Lancaster-Warwick-Stirling node

 

 

2.00 p.m. Introduction Charlie Lewis (Lancaster)

 

2.30 p.m. Systematic manipulations of procedures within a microgenetic framework Matija Svetina (Ljubljana)

 

The presentation will focus on problems of experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal, and correlational designs in studying microdevelopmental change and its implications to our understanding of both learning and developmental change. Systematic manipulations of procedures within a microgenetic framework will be discussed in terms of the overlapping waves model of cognitive change, conceptual development models, the zone of proximal development, and microgenetic vs microdevelopmental consideration of change.

 

3.30 p.m. Tea/Coffee

 

3.45 p.m. Using microgenetic designs to study the early development of interpersonal relationships Manuela Lavelli (Verona)

 

In this presentation I will illustrate the relational-historical approach as a form of microgenetic design devised to study developmental change processes in interpersonal relationships. I will focus on how analysing and understanding changes at the micro-level of real-time dynamics of mother-infant communication (by sequential analysis) - intensively observed across a key developmental transition - enlightens the understanding of changes in mother-infant relationship at the macro-level of developmental time (visualized by developmental trajectories of patterns of communication, MLn technique). The presentation will be focused also on how combining quantitative and qualitative analyses can be fruitfully used to deepen the study of individual differences.

 

4.45 p.m. Dynamic systems approaches to microgenetic studies Paul van Geert (Groningen)

 

I will discuss dynamic systems approaches to microgenetic studies, in light of the distinction between short term and long term time scales (time scales of action, microgenetic change and development). I will illustrate some methods, such as state space grid methods and time series descriptions related to dynamic models of action. All this is indeed related to individual differences and dynamic models.

 

5.45 p.m. Group discussion raising questions for Discussion on late Sunday morning

 

6.15 p.m. Close – dinner : to be arranged [pay for yourself!]

 

 

9.15 a.m. Executive functions and learning math: a microgenetic study Sanne H. G. van der Ven, E. H. Kroesbergen, Jan Boom, and P.P.M. Leseman (Utrecht)

 

In this study, the relation between executive functions and mathematical problem solving was investigated, using a microgenetic approach that investigated in-depth changes in strategy use and accuracy over time. Once a week, during eight weeks, 96 children in second grade were given 15 single-digit multiplication problems. Directly after each attempt, children were asked which strategy they had used to solve the problem. Reported strategies were coded into five categories: wrong strategies, counting, repeated addition, smarter procedures, and retrieval. We are interested in changes in the pattern of strategy use over weeks, and how this is related to accuracy of the solution. Consequently, analysis will be as much as possible on item level. In addition, working memory tasks were administered. Our hypothesis is that strategy use is partly determined by executive functioning and working memory in particular. Finally, we expect that difficulty level of the math problems and degree of contextualization will moderate the relationship between working memory and strategy use. Preliminary results will be presented.

 

9.45 a.m. Analysing microgenetic data with Mplus Jan Boom, and Sanne H. G. van der Ven (Utrecht)

We will present the efforts to model the data described above with help of growth models for categorical data (for the change in strategy use) and for continuous data (for accuracy). But also problems and prospects will be illustrated by counting and plotting the data in various ways (e.g. using Excel) to explore the many possible alternative ways to structure and interpret a very rich data set like this one.

 

10.15 a.m. Coffee/Tea

 

10.30 a.m. Statistical analysis of microdevelopmental data: using latent transition analysis to explore developmental sequences Brian Francis (Lancaster)

 

A key issue in the analysis of development concerns how we conceptualize and measure individual trajectories of change. In this talk I will review some recent approaches to this issue, which are not commonly used in developmental psychology. One of these approaches is latent transition analysis. I will describe how this technique can be used to extract different growth trajectories within longitudinal studies and allow other factors to be regressed onto these trajectories.  I will discuss its underlying statistical assumptions and describe the main routines for conducting such analyses on commonly used statistical packages.

 

11.30 a.m. Plenary meeting:

Discussion about individual research questions

Ideas for a future meeting?

 

12.30 p.m. Close and Lunch at a local café (followed by the conference and symposium)