Effets de l’âge et de la capacité de mémoire de travail sur l’exécution d’instructions de complexité variable chez des adultes jeunes et âgés

Technical devices are part of elderly people's daily life. Meanwhile, research has not yet systematically explored how old people understand procedural instructions accompanying these devices. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate how age and memory span affect how people follow procedural instructions. To do so, the Reading Span Test of Daneman & Carpenter (1980) and an adaptation of the Kaplan & White's (1980) following directions game were administrated to young and older adults. The Reading Span Test was administrated in order to determine the participants’ memory span size. Then, participants had to follow procedural instructions with a growing complexity displayed on a computer screen. Results show that participants’ age and instructions complexity affect how the instructions are performed. Old adults encounter more difficulty performing the task than young adults. Furthermore, whatever the age, as the complexity of instructions increases, low-span participants have more difficulty performing instructions than high-span participants do.     

Slow wave maturation on a visual working memory task

The purpose of the present study is to analyze how the Slow Wave develops in the retention period on a visual Delayed Match-to-Sample task performed by 170 subjects between 6 and 26 years old, divided into 5 age groups. In addition, a neuropsychological test (Working Memory Test Battery for Children) was correlated with this Event Related Potential (ERP) in order to observe possible relationships between Slow Wave maturation and the components of Baddeley and Hitch’s Working Memory model.The results showed a slow negativity during the retention period in the posterior region in all the age groups, possibly resulting from sustained neural activity related to the visual item presented. In the anterior region, a positive slow wave was observed in the youngest subjects. Dipole analysis suggests that this fronto-central positivity in children (6–13 years old) consists of the positive side of the posterior negativity, once these subjects only needed two posterior dipoles to explain almost all the neural activity. Negative correlations were shown between the Slow Wave and the Working Memory Test Battery for Children, indicating a commonality in assessing Working Memory with the Slow Wave and the neuropsychological testing.     

Procedimientos analítico-racionales en la adaptación de tests. Adaptación al español de la batería de pruebas de razonamiento

Adapting a test between cultures or languages requires taking into account legal, linguistic, metric, and use-related considerations. Significantly more attention has been paid to the methodological aspects involved in the study of metric equivalence than to judgmental-analytical procedures prior to the empirical confirmation stage. However, considering the latter is crucial in the adaptation process. Along these lines, this paper seeks to describe and focus on the relevance of the previous stages, thereby offering a systematization process that comprises ten sections. This approach contributes to ensuring the construction of a test adapted and equivalent in as much as possible to the original. This process is exemplified by means of a Spanish language adaptation of a cognitive test originally designed in Portuguese for the Portuguese population, the Reasoning Test Battery.     

Classroom-based programs of retrieval practice reduce middle school and high school students’ test anxiety

When retrieval practice is applied in classroom settings, do K-12 students experience changes in test anxiety? To answer this question frequently asked by educators, we surveyed 1408 middle school and high school students about their study strategy preferences and their reactions to a classroom-based program of retrieval practice. For classes in which retrieval practice occurred, 92% of students reported that retrieval practice helped them learn and 72% reported that retrieval practice made them less nervous for unit tests and exams. This study is the first to examine the relationship between retrieval practice and classroom test anxiety, and self-reported study strategy use in pre-college students. In light of our results, we encourage K-12 teachers to use retrieval practice in their classrooms to reduce test anxiety and improve learning.     

When implicit fails: Explicit but not implicit attitudes predict choices of decided and undecided voters

IntroductionA recent study (Friese et al., 2012) involving two major political elections in the US and Germany reported that voting behavior was better predicted by explicit than implicit attitudes for both decided and undecided voters and that when voting behavior was predicted by implicit attitudes, the prediction was better for decided than undecided voters.ObjectiveWe conducted a comparable study for the 2012 French presidential election using voter volatility as a measure of voter decidedness, in order to test the generalizability of the findings of Friese et al. (2012).MethodParticipants’ voting intention, explicit and implicit attitudes towards the candidates Sarkozy and Hollande were collected during the 2 weeks separating the two rounds of the election.ResultsOur findings confirm that explicit attitudes outperform implicit attitudes when predicting voting choice, but not that the relationship between implicit attitudes and voting intention is moderated by voter decidedness.ConclusionFurther research is needed in order to test whether the moderation of implicit attitudes by voter decidedness is a robust finding or not.     

罗夏墨迹测验中“装好”与诈病反应的研究与进展

传统观念认为罗夏测验具有投射测验的性质,因此受测者无法在其测验中故意“装好”和诈病。但相关研究发现,受测者的“装好”反应对于罗夏测验结果没有产生实质性的影响,不能改变罗夏测验的基本数据特征和结构汇总性量表;而诈病反应的研究结论不尽相同,受测者有可能造成罗夏测验变量得分的改变,伪装成相应精神病理症状。如果联合使用MMPI和罗夏测验,则可以精确地评估受测者的伪装反应。目前已有的研究存在被试取样单一、研究数量偏少、无法确定临界值等问题。罗夏测验“装好”和诈病反应研究还处于初步阶段,需要继续深入研究并建立专门的“装好”和诈病量表。     

Assessing the Multi-faceted Nature of Test Anxiety Among Secondary School Students: An English Version of the German Test Anxiety Questionnaire: PAF-E

The current study concerns the validation of an English version of the German Test Anxiety Inventory, namely the PAF-E. This questionnaire is a multi-faceted measure of test anxiety designed to detect normative test anxiety levels and in consequence meet the need of consultancy. Construct and criterion validity of (PAF-E) were examined with a sample of 96 secondary students (Mage = 12.8, SD = 0.67; 55% girls) from an international school in Berlin (Germany) and 399 secondary students (Mage = 13.4, SD = 0.80; 56% girls) from Montréal (Canada). Both samples completed the PAF-E and related constructs, such as school-related self-efficacy, inhibitory test anxiety, achievement motivation, and the Big Five. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the four-factor-structure (worry, emotionality, interfering thoughts, lack of confidence) of the original German Test Anxiety Inventory (PAF). Each subscale consists of five items with a total of 20 questions. Cronbach's alpha, ranging from.71 to.82 among Germans and.77 to.87 among Canadians as well as the re-test reliability (from.80 to.85 among Canadians) were sufficient. The differential patterns of correlations between other constructs and the indices of test anxiety indicate good construct validity.     

Load release balance test under unstable conditions effectively discriminates between physically active and sedentary young adults

This study investigates test-retest reliability and diagnostic accuracy of the load release balance test under four varied conditions. Young, early and late middle-aged physically active and sedentary subjects performed the test over 2 testing sessions spaced 1 week apart while standing on either (1) a stable or (2) an unstable surface with (3) eyes open (EO) and (4) eyes closed (EC), respectively. Results identified that test-retest reliability of parameters of the load release balance test was good to excellent, with high values of ICC (0.78–0.92) and low SEM (7.1%–10.7%). The peak and the time to peak posterior center of pressure (CoP) displacement were significantly lower in physically active as compared to sedentary young adults (21.6% and 21.0%) and early middle-aged adults (22.0% and 20.9%) while standing on a foam surface with EO, and in late middle-aged adults on both unstable (25.6% and 24.5%) and stable support surfaces with EO (20.4% and 20.0%). The area under the ROC curve >0.80 for these variables indicates good discriminatory accuracy. Thus, these variables of the load release balance test measured under unstable conditions have the ability to differentiate between groups of physically active and sedentary adults as early as from 19 years of age.     

TENI: A comprehensive battery for cognitive assessment based on games and technology

TENI (Test de Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil) is an instrument developed to assess cognitive abilities in children between 3 and 9 years of age. It is based on a model that incorporates games and technology as tools to improve the assessment of children’s capacities. The test was standardized with two Chilean samples of 524 and 82 children living in urban zones. Evidence of reliability and validity based on current standards is presented. Data show good levels of reliability for all subtests. Some evidence of validity in terms of content, test structure, and association with other variables is presented. This instrument represents a novel approach and a new frontier in cognitive assessment. Further studies with clinical, rural, and cross-cultural populations are required.     

The influence of reporting mode on children's cued personal memories

The Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) is widely used in research contexts to measure the extent to which participants (children or adults) report specific or general memories in response to cue words. Recalling fewer specific and more general memories (overgeneral memory) has been shown to be linked to depression in adults, but findings for youth, in particular, are mixed. Different versions of the AMT may be one contributing factor, yet this issue has received little research attention. The current study investigated the influence of reporting mode (written vs. spoken) on the specificity, length, and content of memories provided by 8- to 10-year-old children (N?=?48). No significant differences were found in the number of specific responses given in the written and spoken modes. On the other hand, the spoken mode elicited longer and more detailed memories, although most content differences were eliminated when memory length was controlled. These findings suggest that different reporting modes can influence the nature of the memories reported, but the absolute differences are relatively small.