Attention in Williams syndrome and Down's syndrome: Performance on the new early childhood attention battery

Attentional problems are commonly reported as a feature of the behavioural profile in both Williams syndrome (WS) and Down's syndrome (DS). Recent studies have begun to investigate these impairments empirically, acknowledging the need for an approach that considers cross‐syndrome comparisons and developmental changes across the different component functions of attention. The present study assessed children with WS and DS using a new preschool attention battery (ECAB: early childhood attention battery), designed to be suitable for mental age 3–6 years including groups with developmental disorders. The ECAB has the advantage of giving an individual profile of attentional abilities for each child, covering different components of attention. In relation to test norms for their mental age, both groups showed a profile of strengths and weaknesses in the attention domain. Both syndrome groups performed relatively well on tests of sustained attention and poorly on aspects of selective attention and attentional control (executive function). The DS group showed a specific strength in auditory sustained attention, whilst the WS group showed a particular deficit in visuo‐spatial response control. There was also evidence for considerable differences in the developmental trajectory of these abilities across the two groups. The results provide evidence for syndrome‐specific patterns of impairment, and distinct profiles of strengths and weaknesses that may be useful in understanding the nature of everyday attention difficulties in these groups and tailoring interventions to meet these needs.     

The organization of attention in typical development: A new preschool attention test battery

This article introduces a new battery of attention tests for typically developing and atypically developing children with a mental age of 3–6 years. In the light of adult and child studies supporting a model of distinct networks for specific attentional operations, tests in the current battery were selected with the aim of measuring functions of selective attention, sustained attention and attentional control (executive function). Normative data were collected from 154 typically developing children aged 3–6 years and examined using exploratory factor analysis to determine latent constructs underlying test performance. This analysis suggested increasing differentiation of attention functions over the age range, with support for the hypothesized three‐factor model only after 4½ years of age. Additional analyses supported the validity of the new attention battery with respect to (1) parent/teacher report measures of everyday attention behaviour and (2) later performance on the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA‐Ch), a battery designed for children aged 6–16 years. The results show the developing differentiation of attention functions and support the ecological and predictive validity of the battery as providing early performance‐based measures of attention and an attention ‘profile’ for each individual child, which may aid characterization and remediation of neurodevelopmental disorders.     

A temporal logic for reasoning about processes and plans

Much previous work in artificial intelligence has neglected representing time in all its complexity. In particular, it has neglected continuous change and the indeterminacy of the future. To rectify this, I have developed a first-order temporal logic, in which it is possible to name and prove things about facts, events, plans, and world histories. In particular, the logic provides analyses of causality, continuous change in quantities, the persistence of facts (the frame problem), and the relationship between tasks and actions. It may be possible to implement a temporal-inference machine based on this logic, which keeps track of several “maps” of a time line, one per possible history.     

Traditional Masculinity Ideology and Feminist Attitudes: The Role of Identity Foreclosure

Over a half century of research has identified constellations of rigid, sexist, and hegemonic beliefs about how men should think, feel, and behave within Western societies (i.e., traditional masculine ideologies; TMI). However, there is a dearth of literature examining why people adhere to TMI. Within in this study, we examined TMI from an identity perspective. Specifically, we focused on the concepts of identity exploration and identity commitment to identify distinct identity statuses based on Marcia’s (1966) identity status theory. Our sample (N?=?1136) was composed of college and community cisgender women (n?=?890) and cisgender men (n?=?244) in the United States. We conducted a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to allow identity status groups to naturally emerge based on levels of identity exploration and commitment. A three-class solution emerged as the best fit to the data. Individuals in the foreclosed status (i.e., high commitment but low exploration) scored higher on all seven TMI domains and lower on feminist attitudes compared to those who were high in exploration but low in identity commitment (i.e., identity moratorium). However, there was no difference between individuals high in both identity commitment and exploration (i.e., identity achievement) and the identity foreclosed individuals on feminist attitudes and three of seven dimensions of TMI. Implications and future directions are discussed.

     

How does episodic memory develop in adolescence?

Key areas of the episodic memory (EM) network demonstrate changing structure and volume during adolescence. EM is multifaceted and yet studies of EM thus far have largely examined single components, used different methods and have unsurprisingly yielded inconsistent results. The Treasure Hunt task is a single paradigm that allows parallel investigation of memory content, associative structure, and the impact of different retrieval support. Combining the cognitive and neurobiological accounts, we hypothesized that some elements of EM performance may decline in late adolescence owing to considerable restructuring of the hippocampus at this time. Using the Treasure Hunt task, we examined EM performance in 80 participants aged 10–17 yr. Results demonstrated a cubic trajectory with youngest and oldest participants performing worst. This was emphasized in associative memory, which aligns well with existing literature indicating hippocampal restructuring in later adolescence. It is proposed that memory development may follow a nonlinear path as children approach adulthood, but that future work is required to confirm and extend the trends demonstrated in this study.

Episodic memory (EM) describes the ability to encode, store, and retrieve representations of previously experienced episodes and their temporal-spatial context (Tulving 1972). EM development continues well into the third decade of life (Ruggiero et al. 2016); however, its developmental trajectory after the preschool years remains controversial, with some studies suggesting linear improvements (Ofen et al. 2007) and others no improvement (Picard et al. 2012) or a nonlinear pattern (Tulving 1985; Keresztes et al. 2017). While there has been some debate as to the “defining features” of EM (Cheke and Clayton 2013, 2015) most theorists agree that it is not a unitary ability, instead reflecting the combination of a number of contributing features. Given that many of these studies used different methods for testing EM, and that different tests may emphasize different features (Cheke and Clayton 2013, 2015), it is likely that empirical differences reflect the fact that different features of memory may develop differently during later childhood and adolescence (Picard et al. 2012).The importance of understanding the developmental trajectory of EM in adolescence is highlighted in the close association between EM and other cognitive processes. EM is thought to support decision-making, particularly in the incorporation of memories into task- and goal-relevant responses (Murty et al. 2016); thus, immaturity of EM may influence the high levels of risk taking observed in adolescence. Adolescence also represents a period of vulnerability to the development of mental illness (Kessler et al. 2007). Evidence that deficits in EM have been linked to a number of mental health disorders such as depression (Goodwin 1997) and anxiety (Airaksinen et al. 2005) raises the possibility that individual differences in memory development during this period may influence this vulnerability. Finally, adolescence is a demanding time academically: During these school years, large quantities of knowledge must be acquired to be successful in exams, which have long-term impacts on individuals’ academic and professional future. It is therefore important to understand factors that may contribute to individual differences and challenges in learning and memory during this period.Memory development in adolescence has attracted considerable research attention in recent years, with the majority of work conducted on developmental trajectories of brain areas within the memory network. EM relies on a distributed network of brain areas, including the medial temporal and superior parietal lobes and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Simons and Spiers 2003). Each area within the network, as well as the network itself, shows protracted maturation across adolescence.