Test of Spanish sentences to measure speech intelligibility in noise conditions

This article describes the development of a test for measuring the intelligibility of speech in noise for the Spanish language, similar to the test developed by Kalikow, Stevens, and Elliot (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 5, 1337–1360, 1977) for the English language. The test consists of six forms, each comprising 25 high-predictability (HP) sentences and 25 low-predictability (LP) sentences. The sentences were used in a perceptual task to assess their intelligibility in babble noise across three different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions in a sample of 474 normal-hearing listeners. The results showed that the listeners obtained higher scores of intelligibility for HP sentences than for LP sentences, and the scores were lower for the higher SNRs, as was expected. The final six forms were equivalent in intelligibility and phonetic content.     

Implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) Model in Spain: an example of a collaboration between Canarian universities and the department of education of the Canary Islands

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of second tier intervention at-risk readers within the context of a Response to Intervention approach. The study was conducted in the Canary Islands (Spain), directed by research team ¨Dificultades de Aprendizaje, Psicolingüística y Nuevas Tecnologías¨ (DEA&NT) from University of La Laguna, and supported by the Government of the Canary Islands. A sample of 1.123 Spanish children from fourteen schools districts were given the Spanish adaptation of The Hong Kong Specific Learning Difficulties Behavior Checklist and children who scored at or above the 75th percentile on the test were classified as "at risk" for early reading difficulties. Half of the students were randomly assigned to a project-based intervention condition where they received small group supplementary intervention for 30 minutes daily using the Prevención de las Dificultades Específicas de Aprendizaje (PREDEA) curriculum from mid to late December and continued until mid June. The other half received whatever remedial services were available at their schools. Results indicated that children who received the PREDEA curriculum had higher scores on the Early Grade Reading Assessment Test (EGRA) on initial sound identification, listening comprehension, letter sound knowledge and oral reading fluency compared to the control group.     

Efficacy of the program "Testas's (mis)adventures" to promote the deep approach to learning

This paper provides information about the efficacy of a tutorial training program intended to enhance elementary fifth graders' study processes and foster their deep approaches to learning. The program "Testas's (mis)adventures" consists of a set of books in which Testas, a typical student, reveals and reflects upon his life experiences during school years. These life stories are nothing but an opportunity to present and train a wide range of learning strategies and self-regulatory processes, designed to insure students' deeper preparation for present and future learning challenges. The program has been developed along a school year, in a one hour weekly tutorial sessions. The training program had a semi-experimental design, included an experimental group (n=50) and a control one (n=50), and used pre- and posttest measures (learning strategies' declarative knowledge, learning approaches and academic achievement). Data suggest that the students enrolled in the training program, comparing with students in the control group, showed a significant improvement in their declarative knowledge of learning strategies and in their deep approach to learning, consequently lowering their use of a surface approach. In spite of this, in what concerns to academic achievement, no statistically significant differences have been found.     

Time-course of 5-HT6 receptor mRNA expression during memory consolidation and amnesia

Growing evidence indicates that antagonists of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) receptor₆ (5-HT₆) improve memory and reverse amnesia although the mechanisms involved are poorly understood. Hence, in this paper RT-PCR was used to evaluate changes in mRNA expression of 5-HT₆ receptor in trained and untrained rats treated with the 5-HT₆ receptor antagonist SB-399885 and amnesic drugs scopolamine or dizocilpine. Changes in mRNA expression of 5-HT₆ receptor were investigated at different times in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum. Data indicated that memory in the Pavlovian/instrumental autoshaping task was a progressive process associated to reduced mRNA expression of 5-HT₆ receptor in the three structures examined. SB-399885 improved long-term memory at 48 h, while the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine or the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist dizocilpine impaired it at 24 h. Autoshaping training and treatment with SB-399885 increased 5-HT₆ receptor mRNA expression in (maximum increase) prefrontal cortex and striatum, 24 or 48 h. The scopolamine-induced amnesia suppressed 5-HT₆ receptor mRNA expression while the dizocilpine-induced amnesia did not modify 5-HT₆ receptor mRNA expression. SB-399885 and scopolamine or dizocilpine were able to reestablish memory and 5-HT₆ receptor mRNA expression. These data confirmed previous memory evidence and of more interest is the observation that training, SB-399885 and amnesic drugs modulated 5-HT₆ receptor mRNA expression in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and striatum. Further investigation in different memory tasks, times and amnesia models together with more complex control groups might provide further clues.     

Spatial learning of the water maze: Progression of brain circuits mapped with cytochrome oxidase histochemistry

The progression of brain circuits involved in spatial learning tasks is still a matter of debate. In addition, the participation of individual regions at different stages of spatial learning remains a controversial issue. In order to address these questions, we used quantitative cytochrome oxidase histochemistry as a metabolic brain mapping method applied to rats (Rattus norvegicus) trained in a water maze for 1, 3 or 5 days of training. Sustained changes throughout training were found in the lateral septal nucleus and anteroventral thalamic nucleus. As compared to naïve or habituation groups, rats with 1 day of training in the spatial learning task showed involvement of the lateral mammillary nucleus, basolateral amygdala and anterodorsal thalamic nucleus. By 5 days of training, there were mean changes in the hippocampal CA3 field and the prefrontal cortex. The regions involved and their pattern of network interactions changed progressively over days of training. At 1-day there was an open serial network of pairwise correlations. At 3-days there was a more closed reciprocal network of intercorrelations. At 5-days there were three separate parallel networks. In addition, brain-behavior correlations showed that CA1 and CA3 hippocampal fields together with the parietal cortex are related to the mastery of the spatial learning task. The present study extends previous findings on the progressive contribution of neural networks to spatial learning.     

Non-linearity,Complexity and Limited Measurement in the Relationship Between Satisfaction with Specific Life Domains and Satisfaction with Life as a Whole

In this article we defend that the adoption of a non-linear approach, theoretically framed on complexity theories can make some contribution to the bottom-up approach, which explains the levels of satisfaction with life as a whole through the combination of the levels of satisfaction in different life domains. Two approaches have been tested: (Rojas in J Happiness Stud 7:467–497, 2006) constant elasticity of substitution model and the model with quadratic terms and interaction effects (González et al. in Soc Indic Res 80:267–295, 2006; González et al. in Qual Quant 42:1–21, 2008). In order to prevent obtaining false non-linear relationships they have been analysed twice taking into account or not limited measurement of satisfaction with life as a whole. Results show that: (a) any of the two non-linear models fits better than the linear one; (b) any of the models failing to take into account limited measurement fits worse; (c) the non-linear model with quadratic terms and interaction effects fits better than Rojas’. The implications for the study of psychological well-being are discussed.     

The social-cognitive model of achievement motivation in physical education

Our objective in this study was to test the new social-cognitive model of achievement motivation in a physical education setting. Research was conducted on a sample of 895 physical education students, ages 12 to 16 years. We measured perception of the motivational climate conveyed by the teacher, implicit beliefs of ability, perceived competence, 2 x 2 achievement goals and self-determined motivation. We carried out structural equation modeling to analyse the relationships among variables. Results showed that task climate positively predicted incremental belief, whereas ego climate positively predicted entity belief. Both climates positively predicted perceived competence. Incremental belief positively predicted mastery-approach goals, performance-approach goals and avoidance goals, whereas entity belief positively predicted performance-approach goals and avoidance goals. Perceived competence positively predicted mastery-approach and performance-approach goals. Mastery-approach goal positively predicted self-determined motivation, whereas performance-approach goal and avoidance goals negatively predicted self-determined motivation.     

Test anxiety: associations with personal and family variables

Test anxiety is a common behavior among students facing social pressure centered on mastery. Only a few studies have analyzed the relations between test anxiety, academic procrastination, personal and family variables and math grades. This work focus on the analysis of the impact of students' social-personal variables such as parents' education level, number of siblings and under-achievement by performing ANOVAs in two samples of 533 and 796 students from junior high-school. Corroborating the findings in other studies, the data stress that test anxiety is higher in girls and decreases when students' parents have higher educational levels, with the number of courses flunked, and when students' math grades were lower. Test anxiety and procrastination correlate positive and significantly. Findings are discussed and compared with those of previous researches. The implications for teaching practice are also analyzed.     

On the Relationships between Sum Score Based Estimation and Joint Maximum Likelihood Estimation

This paper analyzes the sum score based (SSB) formulation of the Rasch model, where items and sum scores of persons are considered as factors in a logit model. After reviewing the evolution leading to the equality between their maximum likelihood estimates, the SSB model is then discussed from the point of view of pseudo-likelihood and of misspecified models. This is then employed to provide new insights into the origin of the known inconsistency of the difficulty parameter estimates in the Rasch model. The main results consist of exact relationships between the estimated standard errors for both models; and, for the ability parameters, an upper bound for the estimated standard errors of the Rasch model in terms of those for the SSB model, which are more easily available. The authors acknowledge partial financial support from the FONDECYT Project No. 1060722 from the Chilean Government, and the BIL05/03 grant to P. De Boeck, E. Lesaffre and G. Molenberghs (Flanders) for a collaboration with G. del Pino, E. San Martín, F. Quintana and J. Manzi (Chile).