Disentangling the far transfer of language comprehension gains using latent mediation models

While we know that interventions targeting oral language can be effective, little is known about what drives these effects. In this study, we examine whether gains in transfer measures are mediated through the specific words that are trained in a language intervention. Based on a large‐scale randomized controlled trial of language intervention in 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children, latent mediation models were used to disentangle oral language gains in transfer measures. The results first showed that the effects of the language intervention and the transfer effects are generated through expressive rather than receptive measures of language. Second, we found that the effects of the intervention on intermediate transfer measures of language were mediated through the ability to define the trained words. Third, and critically, for far transfer measures that did not contain any of the trained words, the effects were mediated through the trained words. The findings relate to theories of transfer and support the idea that far transfer is possible, at least within the same domain. In addition, it seems that effects on receptive language skills are difficult to obtain and that what is improved is instead the children's ability to express themselves and use procedures to explain words. Thus, to optimize intervention effects, future studies should focus on expressive language.     

No indication that the ego depletion manipulation can affect insight: a comment on DeCaro and Van Stockum (2018)

Abstract

Recently, DeCaro and Van Stockum have suggested that ego depletion following intensive self-control can improve insight problem-solving; this finding was interpreted in terms of insight relying on decreased control over attention and memory. However, DeCaro and Van Stockum used three variants of the single matchstick arithmetic problem. Experiment 1 involved low sample and non-standard problem application, while the more powered Experiment 2 yielded a surprisingly low solution rate. These facts made both studies problematic and called for their replication. In the two present studies, the DeCaro and Van Stockum ego-depletion manipulation and their matchstick problems were administered to a total of 316 people. Furthermore, various other insight problems, subjective ratings of insight experience, analytical problems and executive control tests were applied. The key result was that no reliable effect of ego depletion could be found for any of these measures.     

Age influences domestic dog cognitive performance independent of average breed lifespan

Animal Cognition - Across mammals, increased body size is positively associated with lifespan. However, within species, this relationship is inverted. This is well illustrated in dogs (Canis...     

Variability and detection of invariant structure

Two experiments investigated learning of nonadjacent dependencies by adults and 18–month–olds. Each learner was exposed to three–element strings (e.g., pel–kicey–jic) produced by one of two artificial languages. Both languages contained the same adjacent dependencies, so learners could distinguish the languages only by acquiring dependencies between the first and third elements (the nonadjacent dependencies). The size of the pool from which the middle elements were drawn was systematically varied to investigate whether increasing variability (in the form of decreasing predictability between adjacent elements) would lead to better detection of nonadjacent dependencies. Infants and adults acquired nonadjacent dependencies only when adjacent dependencies were least predictable. The results point to conditions that might lead learners to focus on nonadjacent versus adjacent dependencies and are important for suggesting how learning might be dynamically guided by statistical structure.     

The contextual modulation of conditioned taste aversions by the physical environment and time of day is similar

In a pair of experiments, we have compared the ability of changes of place (Exp. 1) and changes of time of day (Exp. 2) to separately modulate learned saline-aversion memory phenomena in rats. Neither a spatial nor a temporal change disrupted latent inhibition using the present behavioral procedure. However, pre-exposure to the taste increased the contextual control of the learned aversion expression. The aversion reappeared in the place or at the time of conditioning after extinction in a different context. The results indicate that environmental and temporal contexts can independently, but similarly modulate taste aversion learning.     

Sleep-dependent hippocampal slow activity correlates with waking memory performance in humans

The positive effect of postlearning sleep on memory consolidation as well as the relationship between sleep-related memory processes and the hippocampal formation are increasingly clarified topics in neurobiology. However, the possibility of a stable relationship between waking mnemonic performance and sleep-dependent hippocampal electric activity is unexplored. Here we report a correlative analysis between sleep-dependent parahippocampal-hippocampal (pHip-Hip) electric activity recorded by foramen ovale (FO) electrodes and different types of memory performances in epileptic patients. Psychological testing was performed days or weeks before electrophysiological recordings. The relative spectral power of the slow activity (below 1.25 Hz) during deep non-REM (NREM) sleep at the right pHip-Hip region correlated positively with the visual memory performance according to Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT). Along the posterior-anterior direction of the hippocampal formation a linear increasing of correlations was observed. The relative power of the activity below 1.25 Hz at the left pHip-Hip during phasic REM sleep correlated positively with verbal learning performance and mnemonic retention values according to ROCFT. It is concluded that the pHip-Hip structures' capacity of producing high amplitude and synchronized slow (< 1 Hz) oscillation during deep NREM sleep is related to the functional power of these structures. We hypothesize that the asymmetric (side-specific) propagation of ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) activity to the pHip-Hip region is related to the memory correlates of phasic REM sleep.     

Investigation into Combinatory Systems with Dual Combinators

Combinatory logic is known to be related to substructural logics. Algebraic considerations of the latter, in particular, algebraic considerations of two distinct implications (, ), led to the introduction of dual combinators in Dunn & Meyer 1997. Dual combinators are "mirror images" of the usual combinators and as such do not constitute an interesting subject of investigation by themselves. However, when combined with the usual combinators (e.g., in order to recover associativity in a sequent calculus), the whole system exhibits new features. A dual combinatory system with weak equality typically lacks the Church-Rosser property, and in general it is inconsistent. In many subsystems terms "unexpectedly" turn out to be weakly equivalent. The paper is a preliminary attempt to investigate some of these issues, as well as, briefly compare function application in symmetric -calculus (cf. Barbanera & Berardi 1996) and dual combinatory logic.     

Attention and joint attention in preschool children with autism

Three experiments examined the role of attention in explaining dyadic (child-adult) and triadic (child-adult-object) joint attention difficulties in autism. Experiments 1 and 2 investigated children's ability to orient to an adult's attention bid and to follow the direction of a human or nonhuman cue. Experiment 3 tested ability to disengage and shift attention to objects. Results showed autism-specific difficulties at both dyadic and triadic levels. Children with autism were less responsive than developmentally delayed controls in orienting to attention bids and in following a human head-turn cue yet had no difficulty in shifting attention and were faster overall in orienting to targets. Results suggest a specific developmental delay in which children with autism rely on the presence of objects in the visual field to guide action. The relation between this problem and autistic children's difficulties with human communicative signals is discussed.     

Analityczne komponenty definicji arbitralnych

Tre: Wstp. I. Definicje arbitralne. II. Syntetyczne konsekwencje definicji arbitralnych III. Analityczne i rzeczowe komponenty definicji arbitralnych. IV. Zdania analityczne.Artyku ten w nieznacznym tylko stopniu róni si od pracy doktorskiej, któr przedstawiem w 1962 r. Jak najuprzejmiej dzikuj Prof. Dr M. Kokoszyskiej-Lutman, Prof. Dr J. Supeckiemu oraz Doc. Dr M. Przeckiemu za szereg uwag i wskazówek, z których tak wiele skorzystaem przygotowujc ostateczn redakcj pracy.