Influence of semantic consistency and perceptual features on visual attention during scene viewing in toddlers

Conceptual representations of everyday scenes are built in interaction with visual environment and these representations guide our visual attention. Perceptual features and object-scene semantic consistency have been found to attract our attention during scene exploration. The present study examined how visual attention in 24-month-old toddlers is attracted by semantic violations and how perceptual features (i. e. saliency, centre distance, clutter and object size) and linguistic properties (i. e. object label frequency and label length) affect gaze distribution. We compared eye movements of 24-month-old toddlers and adults while exploring everyday scenes which either contained an inconsistent (e.g., soap on a breakfast table) or consistent (e.g., soap in a bathroom) object. Perceptual features such as saliency, centre distance and clutter of the scene affected looking times in the toddler group during the whole viewing time whereas looking times in adults were affected only by centre distance during the early viewing time. Adults looked longer to inconsistent than consistent objects either if the objects had a high or a low saliency. In contrast, toddlers presented semantic consistency effect only when objects were highly salient. Additionally, toddlers with lower vocabulary skills looked longer to inconsistent objects while toddlers with higher vocabulary skills look equally long to both consistent and inconsistent objects. Our results indicate that 24-month-old children use scene context to guide visual attention when exploring the visual environment. However, perceptual features have a stronger influence in eye movement guidance in toddlers than in adults. Our results also indicate that language skills influence cognitive but not perceptual guidance of eye movements during scene perception in toddlers.     

Improvement in children’s fine motor skills following a computerized typing intervention

Children spend a large proportion of their school day engaged in tasks that require manual dexterity. If children experience difficulties with their manual dexterity skills it can have a consequential effect on their academic achievement. The first aim of this paper was to explore whether an online interactive typing intervention could improve children’s scores on a standardised measure of manual dexterity. The second aim was to implement a serial reaction time tapping task as an index of children's finger movement learning, and to see whether performance on this task would improve after the intervention. Seventy-eight typically developing children aged between 8 and 10 were tested at their school on the pre-intervention Movement Assessment Battery for Children (2nd edition; MABC-2) and tapping tasks. Twenty-eight of these children volunteered to be randomly allocated to the intervention or control group. Children in the intervention group had a choice of two online games to play at home over a period of four weeks, while the children in the control group were not given these games to play. The intervention and control groups were then re-tested on the MABC-2 manual dexterity and the tapping task. Children in the intervention group significantly improved their manual dexterity scores in the MABC-2 compared to the control group. On average, all children learnt the tapping sequence, however, there were no group differences and no effect of the intervention on the tapping task. These results have important implications for implementing a freely available, easy to administer, fun and interactive intervention to help children improve their manual dexterity skills.     

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.     

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.     

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.

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.     

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.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。