Relationship between levels of oral and written language in beginning readers

The validity of a test battery, organized by a theoretical framework of levels of language processing and production, was evaluated at the end of kindergarten and theend of first grade. At the end of kindergarten two levels of oral language, phonemic and lexical, and at the end of first grade three levels of oral language, phonemic, lexical, and text, were correlated with word decoding and reading comprehension. At the end of first grade, the combination of phonemic and lexical skills accounted for more variance in both word decoding and reading comprehension than either phonemic or lexical skills alone. The strength of the relationship between specific levels of oral language and specific component reading skills changed after formal reading instruction was introduced. Functional relationships were found between improvement in phonemic skills or lexical skills and improvement in word decoding. Partial correlations between two levels of oral language with a third partialed out (receptive or expressive task requirements held constant) provided evidence for three semiindependent levels of oral language—phonemic, lexical, and text. Because the battery has concurrent and construct validity, school psychologists can use it to monitor beginning readers in order to prevent reading disabilities due to subtle language dysfunctions.     

Validation française d'un inventaire de micro-stresseurs de la vie quotidienne: combinaison du “Daily Hassles Scale” et du “Uplifts Scale”

Ce travail présente les résultats d'une étude de validité de la version française d'un instrument d'auto-évaluation des micro-stresseurs de la vie quotidienne (“Daily Hassles Scale”; “Uplifts Scale”; Lazarus & Folkman, 1989). Les informations de validité reposent sur des structures factorielles ainsi que des analyses de cohérence interne et de convergence avec une mesure de stress psychologique (MSP: Lemyre, Tessier, & Fillion, 1990). Auprès d'une communauté universitaire (N = 265), six facteurs d'embětements quotidiens et cinq facteurs d'encouragements journaliers ont été isolés. Comme prévu, le score d'intensité aux différents facteurs d'embětements corrèle positivement et significativement avec l'état d'ětre stressé ce qui n'est pas le cas des encouragements quotidiens. La discussion soulève la nécessité d'utiliser différents groupes de micro-stresseurs plutôt qu'un facteur général. Elle évalue également le rôle ambigu des encouragements quotidiens comme facteur de protection dans l'expérience du stress.     

An item response model with internal restrictions on item difficulty

An IRT model based on the Rasch model is proposed for composite tasks, that is, tasks that are decomposed into subtasks of different kinds. There is one subtask for each component that is discerned in the composite tasks. A component is a generic kind of subtask of which the subtasks resulting from the decomposition are specific instantiations with respect to the particular composite tasks under study. The proposed model constrains the difficulties of the composite tasks to be linear combinations of the difficulties of the corresponding subtask items, which are estimated together with the weights used in the linear combinations, one weight for each kind of subtask. Although the model does not belong to the exponential family, its parameters can be estimated using conditional maximum likelihood estimation. The approach is demonstrated with an application to spelling tasks. We thank Eric Maris for his helpful comments.     

Interfering with the Central Executive by Means of a Random Interval Repetition Task

Four dual-task experiments are reported in which a short-term memory task is performed concurrently with a random interval repetition task, which was designed to interfere with functions normally attributed to the central executive in the working memory model of Baddeley and Hitch (1974). The task was found to interfere with supra-span serial recall and with backward memory span, but did not disrupt performance on a forward-memoryspan task. The effects were observed in dissociation with effects of articulatory suppression and matrix tapping, so that the locus of the effects of the new task is not due to the slave systems. In addition, single-task random-interval repetition performance was sampled and compared to performance in the dual-task conditions of all four experiments. Although quality of tapping performance differed between the single-task and the dual-task conditions, it was not related to recall performance. All the results are discussed with reference to the working memory model.     

Memory Processing of a Serial List By Young Infants

Serial list learning is thought to be beyond the capabilities of infants before the end of their 1st year. In separate experiments with 3- and 6-month-olds, we studied infants' memory for a serial list using a modified serial probe recognition procedure that was originally developed for monkeys and a precuing procedure that was previously used with human adults. Infants were trained with a three-item list. One day later, they were precued with one list member and tested for recognition of another. When the precue specified valid order information, infants of both ages recognized the test item; when the precue specified invalid order information, infants of neither age did. These findings reveal that even very young infants can learn and remember the order of items on a serial list.     

Comparing color-word and picture-word Stroop-like effects: A test of the Glaser and Glaser (1989) model

Summary Glaser and Glaser (1989) assume that the processing of colors and pictures is highly similar in that, compared to words, both kinds of stimulis have privileged access to semantic information. This assumption was tested in the present research. In Experiment 1, the season corresponding to the color or to the word of color-word Stroop stimuli had to be named (e.g., green for spring). In Experiment 2, subjects had to name the season corresponding to the picture or the word of a picture-word stimulus (e. g., flower for spring). According to Glaser and Glaser (1989), privileged semantic processing of colors and pictures should be evidenced by a larger interfering power of color and picture distractors than of word distractors. However, the asymmetric pattern of interference was observed only with picture-word stimuli (Experiment 2), but not with color-word stimuli (Experiment 1), suggesting that, unlike pictures, colors do not have privileged access to semantic information. It was also found that word distractors interfered with the semantic processing of pictures, a result that is incompatible with the dominance rule postulated by Glaser and Glaser (1989). From these results, an adapted version of the Glaser and Glaser model is proposed: colors are assumed to have privileged access to a separate color processing system and the pattern of interference depends upon the relative activation strength of the response alternatives activated by the target and the distractor.     

Provision of leisure activities for the reduction of challenging behavior

Behavioral treatment of challenging behaviors, such as aggression, self-injury, property destruction, and stereotyped movement is often a priority in residential facilities for persons with developmental disabilities. If these behaviors occur when the client is otherwise unengaged, a potentially effective treatment may be to provide alternative activities. In the present study, 3 adults with severe disabilities were observed. During baseline, these 3 individuals frequently displayed challenging behavior at times when they were otherwise unengaged. Opportunities to participate in leisure activities were then provided to each client in a multiple-baseline design. Provision of leisure opportunities was associated with increased adaptive behavior and collateral reductions in problem behaviors. The effectiveness of the intervention procedures suggest that these challenging behaviors may have been related to the lack of alternative activities.     

Preparatory strategies in overlapping-task performance

In four experiments, we tested whether perceptual identification is impeded by temporal overlap with another task. The results demonstrate that temporal overlap with an auditory task consistently impaired the identification of the highest digit in a briefly presented and masked array of digits. The impairment was especially pronounced when we emphasized speed on the auditory task, thus counteracting the normal tendency to focus advance preparation on the more challenging visual task. The data also indicate that previous findings of minimal effects of temporal overlap may have been due to the use of a restricted range of stimulus onset asynchronies. The present results demonstrate the important role of preparatory strategies in overlapping-task performance, and show that perceptual identification is impeded by the overlapping performance of another task.     

Smooth pursuit eye movements in normal and dyslexic children

This paper describes a detailed study of horizontal eye movements associated with visual tracking of a smoothly moving target. Essentially all children, even at target velocities as low as 5 degrees/sec., show some saccadic eye movements superimposed on smooth tracking movements. Detailed analysis of pursuit eye-movements from a group of 26 poor readers and 34 normal controls (8 to 13 yr.) showed that about 25% of poor readers have an abnormally raised saccadic component in smooth pursuit. This suggests that studies of eye movements during tracking of smoothly moving targets at low velocity, combined with a quantitative approach to data analysis, may be useful for early detection of a significant proportion of poor-reading children.