Localizing Localization: The Role of Working Memory in Auditory Localization

It is unclear from current accounts of working memory which, if any, of its components might be involved in our ability to specify the location of a sound source. A series of studies were performed to assess the degree of interference in localization of broadband noise, by a concurrent articulatory suppression (articulatory loop—Experiment 1), serial recall (phonological store and articulatory loop—Experiment 2), and Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (central executive—Experiment 3). No significant disruption of auditory localization was revealed by the first two experiments, ruling out a role for the phonological loop in auditory localization. In Experiment 3, a large degree of error was exhibited in localization, when performed concurrently with the addition task, indicating a requirement for central resources. This suggestion is confirmed by comparison of localization performance across all three studies, which demonstrates a clear deterioration in performance as the demand of concurrent tasks on central resources increases. Finally, concurrent localization was shown to disrupt the primacy portion of the serial position curve, as well as performance on the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test.     

Immediate Movement History Influences Reach-to-Grasp Action Selection in Children and Adults

The authors review studies of mentally simulated movements. In automatic or cyclical movements, actual and motor imagery (MI) durations are similar. When athletes simulate only dynamic phases of movement or perform MI just before competing, however, environmental and time constraints lead to an underestimation of actual duration. Conversely, complex attention-demanding movements take longer to image. Finally, participants can modify the speed of MI voluntarily when they receive specific instructions. To complete the available data, the authors compared imagined and actual durations in tennis and gymnastics. Results showed systematic and disproportionate overestimation of actual duration. The authors found a relationship between complex motor skills and MI duration. They discuss the factors leading to over- and underestimation and the hypotheses that could be tested.     

The Effect of Component Meaningfulness on Global-Local Processing in Children and Adults

Global precedence (GP) occurs when individuals exhibit the tendency to notice global, or holistic, information before they notice local, or component, parts of a visual stimulus. Factors such as meaningfulness of components are held constant when measuring GP; however, varying such factors informs us about the underlying mechanisms of GP. In addition, investigating these effects developmentally has increased the understanding of global-local processing. This experiment examines the effect of meaningfulness (letters vs. nonletters) on adults' (n = 24) and 5-year-old children's (n = 23) GP. Adults and children were more accurate if there was one nonletter component, and children were more accurate when the target was located at the local level. However, adults and children were faster if both levels were letters. The developmental path of low-level sensory factors may differ from that of high-level cognitive factors in visual processing, and a general mechanism may account for this.     

受助者结果类型对亲社会表现的影响:成人与儿童的对比研究

亲社会表现是指人们在社会交往中表现出来的谦让、帮助、合作、分享等行为,其影响机制受到广泛关注。本文通过两个研究（分别以大学生和二、四、六年级小学生为研究对象）探讨了受助者结果类型（受助者获得积极结果vs.受助者避免消极结果）对亲社会表现的影响。结果显示：（1）受助者避免消极结果条件比受助者获得积极结果条件诱发成人更高的亲社会意愿和行为;（2）六年级儿童帮助他人避免消极结果的亲社会意愿更强、情绪更积极;（3）相对于帮助他人避免消极结果,二年级儿童更倾向于帮助他人获得积极结果。这些结果说明受助者结果类型影响个体的亲社会表现（包括亲社会行为、亲社会意愿、亲社会情绪）,并且这种影响因成人和儿童有所不同：成人和年长儿童表现出亲社会损失规避现象,年幼儿童则表现出相反效应。     

The Construction of Symmetry in Children and Adults

The development of the concept of symmetry is important to an overall understanding of cognitive development in children and to spatial cognition in particular. Age differences in the construction of the 3 types of symmetry (bilateral, translational, and radial) were investigated in children and adults engaged in block construction. Children 2–4.5 years old produced bilateral symmetry in low frequencies independent of their precise vertical alignment of blocks. Children 4–12 years old and adults produced all 3 types of symmetry. The hypothesis predicting the sequence and frequency of the 3 types of symmetry based on an analysis of spatial complexity was partially supported. Bilateral symmetry was produced at significantly higher frequencies than the other 2 types across all age groups. Children 5–12 years old produced adult levels of bilateral symmetry while children 9–12 years old reached adult levels of construction of translational and radial symmetry.     

The Effects of Feedback on Perseverative Errors in Preschool Aged Children

Research using the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) showed that young children are usually able to sort accurately by an initial rule but are unable to switch to a new rule when the two rules conflict. In 2 experiments, the DCCS was modified to study the effects of feedback on 3- to 5-year-old children in a problem-solving task. In Experiment 1, half of the children in each of two age groups (36 to 44 months and 52 to 60 months) were administered the DCCS task using the standard (no feedback) procedure and the other half received feedback on their post-switch responses. Children who received feedback were able to categorize according to the new (correct) rule, whereas the children in the younger age group who did not receive feedback continued to perseverate. Experiment 2 with 3-year-olds replicated the results from Experiment 1 but found that children's successful performance with feedback on the card-sorting task did not lead to improved performance on the post-switch phase of a subsequent DCCS task. Successful performance under conditions of feedback in both studies implies that 3-year-olds are capable of shifting their response mode from one rule to an alternate rule under conditions that offer clear guidance. Poor performance on the standard version is interpreted to be a reflection of the inability to monitor their own task performance in the absence of clear contextual cues.     

客体隐含操作对儿童与成人视觉选择反应的影响

本研究探索客体隐含的操作性信息对儿童与成人在视觉选择反应任务中的影响.采用日常工具图片为视觉刺激,所有刺激均是正立的并且在水平方向上有两个朝向.被试的任务是尽可能快地判断工具的前端或者把手的朝向.实验一的结果表明,当工具把手朝右时,成人对把手朝向的判断要快于对前端朝向的判断;但儿童对这两个任务的反应无显著差别.实验二采用空间Stroop范式,进一步证明儿童在此实验中存在着非常显著的空间Stroop效应,但成人却没有.由此说明对工具的视觉观察自动化地增强了成人的手动操作行为,但这种效应对儿童并不显著.对工具操作功能的内隐再认显著地影响了视觉注意,成人偏向工具的把手,而儿童更偏向工具的前端.工具概念表征的建立与工具操作经验有关.     

Data-Driven Belief Revision in Children and Adults

The ability to use numerical evidence to revise beliefs about the physical world is an essential component of scientific reasoning that begins to develop in middle childhood. In 2 studies, we explored how data variability and consistency with participants’ initial beliefs about causal factors associated with pendulums affected their ability to revise those beliefs. Children (9–11 years old) and college-aged adults ran experiments in which they generated, recorded, and interpreted data so as to identify factors that might affect the period of a pendulum. In Study 1, several children and most adults used observed evidence to revise their initial understanding, but participants were more likely to change incorrect noncausal beliefs to causal beliefs than the reverse. In Study 2, we oriented participants toward either an “engineering” goal (to get an effect) or a “science” goal (to discover the causal structure of the domain) and presented them with variable data about potentially causal factors. Science goals produced more belief revision than engineering goals. Numerical data, when presented in context, with appropriate structure, can help children and adults reexamine their beliefs and initiate and support the process of conceptual change and robust scientific thinking.     

The Idea of Immanent Justice among Lebanese Children and Adults

To compare social drive and valence theories with the use of a Marble-In-The-Hole paradigm, methodological refinements were implemented. They included use of multiple assessments of reinforcer efficacy (accuracy, rate, and persistence) and use of a concealed E who administered prerecorded approval comments. Twenty-eight boys were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: positive or negative valence × high or low satiation. The negative valence/low satiation group performed fastest but least accurately relative to all other groups. These findings, not fully in accord with either social drive or valence positions, are discussed as consistent with activation/arousal theories and as highlighting the multiple functions (eliciting, discriminative, and reinforcing) which approval stimuli can serve.     

听写障碍儿童的字形输出错误特点

阅读正常而听写落后的听写障碍是一种特殊的学习障碍类型,相关研究非常缺乏.本研究首先根据听写错误分类,考察了听写障碍儿童在认读正确的听写错误中,各种错误类型分布特点.发现,(1)对于所有被试来说,零反应都是一种主要的错误形态;(2)听写障碍被试的零反应比例明显高于总体平均成绩.为了进一步考察障碍组较高零反应的原因,本研究考察了字形提示对听写成绩的影响.结果,(3)障碍组被试的提示有效率明显高于对照组.这表明,听写障碍儿童形音表征联结的缺陷可能是导致大量的零反应的主要原因.     

触觉空间精确性与触觉神经元密度相关联的验证

本研究应用栅栏定向任务,通过对小学一年级儿童和大学生的触觉敏感性的比较,验证触觉敏感性与神经元密度的关系。结果表明：对较大的易于分辨的刺激,成人可以完成得较好,而对较细小的难于分辨的刺激,儿童成绩更好。本研究验证了高感受单元密度对应较强的触觉敏感性的假设。     

A Note on Modulations and Structuring of Locomotion in Children and Adults

The aim of this study was to investigate the modulations of locomotion induced by a rhythmic cognitive task (counting one’s steps). Subjects (6-and 8-year-olds and adults) were requested to walk freely, and then to walk while counting their steps. Here a decrease in cadence values was observed in children only, with quasi-total repercussions on velocity at the age of 6 only. The spatiotemporal structuring of locomotion described here is already present at 6 years of age and is not altered in the step-counting situation: strong links were observed between cadence and velocity, and between stride length and velocity, and weak links between cadence and stride length.     

Cutaneous Pattern Perception on Foreheads in 3- and 4-Year-Old Children

In the present study, we investigated how 3- and 4-year-old children perceived mirror-image stimuli traced on their foreheads. First, the subjects were taught matching-to-sample tasks with symmetrically shaped and asymmetrically shaped figures (called mirror-image stimuli) on cards. Then the subjects were taught cutaneous perception of a figure traced by the experimenter's finger on the forehead. Last, the subjects were tested with mirror-image stimuli in cutaneous perception tasks. The results of these experiments indicated that the subjects who could discriminate the mirror-image stimuli could also perceive asymmetrical stimuli as mirror reversals.     

Speech-Language Outcomes of Hemispherectomy in Children and Young Adults

Children and young adults who had undergone right or left hemispherectomy for intractable seizures after a period of normal language acquisition were compared with respect to scores on speech and language tests. The majority of the subjects had full scale IQs in the borderline to mentally retarded range. Language scores were computed in relation to estimated mental age, not chronological age. On this basis, the left hemispherectomized children were more likely to show syntactic comprehension and rapid-rate auditory processing deficits than the right hemispherectomized. The two groups were similar to one another and to normal children in speech production. The findings are discussed in relation to developmental language disorders.     

The Relationship between Spatial and Communicative Egocentrism in Children and Young and Old Adults

Four age groups of 112 subjects were tested on measures of spatial and communicative egocentrism. Contrary to Piaget's assumption that the variables within his system develop in a unidirectional and irreversible fashion, a curvilinear pattern of development was found. Moreover, the relationship between the two egocentrism measures was found to be significant for only the grade 6 and college-aged samples. Nonsignificant relationships existed for the grade 2 and elderly groups. The findings are discussed in terms of neurological disintegration in the elderly.     

Sense of Time and Executive Functioning in Children and Adults

A number of patient studies suggest that impairments in frontal lobe functions are associated with disorders in temporal information processing. One implication of these findings is that subjective experience of time should be related to executive functions regardless of etiology. In two experiments, we examined sense of time in relation to components of executive functioning in healthy children and adults. In Experiment 1, children between 8 to 12 years completed six experimental tasks that tapped three components of executive functioning: inhibition, updating, and mental shifting. Sense of time was examined in a duration judgment task in which participants reproduced stimulus durations between 4 to 32 s. In Experiment 2, adult participants completed the time reproduction task under varying concurrent task demands. Both experiments showed selective effects in that time reproduction errors were related to the inhibition and updating, but not to the shifting, components of executive functioning. However, the observed effects were modulated by task demands and age-related differences in cognitive competence. We conclude that individual differences in executive functioning are only weakly related to time reproduction performance in healthy children and adults.     

情绪对表象扫描眼动的影响

通过两个实验探讨情绪效价对表象扫描时眼动的影响。结果发现,在积极情绪下,表象扫描的注视点个数会减少,注视点平均持续时间会缩短,眼跳距离和眼跳时间却会增大;消极情绪下的眼动则刚好相反。说明不同情绪效价会使表象扫描产生规律性的眼动分化,佐证了眼动在表象扫描中的功能性假设。