Cognitive and developmental influences in visual-motor integration skills in young children

Measures of visual-motor integration skills continue to be widely used in psychological assessments with children. However, the construct validity of many visual-motor integration measures remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the relative contributions of maturation and cognitive skills to the development of visual-motor integration skills in young children (N = 856). We used a block regression analysis to determine the contribution of maturation, as indicated by age, followed by broad cognitive factors (Study 1) and subsequently by individual subtests in verbal and nonverbal domains subsumed under each factor (Study 2) in explaining score variance of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (2nd ed.; BG-II; Brannigan & Decker, 2003) Copy and Recall scores in children between the ages of 4 and 7 years. Results confirm that maturation accounted for a large proportion of variance in both BG-II Copy and Recall performance, above which Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (5th ed.; SB-5; Roid, 2003) Quantitative Reasoning and Fluid Reasoning factors significantly contributed to visual-motor integration performance for the Copy phase, and SB-5 Quantitative Reasoning and Visual-Spatial factors accounted for a significant amount of variance for the Recall phase. Additionally, nonverbal domains were more related to visual-motor performance than verbal domains. Results from this study are interpreted to suggest nonverbal reasoning and visual-spatial attention are important contributing factors to visual-motor integration, as measured by the BG-II. Developmental implications of visual-motor integration skills, nonverbal problem solving, and mathematical competence are discussed.     

Some factors affecting response in recognition tests

Experiments were designed to investigate some of the factors which might affect a subject's responses in a recognition test. Two experiments are described. In the first, subjects were shown 12 similar photographs. They were then given a recognition test of 12 photographs, of which a number varying from o to 12 had been shown in the original display. All the photographs were sufficiently alike to render some guessing essential. It was found that subjects tended to select approximately 50 per cent. as having been seen previously and to reject 50 per cent. When a second and similar display and recognition test followed immediately, there was a tendency for subjects to make more “yes” responses, without any improvement in accuracy. The effect of giving serial presentation first was to increase the number accepted not only in that test but also in a test using simultaneous presentation which succeeded it. It was also shown that when a correct decision was possible but difficult a positively correct response (in this case recognizing something seen before) was easier than a negatively correct one (rejecting something not seen before).

In the second experiment subjects were shown a picture and were then asked to describe it from memory. Immediately afterwards half the group was given a multiple-choice recognition test while the other half was given a single-choice recognition test. It was found that accuracy and certainty of decision varied with the nature of the choice situation. The results are discussed in relation to a theory of adaptation levels.     

Some factors affecting tachistoscopic letter recognition

Summary The paper reports a series of studies that attempt to examine the issue of tachistoscopic identification of letter material. In particular a reductionist approach is used to investigate the influence of retinal locus, cerebral dominance, metacontrast, letter symmetry, and ocular dominance on the task. Retinal locus, metacontrast, and ocular dominance were shown to influence letter reportability under the present conditions with, it is argued, retinal locus and metacontrast affecting the integrity of the icon. Evidence is given for the construct of ocular dominance as the eye (dominant) initiating eye movements with the other passively following.     

影响学习迁移的几个因素的实验研究

针对前人较多地从学习材料本身的特点或学习者的心理特点出发去孤立地考察对学习迁移的影响这一现象 ,本研究试采用代数运算材料 ,系统地探讨了学习材料的相同要素和学习者概括化认知过程两者之间的内在关系 ,并将相同要素进一步区分为表述形式相似和内在原理相似。旨在对较为复杂的认知学习中迁移的影响因素做更深入的考察。结果表明 :①概括化和相同要素对学习迁移的影响依然存在 ,但需作具体分析。其中 ,前者应成为影响学习迁移的更重要因素。②在学习材料的相同要素中 ,实质上对迁移起作用的是内在原理相似性 ;而表述形式相似性不起主要作用。③概括化因素和内在原理相似性因素之间的交互作用对学习迁移影响极大。     

工作记忆训练及对数学能力的迁移作用

工作记忆缺陷会影响个体数学能力发展。通过记忆策略、广度、刷新、转换等功能的工作记忆训练,可以改善个体认知功能。然而,工作记忆训练对个体的阅读、数学、流体智力等方面的远迁移效果并不一致。研究表明,工作记忆训练可以改善数感、视觉空间能力、推理能力等数学一般技能;也会通过改善语音工作记忆以及空间能力促进数学计算能力,或者通过改善中央执行系统,提升数学问题表征、模式识别、解题迁移、策略选择等复杂的过程,从而促进数学问题解决能力。因此,区分不同数学任务的认知过程,可以获得工作记忆训练对数学能力迁移效果的进一步证据。今后,神经影像学的证据或许也是未来工作记忆训练对数学能力提高的又一佐证。     

Isolated teenagers, cooperative learning, and the training of social skills

The effects of individual and group contingencies on the achievement and social integration of isolated, learning-disabled students were studied. Five socially isolated and withdrawn eighth-grade students in foreign-language and math classes were subjects. The choice of working alone or in a group with no academic contingency (i.e., bonus points) was compared with working in cooperative learning groups with a group-academic contingency (i.e., bonus points), a group-academic contingency with social-skills training, and a group-academic contingency in combination with a social-skills contingency (i.e., bonus points). The results indicated that the combination of group-academic and social-skills contingencies produced in the socially isolated and withdrawn students the highest rates of appropriate social interaction with peers, acceptance and liking by peers, positive attitudes toward the subject area, and achievement.     

Effects of parent training on parent instruction and child learning of intellectual skills

The present investigation examined the effects of a brief parent training package on parental application of behavioral procedures during child instruction. In addition, it investigated the effects of parent training on child learning of two intellectual skills. Forty-nine parents and their $\text{2}\text{1}\text{2}$ to 5-year-old children participated. A discriminant analysis revealed that the parent training package produced variations in parental use of modeling, physical prompting, verbal instructional prompting, and aversive control. However, the pattern of variations differed across instructional tasks. Regression analysis showed that parent training produced differences in child learning in one of the two skills targeted for instruction.     

Bottom-up and top-down factors of motion direction learning transfer

Perceptual learning of motion discrimination has long been believed to be motion direction specific. However, recent studies using a double-training paradigm, in which the to-be-transferred condition was experienced through practicing an irrelevant task, found that perceptual learning in various visual tasks, including motion direction discrimination, can transfer completely to new conditions. This transfer occurred when the transfer stimulus was subconsciously presented, or when top-down attention was allocated to the transfer stimulus (which was absent). In the current study, observers were exposed subconsciously, or directed top-down attention, to the transfer motion direction, either simultaneously or successively with training. Data showed that motion direction learning transferred to the transfer direction, and suggest that motion direction learning specificity may result from under-activations of untrained visual neurons due to insufficient bottom-up stimulation and/or lack of top-down attention during training. These results shed new light on the neural mechanisms underlying motion perceptual learning and provide a constraint for models of motion perceptual learning.