Scale of reading fluency in Spanish: measuring the components of fluency / Escala de fluidez lectora en español: midiendo los componentes de la fluidez

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to design and validate a rating scale to measure reading fluency. As well as speed and accuracy, different dimensions of prosody were taken into account (volume, intonation, pauses and phrasing), aspects hardly considered in reading assessment. In addition, a measure of reading quality was included. 122 Spanish primary-school children (74 in Year 2 and 48 in Year 4) read aloud a narrative text. Using inter-rater criteria, children’s reading was assessed with this new rating scale (Scale of Reading Fluency in Spanish, SRFS) (Escala de Fluidez Lectora en Español, EFLE) and with the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (Rasinski, 2004). Standardized reading comprehension and prosodic reading tests were used as criterion measures. Results show acceptable reliability and validity coefficients. We conclude that SRFS appears to be a useful instrument for using in education and research contexts.     

Situated embodied cognition: Monitoring orientation cues affects product evaluation and choice

Consumers generally prefer products that are easy to interact with. In three studies, we show that this preference arises from the fit between product orientation and monitored situational constraints. Flexible right-handers, who monitor situational constraints, recall product orientations better and prefer products for which the handle is oriented in the direction of the hand used for grasping. When their ability to monitor situational constraints is impaired, the preference for easy-to-grasp products is attenuated. The findings highlight that motor fluency is a relevant cue for decision making when consumers assess how to interact with a product. The implications of these results for embodiment and fluency research are discussed.     

Parental Influences on Memories of Parents and Friends

The authors evaluated the role parent–child relationship quality has on two types of memories, those of parents and those of friends. Participants were 198 Italian university students who recalled memories during 4 separate timed memory-fluency tasks about their preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school and university years. Half were instructed to recall memories involving parents and the remainder memories involving friends. Moreover, parent–child relationships were assessed by the Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI; W. Furman & D. Buhrmester, 1985) and Adolescents’ Report of Parental Monitoring (D. M. Capaldi & G. R. Patterson, 1989). Results showed that men with positive parent–son relationships had more memories of parents and more affectively positive memories of friends, supporting a consistency model positing similarity between parent–child relationships and memories of friends. Women with positive parental relationship quality had more affectively positive memories of parents but for friends, positive relationship quality only predicted positive memories when young. At older ages, especially middle school-aged children, negative parent–daughter relationships predicted more positive memories of friends, supporting a compensatory model. The gender of parent also mattered, with fathers having a more influential role on affect for memories of friends.     

Verbal fluency in children with ADHD: Strategy using and temporal properties

Verbal fluency tasks are commonly used in cognitive and developmental neuropsychology in assessing executive functions, language skills as well as divergent thinking. Twenty-two typically developing children and 22 children with ADHD between the ages of 8 and12 years were examined using verbal fluency tasks, prepotent response inhibition, and working memory tests. The clinical group showed impaired inhibitory and spatial working memory processes. We used different qualitative analyses of verbal fluency tasks to explore the lexical and executive strategies (word clustering and switching), and the temporal properties of the responses. Children with ADHD had a leeway in applying relevant lexical or executive strategies related to difficulties in strategy using. The reduced efficiency of children with ADHD in semantic fluency task is based on suboptimal shifting between word clusters and is related to the lack of ability of producing new clusters of items. The group difference appeared at the level of accessing and/or activating common words; however, the executive process of searching the lexicon extensively is intact.     

Limitations in Verbal Fluency Following Heavy Burdens of Early Childhood Diarrhea in Brazilian Shantytown Children

The effects of heavy burdens of diarrhea in the first 2 years of life on specific executive control function like verbal fluency are not well understood. In previous studies, we have shown associations of early childhood diarrhea (ECD) with nonverbal intelligence and school functioning. Therefore, we postulated that ECD might affect early neuropsychological development leading to long-term deficits in normal cognitive development. Based on our extensive 14-year prospective cohort studies of early childhood diarrheal illnesses in a Brazilian shantytown community, we examined ECD correlations between specific impairments of higher mental function and executive skills in shantytown children 5–10 years later (now at 6–12) years of age. Specifically we examined whether heavy diarrheal illnesses correlate with reduced performance on selected tests of executive function. Our study, for the first time, suggests a disproportional impairment in semantic but not phonetic fluency in a subset of children with heavy burdens of diarrhea in their first 2 years of life even when controlling for maternal education, breastfeeding, and child schooling. Similar semantic decrements have been associated with impaired recovery from brain injury. These exploratory studies suggest the importance of verbal fluency tests to assess executive functioning in children challenged by poor nutrition and diarrhea in early life. In addition, our unique findings show the potential influences of early childhood diarrhea on language development that is so critical to productive adulthood and potentially set a foundation for new neuropsychological approaches, which assess early burdens of enteric illnesses on childhood development.     

国内中介效应的方法学研究

中介效应可以分析自变量对因变量的影响过程和作用机制, 已成为分析多个变量之间关系的一种重要统计方法。最近20年, 中介效应成了研究方法的一个热点。从中介效应的检验方法、效应量、类别变量的中介效应检验、纵向数据的中介效应检验和模型拓展(包括多重中介、多层中介、有调节的中介和有中介的调节模型)五个方面系统总结了国内中介效应的方法学研究的发展历程。最后对中介效应的国外方法学研究进展和中介效应的未来研究方向做了讨论和拓展。     

不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息是如何影响购买意愿的？——解释水平和加工流畅性的中介作用

研究基于解释水平理论,探讨了不同社交媒体平台上口碑信息对购买意愿的影响及机制。结果发现：（1）不同社交媒体平台可以激发不同社会距离感;（2）接收高解释水平口碑时,社会距离远平台的用户购买意愿更高,接收低解释水平口碑时,社会距离近平台的用户购买意愿更高,平台类型与口碑类型在解释水平上匹配时影响力最大;（3）其机制是：口碑类型通过调节用户心理表征的解释水平对加工流畅性的影响,进而调节了“平台类型→解释水平→加工流畅性→购买意愿”这一链式中介路径。