Douglass Residential College

About: Douglass Residential College is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Cognitive development & Experimental psychology. The organization has 119 authors who have published 124 publications receiving 4707 citations. The organization is also known as: New Jersey College for Women & Douglass College.

Toward Symbolic Functioning: Structure of Early Pretend Games and Potential Parallels with Language.

Abstract: MCCUNE-NICOLICH, LORRAINE. Toward Symbolic Functioning: Structure of Early Pretend Games and Potential Parallels with Language. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 785-797. The sequence of developments of pretend play behaviors between 8 and 30 months exhibits a hierarchical order consistent with the theories of Piaget and Werner and Kaplan. Prior to pretending, children demonstrate knowledge of the functions of real objects by gesture. Next they pretend at their own everyday activities. As the ability to symbolize advances, pretending becomes decentered so that children pretend at others' activities and apply pretend schemes to dolls and other substitute participants. Such play is then integrated into sequences. Early pretending is context dependent, apparently suggested by available objects. Late in the second year children begin to indicate verbally or nonverbally that pretend games are constructed mentally prior to action, suggesting that play is becoming more independent of available objects and context. A theoretical analysis proposing concurrent developments in symbolic play and language as aspects of the semiotic function, and evidence for certain correspondences are presented.

The Physical Environment of the School: A Review of the Research

Abstract: This paper reviews research on the impact of classroom environments on student behavior, attitudes, and achievement. The first section examines studies of six environmental variables: seating position, classroom design, density, privacy, noise, and the presence or absence of windows. In the second part of the paper, research conducted from an “ecological” perspective is considered. A third section focuses on the effects of open space school designs. Finally, some future directions for research are discussed, and the advantages and limitations of various research designs are summarized.

Optimal allocation of cognitive resources to spatial locations

Abstract: From experiments showing that subjects differentially attend to parts of the visual field, psychologists have inferred a limitation on human visual information processing capacity. The model presented describes an optimal way to allocate a limited quantity of "cognitive resources," "attention" or "mental effort". For this model, the sense of optimality is maximizing the probability of finding a target. In an experiment to test the model, subjects searched for a single target letter in an otherwise blank field. Two probability distributions were used to select a target location for a trial, but only one distribution was used for a session. For both distributions, the fit of the model was quite good. It is suggested that the model provides a promising way to test the assumption limited visual processing capacity.

Beyond Sensorimotor Intelligence: Assessment of Symbolic Maturity Through Analysis of Pretend Play.

Abstract: This paper demonstrates methodology for assessing symbolic maturity or mental representation as evidenced in symbolic play. The system was developed from stage-specific behavior described by Piaget (1962). The behavior described develops between approxi mately nine and twenty-four months of age. The levels of play de scribed by Piaget are derived from the child's actions with respect to objects and people in the environment. Development proceeds from initial realistic treatment of objects through pretended activities which are increasingly abstract and complex, to the beginning of pretend activities that are planned, and thus mentally represented in advance of performance. The following describes the place of symbolic play stages in de velopmental theory, makes reference to current research on cognitive aspects of pretend play, and refers to research undertaken with the symbolic assessment instrument. However, the major focus of this presentation is description of procedures for assessing symbolic maturity through analysis of pretend play. Symbolic development was treated by Piaget (1962) but the proposed stages have not been fully replicated. A system for assessing symbolic development in the second year of life should prove important on theoretical grounds because it opens the path to evaluating empirically the assumption of Piaget (1962) and Werner and Kaplan (1963) that language is a manifestation of a general symbolizing function, evolving from earlier cognitive developments. Several authors have suggested that cognitive development is expressed in play (Bruner, Olver, & Greenfield, 1966; Piaget, 1962; Sinclair, 1970; Fein, 1974; and Lowe, 1975). In studying play be havior of children between 12 and 26 months of age, Sinclair (1970) reported a developmental sequence in the children's actions with a standard group of play objects which was consistent with the levels