Studies in the Mentality of Literates: 1. Conceptual Structure and Aspects of Visual Perception

Studies in the Mentality of Literates: 3. Conceptual Structure and Nonsense of Personality Testing

In this study, third in a series of studies of the relationships between the dominant type of the Word Meaning Structure (WMS) and various psychic processes, response patterns on personality questionnaires with Likert-type response format of individuals with different levels of education (including adult illiterates) in Brazil (N = 102) and in Estonia (N = 520) were assessed with person oriented methods of data analysis. We found that responses to two personality questionnaires (International Personality Item Pool Questionnaire, IPIP-Q60 and Estonian Collectivism Scale, ESTCOL) are inconsistent and do not correspond to theories that underlie construction and interpretation of such assessment tools. Two novel ways to assess inconsistent response patterns were developed. The Consistency Index (CI) characterizes between-item inconsistency and the Determinacy Index (DI) characterizes within-item inconsistency. The dominant type of the WMS and the level of education were related to both CI and DI. Higher level of between-item inconsistency characterizes everyday conceptual thinkers with lower levels of education and higher level of within-item inconsistency was observed among logical conceptual thinkers with higher levels of education. Systematic relationships between WMS and inconsistent patterns of responses indicate that responses on personality questionnaires cannot be interpreted in terms of personality characteristics. The results of our study also provide further support to the idea that dominant type of the WMS is a pervasive characteristic of the psyche and determines qualitatively possibilities and limits of the psychic processes. The results of this study are in agreement with the idea that WMS defines the "Great Divide."

Tailored interviewing to uncover the perspectives of children with multiple disabilities on daily activities: A qualitative analyses of interview methods and interviewer skills

INTRODUCTION

Uncovering the perspective of children with multiple disabilities is important in health care to enable person-centred health care. For occupational therapists, uncovering the child perspective on meaningful activities is necessary to set appropriate goals for treatment. It is not always evident that children with multiple disabilities can express themselves in an interview. The interviewer should adapt his communication to the child. In literature, alternative communication is widely studied, but a clear algorithm for deciding what to use to successfully gain insight into the child perspective is missing. This study aims to identify helpful interview techniques and interviewer skills and how they can be used to effectively uncover the perspective of children.

METHODS

Videos of nine interviews with children with a mitochondrial disorder, conducted by an occupational therapist, were analysed by five researchers. The interviews were analysed to see how well the interviewee had obtained the child's perspectives followed by observation of communicative abilities of the child and the types of questions the interviewer asked. A qualitative directed content analysis of the semi-structured interviews followed.

FINDINGS

An interview pattern was observed in the children's communication leading to six successful interviews. Children communicated verbally on four different levels and also used non-verbal communication. The interviewer used five types of questions, which varied between and within the children. The content analysis resulted in two themes: parental influences and interviewer skills.

CONCLUSION

Results show the importance of matching the type of questions to the verbal communication level of the child and revealed several interviewer skills and techniques. An overview to guide tailor-made interviewing is presented. The interviewer has a major role in successful interviewing and thus in enabling the inclusion of the child perspective in research and care.

Recall Accuracy in Children: Age vs. Conceptual Thinking

The aim of this study was to replicate a previous experiment using a different stimulus event. The present study examined the relationship between age, development of conceptual thinking, and responses to free recall, suggestive and specific option-posing questions in children and adults. Sixty-three children (aged 7–14) and 30 adults took part in an experiment in which they first participated in a live staged event, then, a week later, were interviewed about the event and tested using the Word Meaning Structure Test. Age and level of conceptual thinking were positively correlated in children. Compared to age, conceptual thinking ability better predicted children's accurate free recall and inaccurate responses to specific option-posing questions, but not inaccurate responses to suggestive questions.

Studies in the mentality of literates: 2. Conceptual structure, cognitive inhibition and verbal regulation of behavior

We studied cognitive inhibitory processes and verbal regulation of behavior of individuals with different levels of education (including adult illiterates) in Brazil (N = 136) and in Estonia (N = 560) with person-oriented methods of data analysis. Our aim was to discover whether dominant type of word meaning structure (WMS) can define the "Great Divide", the single breaking point that universally defines certain direction of subsequent to it cultural evolution. We found that both cognitive inhibition of irrelevant for the task at hand information or actions as well as correct activation of relevant information or actions is significantly more common in individuals who rely predominantly on logical concepts in their thinking. The higher level of education was also associated with more efficient cognitive inhibition and activation. The patterns of test performance also suggest that there can be a qualitative difference in the efficiency of cognitive inhibition-activation processes between everyday conceptual and logical conceptual thinkers. The former group of individuals may achieve much higher performance levels than any individual in the former group. We also discuss cognitive similarities and differences between adults with low or no formal education on the one hand and children and educated adults with brain damage on the other. The results are in agreement with the theory of unilineal hierarchic cultural evolution. Individual psychic development and cultural evolution can be both understood in terms of the WMS development.