The generality of mental addition models: Simple and complex addition in a decision-production task

Recently, Widaman, Geary, Cormier, and Little (in press) offered a general componential model for simple and complex addition. In the present study, the generalizability of this model to very complex addition problems and to production task performance was tested. We investigated addition-production performance using a new research paradigm, the decision-production task. The paradigm was used to assess the reaction times of 16 adults to 100 single-digit addition problems (Experiment 1) and to very complex three-digit addition problems (Experiment 2). Generally, the results give evidence for the basic assumptions of the Widaman et al. model. Some of the results, however, demonstrate that short-term memory load factors and strategy choices also have important effects on complex addition-production performance. Furthermore, the results of both experiments indicate that, in production tasks, the nature of the elementary search/compute process can be characterized as a memory-retrieval process and that the decision-production paradigm is a valuable alternative to the classical verbal production paradigm.     

Rhetoric,reasonableness and ethics: An essay on Perelman

The article deals with an interpretation of the work of Ch. Perelman. The author tries to determine the meaning of reasonableness in a hermeneutical and anthropological perspective. He then places the work of Perelman in the light of the theory of symbolic interactionism of G.H. Mead.     

Recipient Design in Communicative Pointing

A long‐standing debate in the study of human communication centers on the degree to which communicators tune their communicative signals (e.g., speech, gestures) for specific addressees, as opposed to taking a neutral or egocentric perspective. This tuning, called recipient design, is known to occur under special conditions (e.g., when errors in communication need to be corrected), but several researchers have argued that it is not an intrinsic feature of human communication, because that would be computationally too demanding. In this study, we contribute to this debate by studying a simple communicative behavior, communicative pointing, under conditions of successful (error‐free) communication. Using an information‐theoretic measure, called legibility, we present evidence of recipient design in communicative pointing. The legibility effect is present early in the movement, suggesting that it is an intrinsic part of the communicative plan. Moreover, it is reliable only from the viewpoint of the addressee, suggesting that the motor plan is tuned to the addressee. These findings suggest that recipient design is an intrinsic feature of human communication.     

Questioning the Specificity of ASRS-v1.1 to Accurately Detect ADHD in Substance Abusing Populations

Objective: To assess the specificity of the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) in detecting ADHD among individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs). Method: A chart review of 183 SUD patients was conducted. Patients were screened for ADHD with the ASRS-v1.1 and were later assessed by a psychiatrist specialized in ADHD. Results: Among SUD patients scoring positive results on the ASRS-v1.1 for the presence of ADHD, the ADHD diagnosis could only be confirmed in 26% of the sample by an expert psychiatrist. Conclusion: The ASRS-v1.1 reports low specificity in detecting ADHD among SUD populations.     

Cortical oscillations and sensory predictions

Many theories of perception are anchored in the central notion that the brain continuously updates an internal model of the world to infer the probable causes of sensory events. In this framework, the brain needs not only to predict the causes of sensory input, but also when they are most likely to happen. In this article, we review the neurophysiological bases of sensory predictions of "what' (predictive coding) and 'when' (predictive timing), with an emphasis on low-level oscillatory mechanisms. We argue that neural rhythms offer distinct and adapted computational solutions to predicting 'what' is going to happen in the sensory environment and 'when'.     

Longitudinal associations between the quality of parent-child interactions and children's sleep at preschool age

This study aimed to examine the prospective longitudinal links between the quality of mother-child and father-child interactions and preschoolers' sleep. Three dimensions of maternal interactive behavior were considered using 70 mother-child dyads, while the quality of father-child interactions was assessed using 41 of these families. Maternal mind-mindedness was assessed at 12 months during a mother-infant free-play sequence, maternal sensitivity was rated at 12 months based on observations performed throughout a home visit, maternal autonomy support was assessed at 15 months with a 10-min problem-solving situation, and the quality of father-child interactions was scored at 18 months, during father-child free play. Children's sleep was assessed at 3 and 4 years using a sleep diary completed by mothers during 3 consecutive days. Results indicated that, after controlling for family socioeconomic status and daycare attendance, the quality of both mother-infant and father-infant interactions was positively related to children's percentage of night-time sleep at preschool age. These findings add to previous literature in suggesting that early caregiving behavior by both mothers and fathers is related to subsequent child sleep.     

Effects of Pointing Rate and Availability of Visual Feedback on Visual and Proprioceptive Components of Prism Adaptation

The withdrawal of vision of the arm during a manual aiming task has been found to result in a large increase in aiming error, regardless of the amount of practice in normal vision before its withdrawal. In the present study, the authors investigated whether the increase in error reflects the domination of visual afferent information over the movement representation developed during practice to the detriment of other sources of afferent information or whether it reflects only transformation errors of the location of the target from an allocentric to an egocentric frame of reference. Participants (N = 40) performed aiming movements with their dominant or nondominant arm in a full-vision or target-only condition. The results of the present experiment supported both of those hypotheses. The data indicated that practice does not eliminate the need for visual information for optimizing movement accuracy and that learning is specific to the source or sources of afferent information more likely to ensure optimal accuracy during practice. In addition, the results indicated that movement planning in an allocentric frame of reference might require simultaneous vision of the arm and the target. Finally, practice in a target-only condition, with knowledge of results, was found to improve recoding of the target in an egocentric frame of reference.     

Effects of Target Presentation Time,Recall Delay,and Aging on the Accuracy of Manual Pointing to Remembered Targets

The issues addressed in 2 experiments in which 10 younger and 10 older adults participated were (a) whether the retention of a target location in memory for motor control purposes would be facilitated by an increase in target presentation time; (b) whether increasing the recall delay since the last exposure to the target would have deleterious effects on aiming accuracy or variability, or both; and (c) whether those effects would be mediated by aging. The results revealed that there is a short-lived (< 1 s) visual representation of target location. In addition, the results suggested that the nature of that representation dictates a movement strategy favoring higher peak movement velocity. None of the effects reported in the present study was affected by age, suggesting that the coding and retrieving processes of target location in memory for motor control purposes are not affected by age.