INFLUENCE OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE ON THE INITIAL ACQUISITION OF READING/WRITING: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF VERBAL DEFICIT THEORY

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study of whether there exists a causal relationship between spoken language and the initial learning of reading/writing. The subjects were two matched samples each of 24 preschool pupils (boys and girls), controlling for certain relevant external variables. It was found that there was no causal relationship between the initial reading/writing performance and the language variables that have traditionally been regarded as relevant in facilitating the learning of reading/writing (vocabulary, articulation, and auditory memory). Phonemic awareness, however, was strongly causally related with the writing of simple words.     

Spacing Unpredictability: Action as an Operating Tool in Richard Serra's Work

The paper deals with notions of complexity in art and architecture. On the basis of a recent sculp\tural work by Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses (1997), the notion of complexity is investigated in terms of how it situates the viewer, and affects our sense of space and time. Serra's work is analyzed in terms of the artist's working method, the production of the work, and finally the ''external relations'' which connect it to the viewer and the context. In each of these steps, the notions of complexity and unpredictability are shown to have a formative role. This gives his work a relevance for several fields using working processes as methods. The relations between space and time, object and context, are redefined in Serra's work, which also gives it a more specific importance for architectural theory and practice.     

Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Span: A Sensitive Measure of Cognitive Deficits in Children With ADHD

Working memory (WM) has been hypothesised to be impaired in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, there are few studies reported on tests measuring visuo-spatial WM (VSWM) in ADHD. Some of these studies used paradigms including episodic memory, others only used low memory loads. In the present study we used a VSWM test that has not been used previously in ADHD research. The sensitivity of the VSWM test and a choice reaction time (CRT) test was evaluated in a pilot study by comparing them to two commonly used tests in ADHD-research; the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and a Go/no-go test, in children with and without ADHD. The groups differed significantly in performance on the VSWM test (P<.01) and CRT (P<.05) but not on the CPT (P>.1) or on the Go/no-go test (P>.1). The results from the VSWM and CRT tests were replicated in a larger sample of participants (80 boys; 27 boys with ADHD and 53 controls, mean age 11.4 years). The difference between the groups was significant for both the VSWM test (P<.01) and the CRT test (P<.01). The effect size (ES) of the VSWM test was 1.34. There was a significant age-by-group interaction on the VSWM test, with larger group differences for the older children (P<.01). Our results show that the VSWM test is a sensitive measure of cognitive deficits in ADHD and it supports the hypothesis that deficits in VSWM is a major component of ADHD.     

Knowledge of essence: the conferralist story

Realist essentialists face a prima facie challenge in accounting for our knowledge of the essences of things, and in particular, in justifying our engaging in thought experiments to gain such knowledge. In contrast, conferralist essentialism has an attractive story to tell about how we gain knowledge of the essences of things, and how thought experiments are a justified method for gaining such knowledge. The conferralist story is told in this essay.     

Environmental sound recognition by timbre in children with Williams syndrome

Anecdotal reports have described children with Williams syndrome (WS) as presenting outstanding skills for recognizing environmental sounds by their timbre. This has led to suggest that the skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre are highly developed in WS. Furthermore, the term hypertimbria has been proposed to refer to this feature. However, no academic research has assessed these skills in WS. This study therefore aimed to contrast the reports on the highly developed skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre in children with WS. An environmental sound recognition task was administered to children with WS, children with Down syndrome of the same chronological age and cognitive level, and chronological age-matched typically developing children. Participants with WS performed significantly lower than their typically developing peers and no significant differences were found between the WS and Down syndrome groups. Unlike previous reports, this study points out that in WS environmental sound recognition by timbre does not constitute a phenotypic strength either in absolute or relative terms. Results suggest that children with WS do not present hypertimbria or preserved skills for timbre recognition. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of cognitive modularity.     

Addressing the struggle to link form and understanding in fractions instruction

Background. Although making explicit links between procedures and concepts during instruction in mathematics is important, it is still unclear the precise moments during instruction when such links are best made. Aims. The objective was to test the effectiveness of a 3‐week classroom intervention on the fractions knowledge of grade 5/6 students. The instruction was based on a theory that specifies three sites during the learning process where concepts and symbols can be connected ( Hiebert, 1984 ): symbol interpretation, procedural execution, and solution evaluation. Sample. Seventy students from one grade 5/6 split and two grade 6 classrooms in two public elementary schools participated. Method. The students were randomly assigned to treatment and control. The treatment (Sites group) received instruction that incorporated specific connections between fractions concepts and procedures at each of the three sites specified by the Sites theory. Before and after the intervention, the students’ knowledge of concepts and procedures was assessed, and a random subsample of 30 students from both conditions were individually interviewed to measure their ability to make specific connections between concepts and symbols at each of the three sites. Results. While all students gained procedural skill (p < .001), the students in the Sites condition acquired significantly more knowledge of concepts than the control group (p < .01) and were also better able to connect fractions symbols to conceptual referents (p < .025). Conclusions. The current study contributes to the literature because it describes when it might be important to link concepts and procedures during fractions instruction.     

The role of outcome inhibition in interference between outcomes: A contingency‐learning analogue of retrieval‐induced forgetting

Current associative theories of contingency learning assume that inhibitory learning plays a part in the interference between outcomes. However, it is unclear whether this inhibitory learning results in the inhibition of the outcome representation or whether it simply counteracts previous excitatory learning so that the outcome representation is neither activated nor inhibited. Additionally, these models tend to conceptualize inhibition as a relatively transient and cue‐dependent state. However, research on retrieval‐induced forgetting suggests that the inhibition of representations is a real process that can be relatively independent of the retrieval cue used to access the inhibited information. Consistent with this alternative view, we found that interference between outcomes reduces the retrievability of the target outcome even when the outcome is associated with a novel (non‐inhibitory) cue. This result has important theoretical implications for associative models of interference and shows that the empirical facts and theories developed in studies of retrieval‐induced forgetting might be relevant in contingency learning and vice versa.     

Measuring Narrative Engagement

Research indicates that the extent to which one becomes engaged, transported, or immersed in a narrative influences the narrative's potential to affect subsequent story-related attitudes and beliefs. Explaining narrative effects and understanding the mechanisms responsible depends on our ability to measure narrative engagement in a theoretically meaningful way. This article develops a scale for measuring narrative engagement that is based on a mental models approach to narrative processing. It distinguishes among four dimensions of experiential engagement in narratives: narrative understanding, attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence. The scale is developed and validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with data from viewers of feature film and television, in different viewing situations, and from two different countries. The scale's ability to predict enjoyment and story-consistent attitudes across different programs is presented. Implications for conceptualizing engagement with narratives as well as narrative persuasion and media effects are discussed.     

The Role of Cognitive Flexibility in the Spatial Representation of Children's Drawings

Representing the spatial appearance of objects and scenes in drawings is a difficult task for young children in particular. In the present study, the relationship between spatial drawing and cognitive flexibility was investigated. Seven- to 11-year-olds (N = 60) were asked to copy a three-dimensional model in a drawing. The use of depth cues as an indicator of spatial drawing was examined. Furthermore, cognitive flexibility was assessed by three measures: the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test 64 (reactive flexibility), the Five-Point Test (spontaneous flexibility), and omission/inclusion (representational flexibility). The results revealed significant relationships between all measures of flexibility and the depth cues in children's drawings. However, only spontaneous and representational flexibility turned out to be significant predictors of the spatial drawing score. The results are discussed in light of the specific requirements of spatial representations in drawings.     

The Relationships Among Differing Loss Experiences,Adjustment, Beliefs,and Coping

Abstract

Losses are often equated for conceptual purposes, and it is often assumed that different types of losses result in similar grief reactions and exert similar effects on cognitive structures and coping patterns. This article examines the expectancies, beliefs, coping patterns, and psychological adjustment associated with loss due to death, parental. divorce, or illness and disability in a college student population. Loss groups did not differ from each other or from a no-loss group on cognitive variables, coping, or psychological adjustment. In instances in which associations between the cognitive measures and either coping or adjustment were indicated, the typical pattern was for loss groups to differ from the no-loss condition but not from each other.