Increasing task difficulty enhances effects of intersensory redundancy: testing a new prediction of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis

Prior research has demonstrated intersensory facilitation for perception of amodal properties of events such as tempo and rhythm in early development, supporting predictions of the Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis (IRH). Specifically, infants discriminate amodal properties in bimodal, redundant stimulation but not in unimodal, nonredundant stimulation in early development, whereas later in development infants can detect amodal properties in both redundant and nonredundant stimulation. The present study tested a new prediction of the IRH: that effects of intersensory redundancy on attention and perceptual processing are most apparent in tasks of high difficulty relative to the skills of the perceiver. We assessed whether by increasing task difficulty, older infants would revert to patterns of intersensory facilitation shown by younger infants. Results confirmed our prediction and demonstrated that in difficult tempo discrimination tasks, 5‐month‐olds perform like 3‐month‐olds, showing intersensory facilitation for tempo discrimination. In contrast, in tasks of low and moderate difficulty, 5‐month‐olds discriminate tempo changes in both redundant audiovisual and nonredundant unimodal visual stimulation. These findings indicate that intersensory facilitation is most apparent for tasks of relatively high difficulty and may therefore persist across the lifespan.     

Decreasing Excessive Bids for Attention in a Simulated Early Education Classroom

Differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL) schedules can be used to decrease, but not eliminate, excessive bids for teacher attention in a classroom. There are two primary methods of implementing a DRL: full session and spaced responding. Some research suggests that the full-session DRL may eliminate target responding. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for the two DRL methods in a simulated preschool classroom. Three participants completed difficult puzzles in baseline, both DRL, and differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) conditions. In the spaced-responding and full-session DRL conditions, the optimal rate of bids for attention was approximately 75% (two participants) or 50% (one participant) of baseline responding. All participants requested attention near the optimal criterion in both DRL conditions and at a lower rate (near zero) in the DRO condition. Treatment preference of the students was assessed in a concurrent-chain arrangement. All participants preferred both types of DRL conditions to DRO, and two participants showed a preference for the full-session DRL. Results suggest that either DRL procedure may be suitable for a preschool classroom, but a full-session DRL may be ideal.     

Musicians' working memory for tones, words, and pseudowords

Studies investigating factors that influence tone recognition generally use recognition tests, whereas the majority of the studies on verbal material use self-generated responses in the form of serial recall tests. In the present study we intended to investigate whether tonal and verbal materials share the same cognitive mechanisms, by presenting an experimental instrument that evaluates short-term and working memories for tones, using self-generated sung responses that may be compared to verbal tests. This paradigm was designed according to the same structure of the forward and backward digit span tests, but using digits, pseudowords, and tones as stimuli. The profile of amateur singers and professional singers in these tests was compared in forward and backward digit, pseudoword, tone, and contour spans. In addition, an absolute pitch experimental group was included, in order to observe the possible use of verbal labels in tone memorization tasks. In general, we observed that musical schooling has a slight positive influence on the recall of tones, as opposed to verbal material, which is not influenced by musical schooling. Furthermore, the ability to reproduce melodic contours (up and down patterns) is generally higher than the ability to reproduce exact tone sequences. However, backward spans were lower than forward spans for all stimuli (digits, pseudowords, tones, contour). Curiously, backward spans were disproportionately lower for tones than for verbal material-that is, the requirement to recall sequences in backward rather than forward order seems to differentially affect tonal stimuli. This difference does not vary according to musical expertise.     

Social practices,culture and children’s ideas. Convergence between anthropology and critical genetic psychology / Prácticas sociales,cultura e ideas infantiles. Una convergencia entre la antropología y la psicología genética crítica

Abstract

This article explores recent studies in anthropology and critical genetic psychology, both of which analyse the relationships between children’s constructions of social knowledge and sociocultural conditions. For this, we have used research studies that have initiated the dialogue between these disciplinary fields as well as to our own empirical approaches. In order to establish shared problems, recent conceptual developments are explored and their methodological implications are analysed. Finally, the compatibility between the two approaches is analysed.     

Developing a Valid and Reliable Cross-cultural Measure of Coparenting Conflict between Divorced Parents: The Portuguese Version of the Acrimony Scale

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Coparenting conflict is predictive of parents’ and children’s adjustment to divorce. An accurate assessment of postdivorce acrimonious coparenting...