智力落后儿童词汇语义记忆组织的实验研究

本研究采用类别概念例举法．对49名轻度智力落后儿童和49名智龄匹配的正常儿童以及22名实龄匹配的中度智力落后儿童进行了实验研究,旨在比较这三类儿童的心理词典中词的语义储存的区别。研究表明,轻度智力落后儿童与正常儿童的心理词典中词的语义储存有类似的组织结构．但在储存信息的数量上存在明显差异。轻度智力落后儿童的心理词典中储存同的组织较为松散,而且混杂了一些错误的信息;中度智力落后儿童储存有污的组织则更加松散,错误信息也更多,总之,正常儿童的心理词典中词的语义边界清晰,而智力落后儿童的语义边界模糊。     

儿童注意广度与智力的关系

问题的提出儿童的注意力,影响他们的智力活动和学习成就,但这种影响是如何具体发生的,影响到什么程度,却缺乏足够的了解。为此,我们通过对注意品质的系列研究,探索注意的各种品质与智力的具体关系,以求得进一步的了解。人们通常把注意的品质,作为评价注意好坏的重要标准。注意的品质,通常包括注意的广度(或称注意的范围)、注意的集中性、注意的稳定性、注意的转移和注意的分配等五个方面,我们曾对注意的集中性和稳定性与智力关系,进行了一些初步研究(见“儿童的注意力与智力关系初步研究”),发现它们确实存在着紧密相倚的关系,注意集中性和稳定性的严重缺陷,是智力发展迟滞的重要标志。本研究就注意的另一重要品质——注意广度与智力     

心算困难儿童的语音复述

心算中语音复述和计算加工交替进行,其中任何一方面落后都会导致心算困难。使用视觉心算成绩和听觉心算成绩相减的范式,研究计算能力正常但心算水平落后的儿童的语音复述水平。结果发现,不同年级心算困难儿童呈现不同的困难模式,2、4年级心算困难儿童语音复述水平正常,但由于语音工作记忆容量的落后,导致缺少足够的注意资源进行计算加工。3年级心算困难儿童在语音工作记忆容量和语音复述上都存在落后,导致心算困难,呈现出双重困难模式。     

视觉障碍儿童人格特征的比较研究

以《缺陷儿童人格诊断量表》为工具对视觉障碍儿童进行人格评定,并将其测验分数与先前有关其他特殊儿童和正常儿童的同一量表测验结果加以比较。比较结果表明．视觉障碍儿童与正常儿童、智力落后儿童的人格特性有明显差异,而与听觉障碍儿童的人格差异相对要小一些。随年龄、障碍程度的不同．视觉障碍儿童的人格特性也有明显差异。     

自闭症儿童非言语错误信念任务的实验研究

心理理论是指对自己和他人心理状态(如需要、信念、意图、动机、感觉等)的认识,并由此对相应行为做出因果性的预测和解释。国内外心理理论研究较多关注一般儿童的心理理论能力,而对自闭症儿童领域的心理理论的研究不够。本研究在原有的错误信念任务的基础上,对任务进行完全“非言语”改进,以意外内容任务为主要测试内容,将智力落后儿童作为对照组纳入到实验当中,进一步探索自闭症儿童心理理论发展情况。研究结果表明：改编后的非言语意外内容任务适用于自闭症和智力落后儿童;包括低言语能力个体在内的所有自闭症儿童的心理理论能力显著低于智力落后儿童;智力落后儿童的心理理论能力与以往研究结果相一致;相对于智力落后儿童,自闭症儿童在物品转移和调换的注意方面存在更大障碍。     

智力落后儿童用左、右手抓物的实验研究

本研究旨在探讨智力落后儿童在实验情景下用手抓物的方式、及其与大脑侧偏化的关系。结果表明:(1)智力落后儿童混用手情况多。被试在取物时,使用左手或右手次数的比率平均约为1:2,相当于1—2岁正常儿童用左、右手取物的比率;(2)性别与年龄对落后儿童用手方式无明显影响;(3)病情等级对用手方式有明显影响:轻度智力落后儿童使用左、右手的比率大于中、重度智力落后儿童的同样比率;(4)智力落后儿童抓物的线索在四个实验中不完全相同:实验Ⅰ至Ⅲ的线索为位置(近手),实验Ⅳ为对实验用具的喜爱;(5)在混用手与大脑侧偏化(或优势脑未分化)不完善之间,可能有直接关系。此问题尚需进一步研究。     

儿童绘图作业内隐学习智力独立性研究

实验采用中性参数程序和绘图作业,让正常智力、轻度智力落后、中度智力落后3组8～12岁右利手儿童接受符合、不符合或与“起始-旋转法则”无关的绘图练习,考察练习对原初行为方式的影响。结果发现,违反“起始-旋转法则”的练习使智力落后组被试的绘图行为发生了明显改变,证明内隐学习具有智力独立性;“意识污染”对内隐学习结果的影响可能是复杂的而非单向的;中性参数实验程序能够更好地隐蔽规则学习的实验目的,但不能有效消除意识污染的影响。     

学习困难与正常儿童智力结构的稳定性

本文调查学习困难与正常儿童WISC-CR 智商和智力结构的长时稳定性。被试先后参加两次WISC-CR 测试(间隔1.5—2年)。结果表明:学习困难儿童VIQ、PIQ 和FIQ 的重测相关均在0.71以上,高于正常儿童;重测时学习困难儿童有PIQ 升高和VIQ 降低趋势,正常儿童的VIQ 和PIQ 均有升高趋势,两组儿童智力结构的稳定性有明显差异,学习困难儿童不分心因子稳定性最差,正常儿童言语概括因子稳定性最差,其它三个因子相对稳定。这些结果提示学习困难与正常儿童的智商和智力结构具有较好跨时间稳定性。WISC-CR 对学习困难诊断、咨询和教育干预计划的制定有一定的参考价值。     

智力落后儿童人格特性的研究

智力落后儿童由于大脑功能发育障碍,在个性的成熟和发展方面受到一定限制,表现出与正常儿童不同的个性特征。在不同智残程度的儿童中也存在着个性差异。智力与个性发展有密切关系,脑功能受损越严重,对个性发展的影响也就越明显。     

D-N认知评估系统在AD/HD儿童认知评估中的应用

研究采用基于PASS理论建构的D-N认知评估系统(CAS)作为主要评估工具, 以临床推介的18名AD/HD儿童和18名在性别、年龄及智力水平与临床样本相匹配的正常儿童为被试, 对其PASS认知过程特征开展比较研究, 探查临床组儿童潜在的认知过程异常, 研究结果表明:(1)临床AD/HD儿童在CAS总量表分上显著低于正常对照组儿童;(2)临床AD/HD儿童与正常对照组儿童在计划和注意过程分数上存在显著差异, 且临床AD/HD儿童的计划和注意分量表分数可很好地预测其在DSM-IV上的注意涣散评估分数;(3)临床AD/HD组儿童与正常对照组儿童在同时性加工和继时性加工水平上则没有显著差异。     

智障儿童和正常儿童外显记忆与内隐记忆的比较研究

本实验采取加工分离程序(PDP)对38名弱智儿童的外显记忆与内隐记忆进行研究,并与47名正常儿童进行比较,结果认为:(1)正常儿童外显记忆明显优于弱智儿童,但在内隐记忆方面,正常儿童与弱智儿童没有显著差异;(2)本实验中,年龄对内隐记忆和外显记忆均没有影响。研究结果对弱智儿童的教育方面有启示作用;另外,PDP实验由于其本身的复杂性,在对特殊人群进行施测时,需要特别注意。     

Importance of treatment efficacy research on language comprehension in MR/DD research

The purpose of this review is to discuss the importance of treatment efficacy research in language comprehension in MR/DD populations. Although receptive language deficit is an integral part of most MR/DD typologies, there have been relatively few studies evaluating the effectiveness or efficacy of treatment for this condition. Recently, there has been increased attention placed on auditory processing in children with disabilities, an aspect of cognition related to receptive language, but there have also been few studies investigating the effectiveness or efficacy of training designed to improve auditory processing. In addition to arguing that additional studies in this area are needed, the review includes several theoretical frameworks for addressing the treatment of receptive language deficits in MR/DD.     

Visual and auditory selective attention and reflection-impulsivity in normal and learning-disabled boys at two age levels

Selective attention to visual and auditory stimuli and reflection-impulsivity were studied in normal and learning-disabled 8- and 12-year-old boys. Multivariate analyses, followed by univariate and paired-comparison tests, indicated that the normal children increased in selective attention efficiency with age to both visual and auditory stimuli. Learning-disabled children increased in selective attention efficiency with age to auditory, but not to visual, stimuli. Both groups increased with age in reflection as measured by Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF). The 8-year-old learning-disabled children were more impulsive than the 8-year-old normals on MFF error scores, but not on MFF latency scores. No difference occurred between the 12-year-old learning-disabled and normal children on either MFF error or MFF latency scores. Correlations between the selective attention scores and MFF error and latency scores were not significant.This research was supported in part by BEH grant G007507227. The authors are indebted to Eleanor McCandless for her assistance in securing the learning-disabled subjects and to James McLeskey and Michael Popkin for their assistance in collecting and analyzing data.     

Impaired auditory attention skills following middle-ear infections.

The present study investigated auditory attention skills in a sample of children with non-chronic otitis media with effusion (OME). Twenty children with repeated episodes of OME but not found in the need for myringotomy and insertion of ventilating tubes were compared to 20 control children with no known episodes of OME based on parental reports and medical records. Mean age during assessment was 9 years, and none of the children showed signs of impaired language functions and with normal general cognitive abilities. They were assessed with dichotic listening CV-syllables (DLCV-108) free recall and directed attention tasks. The control children showed the expected right ear advantage during free recall and the directed right condition, and demonstrated a shift toward a left ear advantage during the directed left. The children with a history of OME showed a predominant right ear advantage across all three tasks. Although some change in ear accuracy occurred across tasks, impaired auditory attention skills were found following a history of middle ear infections. These results replicate those reported earlier from a sample of children with persistent otitis media with effusion, and suggest that treatment with ventilating tubes does not appear to make any difference in the development of auditory attention skills, whereas occurrence of OME must be considered when testing auditory attentional skills as a part of a neuropsychological assessment.     

Children's auditory and visual processing of narrated and nonnarrated television programming

Two experiments with 5- and 7-year-old children tested the hypotheses that auditory attention is used to (a) monitor a TV program for important visual content, and (b) semantically process program information through language to enhance comprehension and visual attention. A direct measure of auditory attention was the latency of the child's restoration of gradually degraded sound quality. Restoration of auditory clarity did not vary as a function of looking. Restoration of visual clarity was faster when looking than when not looking. Restoration was faster for visual than auditory degrades, but audiovisual degrades were restored most rapidly of all, suggesting that dual modality presentation maximizes children's attention. Narration enhanced visual attention and comprehension including comprehension of visually presented material. Auditory comprehension did not depend on looking, suggesting that children can semantically process verbal content without looking at the TV. Auditory attention did not differ with the presence or absence of narration, but did predict auditory comprehension best while visual attention predicted visual comprehension best. In the absence of narration, auditory attention predicted visual comprehension, suggesting its monitoring function. Visual attention indexed overall interest and appeared to be most critical for comprehension in the absence of narration.     

Auditory joint attention skills: Development and diagnostic differences during infancy

To date, joint attention skill assessments have focused on children’s responses to multimodal bids (RJA) and their initiation of bids (IJA) to multimodal spectacles. Here we gain a systematic view of auditory joint attention skills using a novel assessment that measures both auditory and multimodal RJA and IJA. In Study 1, 47 typically developing (TD) children were tested 5 times from 12 to 30 months to document auditory joint attention skill development. In Study 2, 113 toddlers (39 TD, 33 autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and 41 non-ASD developmental disorders [DD]; average age 22.4 months) were tested to discern the effects of ASD. Our findings fit well within the established depiction of joint attention skills with one important caveat: auditory items were far more difficult to execute than multimodal ones. By 24 months, TD children passed multimodal RJA items at the near-ceiling level, an accomplishment not reached even by 30 months for auditory RJA items. Intentional communicative IJA bids also emerged more slowly to auditory spectacles than to multimodal spectacles. Toddlers with DD outperformed toddlers with ASD on multimodal RJA items but toddlers in both groups rarely passed any auditory RJA items. Toddlers with ASD often monitored their partner’s attention during IJA items, albeit less often than toddlers with DD and TD toddlers, but they essentially never produced higher-level IJA bids, regardless of modality. Future studies should investigate further how variations in bids and targets affect auditory joint attention skills and probe the relation between these skills and language development.     

Use of the dichotic listening technique with learning disabilities

Dichotic listening (DL) techniques have been used extensively as a non-invasive procedure to assess language lateralization among children with and without learning disabilities (LD), and with individuals who have other auditory system related brain disorders. Results of studies using DL have indicated that language is lateralized in children with LD and that the lateralized language asymmetries do not develop after age 6 nor are they affected by gender. Observed differences in lateralized language processes between control children and those with LD were found not due to delayed cerebral dominance, but rather to deficits in selective attention. In addition, attention factors have a greater influence on auditory processing of verbal than nonverbal stimuli for children with LD, and children with LD exhibit a general processing bias to the same hemisphere unlike control children. Furthermore, employing directed attention conditions in DL experiments has played an important role in explaining learning disabled children's performance on DL tasks. We conclude that auditory perceptual asymmetries as assessed by DL with children who experience LD are the result of the interaction of hemispheric capability and attention factors.     

Physical abuse amplifies attention to threat and increases anxiety in children

Two experiments using event-related potentials (ERPs) examined the extent to which early traumatic experiences affect children's ability to regulate voluntary and involuntary attention to threat. The authors presented physically abused and nonabused comparison children with conflicting auditory and visual emotion cues, posed by children's mothers or a stranger, to examine the effect of emotion, modality, and poser familiarity on attention regulation. Relative to controls, abused children overattended to task-relevant visual and auditory anger cues. They also attended more to task-irrelevant auditory anger cues. Furthermore, the degree of attention allocated to threat statistically mediated the relationship between physical abuse and child-reported anxiety. These findings indicate that extreme emotional experiences may promote vulnerability for anxiety by influencing the development of attention regulation abilities.     

Laterality and selective attention in hyperactive children

Laterality and selective attention were investigated in a group of 20 hyperactive children and their matched controls using a dichotic listening task. There was a strong rightear advantage for both groups indicating that hyperactive children were not different from normal children in hemispheric specialization for verbal stimuli. In the selective attention experiment hyperactive children were again not different from normal children in their ability either to select the input designated as relevant or to resist the distraction of input designated irrelevant. Both groups gave more correct responses from the right ear than from the left ear, and more intrusions from the right ear than from the left. The results do not suggest abnormalities of lateralization for verbal material or indicate the existence of a selective attentional deficit. It is suggested that such reported deftcits may be situation or taskspecific.     

Measurement of attention and related functions in the preschool child

The goal of this review of the clinical and research literature is to identify, describe, and critique published methods for assessment of attention and related functions in preschool children (ages 6 and younger). The need for valid assessment of preschool children has grown dramatically in the past two decades following the implementation of special education services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers under Public Law 99-457. At the same time, the number of preschool children presenting to clinicians for assessment of attention problems has grown at a steady rate. In contrast to assessment methods for school-age children, the availability of reliable and valid measures of attention for preschool children is much more limited. The majority of instruments developed to measure attention in preschoolers are described in the experimental literature, with fewer available commercially. Attention tests that can be appropriately used with children aged 3 and younger are scarce. Most preschool tests of attention report validity data involving sensitivity in contrasting clinical groups to controls, while the literature describing the utility of these measures in differentiating between clinical groups is much more limited. The review provides information on performance based tests (e.g., continuous performance, cancellation, auditory/visual span), as well as parent and teacher rating scales. The review concludes that valid assessment of attention and related skills can be effectively achieved in preschool children, with appropriate cautions.