两类英语学习困难的心理机制研究

本研究以单纯英语学习困难、中英双语学习困难和正常对照组为被试,考查了80名五年级小学生的语音意识和视觉工作记忆变量.结果表明,(1)两种英语学习困难儿童英语语音意识均比正常儿童差,均存在发展迟缓的缺陷;(2)两种英语学习困难儿童视觉工作记忆均相对落后;(3)视觉工作记忆在单纯英语学习困难儿童的汉语学习上存在一定的补偿作用,对英语学习则没有相同的作用.结果揭示了汉语认知加工过程相对于英语的特殊性.     

阅读理解困难儿童的认知加工

阅读理解困难是阅读障碍的一个主要类型,近年来受到西方研究者的重视。阅读理解认知加工,核心是有层次的语义加工,理解困难儿童在词汇语义加工和篇章推理和整合上都存在落后。理解困难儿童的信息推理水平落后,可能原因来自两个方面：一方面是语音工作记忆缺陷导致推理加工能力缺陷,另一方面是阅读元认知缺陷导致阅读目的和理解监控发展不正常。这些缺陷之间复杂的关系,还需要进一步研究     

不同编码对听写困难儿童字形记忆的促进效应

听写困难是一种发生率较高的儿童学习障碍现象。实验考察笔画语音编码和动作编码对听写困难儿童字形记忆水平的影响。结果发现, 笔画语音编码对听写困难儿童的字形记忆成绩没有明显影响, 但却明显促进了正常儿童的字形记忆成绩; 与之相对, 动作编码对正常儿童的字形记忆成绩没有明显影响, 但却明显促进了听写困难儿童的字形记忆成绩。上述现象, 既可能源于编码加工阶段, 也可能源于字形表征的提取阶段。     

工作记忆子成分在听觉障碍儿童心算过程中的作用

采用2×2×3的混合实验设计,比较听力正常儿童和听觉障碍儿童在心算作业上的差异,考察了工作记忆子成分在听觉障碍儿童心算过程中的作用。结果表明,与听力正常儿童相比,听觉障碍儿童在高存储负载水平下的心算成绩显著降低,说明语音回路负责心算过程中的存储成分;而且听觉障碍儿童在对中央执行能力有高需求的实验条件下的作业水平并不比正常听力儿童差,说明他们的中央执行能力并没有受到损失。     

汉语儿童英语和汉语语音意识对英语单词认读的作用

对小学一到三年级81名汉语儿童进行英语、汉语语音意识以及英语单词认读的测试,同时纳入瑞文推理和工作记忆测试作为控制变量,考察英、汉语音意识的不同成分在英语单词认读中的作用。研究结果表明:(1)汉语儿童的英语、汉语语音意识的各个水平与单词认读相关均显著,但不同水平的语音意识对单词认读的影响作用不同。(2)在控制了非言语智力因素和工作记忆的条件下,只有英语、汉语的音位意识对汉语儿童的单词认读具有较强的预测作用。     

汉语儿童英语语音意识与拼写的关系

对92名二到四年级的汉语儿童进行英语语音意识和英语拼写测试,探索汉语儿童英语拼写的发展特点以及语音意识中的不同成分对其拼写的影响作用。结果发现：（1）汉语儿童的英语拼写成绩随着年级和学习经验的增多而提高,其中二年级到三年级是英语拼写能力发展的关键时期,女生的拼写成绩优于男生。（2）语音意识中的首音韵音意识对汉语儿童的英语拼写有较强的影响作用,此外,拼音和工作记忆也是影响汉语儿童英语拼写的重要因素。     

心算形式对不同近似数量系统敏锐度儿童心算表现的影响

选取112名二年级小学生,以点阵比较任务测量近似数量系统敏锐度,同时以工作记忆测验成绩为协变量,探究了不同心算形式（视算、读算）对不同近似数量系统敏锐度儿童心算表现的潜在影响。结果显示：（1）心算形式显著影响心算的正确率,读算形式下儿童的心算表现最好;（2）控制工作记忆影响后,心算形式与近似数量系统敏锐分组均对心算正确率影响显著。总体来讲,读算可能是提高小学儿童简单心算表现的有效形式,并能提高低近似数量系统敏锐度儿童的心算表现。     

语音记忆和视觉记忆在儿童汉语识字能力中同样重要吗?一个元分析综述

国外基于拼音文字的众多实证研究发现有阅读困难的儿童可能存在语音记忆方面的缺陷,表现为对文字信息而非视觉空间信息的存储困难。然而,关于普通儿童汉语识字能力方面,虽不少研究探讨到了工作记忆在其中的重要贡献,但目前为止依然对语音与视觉记忆在当中的角色没有一致的定论,也尚未有一篇元分析研究整合过过往的实证文献。因此,本文尝试采用元分析的方法试图澄清两种不同的工作记忆在儿童习得汉字中的不同功能。结果发现,工作记忆与儿童汉语识字能力的整体相关为0.24;语音记忆与儿童汉语识字能力的相关是0.34,而视觉记忆与儿童汉语识字能力的相关仅有0.14。本研究的结果支持以Wagner和Torgesen为代表的"泛语音论"的推测,也符合Perfetti和Dunlap(2008)的普适性的语音原则的预期,表明汉语阅读中代表着语音加工技能的语音记忆依然是汉字习得的核心驱动器。     

联结竞争对听写困难儿童形音联结编码的影响

听写困难是一种发生率较高的儿童学习障碍现象。听写困难的认知机制,主要包括语音加工缺陷、字形表征缺陷以及形音联结编码缺陷。本研究通过两个实验,考察了整字语音竞争和部件语音竞争,对听写困难儿童形音联结编码的影响。结果发现,在不同条件下,听写困难儿童的形音联结水平都落后于正常儿童;整字语音竞争显著干扰了正常儿童的形音联结编码,但对听写困难儿童的影响并不明显;与之相反的是,部件语音竞争对听写困难儿童的干扰更为明显。研究结果支持听写困难儿童的形音联结编码缺陷理论。在此基础上,听写困难儿童的形音联结较少受到整字语音的竞争干扰,但更容易受到部件语音的竞争干扰,这可能是因为,他(她)们的整体字形加工或表征存在缺陷,导致原生字字形和语音信息难以被激活,以及合体字的部件信息得到更多的加工所致。     

数学学习困难与工作记忆关系研究的现状与前瞻

工作记忆是一种对信息进行暂时加工和贮存的能量有限的记忆系统,在许多复杂的认知活动中起重要作用,工作记忆缺陷是造成数学学习困难的根本原因。数学学习困难儿童都存在视觉空间模板、语音回路以及中央执行器功能等方面的缺陷,工作记忆的各成分对数学困难者的影响不同。今后研究将以整体的、发展的视角,不断改进研究方法,将行为研究和神经加工机制研究相结合。     

Mental addition in third,fourth, and sixth graders

Research on mental arithmetic has suggested that young children use a counting algorithm for simple mental addition, but that adults use memory retrieval from an organized representation of addition facts. To determine the age at which performance shifts from counting to retrieval, children in grades 3, 4, and 6 were tested in a true/false verification task. Reaction time patterns suggested that third grade is a transitional age with respect to memory structure for addition—half of these children seemed to be counting and half retrieving from memory. Results from fourth and sixth graders implicated retrieval quite strongly, as their results resembled adult RTs very closely. Fourth graders' processing, however, was easily disrupted when false problems were presented. The third graders' difficulties are not due to an inability to form mental representations of number; all three grades demonstrated a strong split effect, indicative of a simpler mental representation of numerical information than is necessary for addition. The results were discussed in the context of memory retrieval versus counting models of mental arithmetic, and the increase across age in automaticity of retrieval processes.     

The mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal: A developmental study

Three experiments were conducted examining the relationship between the mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal and spontaneous utilization of the strategy by children. Mental effort was assessed by measuring the interference produced by cumulative rehearsal with a simultaneously performed secondary task (finger-tapping). It was found in Experiment 1 that second- and third-grade children experienced significantly more finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal than did sixth-grade children, an effect which, Experiment 2 demonstrated, could not be attributed simply to developmental differences in time-sharing performance. In Experiment 3 it was found that, for children in grades 2 through 5, rehearsal set size during spontaneous rehearsal was negatively correlated with amount of finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal, suggesting that spontaneous use of a cumulative rehearsal strategy was negatively correlated with the mental effort requirement of strategy use. These findings support the view that the mental effort requirement of strategy use may influence children's strategy selection on memory tasks.     

An adult model of preschool children’s speech memory

In previous work, it has been demonstrated that phonetic similarity among the items in a spoken list interferes with recall much more in school-aged children than in preschool children. The basis of this developmental change, however, is unclear. In the present study we examined the possibility that a developmental increase in the use of covert verbal rehearsal accounts for the change in the effects of phonetic similarity. Adults who recalled lists of spoken words during articulatory suppression tasks that blocked covert rehearsal were found to display patterns of recall that resembled those ordinarily found in 5-year-old children. The specific aspects of rehearsal responsible for these effects also were investigated.     

基于关系-表征复杂性模型的数学应用题表征能力测验

基于关系-表征复杂性模型,从每道应用题涉及集合关系的嵌套程度角度事前分析其关系复杂性,编制了难度序列变化的应用题测验,以考察问题表征能力。采用该测验测查了四至七年级共165名学生,考察事前分析的合理性及表征水平随年龄的变化。结果表明:(1)事前分析对两个事后难度指标(错误率和Rasch模型分析的任务难度)的解释率分别为73.7%、78.7%;该测验得分与测查思维水平层次变化的SOLO分类测验上的得分有较高相关(r=0.65)。(2)四年级的应用题表征水平显著低于五、六、七年级,其他三个年级差异不显著;而且随着问题关系复杂性的增加,年级差异增大。这说明基于关系-表征复杂性模型的事前分析是合理的,据此编制的测验能够测查表征水平随年龄的变化。     

Goal-directed access to mental objects in working memory: The role of task-specific feature retrieval

In the present study, we examined the hypothesis of task-specific access to mental objects from verbal working memory. It is currently assumed that a mental object is brought into the focus of attention in working memory by a process of object selection, which provides this object for any upcoming mental operation (Oberauer, 2002). We argue that this view must be extended, since the selection of information for processing is always guided by current intentions and task goals. In our experiments, it was required that two kinds of comparison tasks be executed on digits selected from a set of three digits held in working memory. The tasks differed in regard to the object features the comparison was based on. Access to a new mental object (object switch) took consistently longer on the semantic comparison task than on the recognition task. This difference is not attributable to object selection difficulty and cannot be fully accounted for by task difficulty or differences in rehearsal processes. The results support our assumptions that (1) mental objects are selected for a given specific task and, so, are accessed with their specific task-relevant object features; (2) verbal mental objects outside the focus of attention are usually not maintained at a full feature level but are refreshed phonologically by subvocal rehearsal; and (3) if more than phonological information is required, access to mental objects involves feature retrieval processes in addition to object selection.     

Rise time and formant transition duration in the discrimination of speech sounds: the Ba-Wa distinction in developmental dyslexia

Across languages, children with developmental dyslexia have a specific difficulty with the neural representation of the sound structure (phonological structure) of speech. One likely cause of their difficulties with phonology is a perceptual difficulty in auditory temporal processing (Tallal, 1980). Tallal (1980) proposed that basic auditory processing of brief, rapidly successive acoustic changes is compromised in dyslexia, thereby affecting phonetic discrimination (e.g. discriminating /b/ from /d/) via impaired discrimination of formant transitions (rapid acoustic changes in frequency and intensity). However, an alternative auditory temporal hypothesis is that the basic auditory processing of the slower amplitude modulation cues in speech is compromised (Goswami et al., 2002). Here, we contrast children's perception of a synthetic speech contrast (ba/wa) when it is based on the speed of the rate of change of frequency information (formant transition duration) versus the speed of the rate of change of amplitude modulation (rise time). We show that children with dyslexia have excellent phonetic discrimination based on formant transition duration, but poor phonetic discrimination based on envelope cues. The results explain why phonetic discrimination may be allophonic in developmental dyslexia (Serniclaes et al., 2004), and suggest new avenues for the remediation of developmental dyslexia.     

小学语文教学中改善学生情绪调节困难状况的实验研究

采用实验组、控制组前后测实验设计,选取42名小学四年级学生,以语文学科教学为依托,运用教学实验方法探索语文教学中改善学生情绪调节困难状况之渗透方式的有效性。结果表明:学科渗透可以在一定程度上改善学生情绪调节困难状况、促进心理素质发展,特别是对中、高程度情绪调节困难学生的改善更为显著;实验组语文学业成绩比控制组有所提高,但并未达到显著性水平。说明学科渗透可以作为学生心理素质教育实施的有效途径之一。     

Numerical and arithmetical cognition: a longitudinal study of process and concept deficits in children with learning disability

Based on the stability and level of performance on standard achievement tests in first and second grade (mean age in first grade = 82 months), children with IQ scores in the low-average to high-average range were classified as learning disabled (LD) in mathematics (MD), reading (RD), or both (MD/RD). These children (n = 42), a group of children who showed variable achievement test performance across grades (n = 16), and a control group of academically normal peers (n = 35) were administered a series of experimental and psychometric tasks. The tasks assessed number comprehension and production skills, counting knowledge, arithmetic skills, working memory, the ease of activation of phonetic representations of words and numbers, and spatial abilities. The children with variable achievement test performance did not differ from the academically normal children in any cognitive domain, whereas the children in the LD groups showed specific patterns of cognitive deficit, above and beyond the influence of IQ. Discussion focuses on the similarities and differences across the groups of LD children.