Richard De Lisi

Improving children's mental rotation accuracy with computer game playing.

Abstract The authors investigated the relation between mental rotation (MR) and computer game-playing experience. Third grade boys (n = 24) and girls (n = 23) completed a 2-dimensional MR test before and after playing computer games (during 11 separate 30-min sessions), which either involved the use of MR skills (the experimental group) or did not involve the use of MR skills (the control group). The experimental group outperformed the control group on the MR posttest but not on the pretest. Boys outperformed girls on the pretest but not on the posttest. Children whose initial MR performance was low improved after playing computer games that entailed MR skills. The findings imply that computer-based instructional activities can be used in schools to enhance childrens spatial abilities.

Computer Experience and Gender Differences in Undergraduate Mental Rotation Performance.

Abstract Gender differences in mental rotation and computer experiences were investigated. Undergraduates, 27 men and 83 women, completed a brief self-report inventory of computer experiences and were pretested on the Vandenberg Test of Mental Rotation (VTMR). Students then participated in two 30-min sessions, spaced 1 week apart, in which they played a computer game. One half played a game that required mental rotation of geometric figures (‘Blockout’), the other half played a card game that did not involve mental rotation (‘Solitaire’). After the second computer game session, students retook the VTMR. A gender difference favoring men over women was obtained on the pretest VTMR. On the posttest VTMR, women in each group and men who played Blockout outperformed men who played Solitaire. Differences in selfreported computer use and efficacy were associated with differences on the VTMR. Success on Blockout was correlated with success on the VTMR. Computer experiences, including game playing, are a factor in VTMR performance differences among undergraduates.

The development of noun definition.

This study investigated the development of noun definition by grade school children and adults ( N = 100). Subjects were asked to define 15 common nouns in one of two conditions: with objects present or without objects present. Definitions were classified on the basis of perceptual attributes (CONCRETE), everyday usage (FUNCTIONAL) or a combination of these (COMBINATORIAL). Results were analysed with a 5 (Grade) × 2 (Condition × 3 (Category) Analysis of Variance which indicated no effects for condition, but a Grade × Category interaction. With increasing age, there was a shift from FUNCTIONAL to COMBINATORIAL definitions; CONCRETE definitions were infrequent for all grades. In addition, age changes were found in the forms of the definitions subjects produced. In contrast to the children, adults formulated definitions in a more complex Aristotelian form. It was concluded that noun definition is a metalinguistic ability which follows a course of development similar to that for the acquisition of word meaning.

The Development of Gender Understanding: Judgments and Explanations.

WEHREN, AILEEN, and DE LISI, RICHARD. The Development of Gender Understanding: Judgments and Explanations. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 1568-1578. Gender understanding in 3-, 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds was investigated using data from gender constancy judgments and explanations for correct, incorrect, and ambiguous judgments. There were 10 males and 10 females at each of the 4 ages. Results verified the acquisition of understanding of gender stability prior to gender constancy, as well as a shift with age from no constancy to pseudoconstancy to true constancy. Pseudoconstancy appears to be based on an inability to reconcile societal norm information with the initial label of a person as male or female rather than on the existence of perceptual change, as has been suggested. No clear order of acquisition emerged of knowledge of aspects of constancy (activities, physical attributes, and psychological traits). The results make clear the need for analysis of both gender constancy judgments and explanations in any investigation of gender understanding.

Perceptions of Family Relations When Mothers and Fathers Are Depicted With Different Parenting Styles

College students (N = 125) reported their perceptions of family relations in response to vignettes that presented 5 different parenting styles. Participants viewed family relations as most positive when parents were portrayed as authoritative or permissive and as most negative when parents were portrayed as uninvolved-neglecting or authoritarian. Student gender and parent gender effects qualified these findings. Female students reported family relations to be less positive than did male students when parents were depicted as authoritarian or as uninvolved-neglecting, and they rated family relations more positively than did male students when parents were depicted as permissive. Participants viewed family relations as more positive when mothers rather than fathers were presented as permissive and when fathers rather than mothers were depicted as authoritarian. The authors discuss the findings of the study in relation to theories of beliefs about children and implications for future parenting styles of male and female college students.College students (N = 125) reported their perceptions of family relations in response to vignettes that presented 5 different parenting styles. Participants viewed family relations as most positive when parents were portrayed as authoritative or permissive and as most negative when parents were portrayed as uninvolved-neglecting or authoritarian. Student gender and parent gender effects qualified these findings. Female students reported family relations to be less positive than did male students when parents were depicted as authoritarian or as uninvolved-neglecting, and they rated family relations more positively than did male students when parents were depicted as permissive. Participants viewed family relations as more positive when mothers rather than fathers were presented as permissive and when fathers rather than mothers were depicted as authoritarian. The authors discuss the findings of the study in relation to theories of beliefs about children and implications for future parenting styles of male and female college students.

AN EXAMINATION OF SPATIAL ABILITY IN RELATION TO FACTORS FROM THE BEM SEX-ROLE INVENTORY

As the relationship between global sex-role classifications and spatial ability has yielded conflicting results, the present study examined factors embedded within a sex-role inventory for relationships to differences in spatial performance. The Bern Sex-role Inventory and two tests of spatial ability (Piagetian water level task and Paper-folding Test) were administered to 86 girls and 39 boys in the fall of 1981. While differences in spatial ability of boys and girls were significant, differentiation for masculine, feminine, and androgynous subjects was not obtained. Masculine and feminine items from Berns inventory along with both scores on spatial tasks were subjected to factor analysis using the principal factor procedure followed by varimax rotation. The analysis yielded 11 factors which accounted for 68% of the total variance. Three masculine factors (dominance, independence, and competitiveness) and one feminine factor (concern for others) emerged. Contrary to what was anticipated, none of the factors was associated with spatial ability.

Individual differences in college students' performance on formal operations tasks

Abstract Piaget has suggested that the stage of formal operations may be present in all normal adults, albeit in different areas according to aptitudes and professional specialization. Three formal operations tasks (pendulum, political socialization concepts, and literary styles analysis) were chosen to represent the content of problems encountered in three fields of academic specialization (physics, political science, and English). Ten male junior and senior college students in each of the three academic majors were tested on the three tasks. A significant academic major by task interaction was obtained. Results supported the hypothesis that young adults evidence formal level reasoning in accordance with their college majors. Explanations of task-specific formal level performance were considered. Individual differences in formal operations attainment have implications for assessment of adult intelligence.

Age and Sex Differences in Representation of Horizontality among Children in India

Girls and boys from Grades 4 (ns = 15) and 9 (ns = 15 and 16) in Bombay, India were individually administered water-level and crossbar assessments of horizontality representation. Ninth graders were more successful than fourth graders, especially on trials in which the apparatus was obliquely rotated. Ninth graders, however, did not perform at ceiling levels, and a sex difference with a moderate effect size favoring male over female adolescents was obtained for the water-level task. These findings of both developmental and individual differences in horizontality performance replicate previous findings in Western cultures.

The effects of books and gender constancy development on kindergarten children's sex-role attitudes☆

Abstract The effects of symbolic models and level of gender understanding on childrens sex-role attitudes was investigated. Kindergarten boys and girls heard and discussed books whose characters depicted either traditional or nontraditional sex-role behaviors. Attitudes toward males and females were measured before and after the picture book treatment. When the study began, children were screened for gender understanding so that half were able to make other-gender constancy judgments, and half were not able to make other-gender constancy judgments. Prior to the treatment, boys and children who had attained gender constancy were slightly negative toward males and neutral toward females, whereas girls and children who had not attained gender constancy were very negative toward males and very positive toward females. Exposure to traditional books had the effect of enhancing attitudes toward males and decreasing attitudes toward females. Exposure to nontraditional books had the opposite effect of decreasing attitudes toward males and enhancing attitudes toward females. The effects of the picture book treatment on attitudes toward females were more pronounced for children who had attained other-gender constancy. Implications for social learning and cognitive-developmental theories of sex-role development are discussed.

A microgenetic study of proportional reasoning using balance scale problems

Abstract The effects of initial knowledge and different types of learning experiences on proportional reasoning strategies were investigated. Students were screened for rule use on balance scale problems (Siegler, 1981), and those who made torque comparisons were excused from further participation. The remaining 153 sixth- and 105 ninth-graders were assigned to one of three groups: directed mentoring, unaided manipulation, and control. Groups were balanced in terms of number, sex, academic achievement, and initial proportionality performance. Directed mentoring students worked on a new set of balance scale problems under the guidance of an adult who asked a series of questions designed to teach the torque rule. Students in the unaided manipulation condition worked on problems with no adult guidance but were encouraged to make predictions and test them by manipulating weight and distance values along the fulcrum. Control group students received no extra learning opportunities. The directed mentoring group outperformed the unaided manipulation and control groups on immediate and delayed posttests with new problems. The unaided manipulation group did not outperform the control group on the posttests. Within the directed mentoring group, ninth graders were more likely than sixth graders to continue to use the torque rule on the delayed posttest. An analysis of learning performance during the treatment conditions revealed that the number of questions needed to boost performance, and the number of unaided apparatus manipulations, were each predictive of posttest performance. Pretest levels were not correlated with learning performance for the treatment groups, and were strongly related to posttest levels in the control group only. Finally, a separate study of sixth graders revealed that merely telling students which strategies to use was not as effective as directed mentoring in boosting performance levels. Findings are discussed in terms of Vygotskys (1978) theory of dynamic assessment of cognitive performance.