Why won’t she sleep? Screen exposure and sleep patterns in young infants

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends infants’ exposure to electronic screen-based media be minimized; however, more research is needed to understand effects of viewing screen-based media. Here, we examine relations between media use and sleep. Data were collected from mothers when their infants (N = 429) were four months of age. Mothers answered questions about the time their infants spent watching electronic screen-based media. Exposure to electronic screen-based media was negatively associated with nighttime sleep (but not daytime sleep), such that an hour of screen time was associated with nearly 13 min less sleep on a typical night.     

How generative drawing affects the learning process: An eye‐tracking analysis

Generative drawing is a learning strategy in which students draw illustrations while reading a text to depict the content of the lesson. In two experiments, students were asked to generate drawings as they read a scientific text or read the same text on influenza with author‐provided illustrations (Experiment 1) or to generate drawings or write verbal summaries as they read (Experiment 2). An examination of students' eye movements during learning showed that students who engaged in generative drawing displayed more rereadings of words, higher proportion of fixations on the important words, higher rate of transitions between words and workspace, and higher proportion of transitions between important words and workspace than students given a text lesson with author‐generated illustrations (Experiment 1) or students who were asked to write a summary (Experiment 2). These findings contribute new evidence to guide theories for explaining how generative drawing affects learning processes.     

一图抵千言：多媒体学习中的自我生成绘图策略

自我生成绘图是指学生使用可视化的学习方法绘制一幅能反映每一段文字中重要观点的图画, 通过图文结合的方式来促进学习的一种策略。综述以往研究发现, 先前研究通过操纵文本、动画等学习材料来考察自我生成绘图在学习中的作用, 发现自我生成绘图的效果并不稳健：一方面它可以通过提高学生的认知和元认知能力、激发积极的情感状态而提高学习效果, 得到了绘图建构生成理论和多媒体学习认知理论的支持; 另一方面也可以通过增加认知负荷而阻碍学习, 得到了认知负荷理论的支持。整体而言, 自我生成绘图策略还是有利于学习的, 已有研究在学习效果上的效应量中值为d_保持 = 0.13, d_理解 = 0.46, d_迁移 = 0.38。未来的研究仍需要关注自我生成绘图策略的材料操纵、效果评定以及潜在变量等等。     

不同手指表征方式对数量表征能力的影响

采用距离启动范式,考察中国文化背景下不同手指表征方式对数量表征能力的影响。实验首先验证单手表征中不同手指数量表征方式对小数字（1～5）认知表征的影响;实验2则进一步采用中国人特有的单手手指表征,考察其对大数字（5～9）认知表征的影响。结果表明,小数字中出现了标准手指表征方式语义层面的位置编码、非标准手指表征方式知觉层面总和编码的激活;但大数字中两种手指表征方式均出现了语义层面位置编码的激活。此结果与计算模型理论一致,说明当手指数量从少到多变化时,标准手指表征方式为语义性的符号数量表征;而非标准手指表征方式由知觉性的非符号向语义性符号数量表征过渡。     

Finger drawing by infant chimpanzees (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan troglodytes</Emphasis>)

We introduced a new technique to investigate the development of scribbling in very young infants. We tested three infant chimpanzees to compare the developmental processes of scribbling between humans and chimpanzees. While human infants start to scribble on paper at around the age of 18 months, our 13- to 23-month-old infant chimpanzees had never been observed scribbling prior to this study. We used a notebook computer with a touch-sensitive screen. This apparatus was able to record the location of the subjects touches on the screen. Each touch generated a fingertip-sized dot at the corresponding on-screen location. During spontaneous interactions with this apparatus, all three infants and two mother chimpanzees left scribbles with their fingers on the screen. The scribbles contained not only simple dots or short lines, but also curves and hook-like lines or loops, most of which were observed in the instrumental drawings of adult chimpanzees. The results suggest that perceptual-motor control for finger drawing develops in infant chimpanzees. Two of the infants performed their first scribble with a marker on paper at the age of 20–23 months. Just prior to this, they showed a rapid increase in combinatory manipulation of objects. These findings suggest that the development of combinatory manipulation of objects as well as that of perceptual-motor control may be necessary for the emergence of instrumental drawing on paper.     

Assessing the effectiveness of drawing an autobiographical memory as a mood induction procedure in children

The objective of our study was to examine the effectiveness of a new version of the autobiographical recall procedure (i.e., drawing a happy personal event) in eliciting a positive mood in 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children and to compare the drawing condition to the more classical telling condition. The mood of children was assessed before and after induction using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) and across the two emotional dimensions of valence and arousal. The results showed that the drawing condition was as effective as the telling condition for inducing a positive mood. Furthermore, in the drawing condition, children reported feeling calmer than in the telling condition, suggesting that drawing was more likely to help children regulate their emotional state. The drawing procedure could be used in future research aiming to induce positive moods in school-aged children, to help further investigate the relationship between cognition and emotion.     

The Electronic Home Note Program: An Internet-Based Intervention to Improve On-Task Behavior,Academic Performance,and Parental Review

The authors examined the effectiveness of the electronic home note program (EHNP). The program features an emailed version of the traditional home note intervention. In addition, the program uses motivational strategies for increasing rates of on-task behavior, academic productivity, and parent involvement. The authors used a multiple-probe, multiple-baseline design to evaluate implementation effects of the EHNP with four elementary-grade participants. Across all participants, there was an average Tau-U of 0.76 for on-task behavior, with gains maintained at two weeks postintervention. Inconsistent academic gains were found. Parent involvement was high, as most reviewed behavioral ratings data over the course of the intervention. Results also reflect high acceptability of the intervention program from parents, teachers, and participants.     

Investigating the lower level demands of writing: handwriting movements interfere with immediate verbal serial recall

The research identifies if handwriting captures attention for significant periods, resulting in a decline in working memory performance. Additionally, the experiments isolate whether the movements produced during handwriting contribute to that interference. To do this, verbal serial recall was compared between three different tasks???a listening task; a listening?+?handwriting task (i.e., motor and verbal demands); and a listening?+?handwriting-like drawing task (i.e., motor demands), in two experiments. Results showed that verbal serial recall was worse in the handwriting and drawing conditions compared to the listening condition. The handwriting and drawing conditions did not differ. In a third experiment, handwriting fluency was compared between a recall and no-recall task. This showed that handwriting fluency remains stable despite the addition of a verbal working memory task. In conclusion, the handwriting movements capture attention for significant periods, with little deterioration in recall due to the verbal component of handwriting.     

Cortical Networks for Correcting Errors in Sensorimotor Synchronization Depend on the Direction of Asynchrony

Recent work provides clues that different cortical mechanisms may be employed when correcting for errors in sensorimotor synchronization that increase tap-tone asynchrony compared with those that decrease it. The authors tested this hypothesis by recording 64-channel electroencephalography while participants synchronized with an auditory metronome. We systematically introduced positive and negative phase-shift perturbations that were either liminal (10%) and subliminal (3%). We used a distributed source modeling approach to evaluate oscillatory activity and connectivity of discrete cortical sources. Three key findings support our hypothesis. First was a theta band response indicative of error detection and top-down control observed in frontomedial presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) and anterior cingulate for liminal positive perturbations. Second was an increase in theta band coupling between the SMA and contralateral motor cortex exclusively for positive perturbations suggesting a top-down modulation of motor parameters. Third, when compared with other conditions, liminal positive perturbations result in an increase in postmovement beta rebound within contralateral primary motor cortex. The authors propose that frontomedial motor areas exert a top-down inhibitory influence over the primary motor cortex to effectively lengthen tap intervals in response to lengthening tap-tone asynchronies.     

幼儿对于图画作者情绪状态与其作品间关系的认知

采用将作者情绪状态与图画作品相匹配的方法,分别以线条、颜色和内容为线索,考察了3.5~5.5岁儿童对图画作者情绪状态与其作品间关系的认知发展。结果表明:3.5岁儿童尚不能将作者情绪状态与图画特点联系起来,4.5岁儿童开始能够将作者情绪状态与图画特点联系起来,5.5岁儿童的水平在此基础上又有明显的发展。儿童对作者情绪状态与图画间关系的把握显示出一定的性别差异,但对图画传递的情绪信息的认知在各要素形式(颜色、线条、内容)之间差异不明显。