Neuroanatomical correlates of performance in a state‐wide test of math achievement

The development of math skills is a critical component of early education and a strong indicator of later school and economic success. Recent research utilizing population‐normed, standardized measures of math achievement suggest that structural and functional integrity of parietal regions, especially the intraparietal sulcus, are closely related to the development of math skills. However, it is unknown how these findings relate to in‐school math learning. The present study is the first to address this issue by investigating the relationship between regional differences in grey matter (GM) volume and performance in grade‐level mathematics as measured by a state‐wide, school‐based test of math achievement (TCAP math) in children from 3rd to 8th grade. Results show that increased GM volume in the bilateral hippocampal formation and the right inferior frontal gyrus, regions associated with learning and memory, is associated with higher TCAP math scores. Secondary analyses revealed that GM volume in the left angular gyrus had a stronger relationship to TCAP math in grades 3–4 than in grades 5–8 while the relationship between GM volume in the left inferior frontal gyrus and TCAP math was stronger for grades 5–8. These results suggest that the neuroanatomical architecture related to in‐school math achievement differs from that related to math achievement measured by standardized tests, and that the most related neural structures differ as a function of grade level. We suggest, therefore, that the use of school‐relevant outcome measures is critical if neuroscience is to bridge the gap to education.     

Heading judgments in minimal environments: the value of a heuristic when invariants are rare

Observers made systematic heading judgments in two experiments simulating their translation through an environment with only two trees. When those trees converged or decelerated apart, observers tended to follow the invariant information and make heading judgments outside the near member of the pair. When those trees accelerated apart, however, observers tended to follow the heuristic information and make judgments outside the far member, although this result was tempered by the angular separation between the trees and their relative acceleration. The simultaneous existence and use of invariants and heuristics are discussed in terms of different metatheoretical approaches to perception.     

Gustave Caillebotte,French Impressionism,and mere exposure

Gustave Caillebotte was a painter, a collector of some of his colleagues’ most renowned works, and a major force in the creation of the late 19th century French Impressionist canon. Six studies are presented as a naturalistic investigation of the effects of mere exposure to images in his collection and to those matched to them. The probabilities of cultural exposure to the 132 stimulus images were indexed by the frequencies of their separate appearances in Cornell University library books—a total of 4,232 times in 980 different books. Across the studies, adult preferences were correlated with differences in image frequencies, but not with recognition, complexity, or prototypicality judgments; children’s preferences were not correlated with frequency. Prior cultural exposure also interacted with experimental exposure in predictable ways. The results suggest that mere exposure helps to maintain an artistic canon.     

Nature, Nurture, and Individual Differences in Early Understanding of Mind

The ability to understand other minds is a dramatic development that enables children to adapt to their social worlds. In this first genetic analysis of the phenomenon, using 119 same-sex 3-year-old twin pairs, evidence for substantial genetic influence was found. Intraclass correlations for identical and fraternal twins were .66 and .32, respectively; the maximum-likelihoodmodel-fitting estimate of heritability was 67%. Bivariate model-fitting analyses showed that most (66%) of this genetic influence on understanding of mind was independent of verbal ability. Environmental influences on understanding of mind were attributed to child-specific factors,rather than those shared by children in the same family.     

Some attractions of verb agreement

In English, words like scissors are grammatically plural but conceptually singular, while words like suds are both grammatically and conceptually plural. Words like army can be construed plurally, despite being grammatically singular. To explore whether and how congruence between grammatical and conceptual number affected the production of subject-verb number agreement in English, we elicited sentence completions for complex subject noun phrases like The advertisement for the scissors. In these phrases, singular subject nouns were followed by distractor words whose grammatical and conceptual numbers varied. The incidence of plural attraction (the use of plural verbs after plural distractors) increased only when distractors were grammatically plural, and revealed no influence from the distractors' number meanings. Companion experiments in Dutch offered converging support for this account and suggested that similar agreement processes operate in that language. The findings argue for a component of agreement that is sensitive primarily to the grammatical reflections of number. Together with other results, the evidence indicates that the implementation of agreement in languages like English and Dutch involves separable processes of number marking and number morphing, in which number meaning plays different parts.     

Construct validity of parent ratings of inhibitory control.

Recent literature has emphasized the need to examine executive functions (EF) in children using multiple sources, including both parent rating and performance-based measures. Computerized Go/No-Go tests, including commercially available continuous performance tests (CPTs), represent one of the most commonly used methods of assessing inhibitory control - a variable central to the executive function construct. We examined the relationship between parent ratings of inhibitory control and CPT performance in two mixed clinical samples. Experiment 1 examined 109 children ages 6-18 using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000) and the Conners' CPT-II (Conners, 2000). In this sample, ratings on the BRIEF Inhibit scale (mean T-score = 62.3) were significantly higher than the CPT-II commissions score (mean T-score = 50.7; p < .0001); and the BRIEF and CPT-II scores were not highly correlated (r = - .12). Experiment 2 examined a sample of 131 children ages 7-18 using the BRIEF and the Tests of Variables of Attention (TOVA; Greenberg, 1996). In this sample, parent ratings on the BRIEF Inhibit scale (mean T-score = 56.8) were similar to TOVA commissions scores (mean T-score = 58.6; p = .33), although still poorly correlated (r = -.02). Factor analyses exploring covariance between BRIEF scales CPT-II variables (Experiment 1) and between BRIEF and TOVA (Experiment 2) yielded similar findings. In both experiments, all eight BRIEF scales loaded on a single factor, with no overlap with either the CPT-II or the TOVA. In mixed outpatient clinical samples, the BRIEF appears to measure different elements of inhibitory control than those assessed by computerized continuous performance tests.     

Cryptic Emotions and the Emergence of a Metatheory of Mind in Popular Filmmaking

Hollywood movies can be deeply engaging and easy to understand. To succeed in this manner, feature‐length movies employ many editing techniques with strong psychological underpinnings. We explore the origins and development of one of these, the reaction shot. This shot typically shows a single, unspeaking character with modest facial expression in response to an event or to the behavior or speech of another character. In a sample of movies from 1940 to 2010, we show that the prevalence of one type of these shots—which we call the cryptic reaction shot—has grown dramatically. These shots are designed to enhance viewers’ emotional involvement with characters. They depict a facial gesture that reflects a slightly negative and slightly aroused emotional state. Their use at the end of conversations, and typically at the end of scenes, helps to leave viewers in a state of speculation about what the character is thinking and what her thoughts may mean for the ongoing narrative.