The role of the executive functions in school achievement at the end of Grade 1

The aim of this study was to determine the role of executive functions (EFs) in early school achievement when a variety of potential confounding factors were controlled. Measures of EF (inhibition, flexibility, and working memory) and school readiness were administered to a sample of 85 kindergartners (39 boys and 46 girls, 5-6 years old). School achievement was then assessed at the end of Grade 1. Results show math and reading/writing skills at the end of Grade 1 to be associated with kindergarten EFs. Only working memory contributed uniquely to the variance in school achievement after all covariates (preacademic abilities, affective variables, and family variables) were controlled and, even then, only with respect to math skills. On the other hand, working memory and inhibition had an indirect effect on reading/writing skills via anger-aggression. EF implication in school achievement is discussed in terms of task demands and child age.     

Exploring the enactment effect from an information processing view: What can we learn from serial position analyses?

The focus of the present article was to analyze processes that determine the enactment and age effect in a multi-trial free recall paradigm by looking at the serial position effects. In an experimental study (see Schatz et al 2010), the performance-enhancing effect of enactive encoding and repeated learning was tested with older and younger participants. As expected, there was a steady improvement of memory performance as a function of repeated learning regardless of age. In addition, enactive encoding led to a better memory performance than verbal encoding in both age groups. Furthermore, younger adults outperformed the elderly regardless of type of encoding. Analyses in the present article show that encoding by enacting seems to profit especially from remembering the last items of a presented list. Regarding age differences, younger outperformed older participants in nearly all item positions. The performance enhancement after task repetition is due to a higher amount of recalled items in the middle positions in a subject performed task (SPT) and a verbal task (VT) as well as the last positions of a learned list in VT.     

Assessing interpersonal functioning: Views from within and without

In order to better integrate research on personality pathology, interpersonal problems, and social skills, we applied the traditional methods of these three research strands (questionnaires, interviews, and interpersonal role-plays) to the same sample. Participants who attributed higher levels of interpersonal problems to themselves in general were also more critical of their own role-play performances, but these impressions were not mirrored by observer-ratings. Self-observer agreement in judging overall role-play performance was essentially zero. Interviewer-ratings of personality pathology had incremental validity over self-ratings in predicting observer-rated role-play performance. Self-reports of interpersonal functioning leave relevant behavioral variance untapped and thus should be complemented by other sources of information.     

Ruminative and reflective forms of self-focus: Their relationships with interpersonal skills and emotional reactivity under interpersonal stress

Self-focus can be divided into adaptive and maladaptive aspects, that is, self-reflection and self-rumination respectively. This study explores how these distinctive forms of self-focus are associated with interpersonal skills required for beginning and maintaining social relationships, and with negative emotional regulation when one experiences interpersonal problems. A survey of 150 undergraduates (Study 1) indicated contrasting cross-sectional associations between self-reflection and self-rumination and interpersonal skills; self-rumination is associated with perceived impaired interpersonal skills, whereas self-reflection is associated with the improved skills. In Study 2, using a four-wave longitudinal design, we investigated the buffering effects of self-rumination and self-reflection on negative emotional reactivity to interpersonal conflicts. Analysis of multilevel models indicated that self-rumination predicts a greater increase in negative affect after one experiences negative interpersonal events, whereas self-reflection had no such effects on the negative affect. These results suggest that self-rumination is associated with perceived impaired interpersonal skills, which could delay problem solving and exacerbate the effect of interpersonal problems, thereby leading to dysphoria. In contrast, self-reflection might contribute to the maintenance of relationships in usual or stable conditions but does not aid emotion regulation or problem solving in difficult or negative situations such as when one experiences interpersonal problems.     

Sex differences in the relation between math performance, spatial skills, and attitudes

Sex differences have been previously found in cognitive and affective predictors of math achievement, including spatial skills and math attitudes. It is important to determine whether there are sex differences not only in the predictors themselves, but also in the nature of their relation to math achievement. The present paper examined spatial skills and math attitudes as predictors of curriculum-based measures of math performance in middle-school students, specifically comparing the patterns of these predictive relations for boys and girls. The results of the current study showed that, despite similar levels of math performance for boys and girls, the significance of particular predictors varied as a function of sex. Specifically, spatial skills predicted math performance in boys, but not in girls. We suggest that sex differences in spatial reasoning in conjunction with the differential involvement of spatial reasoning in math problem solving may lead to later sex differences in math outcomes.     

La formation dans l’enseignement de la psychologie pour les étudiants de cycle supérieur : les compétences essentielles pour les nouveaux enseignants

What pedagogical skills are necessary for first-time college instructors? Ninety-two faculty (M = 41.3 years old, 68% female, 90.2% white, 91% born in the US) and 64 graduate students (M = 28.3 years old, 83% female, 87.5% white, 81% born in the US) listed the top three skills they believed were essential to instructors’ success in the college classroom. Despite differing levels of classroom teaching experience, graduate students and faculty members prioritized “survival” skills: public speaking, organization, and content mastery. Notable differences did emerge: faculty members were more likely to list reflection on teaching and graduate students were more likely to list classroom management and comfort with technology. Faculty also preferred more informal training methods (e.g., self-reflection, mentorship), whereas graduate students preferred more formal training methods (e.g., practice/experience, seminar/workshop). Recommendations for graduate teacher training programs include a focus on lower as well as higher-level skills and an attempt to incorporate formal and informal training methods.     

Investigation de l’effet des ressources personnelles dans la relation des demandes et de la santé psychologique en emploi des directions d’établissement scolaire

A proportion of 55 % of school administrators experience a high level of job stress mainly caused by relationship conflicts and overwork. According to the demands and resources of employment model, having personal resources would protect against the harmful effect of the difficulties experienced and the more specific a resource, the more it can counter the effect. Thus, political skills (HP) would decrease the effect of demands related to relationship conflicts, while the sense of self-efficacy (PES) decreases the negative impact of the workload on the PES. The objective of this study is to verify the effect of personal resources, HP and MS, on the relationship between job demands and job psychological health. A total of 232 school administrators from Quebec participated in the study. Job demands, as well as personal resources, are linked to anxiety and serenity according to Bakker and Demerouti (2007). Nevertheless, the SEP does not interact with the relationship of demands and psychological health in employment (PES). In addition, only the social astuteness dimension of HP moderates the relationship of demands and anxiety.     

Impaired semantic memory during acute transient global amnesia

As a clinical model of hippocampal dysfunction, transient global amnesia (TGA) causes reversible memory disturbance. While episodic memory deficits in TGA patients have been extensively described, data regarding semantic memory involvement are sparse and contradictory. We report impaired semantic fluency performance in 16 patients with hippocampal lesions on MRI during acute TGA compared to their performance one day later and to that of 20 healthy subjects. Our findings support the involvement of the hippocampus in semantic retrieval.