Working memory skills and educational attainment: evidence from national curriculum assessments at 7 and 14 years of age

The relationship between working memory skills and performance on national curriculum assessments in English, mathematics and science was explored in groups of children aged 7 and 14 years. At 7 years, children's levels of attainment in both English and mathematics were significantly associated with working memory scores, and in particular with performance on complex span tasks. At 14 years, strong links persisted between the complex working memory test scores and attainments levels in both mathematics and science, although ability in the English assessments showed no strong association with working memory skill. The results suggest that the intellectual operations required in the curriculum areas of mathematics and science are constrained by the general capacity of working memory across the childhood years. However, whereas success in the acquisition in literacy (tapped by the English assessments at the youngest age) was also linked with working memory capacity, achievements in the higher‐level skills of comprehension and analysis of English literature assessed at 14 years were independent of working memory capacity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Delay and Inhibition as Early Predictors of ADHD Symptoms in Third Grade

We used data from a large, longitudinal study of children in the community, the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, to examine how well earlier measures of delay capacity, inhibitory control, planning, and attention predicted symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessed in third grade. Children with elevated symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity (n = 57) and with inattentive symptoms only (n = 80) were identified via mother and teacher reports using the “or” rule, as were children without significant symptoms (n = 790). Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that poorer performance on earlier measures of resistance to temptation, delay of gratification, response inhibition, attention, and planning obtained from 36 months to 1st grade predicted membership in the two symptom groups relative to the comparison group in 3rd grade, albeit with somewhat different patterns of predictors. Controls for 36 month school readiness and externalizing symptoms indicated that these results were generally robust and not an artifact of initial cognitive or behavioral differences. Implications for developmental models of ADHD are discussed.

Type of stimulus mediates the relationship between working-memory performance and type of precocity

The relationship between type of stimulus (numeric and verbal) and type of precocity (mathematical and verbal) was examined in tasks designed to tap three aspects of working memory: encoding, capacity, and manipulation of information. The tasks included semantic categorization, odd-even categorization, recall of five-item lists after semantic categorization, and recall of items in a continuous paired-associates task. Correlations between task performance and the mathematical and verbal portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M and SAT-V) were computed for gifted youth. There were no sex differences in the performance measures or in the pattern of correlations between performance and SAT scores. The analysis revealed positive relationships between SAT-M scores and numeric categorization latency, recall in the continuous paired-associate task with words and digits, and recall of digit lists. SAT-V scores were related only to word recall in the continuous paired-associate task and recall of word lists. In the working-memory tasks used, mathematical precocity is more strongly related to performance than is verbal precocity. The relationship is especially strong with numeric stimuli, even when the numeric stimuli are simply items to be remembered. The relationship between type of stimulus and type of precocity suggests underlying differences between verbally and mathematically precocious youth in how different types of stimuli are represented in memory.     

Short-Term Pastoral Counseling and the Use of Reframing

The purpose of this article is to deal with the advantage of combining short-term counseling with reframing techniques. Short-term counseling states that a) focusing on only one problem, and b) agreeing on a fixed amount of sessions will make the counselee more eager to change before the amount of sessions are spent. The thesis of the paper is that those counselees that engage in short-term counseling will be more resistant to change than the criteria of short-term counseling suggests. Some counselees want to initiate a power struggle with the counselor about the impossibility of change. Rather than giving in to such a struggle, the counselor should use reframing techniques to make the counselee see the problem from a new perspective. Reframing techniques are more likely to make the counselee solve the problem.     

Openness with patients: a categorical imperative to correct an imbalance

This paper examines the concept of ‘openness with patients’ from the stand-point of the limitations of biomedical ethics. Initially we review contemporary critiques of bioethics and, in particular, of principlism; we relate how other; somewhat neglected, forms of medical ethics can yield useful information and provide moral guidance. The main section of the paper then shows how a bioethical approach to openness misses the social context in our example, the viewpoints of patients; we present some of the increasing wealth of research evidence which points towards patients wanting more information and a greater degree of openness. Finally we put forward that a principlist’s objection to active encouragement of openness might be based on the risk of infringing upon the ‘right not to know’. We reject this by arguing how rights can be trumped. Dr. Anthony S. Kessel, BSc, MBBS, Mphil, MSc, is a general practitioner, medical ethicist and currently specialist registrar (Barking & Havering Health Authority)/Honorary lecturer in public health medicine in the Epidemiology Unit, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.     

Spirituality of Chronic Orofacial Pain Patients: Case–Control Study

The objective of this study was to investigate spirituality and blood parameters associated with stress in patients with facial musculoskeletal pain. Twenty-four women with chronic facial musculoskeletal pain (CFMP) and 24 healthy women were evaluated with a protocol for orofacial characteristics, research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders and the Spiritual Perspective Scale. Blood samples were collected to analyze blood count, cortisol, ACTH, C3, C4, thyroid hormones, total immunoglobulin, C-reactive protein and rheumatoid factor. The study group was more spiritualized than control group. Individuals with a high score of spirituality had less myofascial pain, less bruxism and fewer complaints. They also had lower levels of ACTH and IgE. Spirituality was higher in the study group and can be considered an important tool for coping with CFMP.