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This text is the transcription of the speech given by the author as recipient of the Walter J. Ong Award for Outstanding Career Achievement in the field of Media Ecology, at the 22nd Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association. PUC-Rio, July 8-11, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerome Seymour Bruner died on 5 June 2016 at the age of 100. Beginning as a standard experimental psychologist working with laboratory animals, he next ventured into the field of human social psychology, working in intelligence and public opinion polling during World War II. He then gained fame for his ‘New Look’ studies of perception. WithA Study of ThinkingBruner took his place as a leader of the ‘Cognitive Revolution’, a movement that restored the mind to its traditional place at the core of psychology.Studies in Cognitive Growthwas the developmental sequel toA Study of Thinking. It contained a number of path-breaking studies that, in essence, asked how the adult hypotheses and concept-attainment strategies documented inA Study of Thinkingoriginated and developed in childhood. Unfortunately, these experiments on the developmental origins of adult concept attainment strategies largely got lost in the controversy over Bruner’s criticisms of Piaget. Bruner’s interest in educational experimentation, exemplified inThe Process of Education, continued throughout his life. In later years he made annual pilgrimages to Reggio Emilia, a small city in northern Italy famous for its outstanding approach to early childhood education, much of it in the Brunerian tradition. Jerry Bruner’s passion for ideas and his optimistic belief that all problems were, if not actually solvable, at least attackable brought new excitement to the study of the mind of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Results of two retrospective studies suggested that romantic betrayal led to the loss of key aspects of social support from partners, most notably attachment, guidance, and reliable alliance with the partner. Furthermore, specific social provision losses were found to reliably predict recalled and current negative psychological states associated with romantic betrayal. Perceived attachment losses predicted postbetrayal anger and disgust, as well as trauma reactions following betrayal. In addition, a decline in reassurance of one's worth following betrayal predicted embarrassment about the event, and the degree to which reliable alliance with the partner was lost predicted anxiety and shame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to read and write is seen as both the acquisition of skills useful in a modern society and an introduction to a world increasingly organized around the reading and writing of authoritative texts. While most agree on the importance of writing, insufficient attention has been given to the more basic question of just what writing is, that is, how best to think about writing as both a technology of communication and an instrument of thought. In this article we elaborate and defend the view that writing is distinctive not only as a technology for the visual representation of speech but more basically as a technology for taking language “off-line,” that is, as language enclosed by quotation marks. Writing, like oral quotation, provides a set of objects divorced from the speaker that persist in time and space and that can be considered and reconsidered somewhat independently of the context of expression and the intentions of the original author. Of special relevance are the units of meaning, namely, words and sentences. When writing turns words and sentences into objects of analysis, it facilitates distinctive modes of discourse such as extended prose and distinctive modes of thinking such as formal rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: To address the question of whether young children are differentially sensitive to referential opacity, an advanced Theory of Mind skill, we assessed 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds on three types of opaque contexts: epistemic, quotational, and intentional. Children’s performance improved as a function of age and varied significantly by opacity type. Performance was best for epistemic opacity (using the verb “know”) and poorest for intentional opacity (using “mean to”), with quotational opacity (using “said”) falling in-between. Importantly, the current results suggest that children’s sensitivity to referential opacity is not an all-or-nothing competence but rather one that varies across the contexts examined. Possible reasons for this variability are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Literacy is important not only as a means of access to new information and as an extension of memory. Rather, it is argued that writing is a means to the awareness of the implicit properties of language. This awareness is expressed through new concepts for referring to what is said, what is meant by it, what it implies, of what it is composed, and the like. Writing achieves this effect through distancing the thoughts of the writer from the fixed, objective form it takes when written down. The effect on the reader, correspondingly, is equally distanced from the writer with the result that reading is less like hearing a speaker that like over-hearing. I describe this effect by saying that writing puts language within quotation marks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the difficulty of children with behavioral predictions. Shift in the cognitive development of children; Causes of the representational understanding of mind; Research on child understanding of identity.

Tests the hypothesis that working memory would predict children's performance on the false belief tasks. Extension of Davis & Pratt's (1995) work on the mechanisms underlying children's developing theories of mind; Working memory as one of the factors that underlie the development of children's theories of mind.

Examines the parallelism between children's mastery of the language of mind and thinking about the word. Measurement of children's mastery of verbs; Absence of direct relation between knowledge of cognitive verbs and reading skill; Relationship between reading skill and the tendency to justify answers by appealing to the text.

Focuses on the comprehension of oral and written discourse among the children through memory and inference. Distinction between pragmatic and propositional inferences; Academic ability of the children; Development of literacy.

Presents three experiments that were conducted to determine why children might fail deception tasks. Conceptual deficiency; Methods; Results; Discussion.

This article discusses four questions fundamental to understanding metaphor. First, what is the relation between speakers' intentions, their goals, their beliefs, and their utterances? -or, what's a metaphor? Second, do metaphors have to be recognized as metaphors to be metaphors? - or, when's a metaphor? Third, what is the role of literal meaning in the comprehension of a metaphor?-or, what's not a metaphor? And fourth, what is the intellectual function of metaphor?-or, what's a metaphor for? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the relationship between acquisition of a theory of mind and the capacity to hold in mind in children. Reference to literature on children's theory of mind; Debate on the acquisition of the theory of mind in children; Relationship between computational resources and the acquisition of the theory of mind.

Analyzes the concepts for thinking about talk and thought using the speech act theory. Definition of the metalinguistic and metacognitive concepts; Relation between speech acts and mental states; Factors to tbe considered in learning about mental states and speech acts.

Examines mental skills on the instructional objectives in formal schooling. Indication of cognitive theory of learning; Application of the problem-solving approach; Research on teaching methods.

Comments on the ontological reality of collective representations and institutional structures in social relations. Argument on the concept of institution and internalization; Suggestion on the acceptance of collective representations or institutional structures into psychological theory; Importance of collective representations and institutions; Significance of the role of social institutions.

Comments on the article written by David Uttal concerning children's understanding of spatial relationships published in the periodical 'Developmental Science' in 2000. Consideration of public representations as means of communication; Relation between private knowledge and public representations; Coping with a culture's knowledge artifacts.

Comments on the research undertaken by C. Heyes on the theory of mind in primates and humans. Attributions of the theory of mind in children and animals; Elements altered by Heyes in making the proposed task suitable for children; Critical issue in the theory of mind.

Presents an obituary for Canada-born psychologist Robbie Case. Age at death; Educational background; Family background; Contributions to the development of the field of psychology.

The pilot study discussed in this article assessed formaldehyde levels in portable classrooms (PCs) and traditional classrooms (TCs) and explored factors influencing indoor air quality (e.g., carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity). In a cross-sectional design, the authors evaluated formaldehyde levels in day and overnight indoor air samples from nine PCs renovated within three years previously and three TCs in a school district in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. Formaldehyde levels ranged from 0.0068 to 0.038 parts per million (ppm). In both types of classroom, overnight formaldehyde median levels (PCs = 0.018 ppm; TCs = 0.019 ppm) were higher than day formaldehyde median levels (PCs = 0.011 ppm; TCs = 0.016 ppm). Carbon dioxide levels measured 470-790 ppm at 7:00 a.m. and 470-1800 ppm at 4:00 p.m. Afternoon medians were higher in TCs (1,400 ppm) than in PCs (780 ppm). Consistent with previous studies, formaldehyde levels were similar among PCs and TCs. Reducing carbon dioxide levels by improving ventilation is recommended for classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous functional imaging studies have highlighted the role of left ventral temporal cortex in processing written word forms. We explored activation and anatomical connectivity of this region in HE, a professional writer with alexia as a result of stroke affecting primarily white matter in the left inferior temporal lobe. We used a one-back visual recognition task and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to elicit automatic activation to various orthographic and non-orthographic stimuli. Surprisingly, HE showed cortical activation in the left mid-fusiform area during the presentation of words and word-like stimuli, suggesting that this region׳s role in processing visual words is intact despite his severely impaired reading. Diffusion Tensor Imaging data further suggest that HE shows an anatomical disconnection between the ventral temporal cortex and posterior middle temporal cortex. Together, these findings suggest that activation of word-specific regions of mid-fusiform gyrus is not sufficient to yield the conscious experience of reading in the absence of activity in downstream regions of the classical reading network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study objective: To describe factors associated with COPD deaths in the United States. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Participants: A total of 12,803 decedents in the National Mortality Followback Survey, a nationally representative sample of US deaths in 1993. Methods: We compared the characteristics of adults ≥ 35 years of age who died with COPD (bronchitis, emphysema, chronic airway obstruction) with those dying without COPD listed on their death certificates. Results: Of the estimated 225,400 adults who died with COPD in 1993, 16.7% had never smoked. People dying with COPD were more likely than those dying without COPD to be current smokers (odds ratio [OR], 6.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.3 to 9.9) or former smokers (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 2.5 to 5.3), have a history of asthma (OR, 5.0; 95% CI, 3.2 to 7.8), be underweight (OR, 4.5; 95% CI, 2.8 to 7.2), and be of the white race (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 2.4 to 4.0), after controlling for age group and sex. Conclusions: A significant proportion of COPD-related deaths occurs in never-smokers. Factors such as a history of asthma and being underweight are associated with COPD mortality and may provide additional opportunities for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. Some of the factors that influence our understanding of the nature of names and words were investigated. Participants (from kindergarten, 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades, and a university undergraduate class) were told a series of brief narratives thematizing the relation between objects and names, after which they were asked questions about the origins and changeability of names and words. Responses were coded as either realist (i.e., viewing names as intrinsic properties of objects) or nominalist (i.e., understanding names and words as arbitrary social conventions). By Grade 2, the children showed a significant increase in nominalist thinking, but this was not a universal development among the participants. Many adults expressed views that did not reflect a strictly nominalist understanding of words and names. Furthermore, the use of nominalist and realist models was influenced by various social-discursive factors including the type of object being named, the type of name being asked about, and the participant's prior experience with the name. It is argued that linguistic (especially literate) experiences play a crucial role in developing a nominalist understanding of names and words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's understanding of the role of evidence in the formation of beliefs was examined by having 4- to 8-year-olds judge what another would ‘think’ or ‘know’ when confronted with ambiguous and unambiguous evidence and then asking them to justify their judgements. Whereas younger children's ascriptions tended to be based on their own beliefs about the situation, older children tended to ascribe knowledge to others on the basis of the evidence available to those others. However, even 6- and 7-year-olds had some difficulty grasping the relation between critical or unambiguous evidence and knowledge, and in basing their ascriptions of knowledge exclusively on the availability of such evidence. Two important transitions in epistemological understanding were observed. The first at about 5½ years of age was the transition from ascribing beliefs to others on the basis of one's own beliefs to ascribing them on the basis of the evidence available to that person — a transition that may depend on their understanding of the possibility of someone holding a false belief; the second was the transition from 6 to 7 years of age when they begin W understand the implications of critical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's understanding of the role of evidence in the formation of beliefs was examined by having 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds judge what another would ’think’ or ’know’ when confronted with ambiguous and unambiguous evidence and then asking them to justify their judgements. Whereas younger children's ascriptions tended to be based on their own beliefs about the situation, older children tended to ascribe knowledge to others on the basis of the evidence available to those others. However, even 6‐ and 7‐year‐olds had some difficulty grasping the relation between critical or unambiguous evidence and knowledge, and in basing their ascriptions of knowledge exclusively on the availability of such evidence. Two important transitions in epistemological understanding were observed. The first at about 5#fr1/2> years of age was the transition from ascribing beliefs to others on the basis of one's own beliefs to ascribing them on the basis of the evidence available to that person—a transition that may depend on their understanding of the possibility of someone holding a false belief; the second was the transition from 6 to 7 years of age when they begin to understand the implications of critical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]