scholarly journals Age effects on the development of stimulus over-selectivity are mediated by cognitive flexibility and selective attention

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Michelle P. Kelly ◽  
Phil Reed
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Distractor Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cognitive Variables ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Developmental Trends

Stimulus over-selectivity is said to have occurred when only a limited subset of the total number of stimuli present during discrimination learning controls behavior, thus, restricting learning about the range, breadth, or all features of a stimulus. The current study investigated over-selectivity of 100 typically developing children, aged 3–7 (mean = 65.50 ± 17.31 SD months), using a visual discrimination task. Developmental trends in over-selectivity and their relationship to some cognitive variables (i.e., selective attention, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility) were the target. Over-selectivity decreased with age, but this effect was mediated by the development of cognitive flexibility. Over-selectivity increased when a distractor task was introduced, which was not mediated by the other cognitive variables under investigation. The current results assist in the establishment of the theoretical underpinnings of over-selectivity by offering evidence of its underlying determinants and relating these to developmental trends.

Examining the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ knowledge of storybook events

2021 ◽  
pp. 026565902199554
Author(s):  
Lynn Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Narrative Comprehension ◽  
Important Predictor ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Event Knowledge ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Planning Intervention

Planning intervention for narrative comprehension deficits requires a thorough understanding of a child’s skill in all component domains. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ event knowledge, an important predictor of story comprehension. Thirty-eight typically developing children (12 males; 26 females) between the ages of 30–59 months ( M = 42.05 SD = 7.62) completed three measures – verbal account, enactment, picture-sequencing – that tapped their knowledge of two different events before listening to stories based on each of those events and completing story comprehension tasks. Scores for verbal account and enactment, but not for picture sequencing, (1) were moderately correlated with comprehension scores for the corresponding story; (2) reflected differential knowledge of the two events, though not in the expected direction; (3) were moderately correlated with one another in the case of each story. In general measures for the same event were more highly correlated with one another than with measures of the other event. Overall, results suggest that verbal account and enactment may yield information useful for clinicians planning intervention for children with narrative comprehension deficits.

Handwriting Delay in Dyslexia: Children at the End of Primary School Still Make Numerous Short Pauses When Producing Letters

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Alamargot ◽  
Marie-France Morin ◽  
Erika Simard-Dupuis
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Reading Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Specific Reading

Developmental dyslexia is defined as a specific reading disorder but is also thought to be underpinned by a deficit in motor skills that may well affect handwriting performance. However, the results of studies addressing this issue are not consistent. The present study was, therefore, designed to better understand the functioning of handwriting in children with dyslexia, by conducting an analysis of the legibility and fluency of handwritten letters, supplemented by an assessment of motor skills. The performances of 15 children with dyslexia ( Mage = 11.4 years) were compared with those of two groups of typically developing children, one matched for chronological age, the other for orthographic level ( Mage = 8.7 years) on two handwriting measures (production of the letters of the alphabet and the child’s first name and surname). Results revealed a delay in motor skills, as well as in letter legibility, letter production duration, and the number of short pauses (i.e., lasting between 20 and 199 ms) made during letter production, in the children with dyslexia, with strong negative correlations between motor skills and the number of short pauses. Results are discussed in the context of handwriting control development in children, and perspectives are set out for practitioners.

scholarly journals Laterais do Português Europeu Contemporâneo: estruturação interna, robustez de traços e dados de aquisição

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Clara Amorim ◽  
João Veloso
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
European Portuguese

This work intends to discuss the distinctive features of the laterals in Contemporary European Portuguese, in particular the features [+lateral] and [+continuous], based on language acquisition data. For this purpose, the productions of 80 typically developing children aged between 3 and 4 years and eleven months were analyzed. The results show that, after the nasals, the lateral in onset position is the first sonorant to be acquired. If the laterals are distinguished from the rhotics by the marked feature [+lateral], it would be expected that the class of the rhotics would be acquired before the laterals, since the acquisition of segments is made by the gradual acquisition of marked features and by their combination with features already acquired. The fact that /l/ is acquired before the rhotics suggests that the feature [+lateral] is not responsible for establishing the contrast between the two classes. Based on the data analyzed, the feature [+approximant] is proposed to characterize the laterals and rhotics, distinguishing them from the other sonorants, and the feature [[±continuant] to differentiate the rhotics from the laterals, the latter being characterized by the negative value of this feature.

scholarly journals Bumblebees learn a relational rule but switch to a win-stay/lose-switch heuristic after extensive training

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
HaDi MaBouDi ◽  
Cwyn Solvi ◽  
Lars Chittka
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Relative Size ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Extended Training ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Shift Strategy ◽  
Switch Strategy

AbstractMapping animal performance in a behavioural task to underlying cognitive mechanisms and strategies is rarely straightforward, since a task may be solvable in more than one manner. Here, we show that bumblebees perform well on a concept-based visual discrimination task, but spontaneously switch from a concept-based solution to a simpler heuristic with extended training, all while continually increasing performance. Bumblebees were trained in an arena to find reward on displays with shapes of different sizes where they could not use low-level visual cues. One group of bees was rewarded at displays with bigger shapes and another group at displays with smaller shapes. Analysis of total choices shows bees increased their performance over 30 bouts to above chance. However, analyses of first and sequential choices suggest that after approximately 20 bouts, bumblebees changed to a win-stay/lose-switch strategy. Comparing bees’ behaviour to a probabilistic model based on a win-stay/lose-switch strategy further supports the idea that bees changed strategies with extensive training. Analyses of unrewarded tests indicate bumblebees learned and retained the concept of relative size even after they had already switched to a win-stay, lost-shift strategy. We propose that the reason for this strategy switching may be due to cognitive flexibility and efficiency.

scholarly journals Bilingualism effects on the cognitive flexibility of autistic children: Evidence from verbal dual-task paradigms

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-73
Author(s):  
Eleni Peristeri ◽  
Margreet Vogelzang ◽  
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Target Information ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Dual Tasks

Abstract The deficit in cognitive flexibility, i.e. the ability to adapt cognitive behavior to changing contexts, is one of the most prominent characteristics of autistic individuals. Inflexibility may manifest in restricted interests and increased susceptibility to the effects of misinformation either through inefficient inhibition of non-target information or deficient recall of correct information. Bilingualism has been shown to enhance executive functions in both typically-developing children and autistic children, yet, the effect of bilingualism on cognitive flexibility in autism remains underexplored. In this study, we used verbal dual-tasks to compare cognitive flexibility across 50 monolingual autistic and 50 bilingual autistic children, and 50 monolingual and 50 bilingual typically-developing children. The children were also administered language ability tests and a nonverbal global-local cognitive flexibility task, in order to investigate whether performance in the dual-tasks would be modulated by the children’s language and executive function skills. The bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual autistic peers in the dual tasks. The strength of the bilingualism effect, however, was modulated by the type of language processing that interfered with the target information in each dual-task, which suggests that the bilingual autistic children calibrated their processing resources and efficiently adapted them to the changing demands of the dual-task only to the extent that the task did not exceed their language abilities. Bilingual autistic children relied on their executive functions rather than on their language abilities while performing in the dual-tasks. The overall results show that bilingualism compensates for the reduced cognitive flexibility in autism.

scholarly journals White matter correlates of cognitive flexibility in youth with bipolar disorder and typically developing children and adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 305 ◽  
pp. 111169
Author(s):  
Petya D. Radoeva ◽  
Gracie A. Jenkins ◽  
Elana Schettini ◽  
Anna C. Gilbert ◽  
Christine M. Barthelemy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children

Toward communication

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Nadel ◽  
Arnaud Revel ◽  
Pierre Andry ◽  
Philippe Gaussier
Keyword(s):  
Children With Autism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Strong Correlations ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Moving Stimuli ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Generic Architecture ◽  
Action Coupling ◽  
Perception Action

Adopting a functionalist perspective, we emphasize the interest of considering imitation as a single capacity with two functions: communication and learning. These two functions both imply such capacities as detection of novelty, attraction toward moving stimuli and perception-action coupling. We propose that the main difference between the processes involved in the two functions is that, in the case of learning, the dynamics is internal to the system constituted by an individual whereas in the case of communication, the dynamics concerns the system composed by the perception of one individual coupled with the action of the other. In this paper, we compare the first developmental steps of imitation in three populations: typically developing children, children with autism, and robots. We show evidence of strong correlations between imitating and being imitated in typical infants and low-functioning children with autism. Relying on this evidence, the robotic perspective is to provide a generic architecture able not only to learn via imitation but also to interact as an emerging property of the system constituted by two similar architectures with a different history.

scholarly journals Differences in Attention Skill between Children with ADHD and Typically Developing Children in Indonesian Primary Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 329-337
Author(s):  
Naeila R. Muna ◽  
Ratna Jatnika ◽  
Urip Purwono ◽  
Juke R. Siregar
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Commission Error ◽  
Data Sampling ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Adhd Subtypes ◽  
Children With Adhd

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neuropsychological developmental disorder in children. ADHD is characterized by inattention, overactivity, and impulsivity. However, the attention skill is not clearly studied in children with ADHD in Indonesia. Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the differences in attention skill between children with ADHD and typically developing children (TD), and identify the differences between ADHD subtypes at primary schools in Bandung city Indonesia in terms of the parameter of attention. Methods: This study used the quantitative method. The population of this study was children with ADHD and typically developing (TD) school-age children. The data sampling technique was purposive sampling, consisting of 30 children as a group of ADHD children and 30 children as a group of TD children. The instrument to collect data was Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), Indonesian ADHD Rating Scale (IARS), and The D2 test of attention. The analysis method used t-test and SPSS V.24 for Windows. Results: This study showed significant differences in attention skill performance between children with ADHD and TD children in the variables including the total number of tasks completed, omission, commission, error rate, total amount minus errors or selective attention skill, fluctuation rate and concentration performance. There have been observed significant differences between ADHD subtypes in terms of total number, omission, commission, error rate, total amount minus errors or selective attention skill, and concentration performance. Conclusion: Children with ADHD were found to have lower results than typically developing children in terms of attention skill, inhibiting control, and ability in performance accuracy. Children with ADHD-C subtypes were found to have more inattentive tendencies, hyperactive, and impulsive compared to ADHD-I and ADHD-H. ADHD-C subtype showed more deficits than ADHD-I and ADHD-H in response inhibition and accuracy of performance.

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