Numerical and nonnumerical estimation in children with and without mathematical learning disabilities

There are currently multiple explanations for mathematical learning disabilities (MLD). The present study focused on those assuming that MLD are due to a basic numerical deficit affecting the ability to represent and to manipulate number magnitude (Butterworth, 1999 Butterworth, B. 1999. The mathematical brain, London, , United Kingdom: Macmillan.  [Google Scholar], 2005 Butterworth, B. 2005. “Developmental dyscalculia”. In Handbook of mathematical cognition, Edited by: Campbell, J. I. D. 455–467. New York, NY: Psychology Press.  [Google Scholar]; A. J. Wilson &; Dehaene, 2007 Wilson, A. J. and Dehaene, S. 2007. “Number sense and developmental dyscalculia”. In Human behavior, learning, and the developing brain: Atypical development, 2nd, Edited by: Coch, D., Dawson, G. and Fischer, K. 212–237. New York, NY: Guilford Press.  [Google Scholar]) and/or to access that number magnitude representation from numerical symbols (Rousselle &; Noël, 2007 Rousselle, L. and Noël, M. P. 2007. Basic numerical skills in children with mathematics learning disabilities: A comparison of symbolic vs non-symbolic number magnitude processing. Cognition, 102(3): 361–395. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The present study provides an original contribution to this issue by testing MLD children (carefully selected on the basis of preserved abilities in other domains) on numerical estimation tasks with contrasting symbolic (Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (collection of dots) numbers used as input or output. MLD children performed consistently less accurately than control children on all the estimation tasks. However, MLD children were even weaker when the task involved the mapping between symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers than when the task required a mapping between two nonsymbolic numerical formats. Moreover, in the estimation of nonsymbolic numerosities, MLD children relied more than control children on perceptual cues such as the cumulative area of the dots. Finally, the task requiring a mapping from a nonsymbolic format to a symbolic format was the best predictor of MLD. In order to explain these present results, as well as those reported in the literature, we propose that the impoverished number magnitude representation of MLD children may arise from an initial mapping deficit between number symbols and that magnitude representation.     

Family Communication Following BRCA1/2 Genetic Testing: A Close Look at the Process

This study examines the process of communicating BRCA1/2 genetic test results to family members, and the factors influencing disclosure. Twenty-nine semi-structured telephone interviews with BRCA1/2 tested individuals, 4 to 9 years post-notification, were conducted. Our results suggest that individual, familial, relational and socio-medical factors influence the decision to disclose/not disclose genetic test results to family members. These factors are at play in all three communication phases: the Decision-making phase, in which the individual ponders various factors before deciding to disclose test results to family members; the Disclosure phase, in which communication per se takes place; and the Reaction phase, which shapes the participant’s subsequent disclosure/non-disclosure decisions. We propose a guiding framework to assist in identifying and evaluating significant factors that might shape the course and outcome of the transmission of genetic information to family members.     

L’expertise médicale fondée sur les faits

The concept of evidence-based medicine applies to medical activity in general in order to rationalize it. The medical expertise, constantly looking to improve its quality, can no longer ignore this concept. This is the best tool to meet the mission entrusted to experts of assessing the conformity of care to the scientific-acquired features, without neglecting the assessment of the involved practitioner's skills and the particular circumstances of the plaintiff. This article develops the new concept of “Medical expertise based on facts”.     

Introversion-Extraversion and Sun-Sign

A variable frequently overlooked in assessing alternative teaching methods is students' previous exposure to an instructor's testing methods. The present study tested the hypothesis that test performance would be significantly higher among students in a single instructor lecture approach, where all tests were prepared by the same instructor, as compared to the team-teaching approach, where each test was prepared by a different instructor. Results indicated that prior test exposure to a single instructor's tests does have the effect of improving students' test performance on objective type tests, perhaps due to reduced test-taking anxiety, because the students have an opportunity to become accustomed to the instructor's style of testing.     

Bootstrapping word order in prelexical infants: a Japanese-Italian cross-linguistic study

Learning word order is one of the earliest feats infants accomplish during language acquisition [Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.]. Two theories have been proposed to account for this fact. Constructivist/lexicalist theories [Tomasello, M. (2000). Do young children have adult syntactic competence? Cognition, 74(3), 209-253.] argue that word order is learned separately for each lexical item or construction. Generativist theories [Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.], on the other hand, claim that word order is an abstract and general property, determined from the input independently of individual words. Here, we show that eight-month-old Japanese and Italian infants have opposite order preferences in an artificial grammar experiment, mirroring the opposite word orders of their respective native languages. This suggests that infants possess some representation of word order prelexically, arguing for the generativist view. We propose a frequency-based bootstrapping mechanism to account for our results, arguing that infants might build this representation by tracking the order of functors and content words, identified through their different frequency distributions. We investigate frequency and word order patterns in infant-directed Japanese and Italian corpora to support this claim.     

Newborn right-holding is related to depressive symptoms in bottle-feeding mothers but not in breastfeeding mothers

This study examines the relationships between infant holding preferences and maternal depression according to the newborn feeding mode. Links between depression and infant holding biases have been observed in mothers [Vauclair, J., Scola, C. (in press). Dépression, alexithymie et latéralisation dans la fa?on de porter un nouveau-né [Infant holding biases in relation to depression, alexithymia and laterality]. Annales Médico-psychologiques; Weatherill, R. P., Almerigi, J. B., Levendosky, A. A., Bogat, G. A., von Eye, A., & Harris, L. J. (2004). Is maternal depression related to side of infant holding? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28, 421-427] but the fact that breastfeeding has never been studied in relation to these two factors is surprising as breastfeeding has some influence on depression (e.g., [Mezzacappa, E. S., Guethlein, W., Vaz, N., & Bagiella, E. (2000). A preliminary study of breast-feeding and maternal symptomatology. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 22, 71-79]) and must also affect holding biases. Mothers who just gave birth (N=100) were tested few days after delivery. Measures of handedness, infant holding-side preferences, and level of depressive symptoms expressed by mothers (assessed with the CES-D scale) were collected via questionnaires. Asymmetries in emotional perception were assessed via a Chimeric Figure Task and a Dichotic Listening Task. Results showed that breastfeeding (1) reduced left-side bias for holding newborns and (2) was associated with lowest levels of depressive symptoms. Moreover, holding biases were related to maternal depression in bottle-feeding but not in breastfeeding mothers, namely that holding on the right-side while bottle-feeding was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. These results were not due to hemispheric specialization as auditory and visual asymmetries were similar between breastfeeding and bottle-feeding mothers. The discussion emphasizes the striking role of the early mother/child relationship's establishment on infant holding biases.     

SPACE AND RELIGION: AN INTERWEAVING OF INFLUENCES

Since the earliest ages of humanity, the contemplation of the starry sky has invited the human being to ask: “Who am I? Where is my origin? What is my destiny?” The revolution introduced by modem astronomy has affected how humankind understands itself, and the development of aeronautical and then astronautical techniques introduced a new experiment for humanity—that of being citizen of the sky. By carrying out the dream of Icarus, has humanity realized the attempt of Prometheus? Would we take the place of the gods or God? Do religions have to fear the conquest of space? Despite modern science and the knowledge we have accumulated, space still holds its share of mystery, nurtured by its vast dimensions and startling beauty. Space continues to raise the issue of meaning.     

Effect of arousal on internal clock speed in real action and mental imagery.

The possible implication of an internal clock as a mechanism accounting for the temporal homology between actual and mental walking is studied. To observe this phenomenon, stressful sound stimuli were used to increase arousal, which is known to activate the internal clock. Seventeen participants performed three tasks: (1) a time production task, used as a reference task reflecting the internal clock speed; (2) an actual walking task; and (3) a mental walking task, all three in two sound conditions (no noise and noise). The results showed a significant effect of arousal on time in each task. The effect of noise, increasing the arousal level, was greater in time production and mental imagery tasks than in real action. In addition, the percentages of change between the two sound conditions for actual and mental walking time were not statistically different. These findings are further evidence of the existence of a timing process common to actual and mental walking. The data are consistent with the implication of an internal clock in both actual and mental walking.