The elusive nature of early phonological priming effects: are there individual differences?

Lukatela and Turvey (2000) demonstrated a phonological priming effect in the lexical decision task (LDT) with a 14-ms prime and concluded that phonology plays a central role in word meaning activation. In contrast, several other researchers reported that phonological priming is significant only at much longer prime durations (e.g., Ferrand & Grainger, 1994). In two replication attempts (Experiments 1a and 1b), involving a 15-ms prime duration, we found a clear phonological priming effect in one LDT and no evidence of phonological priming in another virtually identical LDT. In Experiment 2, in an attempt to determine whether individual differences may account for the presence or lack of a phonological priming effect, we also tested phonological and perceptual skill. Only participants higher in perceptual and phonological skill showed a phonological priming effect. We conclude that these (and potentially other) variables may have been responsible for previous inconsistent findings of early phonological priming effects.     

A single optimum degree of hemispheric specialisation in two tasks, in two UK national birth cohorts

How differences between the two sides of the brain (or 'laterality') relate to level of function are important components of theories of the origin and purpose of hemispheric asymmetry, although different measures show different relationships, and this heterogeneity makes discerning any underlying relationships a difficult task. There are some exceptions, for example it has been concluded that increasing lateralization (eg of hand skill or planum temporale area) occurs at the expense of the non-dominant hemisphere. However, we have previously demonstrated this latter relationship to be an artefact: a consequence of plotting two variables against each other, that are not independent of each other [Leask, S. J., & Crow, T. J. (1997) How far does the brain lateralize? An unbiased method for determining the optimum degree of hemispheric specialisation. Neuropsychologia, 36, 1275-1282; Mazoyer, B. M., & Tzourio-Mazoyer, N. G. (2004). Title Planum temporale asymmetry and models of dominance for language: a reappraisal. Neuroreport, 15, 1057-1059]. Two approaches to discerning any underlying relationships are presented in data from over 20,000 10- and 11-year olds from the 1958 and 1970 UK national cohort studies. These demonstrate that maximal performance, both cognitive and hand function, is found in association with one particular degree of functional lateralization.     

Motor learning without physical practice: The effects of combined action observation and motor imagery practice on cup-stacking speed

In this study we explored training effects for combined action observation and motor imagery (AO + MI) instructions on a complex cup-stacking task, without physical practice. Using a Graeco-Latin Square design, we randomly assigned twenty-six participants into four groups. This counterbalanced the within-participant factor of practice condition (AO + MI, AO, MI, Control) across four cup-stacking tasks, which varied in their complexity. On each of the three consecutive practice days participants experienced twenty trials under each of the three mental practice conditions. On each trial, a first-person perspective video depicted bilateral cup-stacking performed by an experienced model. During AO, participants passively observed this action, responding only to occasional colour cues. For AO + MI, participants imagined performing the observed action and synchronised their concurrent MI with the display. For MI, a sequence of pictures cued imagery of each stage of the task. Analyses revealed a significant main effect of practice condition both at the ’surprise’ post-test (Day 3) and at the one-week retention test. At both time points movement execution times were significantly shorter for AO + MI compared with AO, MI and the Control. Execution times were also shorter overall at the retention compared with the post-test. These results demonstrate that a complex novel motor task can be acquired without physical training. Practitioners can therefore use AO + MI practice to supplement physical practice and optimise skill learning.     

Empirical indistinguishability: From the knowledge structure to the skills

Recent literature has pointed out that the basic local independence model (BLIM) when applied to some specific instances of knowledge structures presents identifiability issues. Furthermore, it has been shown that for such instances the model presents a stronger form of unidentifiability named empirical indistinguishability, which leads to the fact that the existence of certain knowledge states in such structures cannot be empirically tested. In this article the notion of indistinguishability is extended to skill maps and, more generally, to the competence-based knowledge space theory. Theoretical results are provided showing that skill maps can be empirically indistinguishable from one another. The most relevant consequence of this is that for some skills there is no empirical evidence to establish their existence. This result is strictly related to the type of probabilistic model investigated, which is essentially the BLIM. Alternative models may exist or can be developed in knowledge space theory for which this indistinguishability problem disappears.     

Pyramid training of elementary school teachers to use a classroom management "skill package"

Three regular elementary teachers were trained in the use of a classroom management "skill package". Subsequently, each of these three teachers (tier 1 of training) trained three more teachers to use the same skill package (tier 2 of training). Direct behavioral measures of student disruptiveness were taken in the three tier-1 classrooms and four tier-2 classrooms, and permanent product measures of student productivity in arithmetic were taken in the three tier-1 classrooms. Results indicated that student disruptiveness decreased at least as much in the tier-2 classrooms as in the tier-1 classrooms. Data also indicated that serving as trainers benefited two of the tier-1 teachers who profited least from the original training by producing further reductions in disruptiveness in their respective classrooms. Productivity data suggested that use of the "skill package" increased classroom academic output, especially for those students below the median in productivity during baseline. The investigators' time investment in training a tier-2 teacher was one-fourth that of training a tier-1 teacher.     

港口门机事故驾驶员与非事故驾驶员身心素质比较

采用ＹＧ人格测验量表、团体智力筛选测验量表、复杂划消测验、双手调节器及深度知觉仪对港口门机事故驾驶员和非事故驾驶员所进行的研究表明：两组门机驾驶员在１２项人格特征以及智力、选择反应能力上未显示出显著性差异;事故组门机驾驶员双手协调及注意分配能力和深度知觉能力明显低于非事故组门机驾驶员;技能水平与事故之间存在显著的正相关．     

Patterns of Parental Adherence and the Association to Child and Parenting Outcomes Following a Multicomponent School-Home Intervention for Youth With ADHD

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the role of parent adherence in the Collaborative Life Skills (CLS) program, a multicomponent school-home intervention, for predicting child and parenting outcomes. A sample of 129 children (63% male; M age = 8.22, SD = 1.10; grades 2–5) with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their parents participated in CLS, which included 10 weekly behavioral parent training group sessions. Each week, parents provided information on their CLS skill use between sessions (at home) as part of the intervention. Outcome measures included parent and teacher ratings of child behavior and parenting at post-intervention and 6 months follow-up. Growth mixture models examining weekly parent skill use trajectories throughout the intervention significantly predicted parent- and teacher-reported outcomes including parent-rated child behavior, teacher-rated academic competence, and positive parenting behaviors. Fifty-two percent of parents displayed moderate skill use throughout the intervention, whereas the remaining parents had either low (20%) or high (28%) initial levels of use but demonstrated high skill utilization by the middle of the intervention. Results highlight the importance of examining individual differences in parents between session strategy use for behavioral parent training interventions targeting child and parenting outcomes.     

The effect of brief delays to reinforcement on the acquisition of tacts in children with autism

We used discrete‐trial training to teach 3 children with autism to tact shapes of countries using 3 levels of reinforcement delay for correct responding: 0 s (immediate delivery), 6 s, and 12 s. Two of the 3 participants acquired the targets more quickly in the immediate‐delivery condition, suggesting that delays as brief as 6 s may be detrimental to learning tacts for some children.     

Inserting mastered targets during error correction when teaching skills to children with autism

Research has identified a variety of effective approaches for responding to errors during discrete‐trial training. In one commonly used method, the therapist delivers a prompt contingent on the occurrence of an incorrect response and then re‐presents the trial so that the learner has an opportunity to perform the correct response independently. Some authors recommend inserting trials with previously mastered targets between the prompted response and opportunities to respond independently, but no studies have directly examined the benefits of this approach. In this study, we manipulated the placement of trials with mastered targets during discrete‐trial training to compare the effectiveness of error correction with and without this recommended insertion procedure. Four children with autism participated, and each was taught 18 targets across 3 target sets. Results indicated that embedding trials with mastered targets into error correction may not confer benefits for most children and that doing so may lead to less efficient instruction.     

汉语综合理解能力的测试及其初步分析

采用两个测试,多媒语言理解测试和文章的阅读理解测试,分别测量了大学生的汉语综合理解能力和阅读理解能力.多媒语言理解测试根据Gernsbacher的多媒理解量表编制而成.文章的阅读理解测试是莫雷编制的<语文阅读水平测量>中的一个分测验.测斌结果表明(1)两个测试之间有显著相关和较高的一致性,说明阅读是汉语综合理解的一个重要方面;(2)汉语综合理解能力有两个成分外部语言和内部语言理解能力;(3)书面语言的阅读理解与口头语言的听力理解显著相关,说明外部语言的理解受信息传递方式的影响较小.