A Better Look at Intelligence

The Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) model is offered as an alternative to the unidimensional conceptualization of intelligence as a general ability. The unidimensional conceptualization has not helped researchers and clinicians understand variations of cognitive functions within special populations such as individuals with learning disabilities, disorders of attention, or mental retardation. Neither has this conceptualization aided in program planning for these individuals. PASS is a model of cognitive function based on contemporary research in both cognition and neuropsychology and provides a theory for both assessment and intervention. This article reviews concepts and examples of PASS theory and its application to reading disabilities and mental retardation. For example, the article links dyslexia with a deficit in successive processing. It also identifies the major difficulties of individuals with Down syndrome in phonological memory and articulation. Further research on successive processing, and planning as it relates to language, is suggested.     

Assessing the Readability of Mental Health Internet Brochures for Children and Adolescents

We investigated the readability of seven mental health brochures on mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders in children that were selected from a website developed by the Center for Mental Health Services at http://www.mentalhealth.org. The reading grade levels of the brochures ranged from 11.1 to 14.8 (mean 13.23), considerably higher than the 8th grade level recommended for educational material by the U. S. Department of Education (1986). On other readability variables, assessed using the Readability Assessment Instrument (RAIN; Singh, 1994), all brochures met criterion on most variables but failed on those for new words (audience appropriateness) and print size. This is a favorable result in comparison with other studies that have assessed readability of mental health information on the Internet using the RAIN, although less so with reading grade levels.     

中小学生阅读图文课文的眼动实验研究

本研究采用眼动方法,对85名小五、实二和高二年级学生阅读图文课文的阅读理解指标和眼动指标进行考察。结果表明：（1）学生阅读不同呈现方式和难度课文的阅读理解指标和眼动指标,一般都具有明显的年龄发展特征;（2）学生阅读不同呈现方式课文的阅读理解指标和眼动指标,有图课文大多显著优于无图课文;（3）学生阅读不同难度课文的阅读理解指标和眼动指标,易课文显著优于难课文。     

中文读写能力及其相关因素的结构模型

运用问卷调查法考查了中文儿童读写能力及其相关因素之间的关系.通过验证性因素分析对量表的信度和效度指标进行了分析,发现量表具有较好的项目信度和结构效度.结构模型分析发现阅读听写能力影响书面语意义理解和书写技能,而书面语意义理解和书写技能对书面表达有显著影响.家庭阅读背景影响儿童的口语能力和阅读听写能力,口语能力影响意义理解和阅读听写能力,基本知觉加工影响口语能力和阅读听写,动作技能影响书写技能.上述结果表明中文字词识别、书写技能和意义理解水平都影响书面表达,即段落产生能力.而口语能力、家庭阅读背景、基本知觉加工和动作技能分别对读写能力的不同侧面产生影响.本研究还分析了模型的年龄和性别特点.     

Blood pressure and heart rate responses to an intrusion on personal space

Abstract: Yaezawa and Yoshida's (1981 ) findings on the effects of an intrusion on personal space were reinvestigated. Thirty-five female students were confronted with the approach of a male stranger, and blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were monitored. Throughout the model's approach, HR showed a significant triphasic change (an initial decrease, a subsequent increase, and then a secondary decrease), whereas subjective feelings of anxiety and tension showed significant, gradual increases. These trends were similar to those of Yaezawa and Yoshida's . Nonetheless, their explanation that the triphasic change in HR reflected once hightened and then relieved tension, which was incongruent with the subjective ratings, seemed questionable. As the BP elevated to a moderate degree in spite of the modest HR changes, total peripheral resistance must have been increasing during the model's approach. Blood pressure elevations via this sort of hemodynamic pressor mechanisms have often been reported when a person can only tolerate passively during exposure to stress. This seems to be the case in an intrusion on personal space.     

阅读理解的风景模型:整合的观点

阅读理解是构建篇章有效而连贯的心理表征的过程,研究者提出了许多模型,分别去解释阅读结果的心理表征和阅读的加工过程.风景模型则同时考虑了阅读的加工过程与心理表征,并描述了二者之间的动态、交互作用,整合了以往的理论模型.大量实验证据验证了风景模型的心理真实性,并发现它可以应用到各种阅读情景中.     

The effects of reinforcement rate on the spontaneous social initiations of socially withdrawn preschoolers.

Social skills priming was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 socially withdrawn preschoolers, 1 of whom had been diagnosed with autism. During priming sessions, the teacher prompted and reinforced social behaviors (e.g., smiling, verbal initiations). We varied the rate of reinforcement during priming sessions and measured the effects of this manipulation on the rate of spontaneous social initiations during the subsequent classroom activity. Spontaneous initiations were more frequent after high rates of reinforcement than after low rates of reinforcement.     

Reading and writing difficulties do not always occur as the researcher expects

Making a prognosis about reading and learning difficulties is a tricky business, even if a large array of relevant variables is taken into account. The present article discusses such an endeavour, on the basis of a longitudinal four-year study which started with an orthodox intervention on linguistic awareness. However, after initial success, new groups of reading, writing and math disabled children were identified in the course of years. Membership of these groups could not always be predicted on the basis of extensive cognitive diagnostics performed during the preschool. Rather, the pupil’s adaptive behaviour while coping with the demands of school work emerges as an important prognostic factor. This was particularly evident in an interaction combining math and reading comprehension in grade 3.     

The effects of stimulus movement and attention on peripheral stimulus localization by 8- to 26-week-old infants

This study examined the effect of stimulus movement on localization probability and latency during attention and inattention. Forty infants, 10 each at 8, 14, 20, and 26 weeks of age were presented with a central stimulus. Then, a peripheral stimulus was presented (static or dynamic checkerboard). Stimulus movement did not affect localization probability. Infants localized the dynamic peripheral stimulus more quickly than the static peripheral stimulus when there was no focal stimulus. Focal stimulus attention attenuated this difference in localization latency between static and dynamic stimuli. Signal detection analysis showed that sensitivity to the peripheral stimulus increased over this age range along with a decrease in the bias against responding. The effects of attention were on response bias rather than stimulus sensitivity. These results imply attention affected the localization response to the peripheral stimulus but did not affect the sensitivity of the sensory and perceptual pathways to peripheral stimuli.