The development of problem-solving abilities in a population of candidate detection dogs (Canis familiaris)

Animal Cognition - Both ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors have shaped dogs’ cognitive capabilities, resulting in a heightened social sensitivity at the apparent cost of non-social...     

Economic impacts of immigrants in the Toronto CMA: A tax-benefit analysis

This article examines the economic impacts of immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area through an analysis of their income tax contributions and welfare or unemployment benefit receipts in 1995. Our analyses show that despite their lower income, immigrants admitted between 1980 and 1995 who settled in Toronto did not obtain social assistance in excess of the income tax they paid. There is no evidence that these immigrants are an economic drain on Canadian society although internal variations do exist among immigrant groups. Within the limitations of our analyses, the myths that family-class immigrants and refugee immigrants pose a constant threat to the Canadian economy are unfounded.     

Is the Cogmed program effective for youths with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder under pharmacological treatment?

The primary objective of this study was to examine the effects of the Cogmed training program on working memory among youths 7 to 13 years old, with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) type and comorbidity controlled for. A secondary objective was to examine the generalization of effects to ADHD symptoms, nonverbal reasoning, attentional and executive functions, inhibition, reading comprehension, and mathematical reasoning. Participants were under pharmacological treatment for ADHD combined type and a comorbidity. They were randomized into an experimental group that received the Cogmed program and an active control group that received a low-intensity comparison version of the training. They were evaluated at three time points: 6 weeks prior to intervention onset (T1), immediately prior to onset (T2), and 1 week following intervention completion (T3). Results indicate no significant effect attributable to the Cogmed program. The fact that participants were on medication at the time of training and evaluation normalized their performances and limited the detection of effects. Moreover, cognitive training did not lead to a reduction in ADHD symptoms or to an improvement in the other cognitive functions measured or in academic performance. The results of this study do not demonstrate the effectiveness of the Cogmed program for youths with ADHD combined type and a comorbidity when they receive the training while under pharmacological treatment.     

Involvement of spindles in memory consolidation is slow wave sleep-specific

Both sleep spindles and slow oscillations have been implicated in sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Whereas spindles occur during both light and deep sleep, slow oscillations are restricted to deep sleep, raising the possibility of greater consolidation-related spindle involvement during deep sleep. We assessed declarative memory retention over an interval containing a nap and determined spindle density for light and deep sleep separately. In deep sleep, spindle density was considerably higher and showed a strong and robust positive correlation with retention. This relation was absent for light sleep, suggesting that the potentiating effects of spindles are tied to their co-occurrence with slow oscillations.     

Poster presentations

We analysed the organisation of semantic network using associative mechanisms between different types of information and studied the progression of the use of these associative relations during development. We aimed to verify the linkage of concepts with the use of semantic associative relations. The goal of this study was to analyse the cognitive ability to use associative relations between various items when describing old and/or new concepts. We examined the performance of 100 subjects between the ages of 4 and 7 years on an experimental task using five associative relations based on verbal encoding. The results showed that children are able to use the five semantic associative relations at age 4, but performance with each of the different associative relations improves at different times during development. Functional and part/whole relations develop at an early age, whereas the superordinate relations develop later. Our study clarified the characteristics of the progression of semantic associations during development as well as the roles that associative relations play in the structure and improvement of the semantic store.     

Examining the Impact of Dons Providing Peer Instruction for Academic Integrity: Dons’ and Students’ Perspectives

A peer instruction model was used whereby 78 residence dons (36 males, 42 females) provided instruction regarding academic integrity for 324 students (125 males, 196 females) under their supervision. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to assess survey responses from both the dons and students regarding presentation content, quality, and learning. Overall, dons consistently identified information-based slides about academic integrity as the most important material for the presentations, indicating that fundamental information was needed. Although student ratings of the usefulness of the presentations were middling, students did indicate knowledge gains. Both interest and personal value for academic integrity were highly predictive of positive evaluations of the presentations. Dons and students provided suggestions for improvement and identified more global concerns.     

The status of consonants and vowels in phonological assembly: Testing the two-cycles model with Italian

Recent studies by Berent and Perfetti (1995) and Lee, Rayner, and Pollatsek (2001) have shown a processing priority of consonants over vowels in tasks like backward masking and reading, respectively. One possible explanation for this advantage of consonants is in terms of the specific characteristics of the English spelling (i.e., a great inconsistency in the spelling-sound relations for vowels), and therefore is not predicted for a language, like Italian, with a transparent orthography. The aim of the present experiments was to investigate the consonant advantage in Italian with the backward masking paradigm. The first two experiments, with a perceptual identification and a naming task, showed a masking reduction effect for masks sharing vowels with the target at the shortest SOAs, in addition to a pseudo-homophone advantage as compared to the control condition. In the third experiment, where a lexical decision task was used, the advantage of the mask sharing vowels disappeared. The fourth experiment was a replication of Experiment 1 with different materials. Overall, the results suggest that the advantage of consonants can only be found in English, whereas in Italian, for which the computation of phonology of vowels and consonants is similar, no effect is apparent. Thus, the processing priority for consonants seems to depend on the inconsistencies of vowel phonology in English.