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GESIS Papers

CO:RE Short Report Series on Key Topics

The authors of the article have analyzed scientific research on the problem of the formation of cognitive readiness for educational activity in children with autism spectrum disorders of senior preschool age. It is noted that for children with autism spectrum disorders, a special approach should be applied with a focus on world standards and effective methods of correction and training should be developed. It is revealed that today the psychological and pedagogical correction of the development of autism does not have unambiguity and consistency regarding technologies and methods that would help to effectively overcome autism spectrum disorders and contribute to the effective preparation of autistic children for educational activities. The content of the concept of "cognitive readiness" is revealed as a prerequisite for the development of psychological characteristics and preparation of a child with autism spectrum disorders of senior preschool age for learning activities. The features of the use of correctional technologies to increase the level of cognitive readiness for educational activity of children with autism spectrum disorders of senior preschool age have been determined. It was revealed that the main condition for the formation of cognitive readiness for educational activity in children with autism spectrum disorders of senior preschool age is the use of ABA therapy technology, the TEACCH program, (PRT), PECS, sensory integration. It is revealed that the program (TEACCH, PECS) reflects a clear algorithm of actions, encourages mental operations; method (ABA-therapy) improves the stability of concentration, memory development, forms learning behavior; (PRT) promotes the development of motivation in a child with autism spectrum disorder of senior preschool age, self-management. The formation of imagination and perception of the surrounding world is carried out in the process of conducting classes with sensory integration. It is proved that the formation of cognitive readiness for educational activity in senior preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders is an important factor in the realization of personal potential and social adaptation.

In school choice problems, the widely used manipulable Immediate Acceptance mechanism (IA) disadvantages unsophisticated applicants, but may ex-ante Pareto dominate any strategy-proof alternative. In these cases, it may be preferable to aid applicants within IA, rather than to abandon it. In a laboratory experiment, we first document a substantial gap in strategy choices and outcomes between subjects of higher and lower cognitive ability under IA. We then test whether disclosing information on past applications levels the playing field. The treatment is effective in partially reducing the gap between applicants of above- and below-median cognitive ability and in curbing ability segregation across schools, but may leave the least able applicants further behind.

Beyond the many choices and challenges humans face during the pandemic lies a constant cognitive trade-off: Those who excessively absorb news against uncertainty run the risk of impaired cognitive functions.

Stratification scholars predominantly investigate how differences among children from different families emerge and tend to neglect differences among children from the same family. I study sibling similarity in cognitive ability and examine whether their similarity varies by parents’ education. Although economic approaches and their extensions argue that disadvantaged parents reinforce differences while advantaged parents compensate for differences, I argue that parents may also make equal investments and thus accept differences among their children. I refer to the literature on stratified parenting that demonstrates that parents are engaged differently in child-rearing and their children’s skill formation processes. Because advantaged parents foster children’s talents more individually compared with disadvantaged parents, I propose that sibling similarity is lower in advantaged than in disadvantaged families. Previous studies based on sibling correlations provide conflicting evidence. To account for observable and unobservable differences among siblings, I extend the established sibling correlation approach and study dizygotic and monozygotic twins in addition to siblings. The analyses draw on novel data from a population register-based study of twin families. I find that young adult siblings and twins are less alike in cognitive ability in highly educated families than in less educated families. Hence, my results support the hypothesis concerning equal investments and indicate that stratified parenting has a long-lasting influence on children’s cognitive ability. Zusammenfassung In der Stratifizierungsliteratur wird überwiegend zur Frage geforscht, wie sich Unterschiede zwischen Kindern aus unterschiedlichen Familien erklären lassen, wobei Unterschiede, die sich zwischen Kindern aus einer Familie ergeben, unberücksichtigt bleiben. Diese Studie untersucht die Ähnlichkeit von Geschwistern in Bezug auf ihre kognitiven Fähigkeiten und fragt, ob diese in Abhängigkeit des Bildungshintergrunds variiert. Die ökonomische Literatur und Erweiterungen davon vertreten die Ansicht, dass benachteiligte Eltern Unterschiede zwischen Geschwistern verstärken, wohingegen besser gestellte Eltern Unterschiede zwischen Geschwistern eher ausgleichen. Ich dagegen argumentiere, dass Eltern auch gleiche Investitionen in ihre Kinder machen können und Unterschiede zwischen ihren Kindern akzeptieren. Ausgangspunkt hierfür ist die Literatur zu stratifizierten elterlichen Verhaltensweisen und Erziehungspraktiken, die belegt, dass Eltern ihre Kinder unterschiedlich erziehen und unterschiedlich in die Entwicklungsprozesse der Kinder eingebunden sind. Weil besser gestellte Eltern die individuellen Talente ihrer Kinder stärker fördern als benachteiligte Eltern, wird angenommen, dass sich Geschwister aus besser gestellten Familien unähnlicher sind als Geschwister von sozial benachteiligten Eltern. Bisherige Forschungsarbeiten, die die Ähnlichkeit von Geschwistern untersuchen, liefern uneinheitliche Befunde. Um beobachtbare und nicht beobachtbare Unterschiede zwischen Geschwistern berücksichtigen zu können, erweitere ich den herkömmlichen Ansatz, in dem Geschwister verglichen werden, um ein- und zweieiige Zwillinge. Die empirischen Analysen basieren auf den Daten der TwinLife Studie, einer repräsentativen Studie von Zwillingen und ihren Familien. Meine Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich Geschwister und Zwillinge im jungen Erwachsenenalter aus bildungsnahen Familien unähnlicher sind in Bezug auf ihre kognitiven Kompetenzen im Vergleich zu Geschwistern und Zwillingen aus bildungsfernen Familien. Meine Ergebnisse unterstützen damit die Hypothese bezüglich gleicher Investitionen und deuten darauf hin, dass stratifizierte Erziehungsweisen der Eltern einen langanhaltenden Einfluss auf die Realisierung von kognitiven Fähigkeiten der Kinder haben., JFR - Journal of Family Research, Vol 31 No 1 (2019)

Prospective memory, the ability to remember to execute an intended action at the appropriate moment in the future, is frequently assessed with standardized questionnaires. Prospective-memory abilities strongly depend on the different strategies people use to remember their intentions. In this study, we introduce the short version of the Metacognitive Prospective Memory Inventory (MPMI-s) that allows for a quick assessment of individual differences in self-reported prospective-memory abilities as well as in the use of mnemonic strategies (e.g., intention rehearsal) and external memory aids (e.g., calendars). Based on data from two waves of the GESIS longitudinal panel, we provide evidence that this novel questionnaire offers reliable and valid measures of prospective-memory abilities as well as of internal and external strategy use. As the panel sample is representative of the German population, we are further able to provide reference data that allow evaluating individual PM ability and strategy-use scores obtained with the MPMI-s.

Studies on the underlying mechanisms of social mobility commonly find that half of the intergenerational earnings persistence remains unexplained. Focusing on the phenomenon of overqualification, this study examines a transmission channel that might operate beyond the mechanisms previously analysed. I explore how the family background of university graduates affects the probability to hold a job that does not require a tertiary degree, i.e. to be overqualified. Potential pathways of the family background effects are discussed and proxy variables for the mediating factors cognitive skills, study characteristics, social capital, financial capital, and aspiration are incorporated into the empirical analysis. Graduates from families with a high socioeconomic status are found to be less likely to be overqualified. The unconditional social overqualification gap amounts to 7.4 percentage points. Non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions show that roughly 60% of the social overqualification gap can be attributed to group differences in observable characteristics. Differences in cognitive skills, study characteristics, and social capital are found to be important mediators of the family background effects.

We introduce the notion of strategic awareness in experimental games which captures the idea that subjects realize they are playing a game and thus have to form beliefs about others' actions. The concept differs from both, rule understanding and rationality. We then turn to experimental evidence from a beauty contest game where we elicit measures of cognitive ability and beliefs about others' cognitive ability. We show that the effect of cognitive ability is highly non-linear. Subjects' behavior below a certain threshold choose numbers in the whole interval and does not correlate with beliefs about others ability. In contrast, choices of subjects who exceed the threshold avoid choices above 50 and react very sensitively to beliefs about others' cognitive ability. (author's abstract) In diesem kurzen Artikel führen wir das Konzept von strategic awareness in Experimenten ein. Dieses neue Konzept beschreibt die Fähigkeit von Experimentteilnehmer, strategische Situationen zu erkennen und daher Erwartungen über das Verhalten von anderen zu bilden. Das Konzept unterscheidet sich sowohl von Rationalität als auch vom bloßen Verstehen von den Regeln eines Experiments. Wir demonstrieren das Konzept empirisch mit Hilfe von Daten eines Beauty Contest Games, in dem wir die kognitiven Fähigkeiten der Teilnehmer und ihre Einschätzungen über die kognitiven Fähigkeiten der anderen Teilnehmer erheben. Die Resultate zeigen, dass kognitive Fähigkeiten einen starken nicht-linearen Effekt auf die Entscheidungen in dem Beauty Contest Game haben. Das Verhalten von Experimentteilnehmer, die unter einer bestimmten Schwelle liegen, kann nicht von zufälligen Entscheidungen unterschieden werden und korreliert auch nicht mit deren Einschätzung über die kognitiven Fähigkeiten der anderen Teilnehmer. Im Gegensatz dazu vermeiden Teilnehmer, die über dieser Schwelle liegen, dominierte Entscheidungen und basieren ihre Entscheidungen auf ihrer Einschätzung über die kognitiven Fähigkeiten der anderen Teilnehmer. (Autorenreferat)

Objetivo: Descrever a estrutura e função das redes de apoio social de idosos com alterações cognitivas que residem em contexto de alta vulnerabilidade social, e de seus cuidadores familiares. Método: Os sujeitos foram 33 idosos cadastrados em Unidades de Saúde da Família que apresentaram desempenho no Mini Exame do Estado Mental abaixo da nota de corte em estudo anterior, e seus 33 cuidadores. Aplicou-se o Mini Exame do Estado Mental e o Diagrama de Escolta. Todos os cuidados éticos foram observados. Resultados: Tanto os idosos, quanto os cuidadores referem redes sociais com características semelhantes. Os cuidadores, no entanto, fornecem mais apoio do que os idosos. Em ambos os casos as redes são numerosas, porém, poucos integrantes oferecem ou recebem apoio. Conclusão: A utilização das redes sociais como recurso terapêutico devem ser pensadas no estabelecimento do plano de cuidado ao idoso.

"In modern work environments, employees need to flexibly adjust their abilities to an increasing complexity of their work place demands. We assumed that a fit between demands and individual abilities might positively influence work ability, job-related self-efficacy, and job satisfaction as important indicators of job performance. A misfit on the contrary, might have adverse effects and interfere with job performance measures. Linking to the demographic change, it is even more important to analyze if age has an impact on the association between fit or misfit and performance outcomes to reveal evidence for age specific intervention strategies. We asked 103 employees and 15 supervisors of a production company to rate individual abilities and work-place demands in the sensory, motor, and cognitive fields to identify associations between a fit/misfit and outcomes that influence job performance. Our analyses showed that a fit/misfit between subjectively perceived demands and abilities in motor control influenced job-related self-efficacy. This was particularly true for blue collar workers and for older employees. A fit/misfit between the supervisor- and employee-rated abilities to learn new tasks had a high impact on work ability. Both white and blue collar workers as well as middle aged and older employees were sensitive to this effect. A fit/misfit between employee- and supervisor rated ability to deal with high task complexity was not associated with job satisfaction over the entire group, but in white collar workers and older employees. We conclude that a fit/misfit between work abilities and demands as well as between self and supervisor ratings of the employees' abilities has to be constantly evaluated with regard to age and work type to maintain healthy and productive employees." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

"In this article we present the interdisciplinary, developmental and systemic approach to the study of work and aging that guides research at the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development (JCLL). We introduce basic principles of adult development including its plasticity, multi-directionality, and embeddedness in contexts. We describe the different dynamic internal (e.g., psychological, physiological) and external contexts (e.g., organizations, labor market institutions) relevant to the work context that influence adult development. We present how the various disciplinary perspectives at the JCLL contribute to a fuller understanding of various contextual systems and their interactions with regard to the work context. Finally, we describe how a systemic approach to research on work and aging can contribute to the creation of work contexts conducive to productive development across the adult lifespan as summarized in the notion of dynamic human resource management. Importantly, we consider a wider notion of 'productivity' that encompasses not only economic aspects but also intellectual, motivational and emotional outputs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

The present paper investigates the power of personality to predict important life outcomes in the context of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). On the most global level, personality can be described by the Big Five dimensions, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. These five dimensions were assessed in the German PIAAC longitudinal study (N = 4122) and can thus be directly related to the central competence and outcome indicators measured in PIAAC. In a first step, we report the relationships between the Big Five dimensions and the basic competencies literacy and numeracy. In a second step, we investigate the extent to which the five personality dimensions can contribute to explaining six important life outcomes, above and beyond competencies and sociodemographic characteristics. Our results indicate that personality is substantially related to all six life outcomes. The portion of variance explained by personality was similar to, and sometimes larger than, that explained by competencies. After adjusting for competencies, personality was incrementally predictive of life satisfaction and health, in particular, and, to a lesser extent, of educational attainment, employment status, and income. The only outcome of which personality was not incrementally predictive over and above competencies was participation in continuing education. Overall, these findings highlight the merit of including measures for the Big Five personality domains in upcoming cycles of PIAAC.