Global processing speed as a mediator of developmental changes in children's auditory memory span

This study examined the role of global processing speed in mediating age increases in auditory memory span in 5- to 13-year-olds. Children were tested on measures of memory span, processing speed, single-word speech rate, phonological sensitivity, and vocabulary. Structural equation modeling supported a model in which age-associated increases in processing speed predicted the availability of long-term memory phonological representations for redintegration processes. The availability of long-term phonological representations, in turn, explained variance in memory span. Maximum speech rate did not predict independent variance in memory span.     

Antecedent reactivation by surface and deep anaphora in Norwegian

Anaphora are expressions in language that depend on other linguistic entities for their full meaning. They can furthermore be divided into two types according to the level of representation where they find their antecedents: Surface anaphora, which resolve their reference at the sentence representation level, and deep anaphora, which resolve their reference at the non-grammatical level of discourse representation. The linguistic theory of these two anaphor types, and recent findings about processing differences at these two levels, combine to predict that surface anaphora should show fast and immediate reactivation of their antecedents, whereas deep anaphora should have a slower time course of antecedent re-access. These predictions were confirmed with two lexical decision task experiments with Norwegian stimuli.     

Variability of the MAX and MIN Statistic: A Theory of the Quantile Spread as a Function of Sample Size

The maximum and minimum of a sample from a probability distribution are extremely important random variables in many areas of psychological theory, methodology, and statistics. For instance, the behavior of the mean of the maximum or minimum processing time, as a function of the number of component random processing times (n), has been studied extensively in an effort to identify the underlying processing architecture (e.g., Townsend & Ashby, 1983; Colonius & Vorberg, 1994). Little is known concerning how measures of variability of the maximum or minimum change with n. Here, a new measure of random variability, the quantile spread, is introduced, which possesses sufficient strength to define distributional orderings and derive a number of results concerning variability of the maximum and the minimum statistics. The quantile spread ordering may be useful in many venues. Several interesting open problems are pointed out. This work was supported by an NIH Grant R01 MH57717 to the first author. Some of the collaboration took place during the year 2000 while J.T. Townsend was a Fellow at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study (HWK), sponsored by H. Colonius at Oldenburg University.     

执行功能中认知灵活性发展的研究进展

近十多年以来,执行功能已成为研究的热点和前沿。认知灵活性是执行功能的主要成分,它对个体能力发展和对环境适应的方面起着重要作用。该文从认知灵活性的本质、发展、研究方法及其与教育的关系进行探讨。     

Spoken Idiom Recognition: Meaning Retrieval and Word Expectancy

This study investigates recognition of spoken idioms occurring in neutral contexts. Experiment 1 showed that both predictable and non-predictable idiom meanings are available at string offset. Yet, only predictable idiom meanings are active halfway through a string and remain active after the string’s literal conclusion. Experiment 2 showed that the initial fragment of a predictable idiom inhibits recognition of a word providing a congruous, but literal, conclusion to the expression. No comparable effects were obtained with non-predictable idioms. These findings are consistent with the view that spoken idiom identification differs from word recognition and occurs word-by-word, just as with other familiar, multi-lexical phrases.The present study was supported by PRIN 2003–2004. We would like to thank Corrado Cavallero, Simona Collina, Melinda Tucker and Francesco Zardon for their valuable help.     

Processing coordinated structures: incrementality and connectedness

We recorded participants' eye movements while they read sentences containing verb-phrase coordination. Results showed evidence of immediate processing disruption when a reflexive pronoun embedded in the conjoined verb phrase mismatched the sentence subject. We argue that this result is incompatible with models of human parsing that employ only bottom-up parsing procedures, even when flexible constituency is employed. Models need to incorporate a mechanism similar to the adjoining operation in Tree-Adjoining Grammar, in which one structure is inserted into another.     

Psychometric Properties of the Grief Cognitions Questionnaire (GCQ)

Cognitive behavioral conceptualizations of complicated grief propose that negative cognitions play a core role in the development and persistence of emotional problems after bereavement, because they generate negative emotions and cause mourners to engage in counterproductive attempts to avoid the implications and the pain of the loss. To facilitate the assessment of potentially problematic cognitions after bereavement, the Grief Cognitions Questionnaire (GCQ) has been developed—a 38-item questionnaire representing 9 categories of cognitions. Building on a previous study that supported the reliability and validity of the GCQ, the current study further examined its psychometric properties, with data of 531 bereaved individuals who completed research questionnaires online through the Internet. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the nine-factor structure with 9 interrelated factors. The reliability and convergent and discriminative validity were found to be adequate. Altogether the GCQ seems to be a useful tool for the assessment of negative thinking after bereavement in research and clinical practice.     

A Meta-Analysis of Cognitive Deficits in Adults with a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia

This review identified 1275 studies examining cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia, published between 1990 and 2003. Data from 113 studies (4365 patients and 3429 controls) were combined in a meta-analysis carried out on the five cognitive domains of IQ, memory, language, executive function, and attention. Studies were excluded where they lacked a suitable control group or failed to present complete information. In all five cognitive domains, analysis indicated a consistent trend for patients to perform more poorly than healthy controls, with significant heterogeneity across studies. Sources of heterogeneity were analyzed and a need to ensure more appropriate composition of patient and control groups and to adopt a more refined and methodologically correct, hypothesis-driven approach was identified.     

发展性阅读障碍者的快速命名缺陷

快速命名任务是一种需要命名多个高熟悉项目的认知任务,尤其适合用来对成因复杂的发展性阅读障碍进行研究。许多研究者使用不同类型的快速命名任务发现,发展性阅读障碍者的快速命名缺陷在眼动过程表现为中央凹和副中央凹的加工困难,在认知过程中表现为抑制能力较差等。未来的研究中应该注意到快速命名缺陷的复杂性,采用多种方法相结合的方式来探究快速命名缺陷的本质,从而建立系统性的假说。     

Negative Affect in Victimized Children: The Roles of Social Withdrawal, Peer Rejection, and Attitudes Toward Bullying

This study evaluated the validity of mediating pathways in predicting self-assessed negative affect from shyness/social withdrawal, peer rejection, victimization by peers (overt and relational), and the attitude that aggression is legitimate and warranted. Participants were 296 3rd through 5th graders (156 girls, 140 boys) from 10 elementary schools. Self-report measures of victimization, attitudes, and negative affect, and a teacher-report measure of shyness/social withdrawal and peer rejection were completed during the spring semesters of 2 consecutive years. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the mediational model in predicting negative affect at Time 2. However, an increase in negative affect over the 12-month study period was best accounted for by direct effects of increased victimization and changes in attitudes/attributions regarding aggression. Implications for the planning of school interventions designed to interrupt these victimization-maladjustment pathways are discussed.