听写困难儿童的整体字形加工特点

听写困难是指儿童能够认读不能听写的现象。本研究以部件启动和整字启动任务中的探测字命名反应时差值,作为整体字形加工水平的指标,间接考察了听写困难儿童的整体字形加工特点。结果发现,听写对照组被试的整体字形加工在呈现时间为75 ms和300 ms时发生,而在150 ms时没有发生;听写困难组被试的整体字形加工仅在75 ms时发生,而在150 ms和300 ms时未发生。两组被试在75 ms时的整体字形加工水平之间没有显著差异。结果表明,听写困难被试仅仅在早期知觉阶段存在整体字形加工,而在词汇加工阶段的整体字形加工缺乏或延迟。     

The representation of discourse in the two hemispheres: an individual differences investigation

Two experiments were conducted to investigate discourse representation in the two cerebral hemispheres as a function of reading skill. We used a lateralized visual-field procedure to compare left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) sensitivity to different discourse relations in readers with varying skill levels. In Experiment 1, we investigated two levels of discourse representation in memory: (a) the propositional representation and (b) the discourse model. We found that all readers were sensitive to propositional relations in the LH. In contrast, sensitivity to propositional relations in the RH increased as a function of reading skill. In addition, reading skill was positively related to topic relations in the LH, whereas it was negatively in the RH. In Experiment 2, we investigated propositional relations of different distances and again found that all readers were sensitive to propositional relations in the LH, whereas sensitivity to propositional relations in the RH was negatively related to reading skill. In general, reading skill appears to be associated with left-lateralized discourse representations.     

大学生同一性与职业探索、职业决策困难的关系

采用问卷法对439名大学生的同一性与职业探索、职业决策困难的关系进行了研究.研究结果表明:(1)不同同一性地位类型的大学生在职业探索上存在显著差异,环境探索和自我探索两个维度的得分都呈现出达成型>延缓型>早闭型>混乱型的趋势,同一性地位越高,职业探索得分越高.(2)不同同一性地位类型的大学生在职业决策困难上存在显著差异,职业决策困难各维度得分及各维度平均分上大致呈现出同一性地位越高,职业决策困难得分越低的趋势.     

情绪性权衡困难下的决策行为

权衡是决策行为的一个重要特点。情绪性权衡困难是指决策者在对与价值目标相关的特性进行权衡时会产生负性情绪,从而在情感上难以对不同的特性进行权衡。在情绪性权衡困难条件下,认知努力最小化、准确性最大化与负性情绪最小化标准共同影响决策行为,表现出不同于低情绪性决策行为的特点。     

Promoting Generalization of Oral Reading Fluency: Providing Drill versus Practice Opportunities

Extensive evidence exists demonstrating the benefits of repeated readings (RR) interventions at increasing students’ fluency on intervention passages. Few studies however have examined the extent to which repeatedly reading one passage improves students’ reading fluency on similar passages. Using an alternating treatment design, we examined the extent to which two interventions resulted in improvements in students’ fluency on generalization passages. While both interventions incorporated RR, one intervention involved students reading one passage four times and the other involved students reading two similar passages each twice. Intervention effects were evaluated by having students read a generalization passage prior to and following intervention implementation. Results indicate that both interventions were effective in increasing students reading fluency on generalization passages. For 3 participants the RR intervention produced greater gains in fluency on the generalization passages, while data for the remaining 3 participants are inconclusive. Implications of these findings for practice and for better understanding application of the instructional hierarchy to the development of reading interventions are discussed.

Career barriers and reading ability as correlates of career aspirations and expectations of parents and their children

Data were obtained from 176 Year 7 children (mean age = 12.2 years) on career status aspirations and expectations, career barriers, academic engagement, academic control beliefs, general ability and literacy; and from parents, mainly mothers, on aspirations, expectations and career barriers. Discrepancy scores between aspirations and expectations were calculated for both children and parents. Children differed from parents on career status aspirations and expectations; boys did not differ from girls, and parents did not differentiate between boys and girls. Parents’ and children’s aspirations were both associated with reading ability, although the association was weak for the children. Children’s expectations were associated with perceptions of career barriers, and a trend towards reading abilities, while parents’ expectations were associated with general ability and reading.     

Correlates of Canadian native children's reading performance: From cognitive styles to cognitive processes

Individual differences in reading and cognitive processing among a sample of generally poor readers were studied in order to answer two major questions: Do they have a specific cognitive style that favors global-simultaneous strategies and a weak sequential strategy? If they do not have a distinct cognitive style or strategy, but are merely poor in using sequential (Successive) strategies, then, would the same processes that influence reading performance in the general population determine their performance as well? A sample of 84 Canadian First Nations (FN) children were assessed in word and pseudoword reading, rapid naming speed, and ability to process information using the Planning, Attention, Successive, and Simultaneous (PASS) theory of intelligence. Results confirmed that this sample of children did not exhibit a specific cognitive style. Rather, there was evidence of a weakness in Successive processing only in the subgroup of poor readers. The importance of understanding the role of Successive processing and rapid naming speed relative to reading is further discussed.     

阅读理解困难儿童的认知加工

阅读理解困难是阅读障碍的一个主要类型,近年来受到西方研究者的重视。阅读理解认知加工,核心是有层次的语义加工,理解困难儿童在词汇语义加工和篇章推理和整合上都存在落后。理解困难儿童的信息推理水平落后,可能原因来自两个方面：一方面是语音工作记忆缺陷导致推理加工能力缺陷,另一方面是阅读元认知缺陷导致阅读目的和理解监控发展不正常。这些缺陷之间复杂的关系,还需要进一步研究     

Aging and individual differences in binding during sentence understanding: Evidence from temporary and global syntactic attachment ambiguities

We report an investigation of aging and individual differences in binding information during sentence understanding. An age-continuous sample of adults (N = 91), ranging from 18 to 81 years of age, read sentences in which a relative clause could be attached high to a head noun NP1, attached low to its modifying prepositional phrase NP2 (e.g., The son of the princess who scratched himself/herself in public was humiliated), or in which the attachment site of the relative clause was ultimately indeterminate (e.g., The maid of the princess who scratched herself in public was humiliated). Word-by-word reading times and comprehension (e.g., who scratched?) were measured. A series of mixed-effects models were fit to the data, revealing: (1) that, on average, NP1-attached sentences were harder to process and comprehend than NP2-attached sentences; (2) that these average effects were independently moderated by verbal working memory capacity and reading experience, with effects that were most pronounced in the oldest participants and; (3) that readers on average did not allocate extra time to resolve global ambiguities, though older adults with higher working memory span did. Findings are discussed in relation to current models of lifespan cognitive development, working memory, language experience, and the role of prosodic segmentation strategies in reading. Collectively, these data suggest that aging brings differences in sentence understanding, and these differences may depend on independent influences of verbal working memory capacity and reading experience.     

Contrasting two models of academic self‐efficacy – domain‐specific versus cross‐domain – in children receiving and not receiving special instruction in mathematics

In social cognitive theory, self‐efficacy is domain‐specific. An alternative model, the cross‐domain influence model, would predict that self‐efficacy beliefs in one domain might influence performance in other domains. Research has also found that children who receive special instruction are not good at estimating their performance. The aim was to test two models of how self‐efficacy beliefs influence achievement, and to contrast children receiving special instruction in mathematics with normally‐achieving children. The participants were 73 fifth‐grade children who receive special instruction and 70 children who do not receive any special instruction. In year four and five, the children's skills in mathematics and reading were assessed by national curriculum tests, and in their fifth year, self‐efficacy in mathematics and reading were measured. Structural equation modeling showed that in domains where children do not receive special instruction in mathematics, self‐efficacy is a mediating variable between earlier and later achievement in the same domain. Achievement in mathematics was not mediated by self‐efficacy in mathematics for children who receive special instruction. For normal achieving children, earlier achievement in the language domain had an influence on later self‐efficacy in the mathematics domain, and self‐efficacy beliefs in different domains were correlated. Self‐efficacy is mostly domain specific, but may play a different role in academic performance depending on whether children receive special instruction. The results of the present study provided some support of the Cross‐Domain Influence Model for normal achieving children.