Effects of attentional prioritisation on the temporal and spatial components of an interlimb circle-drawing task

This study aimed to examine the effects of directing attention to the spatial dimension of the circle-drawing task on interlimb coordination patterns across limbs. Eighteen participants performed a circle-drawing task involving in-phase and antiphase coordination modes under upper limb, contralateral and ipsilateral limb combinations. Results indicated that (a) coordination pattern stability co-varied with central cost when attentional focus was directed to the spatial dimensions of the interlimb circle-drawing task; (b) attentional focus on the spatial components modified the inherent performance asymmetries between the limbs; (c) finally, attention to the spatial components of the interlimb circle-drawing task modulated movement trajectories and at the same time the stability of temporal coordination.     

How young adults address their parents reflects their perception of parenting

A speaker's use of a title for the listener shows the speaker's deference to the listener. Previous studies suggested that the use of kinship terms in the family also shows deference to the listener. The present study focused on young adults' use of kinship terms for their parents to investigate whether their use of kinship terms reflects their perception of their parenting. The participants were 329 Japanese college students, who answered a questionnaire about their forms of address for their parents, perceived parental emotional accessibility, and perceived parental control. They also reported their satisfaction with their parent–child relationships and the frequency of parent–child communication. The results suggest that young adults who use kinship terms for their parents perceive their parents to be more emotionally accessible and communicate with their parents more than those who do not. Young adults who use kinship terms for their father are also more satisfied with their father–child relationships than those who do not. Young adults' use of kinship terms might signal not only their deference to their parents, but also their acceptance of their parent–child relationships.     

Chunking During Learning of Visuomotor Sequences with Spatial and Arbitrary Rules: Preliminary Findings

Visuomotor sequence learning requires participants to learn a two-fold process of learning the correct visuomotor transformation (spatial or arbitrary rules) and learning the correct order of performing the sequence. A motor sequence is performed with a specific timing pattern by grouping a number of elementary movements into chunks. The present research extends previous findings examining whether chunking phenomenon is observable for visuo-motor sequences with arbitrary transformations in addition to spatially defined targets. This research tests for dominant chunking patterns and individual variability.     

Evidence for model-based action planning in a sequential finger movement task

In this article, the authors examine whether and how humans use model-free, reflexive strategies and model-based, deliberative strategies in motor sequence learning. They asked subjects to perform the grid-sailing task, which required moving a cursor to different goal positions in a 5 × 5 grid using different key-mapping (KM) rules between 3 finger keys and 3 cursor movement directions. The task was performed under 3 conditions: Condition 1, new KM; Condition 2, new goal position with learned KM; and Condition 3, learned goal position with learned KM; with or without prestart delay time. The performance improvement with prestart delay was significantly larger under Condition 2. This result provides evidence that humans implement a model-based strategy for sequential action selection and learning by using previously learned internal model of state transition by actions.     

Educational level signals unobserved abilities of people with high functioning autism spectrum disorders

The effect of educational level on employment of people with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) was examined. If education augments natural abilities to accomplish tasks in people with HFASD, then those with more education would have comparative advantages in both obtaining and retaining jobs. In contrast, if education did not augment natural abilities and only signaled unobservable abilities, one would expect an advantage only in obtaining a job, but not in retention. 22 people with HFASD replied to questionnaires regarding their history of education and employment. Those with job experience had higher educational levels than those with no job experience, but educational level was not significantly different between groups with and without more than one year of job experience. Educational level seems to be associated with abilities, but probably the unobserved abilities underlie both educational attainment and employment history.     

Deformed substructures in fine-grained tetragonal zirconia

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been employed to examine the deformed microstructures of a high-purity tetragonal zirconia polycrystal containing 3mol% yttria. The TEM observations reveal that piled-up and tangled dislocations are developed within grains at a high stress, but such substructures do not appear at a lower stress, except for a small number of isolated dislocations. The stress-dependent deformed microstructures suggest that the dislocation substructures observed at a high stress are not due to any experimental artefacts. Applying a model proposed by Eshelby et al. to the observed pile-up dislocations, it can be estimated that a stress concentration of the order of 14-25 is generated around multiple-grain junctions during deformation.     

The Relationship Between Academic Oral Proficiency and Reading Performance: A Comparative Study Between English Learners and English-Only Students

This study investigates the relationship between oral proficiency and reading proficiency in English-learning children (L2 students) and native English-speaking children (NE students). A set of oral activities measuring students’ academic oral skills in science classes was developed and administered to 61 fourth graders. Both the meaning-related aspects and the formal aspects of the students’ academic oral proficiency were compared between strong and struggling readers and between NE and L2 students. The study thus used a 2 × 2 factorial design (Strong/Struggling Readers × NE/L2 Students). After controlling for the students’ nonverbal analytic and reasoning skills, this study found that strong and struggling readers showed different levels of performance with respect to the meaning-related aspects of oral academic language but not with respect to the formal aspects of language. Conversely, differences between NE and L2 students were found in components related to the formal aspects but not in those related to the meaning aspects of oral language.     

Debonding criterion for the piezoelectric fibre push-out test

An Al-Ni-Co pentagonal quasicrystal, showing electron diffraction patterns with pentagonal symmetry and including so-called superlattice reflections, has been examined by the high-angle annular detector dark-field technique with scanning transmission electron microscopy. Columnar clusters with a pentagonal arrangement of transition-metal atoms around their centres are arrayed in a rhombic tiling with a bond length of 2nm, all the clusters having the same orientation of pentagonal symmetry.     

Influence of in utero exposure to maternal depression and natural disaster-related stress on infant temperament at 6 months: The children of Superstorm Sandy

This study examined the effects of in utero exposure to maternal depression and Superstorm Sandy, a hurricane that hit metropolitan New York in 2012, on infant temperament at 6 months. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Maternal depression was measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The main effects and the interaction of maternal depression and Sandy exposure on infant temperament were examined using a multivariable generalized linear model. Results show that prenatal maternal depression was associated with lower emotion regulation and greater distress. Stratification and interaction analyses suggested that the adverse effects of prenatal maternal depression on problematic temperament were amplified by in utero Sandy exposure. This study underscores the importance of providing prenatal screening and treatment for maternal depression during pregnancy while also identifying high-risk families who may have suffered from disaster-related traumas to provide necessary services. As the frequency of natural disasters may increase due to climate change, it is important to understand the consequences of in utero stress on child development and to formulate plans for early identification.