The interrelatedness between infants’ communicative gestures and lexicon size: A longitudinal study

Research has shown a close relationship between gestures and language development. In this study, we investigate the cross-lagged relationships between different types of gestures and two lexicon dimensions: number of words produced and comprehended. Information about gestures and lexical development was collected from 48 typically developing infants when these were aged 0;9, 1;0 and 1;3. The European Portuguese version of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures (PT CDI:WG) was used. The results indicated that the total number of actions and gestures and the number of early gestures produced at 0;9 and at 1;0 year predicted the number of words comprehended three months later. Actions and gestures’ predictive power of the number of words produced was limited to the 0;9–1;0 year interval. The opposite relationship was not found: word comprehension and production did not predict action and gestures three months later. These results highlight the importance of non-verbal communicative behavior in language development.     

The cognitive basis of the comprehension and production of relational terminology

The comprehension of big, little, and same number and the productio of relational terminology was assessed in 168 preschool children. Stimuli were used which varied the relationships of length, number, and density. Language comprehension and production were related to the complexity of cognitive operations required by the task. Specifically, comprehension was easier in the situations in which length and number were positively correlated than when length provided no cue to number. Comprehension was most difficult when length and number were negatively correlated. There was asymmetry in language comprehension such that the positive term big, was comprehended earlier than little in some tasks; there was also asymmetry in production in that the child was more likely to use language related to the positive pole than to the negative pole. These data were interpreted as providing support for theories of the cognitive basis of language acquisition.     

Consensual validity parameters of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire: evidence from self-reports and spouse reports

One way of validating questionnaire responses is correlating them with ratings made by external assessors who know the ratee well: This is known as consensual validity. In this study, we assessed the consensual validity of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ; Zuckerman, 2002; Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). A multitrait-multimethod matrix of self-reported and spouse reported personality ratings was used to establish convergent and discriminant validity by means of Campbell and Fiske's (1959) evaluative criteria. Self-reports of 86 men and 85 women were correlated with their spouses' reports. Intraclass correlations ranged from .47 to .63 for the 5 dimensions, providing strong evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The results obtained favor the use of the ZKPQ as a valid self-report measure of personality traits.     

Language comprehension vs. language production: age effects on fMRI activation

Normal language acquisition is a process that unfolds with amazing speed primarily in the first years of life. However, the refinement of linguistic proficiency is an ongoing process, extending well into childhood and adolescence. An increase in lateralization and a more focussed productive language network have been suggested to be the neural correlates of this process. However, the processes underlying the refinement of language comprehension are less clear. Using a language comprehension (Beep Stories) and a language production (Vowel Identification) task in fMRI, we studied language representation and lateralization in 36 children, adolescents, and young adults (age 6-24 years). For the language comprehension network, we found a more focal activation with age in the bilateral superior temporal gyri. No significant increase of lateralization with age could be observed, so the neural basis of language comprehension as assessed with the Beep Stories task seems to be established in a bilateral network by late childhood. For the productive network, however, we could confirm an increase with age both in focus and lateralization. Only in the language comprehension task did verbal IQ correlate with lateralization, with higher verbal IQ being associated with more right-hemispheric involvement. In some subjects (24%), language comprehension and language production were lateralized to opposite hemispheres.     

Analyzing the convergent and discriminant validity of states and traits: development and applications of multimethod latent state-trait models

The analysis of convergent and discriminant validity is an integral part of the construct validation process. Models for analyzing the convergent and discriminant validity have typically been developed for cross-sectional data. There exist, however, only a few approaches for longitudinal data that can be applied for analyzing the construct validity of fluctuating states. In this article, the authors show how models of latent state-trait theory can be combined with models of multitrait-multimethod analysis to develop a model that allows for analyzing convergent and discriminant validity in time: the multimethod latent state-trait model. The model allows for identifying different sources of variance (trait consistency, trait-method specificity, occasion-specific consistency, occasion-specific method specificity, and unreliability). It is applied to the repeated measurement of depression and anxiety in children, which was assessed by self and teacher reports (N = 375). The application shows that the proposed models fit the data well and allow a deeper understanding of method effects in clinical assessment.     

A statistical estimate of infant and toddler vocabulary size from CDI analysis

For the last 20 years, developmental psychologists have measured the variability in lexical development of infants and toddlers using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) - the most widely used parental report forms for assessing language and communication skills in infants and toddlers. We show that CDI reports can serve as a basis for estimating infants' and toddlers'total vocabulary sizes, beyond serving as a tool for assessing their language development relative to other infants and toddlers. We investigate the link between estimated total vocabulary size and raw CDI scores from a mathematical perspective, using both single developmental trajectories and population data. The method capitalizes on robust regularities, such as the overlap of individual vocabularies observed across infants and toddlers, and takes into account both shared knowledge and idiosyncratic knowledge. This statistical approach enables researchers to approximate the total vocabulary size of an infant or a toddler, based on her raw MacArthur-Bates CDI score. Using the model, we propose new normative data for productive and receptive vocabulary in early childhood, as well as a tabulation that relates individual CDI measures to realistic lexical estimates. The correction required to estimate total vocabulary is non-linear, with a far greater impact at older ages and higher CDI scores. Therefore, we suggest that correlations of developmental indices to language skills should be made to vocabulary size as estimated by the model rather than to raw CDI scores.     

Learning words and rules: abstract knowledge of word order in early sentence comprehension

Children quickly acquire basic grammatical facts about their native language. Does this early syntactic knowledge involve knowledge of words or rules? According to lexical accounts of acquisition, abstract syntactic and semantic categories are not primitive to the language-acquisition system; thus, early language comprehension and production are based on verb-specific knowledge. The present experiments challenge this account: We probed the abstractness of young children's knowledge of syntax by testing whether 25- and 21-month-olds extend their knowledge of English word order to new verbs. In four experiments, children used word order appropriately to interpret transitive sentences containing novel verbs. These findings demonstrate that although toddlers have much to learn about their native languages, they represent language experience in terms of an abstract mental vocabulary. These abstract representations allow children to rapidly detect general patterns in their native language, and thus to learn rules as well as words from the start.     

The discovery of a miniature linguistic system: Function words and comprehension of an unfamiliar language

Two experiments investigated two complementary hypotheses: (a) The presence of semantically unimportant function words in sentences will not slow down the way subjects, unfamiliar with the language, extract the meaning of those sentences, provided suprasegmental cues are present, and conversely (b) the omission of such function words—as in native speakers' simplified speech to nonnative speakers—will not necessarily facilitate the task of meaning extraction, contrary to popular belief. In Experiment I, Dutch adult subjects were exposed to sentences in a miniature artificial language (MAL). In Experiment II, Greek adult subjects were exposed to sentences in an unfamiliar natural language (Dutch). In both experiments, the sentences contained eight words constituting a miniature linguistic system (mls), a system that subjects discovered through an audiovisual, concept-indentification task. The rate by which subjects performed this task was investigated as a function of two linguistic variables: (a) the presence or absence of semantically unimportant function words, and (b) the presence or absence of suprasegmental cues, in the input sentences, respectively. Results from both experiments confirmed the hypotheses (p<.001) The findings are discussed with reference to the linguistic versus cognitive simplicity issue, and to the comprehension versus production issue in language acquisition research. The methodological potential of the experimental paradigm for psycholinguistic research is also discussed.This paper forms part of a doctorate research project concerned with the comprehensibility of foreigner talk, and was supported by the Foundation for Linguistic Research, which is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO.     

Bayley‐III: Cultural differences and language scale validity in a Danish sample

The purpose of this study was to investigate cultural differences between Danish and American children at 2 and 3 years as measured with the developmental test Bayley‐III, and to investigate the Bayley‐III Language Scale validity. The Danish children (N = 43) were tested with the Bayley‐III and their parents completed an additional language questionnaire (the MacArthur‐Bates CDI). Results showed that scores from the Danish children did not differ significantly from the American norms on the Cognitive or Motor Scale, but the Danish sample scored significantly higher on the Language Scale. A comparison of the Bayley‐III Language subtests with the CDI showed that the two measures correlated significantly, but the percentile score from the CDI was significantly higher than the percentile score from the Bayley‐III Language subtests. This could be because the two instruments measure slightly different areas of language development, or because the Bayley‐III overestimates language development in Danish children. However, due to the limitations of the current study, further research is needed to clarify this issue.     

Muscularity concerns among men: development of attitudinal and perceptual measures

The current study reports the development and psychometrics of a figure rating scale with leanness and muscularity dimensions and a 13-item questionnaire assessing symptoms associated with muscle dysmorphia (MD). Three separate samples of men and women completed the muscle dysmorphic disorder inventory (MDDI), the bodybuilder image grid (BIG) or both to measure 1-week test–retest reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity and valid placement of BIG figures along interval scales of body fat and lean muscle mass. The MDDI and MDDI subscales (drive for size, appearance intolerance, and functional impairment) had good reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity. The BIG had good to excellent test–retest reliability, good convergent and divergent validity and validity as an interval scale. Implications for characterizing body image disturbance in men and benefits and limitations of the measures are discussed.     

On the validity of Raven’s matrices test: Does spatial ability contribute to performance?

The paper reports on an investigation of the convergent and discriminant validity of Raven’s matrices in considering reasoning and spatial abilities. Raven’s advanced progressive matrices (APM) and four scales representing reasoning, visualization, mental rotation and closure were applied to a sample of N = 280 university students. The data were investigated by means of structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated convergent validity of APM with respect to reasoning. In contrast, in investigating discriminant validity substantial correlations of moderate size between APM and the scales representing spatial abilities were observed. However, the investigation of the structure of the prediction of APM revealed that the scales representing spatial abilities did not improve the prediction based on the reasoning scale alone at the latent level. Consequently, it is suggested that Raven’s matrices show good convergent validity and slightly impaired discriminant validity.     

Effects of behavioral training on the functioning of a profoundly retarded microcephalic teenager with cerebral palsy and without language or verbal comprehension: A case study

In previous investigations (Jacobson, Berger, Bergman, Millham and Greeson, 1971; Jacobson and Greeson, 1972), it was reported that as a result of the use of a behavior modification program, preschool children from poverty backgrounds demonstrated rapid conceptual acquisition. In addition, the Ss increased from the dull-normal to the normal range of intellectual functioning within approximately 20 hr of program participation. Since the increases in IQ found were most pronounced for children of lowest IQ (IQs = 46–83), the investigators hypothesized that the program would prove to be useful with Ss of greater cognitive and behavioral deficits than the initial population investigated.The present study reports the use of a variant of the conceptual acquisition program with an institutionalized, profoundly retarded microcephalic teenager with chronic brain syndrome and cerebral palsy. Prior to the study the boy demonstrated neither language nor an ability to comprehend and follow verbal directions.     

Preschool children's comprehension and production of directive forms

Thirty preschool children, 10 each at the 3-,4-, and 5-year-old levels, participated in two structured tasks designed to assess both comprehension and production of a full range of directive forms. In contrast to previous reports, the results indicated no significant differences in directive comprehension or production as a function of age; children in all age groups demonstrated the ability to understand and verbally encode the intent of most types of directive forms. However, the two most implicit forms, Question Directives and Hints, were complied with significantly less frequently than the more explicit forms, and were uused less often in the production task. The present findings indicate the importance of analyzing directive forms along a continuum of explicitness rather than dichotomizing them as direct versus indirect. Finally, the results are interpreted as providing indirect support for the general notion that mastery of some implicit forms may be achieved later than the acquisition of more explicit forms.     

On the parity of structural persistence in language production and comprehension

Structural priming creates structural persistence. That is, differences in experience with syntax can change subsequent language performance, and the changes can be observed in both language production and comprehension. However, the effects in comprehension and production appear to differ. In comprehension, persistence is typically found when the verbs are the same in primes and targets; in production, persistence occurs without verb overlap. The contrast suggests a theoretically important hypothesis: parsing in comprehension is lexically driven while formulation in production is structurally driven. A major weakness in this hypothesis about comprehension-production differences is that its empirical motivation rests on the outcomes of experiments in which the priming manipulations differ, the primed sentence structures differ, and the measures of priming differ. To sharpen the comparison, we examined structural persistence with and without verb overlap in both reading comprehension and spoken production, using the same prime presentation procedure, the same syntactic structures, the same sentences, and the same participants. These methods yielded abstract structural persistence in comprehension as well as production. A measure of the strength of persistence revealed significant effects of priming and verb overlap without significant comprehension—production differences. This argues for uniformity in the structural mechanisms of language processing.     

On the validity of Raven’s matrices test: Does spatial ability contribute to performance?

The paper reports on an investigation of the convergent and discriminant validity of Raven’s matrices in considering reasoning and spatial abilities. Raven’s advanced progressive matrices (APM) and four scales representing reasoning, visualization, mental rotation and closure were applied to a sample of N = 280 university students. The data were investigated by means of structural equation modeling. The results demonstrated convergent validity of APM with respect to reasoning. In contrast, in investigating discriminant validity substantial correlations of moderate size between APM and the scales representing spatial abilities were observed. However, the investigation of the structure of the prediction of APM revealed that the scales representing spatial abilities did not improve the prediction based on the reasoning scale alone at the latent level. Consequently, it is suggested that Raven’s matrices show good convergent validity and slightly impaired discriminant validity.     

Social status and language comprehension

Abstract.— Previous research on differences in language use in relation to social status have dealt almost exclusively with language production. The present study investigated the comprehension of connected discourse by 116 adult Danes from two different socio-economic status groups, high status (HSES) and low status (LSES). On a task at the lexical level of comprehension (choosing between alternatives to two words in each of four texts) there appeared no differences between HSES and LSES subjects. At the structural level a difference ( p <0.05) was found in drawing conclusions from the texts, but the groups nevertheless agreed completely ( p <0.05) in underlining important segments of the texts. Thus the symmetry between production and comprehension hypothesized by Bernstein did not appear. The results are interpreted in accordance with a general model of language processing. It is suggested that in the future more attention should be paid to variables other than the purely sociological variable of social status or social class.     

VALIDITY OF SELF-ASSESSMENT: A FIELD EVALUATION

This study evaluated the validity of self-assessment in a natural setting. It also addressed the possibility of improving the utility of self-assessment by cautioning subjects that their responses could be compared with other existing data on them. Subjects were 357 males, aged 18–19 years, who were being screened for a prestigious military course. During the screening, they participated in small groups for nine days of tests, class exercises, and field simulations supervised by veteran commanders. On the ninth day, ratings were collected from commanders, peer group members, and the subjects themselves on dimensions related to eventual success in the training course. The experimental group was told their reports would be compared with those from other sources; the control group was not. Predictive and convergent validities were examined on three criteria: course success, commander ratings, and peer evaluations. Self-assessments from both experimental and control group were valid; however, those of the experimental group did not yield consistently higher validities. Findings are discussed in regard to their practical ramifications.     

Converging on quality: Examining multiple measures of teaching effectiveness

The present study explores the convergent and predictive validity for several widely used measures of teaching quality from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2009-2011). Specifically, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, Hamre, & Mintz, 2012), the Framework for Teaching (FFT; Danielson Group, 2013), and the Tripod Student Perceptions Scale (Tripod; Ferguson, 2008) were examined. Correlations among measures were assessed by developmental level and content area (elementary mathematics N = 70; elementary English language arts N = 101; middle school mathematics N = 291, middle school English language arts N = 280). Both average scores and score variability (i.e., coefficient of variation) for the CLASS, FFT, and Tripod were used to predict value-added models (VAM), a high-stakes measure of students' academic growth. For elementary mathematics and ELA, findings indicated the CLASS and FFT exhibited moderate convergent validity while divergent validity was found between the Tripod and the CLASS and FFT. Across content areas in middle school grades, the CLASS, FFT, and Tripod exhibited moderate to high-moderate convergent validity. Average student and observer scores were positively related to VAM scores, whereas variability in scores demonstrated negative relations to VAM scores. Implications of findings for teacher evaluation and professional development are discussed.     

The development of an instrument to measure teachers' use of fear appeals in the GCSE classroom

Background Previous work has suggested that teachers of General Certificate of Secondary Education classes may use fear appeals as a motivational device but these may have unwanted consequences by increasing examination‐related anxiety in students. Aim To facilitate future work in this area, an instrument was developed to measure teachers' use of fear appeals in the course of normal classroom instruction. Samples Students in their final 2 years of compulsory schooling in England: 192 in Study 1 and 133 in Study 2. Method A construct validity approach was used in the development of this instrument. Study 1 reports the development and piloting of this measure. Study 2 reports refinement of this measure and relations with other constructs. Results A three‐factor structure provided a reasonable model fit and all factors demonstrated acceptable reliability. Factors 1 and 2 described the perceived frequency of fear appeals made in relation to educational/occupational consequences and the third factor described the perceived threat of fear appeals. Conclusion This instrument has demonstrated sufficient convergent and discriminant validity and reliability to be used in subsequent research, although the validation process should continue and it is hoped that the instrument will be adapted for use in other contexts.     

Word comprehension and production asymmetries in children and adults

Two studies investigated differences in the comprehension and production of words in 2-year-old children and adults. Study 1 compared children’s speaking and understanding of the names of 12 novel objects presented over three weekly sessions. Study 2 tested adults’ performance under similar training and testing conditions over two sessions. The findings indicated a comprehension advantage for both age groups. A fine-grained temporal analysis of individual words revealed that acquisition does not resemble a linear stage-wise progression from comprehension to production. Rather, dimensions of lexical knowledge develop at different rates, with words acquired, lost, and maintained over the course of learning. The findings support a dynamic and graded view of lexical processing and have implications for understanding what it means to know a word.