The Processing of Non-canonically Ordered Constituents in Long Distance Dependencies by Pre-school Children: a Real-time Investigation

Four experiments were performed which had the goal of determining how and when young children acquire the ability to understand long distance dependencies. These studies examined the operations underlying the auditory processing of non-canonically ordered constituents in object-relative sentences. Children 4–6 years of age and an adult population participated in the study, which employed a cross modal picture priming methodology to determine when constituents in a non-canonical position are reactivated during ongoing sentence comprehension. The results support the view that even very young children have the same structural processing reflex seen in adults. Namely, children re-activate a non-canonically positioned (fronted) direct object NP immediately at the post-verb gap site during sentence processing.     

Morphological Analogies in Hebrew-Speaking University Students with Dyslexia Compared with Typically Developing Gradeschoolers

Little attention has been devoted to date to the study of morphological knowledge in individuals with developmental dyslexia. The current study compares the ability of Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexic students and gradeschool children to analyze written words into their morphological components, using a linguistic analogy task. Two sets of monolingual Hebrew-speaking participants—152 typically developing gradeschool children and 38 undergraduate students diagnosed with reading disabilities—were administered the Morphological Analogies Task. Results indicate an early ability of normally developing children to perform morphological analogies, while the adult dyslexic group performed on par with 3rd and 4th grade. Error analysis revealed that the overwhelming majority of the erroneous responses in all grades involved morphological strategies rather than the associative semantic strategy. However, the adult dyslexic students had many more associative responses than the graderschoolers. This testifies to the reduced written morphological abilities of adult dyslexic students.     

Normative Developmental Trajectories of Aggressive Behaviors in African American,American Indian,Asian American,Caucasian, and Hispanic Children and Early Adolescents

The current 5-year accelerated longitudinal investigation modeled the developmental trajectories of aggressive behaviors in 10,107 predominantly minority (>70%; African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Hispanic) children and early adolescents (Kindergarten through 8th grade, 49% female youth) from lower to lower-middle socioeconomic strata. Based on a two-part latent growth model, findings suggest that the probability and frequency of aggressive behavior use decreases slightly (linear) through the elementary school years and then increases as children move into middle school (quadratic). Though mean level differences were found across ethnic and racial groups, socioeconomic strata, and particularly by sex at initial status, rates of change over time across all groups were invariant. Findings suggest that potential socialization differences, if any, occur pre-Kindergarten in all groups.     

成人学习不良的神经心理与行为遗传研究

介绍了成人学习不良者神经心理与行为遗传方面的研究,深入分析了成人学习不良中阅读不良的电生理和行为遗传特点,并简要总结了有关数学不良的神经心理与行为遗传的相关机制。     

互联网在学习不良干预中的作用

学习不良一直是心理学和教育学研究的热点,由于计算机和互联网的迅猛发展及其被引入教学后所产生的积极效果,使得研究者开始关注计算机和互联网对学习不良学生的影响。该文介绍了计算机和互联网在学习不良干预中的作用,包括利用互联网激发学习不良学生的学习动机、提高他们的阅读和写作能力、加强教学管理以及帮助他们明确职业方向。该文还指出了此领域现有研究的局限及未来研究的取向。     

学习不良儿童研究的社会认知取向

用认知范式研究学习不良,可以从基本心理过程障碍和社会信息加工过程障碍这“两种认知过程障碍”来理解其学业和社会性困难的深层心理机制。根据该观点以及对学习不良的理解,提出用社会认知的范式推进学习不良儿童社会性研究的思路,以超越当前研究面临的困境。具体是从比较研究的视角探讨学习不良儿童与一般儿童在社会认知过程上的差异以及社会认知中主客体各因素之间的相互作用。     

The Benefits of Mutual Support Groups for Parents of Children With Disabilities

This study examined what parents of children with disabilities and special needs found helpful about belonging to mutual support groups. Quantitative data (based on 56 parents from 6 groups) indicated that members found the groups very helpful and were very satisfied with the support they received from their groups; they also described the groups as high in cohesion, expressiveness, task orientation, and self-discovery. A grounded theory analysis of focus group data (based on 43 parents from 5 of the groups) indicated that such support was helpful in three broad domains: (1) the sociopolitical, which involved developing a sense of control and agency in the outside world; (2) the interpersonal, which involved asense of belonging to a community; and (3) the intraindividual, which involved self change. A central theme of identity change emerged as superordinate to these three categories.     

A method for analyzing changes in response efficiency.

Although experimental effects typically are evaluated by summarizing levels of responding across time (e.g., calculating the mean levels of problem behavior during 10‐min sessions), these data summaries may obscure important mechanisms that may be responsible for changes in responding. A case study is reported to illustrate alternative methods of data analysis when decreasing trends in responding may be due to increases in response efficiency.     

语文学习困难儿童的工作记忆与加工速度

加工速度和工作记忆反应了不同的认知加工过程,在认知发展研究中,加工速度和工作记忆所起的作用仍存在较大的分歧.采用多因素混合实验设计,在严格控制条件下,比较了语文学习困难和控制组儿童的工作记忆和加工速度.结果发现,与控制组相比,语文学习困难儿童在工作记忆和加工速度方面均存在明显的不足,但加工速度不能解释不同能力组之间的差异,语文学习困难儿童的缺陷在于工作记忆能力的下降.工作记忆的缺陷在于言语工作记忆和中央执行功能的不足,与视空间工作记忆能力无关.语文学习困难既存在一般的工作记忆缺陷(中央执行功能)也存在特定的工作记忆(言语工作记忆)能力的不足.     

ASSESSING CHOICE MAKING AMONG CHILDREN WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES

Some learners with multiple disabilities display idiosyncratic gestures that are interpreted as a means of making choices. In the present study, we assessed the validity of idiosyncratic choice-making behaviors of 3 children with multiple disabilities. Opportunities for each child to choose between food and drink were provided under two conditions. In one condition, the children were given the food or drink item corresponding to their prior choice. In the other condition, the teacher delivered the item opposite to that chosen. It was reasoned that valid choice-making behaviors would be reflected in a greater tendency to accept the chosen item and refuse the unchosen item. Direct observations revealed all children consistently indicated choices during both conditions. Choices of both the food and drink items were made by all 3 children. A reversal design demonstrated that acts of refusal were more frequent when choices were followed by delivery of the item opposite to that chosen. Similar assessment procedures may be effective in determining the function of idiosyncratic gestures exhibited by persons with multiple disabilities. For children lacking such skills, intervention to teach valid choice-making behaviors may be needed to complement assessment procedures.