Quantitative assessment of drawing tests in children with dyslexia and dysgraphia

Drawing tests in children diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia were quantitatively compared. Fourteen children with dysgraphia, 19 with dyslexia and 13 normally developing were asked to copy 3 figures: a circle, a square and a cross. An optoelectronic system allowed the acquisition of the drawing track in three-dimensions. The participants’ head position and upper limb movements were measured as well. A set of parameters including movement duration, velocity, length of the trace, Range of Motion of the upper limb, was computed and compared among the 3 groups. Children with dyslexia traced the circle faster than the other groups. In the cross test, dyslexic participants showed a reduced execution time and increased velocity while drawing the horizontal line. Children with dyslexia were also faster in drawing certain sides of square with respect to the other groups.     

Degree of Language Experience Modulates Visual Attention to Visible Speech and Iconic Gestures During Clear and Degraded Speech Comprehension

Visual information conveyed by iconic hand gestures and visible speech can enhance speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions for both native and non‐native listeners. However, how a listener allocates visual attention to these articulators during speech comprehension is unknown. We used eye‐tracking to investigate whether and how native and highly proficient non‐native listeners of Dutch allocated overt eye gaze to visible speech and gestures during clear and degraded speech comprehension. Participants watched video clips of an actress uttering a clear or degraded (6‐band noise‐vocoded) action verb while performing a gesture or not, and were asked to indicate the word they heard in a cued‐recall task. Gestural enhancement was the largest (i.e., a relative reduction in reaction time cost) when speech was degraded for all listeners, but it was stronger for native listeners. Both native and non‐native listeners mostly gazed at the face during comprehension, but non‐native listeners gazed more often at gestures than native listeners. However, only native but not non‐native listeners' gaze allocation to gestures predicted gestural benefit during degraded speech comprehension. We conclude that non‐native listeners might gaze at gesture more as it might be more challenging for non‐native listeners to resolve the degraded auditory cues and couple those cues to phonological information that is conveyed by visible speech. This diminished phonological knowledge might hinder the use of semantic information that is conveyed by gestures for non‐native compared to native listeners. Our results demonstrate that the degree of language experience impacts overt visual attention to visual articulators, resulting in different visual benefits for native versus non‐native listeners.     

Keeping the Result in Sight and Mind: General Cognitive Principles and Language‐Specific Influences in the Perception and Memory of Resultative Events

We study how people attend to and memorize endings of events that differ in the degree to which objects in them are affected by an action: Resultative events show objects that undergo a visually salient change in state during the course of the event (peeling a potato), and non‐resultative events involve objects that undergo no, or only partial state change (stirring in a pan). We investigate general cognitive principles, and potential language‐specific influences, in verbal and nonverbal event encoding and memory, across two experiments with Dutch and Estonian participants. Estonian marks a viewer's perspective on an event's result obligatorily via grammatical case on direct object nouns: Objects undergoing a partial/full change in state in an event are marked with partitive/accusative case, respectively. Therefore, we hypothesized increased saliency of object states and event results in Estonian speakers, as compared to speakers of Dutch. Findings show (a) a general cognitive principle of attending carefully to endings of resultative events, implying cognitive saliency of object states in event processing; (b) a language‐specific boost on attention and memory of event results under verbal task demands in Estonian speakers. Results are discussed in relation to theories of event cognition, linguistic relativity, and thinking for speaking.     

Executive functions predict conceptual learning of science

We examined the relationship between executive functions and both factual and conceptual learning of science, specifically chemistry, in early adolescence. Sixty‐three pupils in their second year of secondary school (aged 12–13 years) participated. Pupils completed tasks of working memory (Spatial Working Memory), inhibition (Stop‐Signal), attention set‐shifting (ID/ED), and planning (Stockings of Cambridge), from the CANTAB. They also participated in a chemistry teaching session, practical, and assessment on the topic of acids and alkalis designed specifically for this study. Executive function data were related to (1) the chemistry assessment which included aspects of factual and conceptual learning and (2) a recent school science exam. Correlational analyses between executive functions and both the chemistry assessment and science grades revealed that science achievements were significantly correlated with working memory. Linear regression analysis revealed that visuospatial working memory ability was predictive of chemistry performance. Interestingly, this relationship was observed solely in relation to the conceptual learning condition of the assessment highlighting the role of executive functions in understanding and applying knowledge about what is learned within science teaching.     

The heterogeneity of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and conduct problems: Cognitive inhibition,emotion regulation,emotionality, and disorganized attachment

This study examined the contributions of several important domains of functioning to attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and conduct problems. Specifically, we investigated whether cognitive inhibition, emotion regulation, emotionality, and disorganized attachment made independent and specific contributions to these externalizing behaviour problems from a multiple pathways perspective. The study included laboratory measures of cognitive inhibition and disorganized attachment in 184 typically developing children (M age = 6 years, 10 months, SD = 1.7). Parental ratings provided measures of emotion regulation, emotionality, and externalizing behaviour problems. Results revealed that cognitive inhibition, regulation of positive emotion, and positive emotionality were independently and specifically related to ADHD symptoms. Disorganized attachment and negative emotionality formed independent and specific relations to conduct problems. Our findings support the multiple pathways perspective on ADHD, with poor regulation of positive emotion and high positive emotionality making distinct contributions to ADHD symptoms. More specifically, our results support the proposal of a temperamentally based pathway to ADHD symptoms. The findings also indicate that disorganized attachment and negative emotionality constitute pathways specific to conduct problems rather than to ADHD symptoms.     

Viewers prefer predictive cues

Devaluation-by-inhibition hypothesis demonstrated that previously ignored items are judged more negatively than previously attended and novel items. Based on this view, the present study investigated the evaluation of preceding stimuli that presumably elicit attentional processes to task-relevant stimuli. Accordingly, we employed a Posner-type cueing task followed by evaluation of the preceding cues indicating left and right directions. The important manipulation is predictability of two different preceding cues which predict the target location with high or with low probability. In Experiment 1 with two different arrows, a low predictive arrow was judged more negatively than a high predictive cue. Experiment 2 using gaze cues of two persons instead of two different arrows supported the findings of Experiment 1. These findings are consistent with devaluation-by-inhibition, suggesting that cue items triggering attention to the target are devaluated when they have less predictability.     

From Mackworth’s clock to the open road: A literature review on driver vigilance task operationalization

ObjectiveThis review aimed to characterize tasks applied in driving research, in terms of instructions/conditions, signal types/rates, and component features in comparison to the classic vigilance literature.BackgroundDriver state monitoring is facing increased attention with evolving vehicle automation, and real-time assessment of driver vigilance could provide widespread value across various levels (e.g., from monitoring the alertness of manual drivers to verifications of readiness in transitions of control between automated and manual driving). However, task requirement comparisons between the classic vigilance research and vigilance in car driving have not to date been systematically conducted.MethodThis study decomposed the highest-cited vigilance literature of each full decade since the 1940s for the situational features of the renowned vigilance decrement phenomenon originating from Mackworth (1948). A consensus set of 18 different situational features was compiled and included for example an (1) isolated (2) subject … perceiving (3) rare (4) signals … against (10) frequent (11) noise … in a (17) prolonged (18) task. Next, we reviewed 69 experimental vigilance task operationalizations (i.e., required signal detection and response) within 39 publications concerned with driving vigilance. All vigilance tasks were coded as “driving vigilance tasks” or “non-driving vigilance tasks” based on the perceptual signal and response action both belonging to normal driving activity or not. Presence, absence, and unreported presence/absence of each of the 18 features was rated for each task respectively as “overlap”, “contrary”, and “unspecified”. In conjunction, instructions/environmental conditions, signal definitions, signal rates, and summaries of the experimental vigilance tasks were extracted.ResultsA majority of driving vigilance tasks was performed in simulators (69%) compared to on-road (28%) and watching videos (3%) along with large differences in task conditions. Participants had to maintain fixed speed/lane positions in the simulators in higher proportion (74%) than on the road (36%) where they had only to drive “normally” and/or by loose conventions like “according to the law” more often (55% versus 15%). Additionally, presence of other traffic was found more often on-road (91%) than in simulators (48%). A specification of signals to detect and react to was found present within/for driving less often (59%) than alongside/in conjunction with driving (100%). Likewise, rates of signals (i.e., frequency of signal occurrence) were reported more often for non-driving vigilance tasks (80%) than in driving vigilance tasks (21%). For driving vigilance tasks, the highest overlap was 12 of the 18 features present (67%). On average, results showed relatively low levels of classic feature overlap (36%) with high rates of unspecified feature presence (46%) for driving vigilance tasks compared to non-driving vigilance tasks with higher classic feature overlap (64%) and fewer features unspecified (13%).Conclusion and applicationThere is little overlap between the well-known and often cited vigilance decrement phenomenon and published experimental tasks of driving vigilance. Major differences were also found in the instructions/environmental conditions of simulator versus on-road experimental driving vigilance tasks. What driving vigilance practically is in the real-world thus remains a promising area for future research. We recommend that researchers apply approaches which account for more real-world driving features to better expose and address uncertainty regarding driving and vigilance.