Table of Content

15 October 2008, Volume 24 Issue 4

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Spatial Representation Understanding and Use in 3- to 5-Year-Olds

PANG Li-juan, WEI Yong-gang, LIN Li, HAN Xiao-yu

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  1-7. 

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With 4 spatial representations tasks administrated on 96 3-to 5-year-olds,we examined the characteristics of children's understanding and use of spatial representations from language spatial presentation,model spatial representation,and picture spatial representation.The result showed that:(1)in general,the ability of understanding spatial representation is advantageous to the ability of use spatial representation across 3-to 5-year-olds;(2)the development of 3- to 5-year-old children's spatial representations understanding and use emerges a significant age effect;(3)in different types of spatial representations,the difference between language spatial representation understanding and model spatial representation understanding in 3-year-olds is significant,the difference between language spatial presentation use,model spatial representation use,and picture spatial representation use in 4-year-olds is significant,and there is not any significant difference between any other representations understanding or use in 3- to 5-year-olds.

The Study on the Development of Number Sense in Young Children Aged 3-6

ZHAO Zhen-guo

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  8-12. 

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180 children aged 3 to 6 years were individually tested to examine the developmental characteristics of their number sense,who were from two ordinary preschools in Shanghai.The results indicated that:(1)The significant age differences were found on the number sense,but without gender discrimination being found;(2)The performances of Counting forward,Numerosity Comparison between two piles of objects,Number Identification were the best,while the performances of Counting backward and Ordinality were the worst;(3)The components of number sense were not synchronous at the age between 3 and 6,that is,the development of cognition on Counting backward,Ordinality,and Number Identification was very fast between the ages of 5 and 6,but that on Counting forward,Cardinal number,and the meaning of Addition-Subtraction was very faster during the ages of 4 to 5.

Development of Preschoolers’ Early Reading: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Research

ZHOU Hui, ZHANG Bao

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  13-18. 

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Based on emergent literacy perspective,the present study investigated the development of preschool children's early literacy skills:knowledge about reading,character recognition and story comprehension,as well as the interrelationships among these skil s.Both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs were employed.The results showed that preschool children as young as 4)6 years old had certain knowledge about reading.They knew some Chinese characters and could understand simple stories.In cross-sectional study,these early literacy skills were correlated with each other.But there were no direct cross time relationships among these early literacy skills.With age increasing, children's early literacy skills improved.

Relational and Individual Predictors of Children’s Early Social Competence

Zhang Xiao, CHEN Hui-chang

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  19-24. 

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Based on a sample of 443 kindergartners and their parents and teachers,the present study investigated the effects of individual(i.e.,child gender,grade)and relational(i.e.,children's relationships with fathers,mothers, and teachers)factors on children's early social competence.The results showed that girls'social competence was higher than boys'and K3 and K2 children's teacher-child relationships and social competence were higher than K1 children's. In addition,although relationships with fathers,mothers,and teachers separately predicted children's social competence,the average score of these relationships was the strongest predictor.

The Relationship between Executive Function and Problem Solving among Primary School Children

WANG Jing, CHEN Ying-he, QI Lin

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  25-33. 

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The purposes of the present study were to analyze the relationship between executive functions and problem solving of Tower of London(ToL),and to compare the effect of inhibition,working memory and cognitive flexibility on the performance of planning and different solutions in four kinds of ToL problems.121 7～11 years old were tested executive functions and ToL tasks by computers.The results revealed that subjects with high inhibition represented better adaptability in problem solving,and subjects with high working memory could use resources more efficiency;The ToL problem solving types could be distinguished into three according to different problem solving solutions.The results suggested that both inhibition and working memory played important roles in the process of ToL problem solving,while cognitive flexibility had no significant effect on it.

The Characteristics of Global Orthographic Processing for Children with Spelling Difficulties

YANG Shuang, NING Ning, LIU Xiang-ping, YAN Yun-tang, PAN Yi-zhong

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  34-38,49. 

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Spelling dificulties refers to the phenomenon that children who have normal reading abilities are poor in writing.The aim of the present experiment was to characterize the global orthographic processing of children with spelling difficulties.Differences of reaction times between radical priming task and word priming task were used as index of global orthographic processing level.The results indicated that global orthographic processing existed when priming stimuli onset time(PSOT)were 75 ms and 300 ms,but not when PSOT was 150 ms.On the contrary,for children with spelling difficulties,global orthographic processing only existed when PSOT was 75 ms.The levels of global orthographic processing have no significant dif erences between the two groups.In conclusion,for children with spelling dificulties, global orthographic processing only exists in early visual processing stage,but is lack or delayed in lexical processing stages.

Openness to Experience: Difference Between Urban and Rural Children and Its Relationship to Family and Classroom Environments

SHI Bao-guo, XU Jing-jing

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  39-44. 

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Using questionnaire method,we investigated the openness to experience trait and its relationship to family and classroom environments on 483 primary school students from urban and rural areas.The results were:1)urban children' s score of openness to experience was significantly higher than that of rural children.2)family factors(except controlling)and classroom environment corelated with openness significantly.Classroom environment,family SES and two dimentions of FES—CV(knowledge and independance)could predict significantly the variance of openness to experience even after the school type,grade and gender factor has been controlled.

The Effects of Imagery on Chinese Idiom Comprehension of First-year Junior High School Students

Tan Hua-yu, Liu Ming

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  45-49. 

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The present study selected first-year junior high school students as the subjects,high familiarity and high imagery Chinese idiom as the material,to explore the effects of imagery on different transparency Chinese idiom comprehension through three factors mixed design.The results showed that First-year junior high school students were able to image and report high vividness of imagery during the idiom learning period,but the Significant correlation were not found between the vividness and the idiom comprehension achievements.Transparent idioms were easier to comprehense than opaque idioms.Imagery for idioms can promote Chinese idioms comprehension,especially for transparent idiom.

Future-Oriented Goals and Fears among General Senior High School Students and Secondary Vocational School Students

ZHANG Ling-ling, ZHANG Wen-xin, ZHOU Xiu-qin, HU Yi-xin, WANG Shu-qiong

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  50-55,60. 

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Chinese version of Future Orientation Questionnaire was administered to 1997 students respectively from 6 general senior high schools and 6 secondary vocational schools to explore the content and temporal extension of adolescents'future-oriented goals and fears.The results are as follows:Students'future-oriented goals and concerns were most often concerned with the major developmental tasks of their age period,and many students also reported goals and fears concerning family's well-being,and self-health fears.Students anticipated the important life events would be realized during their twenty to thirty years old.Significant school-type effect emerged such that general senior high school students reported more goals and fears concerning future education and more fears concerning family's well-being than secondary vocational school students who reporting more occupation goals and fears and expecting their occupation goals and fears to be realized earlier.Significant location effects were attributable to rural students reporting more goals concerning future education and family's well-being and less occupation goals,expecting their education and occupation goals and occupation fears to be realized earlier than urban students.Significant gender effect indicated males reported more occupation and marriageΠfamily goals and self-health fears,expected their education and occupation goals to be realized later than females,while females reported more goals concerning family's well-being and fears concerning future education.

Relationship Between Thinking Style and Coping Style in University Students

LU Cui-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  56-60. 

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To explore the relationship between thinking style and coping style in university students from the perspective of culture.663 university students were investigated.The results indicated that(1)There were significant difference among demographic datum,such as major,living area and grade.The liberal students were higher than science,engineering and arts ones on holistic thinking;The south students were higher than the north ones on change thinking;The students of grade two were obviously higher than the students of grade one and grade three on holistic thinking,the students of grade one were higher than the ones of grade four on change thinking.(2)Multiple regression analysis revealed that thinking style could predict coping style significantly:The covariant thinking had positive effect on active coping style, but a negative one on self-accusation and rationalization of passive coping style,and contradiction thinking had negative effect on active coping style,but a positive one on passive coping style.The holistic and change thinking had a strong objectivity:holistic thinking had positive effect on solve problem of active coping style,change thinking had a negative one on self-accusation,illusion and rationalization of passive coping style.

A Comparative Study of Different Types of Category Learning

LIU Feng-ying, LI Hong, ZHANG Qing-lin, YAO Zhi-gang

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  61-67. 

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This study was intended to investigate the effects of category learning types on category representation.55 Subjects were divided into two groups randomly and were asked to learn two categories through classification learning and inference learning respectively,then,subjects of two groups were told to rate typicality for the new test items.The results suggested that the classification learners rated the typicality merely by the diagnostic level of the test items and the inference learners rated the typicality mainly by the typical level of the test items.Therefore,diagnostic information played important role in classification learners'category representation,while typical information played important role in inference learners'category representation,that is,different category learning types resulted in different category representation.

Experimental Study on Effects of Approach of Teaching Based on Experience Cooperation to teacher’s Lesson Preparation

TIAN Li-li, JIN Sheng-hua

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  68-74. 

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Based on the theory of teaching based on experience cooperation,this study explored the effects of approach of teaching based on experience cooperation on teacher's lesson preparation by the method of educational experiment.The operation approaches of teaching based on experience cooperation were used in the experiment.The results showed that (1)The Questionnaire for Evaluation of Teacher's Lesson Preparation revealed good structure and strong psychometric properties,providing preliminary support as a measure to evaluate teacher's lesson preparation.(2)Approach of teaching based on experience cooperation has significant facilitation effects on teacher's lesson preparation.(3) Approach of teaching based on experience cooperation was found to have different effects among teachers displaying different characteristics such as teaching age,gender,discipline and the title of a technical post.

Linkage Between Student Perceptions on Science Instruction and Scientific Literacy

WU Xian, ZHANG Wen-jing, XIN Tao

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  75-79,118. 

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Teaching always influences student achievement by influencing student's thought and student perceptions.This study investigates the relationships between student perceptions on science instruction and scientific literacy,in USA, Finland,Japan and Hong Kong,using the Programme for International Students Assessment(PISA)2006 data.The results show that with controlling students backgrounds,student perceptions on science instruction significantly predict scientific literacy.The relationships between student perceptions on science instruction and scientific achievement are similar in USA,Finland,Japan and Hong Kong,which student perception on focusing on application and hand-on activities in classroom are significantly positive predictors,however,student perception on scientific investigation and interaction are significantly negative predictors.There are some cultural diversities in the relationships between student perceptions on science instruction and scientific interesting,which student perception on scientific investigation and interaction are significantly positive predictors in USA and student perception on interaction is significantly positive predictor in Japan.

The Structure and Measurement of Parent-Adolescent Trust of Middle School Students

LI Jian, LI Yi-ming, ZOU Hong

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  80-87. 

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Middle school students and their parents were interviewed,and three open questionnaires were designed to gather the characteristics of parent-adolescent trust,and then were subjected to content analysis to identify major forms and items of parent-adolescent trust questionnaire(PATQ)in China.184 middle school students and 169 parents were included in the first measurement,while 495 middle school students,336 fathers and 358 mothers were included in the second measurement.Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that adolescents' trust comprised three dimensions:Honesty and Promise-keeping,Dependability,and Sharing Confidences;Fathers' trust comprised four dimensions:Honest and Obeying Rules,Independence,Self-restraint and Respecting Privacy;Besides the four dimensions of fathers' trust, mothers' trust consisted of Suspicion in addition.Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed PATQ's factorial validity. Internal consistency analyses and correlation analyses showed that PATQ had suitable reliability and high validity.

The Development and Validation of Parents’ Evaluation on Social Skills of Pupils

MENG Hong, CHENG Hui-jun, CAO Zhong-ping, HU Kun

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  88-92. 

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The research was to develop the parents' evaluation scale on social skills of pupils.There were 1027 efficiency samples(male:484persons;female,543persons)in the study.From the scale's being made,first surveyed,emended and remeasured,social skills of pupils are composed of 3 hierarchies,and 9 factors.The Cronbach;s coefficient of scale was 0.88,the split half coefficient was 0.76.Validation studies showed that the high positive nominated children have significantly higher total score(p<0.01).As a whole,there was significant gender difference at the student' social skill:the scores for girls were higher than that for boys.The student's social skill were changed but not increased with the grades advanced at the same time.

Perceived Discrimination and Loneliness: Moderating Effects of Coping Style Among Migrant Children

FANG Xiao-yi, FAN Xing-hua, LIU Yang

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  93-99. 

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This study aimed to explore the relationship between perceived discrimination and loneliness,and the effects of coping style.Based on cluster sampling,1164 migrant children from 5 public schools and 1 migrant children school in Beijing were selected to fill the anonymous questionnaire.The result shows 75.5% subjects reported they had experienced discrimination in their everyday life.Children who experienced discrimination had higher loneliness levels than ones who had no such experiences.The more the reported discrimination were,the more migrant children felt lonely.Negative coping style intensified the relationship between whether being discriminated or not and the degree of loneliness.Positive coping style increased the association between the degree of being discriminated and level of loneliness.

Researches about the Relationships among Pride, Explicit Self-esteem and Depression in Urban Poverty Adolescents

FENG Xiao-hang, ZHANG Xiang-kui

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  100-105. 

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This study aims to explore the relationships among the pride,self-esteem and the state of depression in the urban poverty students by using the Situation.Based Scales of Pride(SBSP),Explicit self-esteem for Young People and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES2D).400 urban poverty students and 334 urban common students were tested in this study.The results indicted(1)the pride and explicit self-esteem of urban poverty students were negatively correlated with age.The state of depression was not significantly correlated with age.The level of pride on the female was higher than male students,and gender difference was not significant on explicit self-esteem and depression. (2)The levels of pride and explicit self-esteem of poverty students were lower than the common students.There was a positive correlation between pride and explicit self-esteem.The correlation of pride and depression were negative. Regression analysis also showed that global,academic and social self-esteem play significant prediction effects on the pride.(3)Stepwise regression analysis found that job status,the level of education of parents,and the family economic levels showed some significant prediction effects on the pride,self-esteem and depression.

Life events, instant messaging, and loneliness of early adolescents

MA Li-yan, LEI Li

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  106-112. 

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The impact of internet use on individuals has been one of the foci of researchers,meanwhile the world of internet is rich and colorful,so the influences of different internet services on internet users should differ from each other. In order to explore the relation among life events,Instant Messaging(IM)and loneliness for early adolescents,322 students from two high schools were surveyed with questionnaires.The results indicated that subjective stress caused by life events could positively predict loneliness significantly;and that the preference for the use of IM could have a significantly negative effect on loneliness;objective stress caused by life events could not significantly predict loneliness, but it could indirectly predict loneliness through IM.According to the results,it is concluded that the influences of internet use on users were not always negative,for IM could alleviate the negative impact of life events on internet users and thus acted as a buffer.

Relationship Between Counterfactual Thinking and Guilt and Shame——Taking the university student and the juvenile delinquent as an example

GAO Xue-de, ZHOU Ai-bao, SU Guang-ping

Psychological Development and Education. 2008, 24(4):  113-118. 

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This study is intended to test a "self and behavior" hypothesis of the differences between Guilt and Shame by using self-report method from the perspective of counterfactual thinking,it systematically approaches the features that the subjects of col ege students and juvenile criminals have in the relat ionship of the counterfactual thinking and Guilt andme. The results are as follows:1)The result of this study does not support the "self and behavior" hypothesis of the differences between Guilt and Shame advanced by western scholars and even opposes their study results;2)The relationship of counterfactual thinking and Guilt and Shame between college students and juvenile criminals has consistency in factual situation.