Number comparison and number ordering as predictors of arithmetic performance in adults: Exploring the link between the two skills,and investigating the question of domain-specificity

Recent evidence has highlighted the important role that number-ordering skills play in arithmetic abilities, both in children and adults. In the current study, we demonstrated that number comparison and ordering skills were both significantly related to arithmetic performance in adults, and the effect size was greater in the case of ordering skills. Additionally, we found that the effect of number comparison skills on arithmetic performance was mediated by number-ordering skills. Moreover, performance on comparison and ordering tasks involving the months of the year was also strongly correlated with arithmetic skills, and participants displayed similar (canonical or reverse) distance effects on the comparison and ordering tasks involving months as when the tasks included numbers. This suggests that the processes responsible for the link between comparison and ordering skills and arithmetic performance are not specific to the domain of numbers. Finally, a factor analysis indicated that performance on comparison and ordering tasks loaded on a factor that included performance on a number line task and self-reported spatial thinking styles. These results substantially extend previous research on the role of order processing abilities in mental arithmetic.     

Emotional intelligence levels and counselling skills of prospective psychological counsellors

This research aimed to determine the correlation between emotional intelligence (EI) and counselling skills of Turkish prospective psychological counsellors and to investigate differences in both EI and counselling skills in terms of sex, previous experience of group studies, and class levels. Within a correlational pattern, the sample of the study comprised a total of 349 prospective psychological counsellors; 266 females (76.2%) and 83 (23.8%) males. The data were collected via a Personal Information Form, Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory ? and Microcounseling Skill Discrimination Scale?. The results indicated a significant negative correlation between EI and emotional reflection and general counselling skills; no significant correlation between EI and content reflection.     

Stroop interference and development: Influence of expectation on color-naming response times

Introduction/objective

In a sample of 171 participants aged 6 to 18, the present investigation assessed the changes in the size of the Stroop effect with age, and its relationship with the development of expectancies.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Families of Individuals With Behavioral Disorders: Initial Feasibility and Outcomes

Family members of individuals with behavioral disorders are a valuable source of logistical and emotional support for patients. Family members may take on tremendous financial and/or psychological responsibility to care for their loved ones, which can result in poor psychological outcomes for the family and, in turn, impede the recovery of the patient. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training is an effective treatment that has been utilized with numerous populations, including family members of individuals with behavioral problems, and has shown efficacy in improving various interpersonal outcomes; however, no study has examined feasibility and outcomes of delivering all four unabridged DBT skills modules to this population. Twenty participants attended weekly DBT skills classes for 6 months, where they acquired skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. There were significant pre-post improvements for emotion dysregulation, stress reactivity, and various interpersonal outcomes; there were no significant changes in depression or anxiety. These results suggest that DBT skills may be effective at improving broad clinical domains in a sample of family members of individuals with behavioral problems. This research is the first step in demonstrating that DBT skills might benefit family members of patients with heterogeneous mental health problems and, therefore, fits in to the field’s growing interest in cost-effective transdiagnostic interventions.     

Evaluation of the FASIKI traffic safety programme for parents of cycling children

The voluntary cycling test is an important milestone in traffic education in primary school. Cycling helps to develop traffic competences and traffic sense, it increases the mobility range of children and also improves sustainable mobility. On the other hand, data shows that beginning with school age more children have accidents due to cycling (Drott, Johansson, & Aström, 2008; Funk, 2013). The aim of the paper is to show that a measure that can be easily implemented in given structures could help to enhance safe cycling behaviour of children. The voluntary cycling test for ten-year-old children in Austria was complemented with a short traffic psychological intervention for parents called FASIKI. The main aim of the FASIKI programme is to promote a safe cycling performance for children. Therefore, the programme should show parents the average developmental status of their ten-year-old children, so that they can train them in an adequate way as far as age and competence level is concerned. From a traffic psychological point of view it is important for safe cycling behaviour that parents do not over- or underestimate the traffic competences of their children. The present study aimed to verify the effectiveness of the FASIKI programme using Kirkpatrick’s four level evaluation model. Based on a pre-post design, first changes in knowledge and attitudes of parents who attended the programme as well as the impact of the programme on the practical skills of their children in the voluntary cycling test were assessed. The results show positive effects of the FASIKI programme on both, parents’ knowledge and attitudes, and on children’s practical skills. Parental intentions to do cycling exercises with their children were strengthened. Finally, practical implications and policy recommendations concerning traffic safety for children are discussed.     

Adaptive Skills and Academic Achievement in Latino Students

Interventions developed to improve adaptive skills can improve academic achievement. The authors expanded this line of research by examining the relationship between performance on a state proficiency exam and adaptive skills classifications on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition parent and teacher reports. Participants included 392 Latino students, Grades 2–6 in a large urban school district. Ordinal regression models were used to assess relationships between student academic proficiency level and adaptive skills classifications. Students classified as having higher adaptive skills by teachers were more likely to be classified as proficient or higher in reading and mathematics. These findings further support the relationship between adaptive skills and academic achievement. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

The effects of behavioral skills training on staff implementation of discrete-trial teaching

A behavioral skills training package was used to train 3 teachers to correctly implement discrete-trial teaching. The mean baseline proportion of possible correct teaching responses for Teachers 1, 2, and 3 increased from 43%, 49%, and 43%, respectively, during baseline to 97%, 98%, and 99%, respectively, following training. These data indicate that the training package consisting of instructions, feedback, rehearsal, and modeling produced rapid and large improvements in the teachers' implementation of discrete-trial teaching.     

Relations between enabling skills and reading comprehension: a follow-up study of Latvian students from first to second grade

In order to examine the relationships among various phonological skills and reading comprehension, Latvian children were followed from grade 1 to grade 2 and were tested with a battery of phonological, word reading, and reading comprehension tasks. A principal component analysis of the phonological tasks revealed three salient factors: a phonemic awareness factor, a rapid naming factor, and a short-term memory factor. In order to analyze the relationship between various phonological skills and reading comprehension, a structural modeling analysis was performed. Phonemic awareness and rapid naming explained approximately the same amount of unique variance in reading comprehension, but phonemic awareness had most predictive power indirectly via word decoding. Only rapid naming had a significant direct impact on reading comprehension.     

A preliminary evaluation of two behavioral skills training procedures for teaching abduction-prevention skills to schoolchildren

Although child abduction is a low-rate event, it presents a serious threat to the safety of children. The victims of child abduction face the threat of physical and emotional injury, sexual abuse, and death. Previous research has shown that behavioral skills training (BST) is effective in teaching children abduction-prevention skills, although not all children learn the skills. This study compared BST only to BST with an added in situ training component to teach abduction-prevention skills in a small-group format to schoolchildren. Results showed that both programs were effective in teaching abduction-prevention skills. In addition, the scores for the group that received in situ training were significantly higher than scores for the group that received BST alone at the 3-month follow-up assessment.     

Student perceptions of the effectiveness of education in the responsible conduct of research

Responsible conduct of research (RCR) courses are widely taught, but little is known about the purposes or effectiveness of such courses. As one way to assess the purposes of these courses, students were surveyed about their perspectives after recent completion of one of eleven different research ethics courses at ten different institutions. Participants (undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty, staff and researchers) enrolled in RCR courses in spring and fall of 2003 received a voluntary, anonymous survey from their instructors at the completion of the course. Responses were received from 268 participants. Seventy-seven percent of open-ended responses listed specific kinds of information learned; only a few respondents talked about changes in skills or attitudes. The perception that courses did more to provide information than to foster skills or attitudes was verified in quantitative responses (P<0.0001). Over 75% of the respondents specifically noted that courses were useful in preparing them to recognize, avoid, and respond to research misconduct. The two principal findings of this multi-institutional study are that respondents reported: (1) a wide variety of positive outcomes for research ethics courses, but that (2) the impact on knowledge was greater than that for changes in skills or attitudes.