Redintegration and lexicality effects in children: Do they depend upon the demands of the memory task?

The effect of long-term knowledge upon performance in short-term memory tasks was examined for children from 5 to 10 years of age. The emergence of a lexicality effect, in which familiar words were recalled more accurately than unfamiliar words, was found to depend upon the nature of the memory task. Lexicality effects were interpreted as reflecting the use of redintegration, or reconstruction processes, in short-term memory. Redintegration increased with age for tasks requiring spoken item recall and decreased with age when position information but not naming was required. In a second experiment, redintegration was found in a recognition task when some of the foils rhymed with the target. Older children were able to profit from a rhyming foil, whereas younger children were confused by it, suggesting that the older children make use of sublexical phonological information in reconstructing the target. It was proposed that redintegrative processes in their mature form support the reconstruction of detailed phonological knowledge of words.     

DO INFANTS SHOW GENERALIZED IMITATION OF GESTURES? II. THE EFFECTS OF SKILLS TRAINING AND MULTIPLE EXEMPLAR MATCHING TRAINING

The determinants of generalized imitation of manual gestures were investigated in 1‐ to 2‐year‐old infants. Eleven infants were first trained eight baseline matching relations; then, four novel gestures that the infants did not match in probe trials were selected as target behaviors. Next, in a generalized imitation test in which matching responses to baseline models were intermittently reinforced, but matching responses to target models were not eligible for reinforcement, the infants matched baseline models but not the majority of their target behaviors. To ensure their failure to match the target behaviors was not due to motor constraints, the infants were trained, in a multiple‐baseline procedure, to produce the target responses under stimulus control that did not include an antecedent model of the target behavior. There was no evidence of generalized imitation in subsequent tests. When the infants were next trained to match each target behavior to criterion (tested in extinction) in a multiple‐baseline‐across‐behaviors procedure, only 2 infants continued to match all their targets in subsequent tests; the remaining infants matched only some of them. Seven infants were next given mixed matching training with the target behaviors to criterion (tested in extinction); they subsequently matched these targets without reinforcement when interspersed with trials on which matching responses to baseline models were intermittently reinforced. In repeat tests, administered at 3‐week intervals, these 7 children (and 2 that did not take part in mixed matching training) continued to match most of their target behaviors. The results support a trained matching account, but provide no evidence of generalized imitation, in 1‐ to 2‐year‐old infants.     

Management and Prevention of Hyperactivity and Conduct Disorders in 8-10 Year Old Boys Through Correspondence Training Procedures

This study investigated the clinical effects of correspondence training in a group of boys aged 8 to 10. Four children were intervened with the “reinforcement set up on promises” technique: the reinforcer was set up (or displayed) contingent upon the patient's promised to inhibit instances of hyperactivity and conduct disorders, and delivered later contingent upon fulfillment of the promised. Three children received the “reinforcement of corresponding reports” technique: true reports about the inhibition of target behaviors in the past were reinforced. One subject was intervened with the “reinforcement of fulfillment of promises”: the reinforcer was presented and delivered contingent upon the fulfillment of the promises. A series of single-case experimental designs was employed to evaluate the clinical effects of each procedure upon target behaviors. Consistently low levels of hyperactivity and conduct disorders were noted relative to baseline observations. Academic performance was also improved during the introduction of correspondence training with some children     

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.     

A comparison of a modified sequential oral sensory approach to an applied behavior‐analytic approach in the treatment of food selectivity in children with autism spectrum disorder

Treatments of pediatric feeding disorders based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) have the most empirical support in the research literature (Volkert & Piazza, 2012); however, professionals often recommend, and caregivers often use, treatments that have limited empirical support. In the current investigation, we compared a modified sequential oral sensory approach (M‐SOS; Benson, Parke, Gannon, & Muñoz, 2013) to an ABA approach for the treatment of the food selectivity of 6 children with autism. We randomly assigned 3 children to ABA and 3 children to M‐SOS and compared the effects of treatment in a multiple baseline design across novel, healthy target foods. We used a multielement design to assess treatment generalization. Consumption of target foods increased for children who received ABA, but not for children who received M‐SOS. We subsequently implemented ABA with the children for whom M‐SOS was not effective and observed a potential treatment generalization effect during ABA when M‐SOS preceded ABA.     

How bilingual experience and executive control influence development in language control among bilingual children

This longitudinal study investigates whether the development in executive control and bilingual experience predicts change in language control in bilingual children. Children were tested twice over the course of 1 year, using the language‐switching paradigm and the Simon task. The participants were Japanese‐English bilingual “returnee” children (ages 7–13), who returned to their first language (L1) environment after spending some years in a second language (L2) dominant environment. Testing these children upon their return to the L1 environment allowed us to disentangle the effect of age from bilingual experience, as they experienced an increase in age but a decrease in L2 exposure over time. Children who had less L2 exposure showed smaller improvement in baseline performance when naming pictures in English (i.e., when English was relevant across all trials). Moreover, development in trials where children had to switch between languages were modulated by development in executive control. That is, children who increased their performance in the English mixed repetition trials also performed better on the executive control task over time. Thus, development in executive control modulated change in language control among bilingual children, suggesting a positive relationship between language control and executive control in children's development.     

Some consequences of visualization in pattern identification and detection

The goal of this study was to establish some of the conditions under which mental imagery facilitates or interferes with the identification and detection of visual patterns. In Experiment 1, subjects identified simple bar patterns presented at orientations 90 degrees apart under normal viewing conditions. Their reaction times were shorter when they had imagined seeing the patterns in advance at the same orientation, but were longer when they had imagined seeing the patterns at orientations that were in-between those of the actual presented patterns, relative to baseline conditions in which they were instructed not to imagine the patterns. In Experiment 2, where the subjects had only to detect the target patterns without identifying them, there was no effect of image formation or image-target alignment. In Experiment 3, where the detection task was repeated but where the target exposure duration was reduced, imagery significantly interfered with detection. In contrast to the results of Experiment 1, reaction time and error rate in this case were greatest when the imagined patterns were perfectly aligned with the target patterns. These findings demonstrate that whether imagery facilitates or interferes with performance on a visual task depends on the nature and difficulty of the task and on how closely the imagined and presented patterns correspond.     

Improving executive functioning in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

An extensive body of literature has documented executive function (EF) impairments in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD); however, few studies have aimed specifically at improving EF. One treatment program that shows promise for children with FASD is the Alert Program for Self-Regulation®, which is a 12-week treatment specifically designed to target self-regulation, a component of EF. The present study sought to examine if Alert would produce improvements in self-regulation that would generalize to other aspects of EF, behavior, and social skills in children with FASD. Twenty-five children aged 8–12 years diagnosed with an FASD were assigned in alternating sequence to either an immediate treatment (TXT) or a delayed treatment control (DTC) group. Both groups received a comprehensive evaluation of EF at baseline and upon completing therapy (TXT), or after a 12- to 14-week interval from baseline (DTC). Parents also completed questionnaires assessing EF and behavior at both time points. For the TXT group only, parent questionnaires were readministered at 6-month follow-up. At the 12-week follow-up, the TXT group displayed significant improvements in inhibitory control and social cognition. Parents of children in the TXT group reported improved behavioral and emotional regulation, as well as reduced externalizing behavior problems. These behavioral improvements along with further improved parent-rated inhibitory control was maintained at the 6-month follow-up. The EF disabilities in children with FASD can be remediated through a targeted treatment approach aimed at facilitating self-regulation skills.     

Delayed imitation of complex behavioural sequences by 14- to 16-month olds

The present study was conducted to determine if children under the age of 18 months can exhibit delayed imitation of three-event sequences when they have no opportunity to practice. Twenty-three 14- to 16-month-old children underwent two different imitation conditions. In the practice condition the children could imitate the sequence immediately after modelling; then they were tested 1 or 7 days later. In the no practice condition the children had the chance to imitate only on the test day. Children were able to imitate the sequences under both conditions irrespective of the delay period. They produced significantly more target actions, and more target actions in the correct order, in the test phase and cued recall phase, compared with the baseline. There were no differences between the two conditions with a 1-day delay period, but after a 7-day delay, the number of target actions produced during the practice condition was significantly higher than those in the no practice condition. The results are discussed in terms of nonverbal mimetic representations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Use of Response Prevention to Eliminate Daytime Thumbsucking

The effects of a response prevention strategy consisting of the fading of restraint and the removal of reniforcers contingent on daytime thumbsucking was evaluated with three boys using a multiple baseline plus reversal design. Following a baseline condition thumbsucking was restrained by absorbent cotton taped over the thumb and the children lost access to an agreed upon reinforcer and T.V. time contigent upon thumbsucking. Thumbsucking increased when this condition was abruptly removed for two children. The reintroduction of the absorbant cotton restraint plus contingencies procedure and a no restraint procedure plus contigencies conditon was associated with the complete suppression of thumbsucking which remained suppressed during the follow-up condition for all three children.     

The Role of ADHD and Negative Emotional Lability in Predicting Changes in Parenting Daily Hassles

The present study examined the extent to which children’s negative emotional lability (measured via ecological momentary assessment—EMA) and ADHD diagnostic status predicted changes in the frequency of daily parenting hassles and the stress resulting from daily hassles at one-week follow-up when controlling for baseline parenting hassles. Parents of 84 children 8–12 years-old (47 with ADHD, 37 without ADHD) completed a measure of parenting daily hassles at baseline and follow-up and participated in EMA assessment protocol ratings of their child’s mood (3-times daily) for one week. Analyses of covariance indicated that parents of children with ADHD reported significantly greater frequency of daily parenting hassles and intensity of parenting stress resulting from daily hassles than parents of children without ADHD at baseline and follow-up. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that children’s negative emotional lability was a significant predictor of the intensity of parenting stress resulting from daily hassles, but not the frequency of daily parenting hassles. There was also an interaction of ADHD diagnostic status and greater EMA-derived negative emotional lability in the prediction of the frequency of daily parenting hassles due to children’s challenging behaviors. Specifically, greater negative emotional lability predicted more frequent daily parenting hassles due to children’s challenging behaviors among parents of children without ADHD but not among parents of children with ADHD. Overall, this study suggests that children’s negative emotional lability is a significant predictor of aspects of daily parenting hassles across parents of children with and without ADHD.     

Constant errors in judgements of collinearity due to the presence of neighbouring objects

If a line (the pointer) is aligned with a dot (the target) that stands on another line (the induction line) which is at an angle to the pointer, the pointer and the dot may no longer appear collinear. Whether they do or not depends upon the angle formed by the pointer with the induction line: the smaller the angle, the greater the misalignment effect. Misalignment is always in the direction of the induction line, which is why this alignment illusion is called attraction-caused misalignment (attraction misalignment for short). Three experiments are described in which this illusion is explored further. In the first it is shown that the induction line can exert its influence even when not contiguous with the target, though the size of the effect varies inversely with the distance of the induction line from the target. In the second experiment it is demonstrated that a dot as well as a line can induce attraction misalignment and that similarity between the induction and target items increases misalignment. Evidence in support of the theory that the termination of the induction line, as well as the part contiguous with the target dot, may induce attraction misalignment is provided in the third experiment.     

Reinforcement therapy in the classroom

Teachers were trained in the systematic use of attention and praise to reduce the disruptive classroom behavior of four first-grade children. Observation measures showed a significant improvement from baseline to treatment for these children and no significant changes for same-class controls. While the amount of teacher attention to target children remained the same from baseline to treatment, the proportion of attention to task-relevant behavior of these children increased. Psychological tests revealed no adverse changes after treatment.     

PARTICIPATIVE EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN: AN EFFECTIVE APPROACH TO INCREASE SAFETY BELT USE

Vehicle license plate numbers and the shoulder belt use of front-seat occupants were recorded unobtrusively when parents delivered and picked up their children at a Montessori school during 5-day baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases. Practicing and presenting a 15-min safety belt skit increased the safety belt use of those 6 kindergarten children who were not consistent belt users 82% above their preintervention baseline belt use mean of 47%. The belt use of these children's parents (who watched the skit) increased to 56% above their baseline mean of 36%. Also, mean safety belt use of 11 primary school children who watched the skit increased to 70% above their baseline of 28%. Mean safety belt use of the older children's parents (who didn't watch the skit) remained at approximately 31% for each phase, regardless of whether children were vehicle occupants. The follow-up observations, taken 3 months after the intervention, revealed 60% belt use for the kindergartners, 48% for the primary school children, and 71% for the kindergartners' parents when the children were vehicle occupants but only 30% when the parents were driving alone.     

Attention Bias for Threatening Information in Children Following a Distressing Medical Procedure

Attention bias is common in adults with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is less studied in children. Children (n = 22) who experienced a potentially distressing procedure in an outpatient clinic (removal of K‐wires from orthopaedic fractures) and a group of medically unwell children (illness group; n = 27) were compared with healthy controls (n = 32). Children's baseline level of PTS symptoms were indexed prior to the medical procedure, and again at 1‐week follow‐up. Immediately after the K‐wire removal, children completed a dot probe task using two categories of target words (medical threatening and emotionally threatening). While K‐wire children showed an overall bias away from negative words relative to healthy controls, the illness group did not significantly differ from healthy controls. Attention bias in K‐wire and illness groups was unrelated to later PTS symptoms.     

An assessment of the efficiency of and child preference for forward and backward chaining

Comparative studies of forward and backward chaining have led some to suggest that sensitivity to each teaching procedure may be idiosyncratic across learners and tasks. The purposes of the current study were threefold. First, we assessed differential sensitivity to each chaining procedure within children when presented with multiple learning tasks of similar content but different complexity. Second, we evaluated whether differential sensitivity to a chaining procedure during a brief task predicted differential sensitivity during the teaching of longer tasks. Third, we directly assessed children's preferences for each teaching procedure via a concurrent-chains preference assessment. Learners acquired all target skills introduced under both chaining conditions, but individual children did not consistently learn more efficiently with either procedure. Short-duration tasks were not predictive of performance in tasks of longer duration. Both chaining procedures were preferred over a baseline condition without prompting, but participants did not demonstrate a preference for either procedure.     

"I saw it with my own ears": the effects of peer conversations on preschoolers' reports of nonexperienced events

The study was designed to explore the effects of naturally occurring peer interactions and repeated suggestive interviews on preschoolers' (N=96, Meanage=54 months) memories for a personally experienced event, namely a staged archaeological dig. During the dig, one third of the children witnessed two "target" activities. A second third of the children were the classmates of those in the first group, but did not witness the target activities. The remaining children were not the classmates of those who witnessed the target activities, nor did they witness the target activities themselves, and thus served to provide a baseline against which to assess the effects of peer contact. Following the dig, the children were interviewed in either a neutral or suggestive manner on three occasions. Results from a fourth interview by a new examiner revealed that the combination of suggestive interviews and peer exposure led to claims of witnessing the target activities by the classmate group that were comparable to the children who actually did witness these activities. Further, assent rates to misleading questions employing peer pressure and false claims of actually seeing versus merely hearing about the target activities were elevated following opportunities to discuss these activities with peers.     

TREATING CHRONIC FOOD REFUSAL IN YOUNG CHILDREN: HOME-BASED PARENT TRAINING

We evaluated the effects of a behavioral parent training program on parent and child feeding-related behaviors in the home. We trained mothers to initiate regular offerings of previously rejected (target) foods and to provide contingent attention (i.e., specific prompts, positive reinforcement) to increase their child's acceptance of nonpreferred foods. For 1 subject, we also directed training at increasing self-eating. Results of a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across 3 mother-child dyads demonstrated that, with training, all mothers increased offerings of target foods and use of specific prompts, and 2 mothers increased levels of positive attention. In turn, children increased their acceptance of target foods and self-eating, thus demonstrating the functional effects of parent training on in-home mealtimes. Temporary increases in food refusals occurred when treatment was initiated but declined as treatment continued. We discuss the results in terms of the potential benefits and limitations of a home-based treatment model.     

Pre-schoolers use head gestures rather than prosodic cues to highlight important information in speech

Previous evidence suggests that children's mastery of prosodic modulations to signal the informational status of discourse referents emerges quite late in development. In the present study, we investigate the children's use of head gestures as it compares to prosodic cues to signal a referent as being contrastive relative to a set of possible alternatives. A group of French-speaking pre-schoolers were audio-visually recorded while playing in a semi-spontaneous but controlled production task, to elicit target words in the context of broad focus, contrastive focus, or corrective focus utterances. We analysed the acoustic features of the target words (syllable duration and word-level pitch range), as well as the head gesture features accompanying these target words (head gesture type, alignment patterns with speech). We found that children's production of head gestures, but not their use of either syllable duration or word-level pitch range, was affected by focus condition. Children mostly aligned head gestures with relevant speech units, especially when the target word was in phrase-final position. Moreover, the presence of a head gesture was linked to greater syllable duration patterns in all focus conditions. Our results show that (a) 4- and 5-year-old French-speaking children use head gestures rather than prosodic cues to mark the informational status of discourse referents, (b) the use of head gestures may gradually entrain the production of adult-like prosodic features, and that (c) head gestures with no referential relation with speech may serve a linguistic structuring function in communication, at least during language development.     

Children's different use of alignment cues when encoding and when producing a match-to-target

Young children are frequently inaccurate in a simultaneous alignment task in which a square has to be laid down in alignment with a spatially discontiguous square, or a diamond with a diamond. The size of the inaccuracy can be manipulated by providing congruent or incongruent contextual cues. Three new results are reported here. First, accuracy at aligning the context itself seemed to obey grossly similar rules to those governing alignment to targets within the context. Secondly, the major determinant of contextual effects seemed to operate at the level of organizing the response rather than at encoding the display. Thirdly, whilst congruent cues on the response plane aided performance, they did not when they were located in the stimulus plane. Two suggestions are made to explain these effects. Firstly, children do not distribute their available orientation-encoding resources economically when forming a mental representation of the stimulus; secondly, they attempt the simultaneous matching task by using a sequential strategy. The observed alignment error may be a product of their inefficient collation of evidence from the perceptual cues monitored during the two earlier stages of the sequential strategy.