Form effects on the estimation of students' oral reading fluency using DIBELS

This study examined the effects of passage and presentation order on progress monitoring assessments of oral reading fluency in 134 second grade students. The students were randomly assigned to read six one-minute passages in one of six fixed orders over a seven week period. The passages had been developed to be comparable based on readability formulas. Estimates of oral reading fluency varied across the six stories (67.9 to 93.9), but not as a function of presentation order. These passage effects altered the shape of growth trajectories and affected estimates of linear growth rates, but were shown to be removed when forms were equated. Explicit equating is essential to the development of equivalent forms, which can vary in difficulty despite high correlations across forms and apparent equivalence through readability indices.     

Associations Between Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Religiousness in American Women in a National Health Survey

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in American women. Data are lacking from representative samples of total populations on the association of risk factors for breast cancer and religiousness. The sixth cycle of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG VI) included 3,766 women aged 30–44 years with complete data on self-reported religiousness, and selected breast cancer risk factors. Of women in the analysis, 1,008 reported having four or more breast cancer risk factors. Women who never attended services were over seven times more likely to report having four or more risk factors than those who attended more than weekly (P < 0.0001). After adjusting for age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, nativity, education and marital status by logistic regression, women who never attended services were still over six times more likely to report having four or more risk factors (P < 0.0001). The combination of frequent attendance at religious services, very high importance of religion in daily life, and self-identification as a Protestant evangelical was particularly protective. Multiple dimensions of religiousness are independently associated with multiple breast cancer risk factors.     

The physiology of women’s power motive: Implicit power motivation is positively associated with estradiol levels in women

This study examined the relationship between implicit power motivation (n Power) and salivary estradiol in women. Forty participants completed the Picture Story Exercise, a measure of n Power, and salivary estradiol levels from two saliva samples were determined with radioimmunoassay. We found that n Power was positively associated with estradiol levels. The positive correlation between n Power and estradiol was stronger in single women and women not taking oral contraceptives than in the overall sample of women. These findings replicate those of Stanton and Schultheiss (2007), giving further credence to the argument that women’s dominance striving is positively associated with their endogenous estradiol levels and that both social and biological factors influence the nature of that association.     

Development of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding

Milestones in the typical development of eating skills are considered to be nippling (breast or bottle), eating from a spoon, drinking from a cup, biting and chewing.The purpose of this research was to study the development and consolidation of oral motor behavior related to the skill assisted spoon feeding in young infants. The present study longitudinally investigated the development of this skill in 39 healthy children from the start of spoon feeding until the skill was acquired. The Observation List Spoon Feeding with 7 observation items for oral motor behavior and 6 items for abnormal behavior was used. Results showed that infants between 4 and 8 months of age needed 5.7 weeks (SD 2.1), with a range of 8 weeks (from 2 to 10 weeks) to acquire this skill. No significant correlation (p = .109) between age at start spoon feeding and weeks needed to develop the skill was found. During this period oral motor behavior consolidated and abnormal behavior diminished.With this study it is shown that the period in weeks needed to acquire the oral motor behavior for the skill assisted spoon feeding is important in case of feeding problems.     

Oral sex as mate retention behavior

Men perform “mate retention” behaviors to reduce the likelihood of their partner’s infidelity. One mate retention strategy men use is to increase their partner’s relationship satisfaction by provisioning her with benefits. We recruited 351 men to investigate whether men perform oral sex on their partner as part of a broader benefit-provisioning mate retention strategy. In support of the predictions, men who reported performing more mate retention behaviors, in general, and more benefit-provisioning mate retention behaviors, in particular, also reported greater interest in and spent more time performing oral sex on their partner. We present limitations of the research and discuss the benefits of an evolutionary perspective for investigating oral sex as a mate retention behavior.     

Women’s oral sex behaviors and risk of partner infidelity

Pham and Shackelford (2013a) documented that men at greater risk of their partner’s infidelity reported greater interest in and spent more time performing oral sex on their partner. The current study is an extension of their study to a female sample. We recruited 200 women to investigate whether women’s oral sex behaviors are related to the risk of their partner’s infidelity. The results indicate that women at greater risk of partner infidelity did not report more interest in, or spend more time performing, oral sex on their partner. Additionally, the relationships between partner infidelity risk and interest in, and time spent, performing oral sex were greater for men than women. We discuss limitations of this research and discuss explanations for the results.     

Plato's Vowels: How the Alphabet Influenced the Evolution of Consciousness

The Self‐Organizing Economy Paul Krugman Blackwell Publishers, Inc. Cambridge, MA, 1996, paper; pp. 122, appendix, index; $17.95 USD.

Constraints and Possibilities: The Evolution of Knowledge and the Knowledge of Evolution Mauro Ceruti (Translated by Alfonso Montuori. The World Futures General Evolution Studies, Volume 8). Gordon and Breach, 1994 (Hard cover, 159 pages) $40 USD.     

Bidirectional lexical-gustatory synesthesia

In developmental lexical–gustatory synesthesia, specific words (inducers) can trigger taste perceptions (concurrents) and these synesthetic associations are generally stable. We describe a case of multilingual lexical–gustatory synesthesia for whom some synesthesias were bidirectional as some tastes also triggered auditory word associations. Evoked concurrents could be gustatory but also tactile sensations. In addition to words and pseudowords, many voices were effective inducers, suggesting increased connections between cortical taste areas and both voice-selective and language-selective areas. Lasting changes in some evoked tastes occurred during childhood suggesting that some plasticity can be present after the initial learning of associations. Inducers were often linked to taste concurrents phonologically or semantically, but also through identifiable childhood episodes (persons or events). Several inducers were phonologically linked to episodic inducers suggesting a process of secondary acquisition for many inducers. Implications of these observations are discussed.     

Neuroanatomical correlates of oral reading in acute left hemispheric stroke

Oral reading is a complex skill involving the interaction of orthographic, phonological, and semantic processes. Functional imaging studies with nonimpaired adult readers have identified a widely distributed network of frontal, inferior parietal, posterior temporal, and occipital brain regions involved in the task. However, while functional imaging can identify cortical regions engaged in the process under examination, it cannot identify those brain regions essential for the task. The current study aimed to identify those neuroanatomical regions critical for successful oral reading by examining the relationship between word and nonword oral reading deficits and areas of tissue dysfunction in acute stroke. We evaluated 91 patients with left hemisphere ischemic stroke with a test of oral word and nonword reading, and magnetic resonance diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted imaging, within 24-48 h of stroke onset. A voxel-wise statistical map showed that impairments in word and nonword reading were associated with a distributed network of brain regions, including the inferior and middle frontal gyri, the middle temporal gyrus, the supramarginal and angular gyri, and the middle occipital gyrus. In addition, lesions associated with word deficits were found to be distributed more frontally, while nonword deficits were associated with lesions distributed more posteriorly.     

Use of Brief Instructional Trials to Identify Small Group Reading Strategies: A Two Experiment Study

The Instructional Hierarchy (IH) has proven useful for understanding the functional properties of empirically valid instructional strategies. Investigators have relied heavily on the IH as a heuristic in conceptualizing instructional components used in brief experimental analyses. To date, only one investigation has applied brief experimental analysis results to small group reading interventions. The purpose of this paper is to describe two studies which used single session instructional trials to identify interventions that were subsequently applied to small group reading instruction. In both studies, individualized instructional trials that probed for skill and performance deficits were carried out and results suggested that all students benefited from the instructional intervention. Next, the intervention was implemented in a small group format. In Experiment 2, however, validation of the instructional package was carried out by the classroom teacher who delivered the instructional package to the small group. In both cases, extended experimental analyses suggested that the intervention was effective at improving all participants’ generalized reading fluency. Results of both studies are discussed in terms of how future studies can refine procedures for validating instructional and motivational components before classroom applications.