Peter Dejonckheere

‘When Suppression Backfires’ The Ironic Effects of Suppressing Eating-related Thoughts

Based on Wegner’s Ironic Processing Theory, this study examines the effects of suppressing eating-related thoughts in a sample of 77 female students. A distinction was made between disinhibited restrainers (high dietary restraint/high disinhibition), inhibited restrainers (high dietary restraint/low disinhibition) and low restrainers. Results indicate that disinhibited restrainers used thought suppression more often and were the only group to show a rebound effect for eating-related thoughts after suppression. No effects of suppression on willingness and desire to eat emerged. Hence, thought suppression may be counterproductive at least for a subgroup of restrainers and may fuel eating-related preoccupations. More research is required to evaluate effects on eating behaviour.

Form Perception of Partly Occluded Shapes in 4-Month-Old Infants

Two habituation experiments were conducted to investigate how 4-month-old infants perceive partly occluded shapes. In the first experiment, we presented a simple, partly occluded shape to the infants until habituation was reached. Then we showed either a probable completion (one that would be predicted on the basis of both local and global cues) or an improbable completion. Longer looking times were found for the improbably completed shape (compared to probable and control conditions), suggesting that the probable shape was perceived during partial occlusion. In the second experiment, infants were habituated to more ambiguous partly occluded shapes, where local and global cues would result in different completions. For adults, the percept of these shapes is usually dominated by global influences. However, after habituation the infants looked longer at the globally completed shapes. These results suggest that by the age of 4 months, infants are able to infer the perceptual completion of partly occluded shapes, but for more ambiguous shapes, this completion seems to be dominated by local influences.

Early math learning with tablet PCs: The role of action

Context: The present study is about computer assisted learning (CAI) and how it facilitates early math learning in 4-6-year-old children. Aim: Trying to demonstrate how changes in estimation accuracy are a result of different behavioral or action organizations during playing with a numerical board game on a tablet PC. Settings and Design: A pre-posttest design and a training intervention was used. Statistical Analysis Used: In order to measure childrens′ estimation accuracy (N = 179), the percent absolute error scores were calculated and compared in a pretest and a posttest. Further, each child′s best fitting linear function (R΂lin) was computed in order to find out whether children handled numbers in a linear way. Materials and Methods: A number line estimation task with a 0-10 interval was used in both the pretest and the posttest. For the intervention training, each child received a tablet computer and could play on a digital number line for four 15-min sessions. Children′s hand and finger movements were manipulated during instruction in different conditions: Freely jumping or pointing. Results : Children′s estimation accuracy increased after playing with the digital number line. However, the way in which behavior was organized during the training period resulted in different accuracy performances. Conclusions: These results show that minor changes in the behavioral system can lead to significantly different learning gains and that numerical knowledge is embodied in the system the child mobilizes.