving spatial performance on the posttest assessment; there was no significant interaction of gender with experimental treatment. However, video game practice was more effective for children who started out with relatively poor spatial skills. The pattern of results suggests that video games may be useful in equalizing individual differences in spatial skill performance, including those associated with gender.

Me and my 400 friends: The anatomy of college students' Facebook networks, their communication patterns, and well-being.

Is there a trade-off between having large networks of social connections on social networking sites such as Facebook and the development of intimacy and social support among todays generation of emerging adults? To understand the socialization context of Facebook during the transition to adulthood, an online survey was distributed to college students at a large urban university; participants answered questions about their relationships by systematically sampling their Facebook contacts while viewing their Facebook profiles online. Results confirmed that Facebook facilitates expansive social networks that grow disproportionately through distant kinds of relationship (acquaintances and activity connections), while also expanding the number of close relationships and stranger relationships, albeit at slower rates. Those with larger networks estimated that larger numbers of contacts in their networks were observing their status updates, a form of public communication to ones entire contact list. The major function of status updates was emotional disclosure, the key feature of intimacy. This finding indicates the transformation of the nature of intimacy in the environment of a social network site. In addition, larger networks and larger estimated audiences predicted higher levels of life satisfaction and perceived social support on Facebook. These findings emphasize the psychological importance of audience in the Facebook environment. Findings also suggest that social networking sites help youth to satisfy enduring human psychosocial needs for permanent relations in a geographically mobile world--college students with higher proportions of maintained contacts from the past (primarily high school friends) perceived Facebook as a more useful tool for procuring social support.

Connecting Developmental Constructions to the Internet: Identity Presentation and Sexual Exploration in Online Teen Chat Rooms.

The authors examined the online construction of identity and sexuality in a large sample of conversations from monitored and unmonitored teen chat rooms. More than half of the 583 participants (identified by a distinct screen name) communicated identity information, most frequently gender. In this way, participants compensated for the text-based chat environment by providing information about themselves that would be visible and obvious in face-to-face communication. Sexual themes constituted 5% of all utterances (1 sexual comment per minute); bad or obscene language constituted 3% of the sample (1 obscenity every 2 minutes). Participants who self-identified as female produced more implicit sexual communication, participants who self-identified as male produced more explicit sexual communication. The protected environment of monitored chat (hosts who enforce basic behavioral rules) contained an environment with less explicit sexuality and fewer obscenities than the freer environment of unmonitored chat. These differences were attributable both to the monitoring process itself and to the differing populations attracted to each type of chat room (monitored: more participants self-identified as younger and female; unmonitored: more participants self-identified as older and male).

Action video games and informal education: Effects on strategies for dividing visual attention

Abstract Two experiments investigated the effects of video game expertise on divided visual attention in college students. Divided attention was measured by using response time to targets of varying probabilities at two locations on a computer screen. In one condition the target appeared 10% of the time in one location (low probability position), 80% of the time in the other location (high probability position), and 10% of the time in both locations. In the other condition the target appeared 45% of the time in each position (equiprobable or neutral positions) and 10% of the time in both positions. The subjects for Experiment 1 represented two extremes of video game skill (labeled experts, novices), whereas the subjects for Experiment 2 were an unselected group with a continuous distribution of video game performance (labeled more skillful, less skillful). Experiment 1 established that video game experts were similar to novices in manifesting an attentional benefit (manifested in faster response time) at the high probability position (relative to a neutral or equiprobable position). However, unlike novices, experts did not show an attentional cost (manifested as slower response time) at the low probability position (again relative to a neutral position). Experts also had significantly faster response times than novices at both the 10% and 80% positions, but not at the 45% position. Experiment 2 established that video game experience was a causal factor in improving strategies of divided attention. Five hours of play on a video game called Robotron produced a significant decrease in response time at the 10% location, the locus of the expert-novice difference in Experiment 1.

Technology and informal education: what is taught, what is learned.

The informal learning environments of television, video games, and the Internet are producing learners with a new profile of cognitive skills. This profile features widespread and sophisticated development of visual-spatial skills, such as iconic representation and spatial visualization. A pressing social problem is the prevalence of violent video games, leading to desensitization, aggressive behavior, and gender inequity in opportunities to develop visual-spatial skills. Formal education must adapt to these changes, taking advantage of new strengths in visual-spatial intelligence and compensating for new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes: abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination. These develop through the use of an older technology, reading, which, along with audio media such as radio, also stimulates imagination. Informal education therefore requires a balanced media diet using each technologys specific strengths in order to develop a complete profile of cognitive skills.

Three approaches to the psychology of culture: Where do they come from? Where can they go?

Cultural psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and indigenous psychology are three approaches to the psychology of culture. The author begins by comparing the three approaches ‐ conceptually, methodologically; and historically. She concludes that each approach has contributed knowledge of the ‘‘deep structure’’ of culture to the field of psychology. This ‘‘deep structure’’ consists of the framework of individualism and collectivism; particular cultures are therefore surface forms of one or the other of these basic cultural frameworks. Rather than being universal, classical social and developmental psychology are seen as reflecting a particular indigenous psychology. For the future, a truly universal psychology must offer a theoretical framework that encompasses alternative indigenous psychologies. It was a great honor to be part of this important series on indigenous, cultural, and organized for the Third Biennial Conference of the Asian Association of Social Psychology. My title is ‘‘Three approaches to the psychology of culture: Where do they come from? Where can they go?’’ Before discussing origins and future directions, however, it is necessary to address the question, ‘‘What are they?’’ Therefore, I will begin with a conceptual and methodological analysis of the three approaches.