The early childhood inhibitory touchscreen task: A new measure of response inhibition in toddlerhood and across the lifespan

Research into the earliest development of inhibitory control is limited by a lack of suitable tasks. In particular, commonly used inhibitory control tasks frequently have too high language and working memory demands for children under 3 years of age. Furthermore, researchers currently tend to shift to a new set of inhibitory control tasks between infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood, raising doubts about whether the same function is being measured. Tasks that are structurally equivalent across age could potentially help resolve this issue. In the current report, a new response inhibition task, the Early Childhood Inhibitory Touchscreen Task (ECITT), was developed. This task can be minimally modified to suit different ages, whilst remaining structurally equivalent. In the new task, participants have to overcome a tendency to respond to a frequently rewarded location on a touchscreen and instead make an alternative response. The ECITT was validated in three independent studies (with additional data, N = 166, reported in Supporting Information). In Study 1 (N = 81), cross-sectional data indicated that inhibitory performance on the task improved significantly between 24 and 30 months of age. In Study 2 (N = 38), longitudinal data indicated steady improvement in inhibitory control between 18, 21 and 24 months, with significant stability in individual performance differences between each consecutive age in terms of accuracy (but not in terms of reaction time). Finally, in Study 3 (N = 64), inhibitory performance on a faster-paced version of the same task showed a similar developmental course across the lifespan (4–84 years) to other response inhibition tasks and was significantly correlated with Stop-signal performance. The ECITT extends the assessment of response inhibition earlier than previous tasks–into early toddlerhood. Because the task is simple and structurally equivalent across age, future longitudinal studies should benefit from using the ECITT to investigate the development of inhibitory control in a consistent manner across the toddler years and beyond.

Dogmas of Effective Field Theory: Scheme Dependence, Fundamental Parameters, and the Many Faces of the Higgs Naturalness Principle

The earliest formulation of the Higgs naturalness argument has been criticized on the grounds that it relies on a particular cutoff-based regularization scheme. One response to this criticism has been to circumvent the worry by reformulating the naturalness argument in terms of a renormalized, regulator-independent parametrization. An alternative response is to deny that regulator dependence poses a problem for the naturalness argument, because nature itself furnishes a particular, physically correct regulator for any effective field theory (EFT) in the form of that EFT’s physical cutoff, together with an associated set of bare parameters that constitute the unique physically preferred “fundamental parameters” of the EFT. Here, I argue that both lines of defense against the initial worry about regulator dependence are flawed. I argue that reformulation of the naturalness argument in terms of renormalized parameters simply trades dependence on a particular regularization scheme for dependence on a particular renormalization scheme, and that one or another form of scheme dependence afflicts all formulations of the Higgs naturalness argument. Concerning the second response, I argue that the grounds for suspending the principle of regularization or renormalization scheme independence in favor of a physically preferred parametrization are thin; the assumption of a physically preferred parametrization, whether in the form of bare “fundamental parameters” or renormalized “physical parameters,” constitutes a theoretical idle wheel in generating the confirmed predictions of established EFTs, which are invariably scheme-independent. I highlight certain features of the alternative understanding of EFTs, and the EFT-based approach to understanding the foundations of QFT, that emerges when one abandons the assumption of a physically preferred parametrization. I explain how this understanding departs from several dogmas concerning the mathematical formulation and physical interpretation of EFTs in high-energy physics.

Development and equivalence of new faces for inclusion in the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) response scale

Background Accurate symptom monitoring is vital when managing pediatric asthma, providing an opportunity to improve control and relieve associated burden. The CHILDHOOD ASTHMA CONTROL TEST (C-ACT) has been validated for asthma control assessment in children; however, there are concerns that response option images used in the C-ACT are not culturally universal and could be misinterpreted. This cross-sectional, qualitative study developed and evaluated alternative response option images using interviews with children with asthma aged 4–11 years (and their parents/caregivers) in the United States, Spain, Poland, and Argentina. Interviews were conducted in two stages (with expert input) to evaluate the appropriateness, understanding and qualitative equivalence of the alternative images (both on paper and electronically). This included comparing the new images with the original C-ACT response scale, to provide context for equivalence results. Results Alternative response option images included scale A (simple faces), scale B (circles of decreasing size), and scale C (squares of decreasing quantity). In Stage 1, most children logically ranked images using scales A, B and C (66.7%, 79.0% and 70.6%, respectively). However, some children ranked the images in scales B (26.7%) and C (58.3%) in reverse order. Slightly more children could interpret the images within the context of their asthma in scale B (68.4%) than A (55.6%) and C (47.5%). Based on Stage 1 results, experts recommended scales A (with slight modifications) and B be investigated further. In Stage 2, similar proportions of children logically ranked the images used in modified scales A (69.7%) and B (75.7%). However, a majority of children ranked the images in scale B in the reverse order (60.0%). Slightly more children were able to interpret the images in the context of their asthma using scale B (57.6%) than modified scale A (48.5%). Children and parents/caregivers preferred modified scale A over scale B (78.8% and 90.9%, respectively). Compared with the original C-ACT, most children selected the same response option on items using both scales, supporting equivalency. Following review of Stage 2 results, all five experts agreed modified scale A was the optimal response scale. Conclusions This study developed alternative response option images for use in the C-ACT and provides qualitative evidence of the equivalency of these response options to the originals.

Impact of Disaster on Underprivileged Children in Covid-19 Pandemic: Policy Response for Emergency Education

It is necessary to recognize and address the differential impact of disasters on society. It is quite possible that a significant number of children to become victims of the COVID-19 caused social disaster. As a result, there would be an increase in the number of school dropouts and child labor, which indicates a substantial number of children will be deprived of their right to education. Any alternative response during school closure, like internet-based remote teaching learning, might not compensate the loss of learning as nearly half of the world is without access to the internet. "Emergency situations" are considered any situation either man-made or natural disasters suddenly disrupt the normal course of life, empathy and educational opportunities of children. The present study intended to find out the nature of social disaster caused by COVID-19 and how it impacted the learning loss and socio-emotional immunity of the under privileged school going children. A narrative review technique was used for this research study to explore the policy advocacies adopted in emergency basis in mitigating the impacts of the ongoing pandemic on such underprivileged children. The data were derived from published articles and reports available in national and international data repositories. The findings reveal that the closure of schools raise the vulnerability of underprivileged children as they are being deprived of their right to education and socio-emotional security. Present pandemic has led adverse situation, therefore disrupted delay or deny the right to education. It is time to rethink to adopt a new policy and mechanism to continue their education and to provide socio-emotional immunity in the time of emergency to address the gravity of crisis.

Moral by default? The dynamic tradeoffs between honesty and self-interest

Humans are often faced with social dilemmas that pit self-interest against honesty, yet questions arise about whether this trade-off reflects spontaneous default response or active suppression of the alternative response. Here, we created two message-sending tasks where decisions involved honesty as truth-telling or dishonesty as untruthful-message-sending. In our pre-registered study, participants joined the message task as the sender, who can send truthful or untruthful messages to earn more money for themselves, thus manipulating the conflict between self-interest and honesty. In experiment 1, we used mouse tracking (MT) to gain insight from movement trajectories and reaction time (RTs) of a forced-choice task with one fair default option. We found that being honest under conflict situations took longer for individuals who had higher self-interest concerns. In experiment 2 with a two-alternative forced-choice design without a default fair option on another sample to test whether self-interest-seeking people would show a similar tendency to lie and how these behavioral patterns correlated with utility and drift-diffusion model (DDM) modeling parameters. We found lower RTs for untruthful responses when self-interest concern was higher. In both experiments, the mixed model of RTs indicated the interest-temptation (i.e., conflict) condition led to a longer RT for truth-telling. These results were also supported by a DDM showing a larger drift rate for untruthful, compared to truthful, responses in conflict trials. Overall, our findings further support the individual difference in moral default, which can be manifested in behavioral indices in decisions.

Differential Response in Child Welfare

In the late 1990s, child welfare jurisdictions in the United States and other countries began to implement an alternative approach to allow for a more flexible response to differing needs and circumstance of families reported to child protective services (CPS). This alternative approach to structuring child welfare services is commonly referred to as differential response (DR); it is also called alternative response (AR), family assessment response (FAR), multiple response (MR), or dual track. Currently, thirty-two states have legislation to enact or pilot-test a DR approach. DR is not a practice model but rather a policy orientation that focuses on broadly assessing the family’s situation to identify underlying needs and issues. DR consists of practice reforms intended to provide families involved with the child welfare system with the concrete services and supports needed to provide a safe environment for their children. In jurisdictions with DR, accepted reports (i.e., reports to CPS that meet a legal definition of abuse or neglect) are assigned to either an investigation response (IR) or an alternative response, depending on the type of allegation and factors such as safety concerns, risks, prior reports of abuse or neglect, the victim’s age and relationship to the alleged perpetrator, reports of domestic violence, and substance use. The IR involves a forensic approach to gather the evidence needed to formally determine whether an incident of child abuse or neglect occurred, as defined by state law. Cases assigned AR are accepted reports of child abuse and neglect that are generally low- and moderate-risk cases, With AR cases, social workers conduct a comprehensive assessment and work to meet families’ needs with concrete services and supports. In addition, AR cases do not require a formal determination of child abuse or neglect, and the names of alleged perpetrators are not entered into a central registry. The track assignment for AR families can change if new information is discovered or if the family’s situation changes, necessitating an IR.

The Use of Screening Algorithm to Defer Blood Donors with Subclinical Malaria

Plasmodium falciparum infection in blood donors is common in malaria endemic countries, including Ghana. To date, there are no established exclusion criteria to defer a donor carrying malaria parasites. Therefore, based on significant independent variables identified in this study, donor malaria screening algorithm was developed to be used by blood banks to screen blood donors for subclinical malaria. Each significant variable was weighted one (1) point and its alternative response was weighted negative one (−1) point. Accumulation of the points determines the risk level of the donor. These weighted points were used to categorize infected donors as having negligible (<2 points), tolerable (3-4 points), undesirable (5–8 points), or intolerable (>9 points) risk. Based on accumulated weight of ≥5 points, the algorithm was 94.7% (54/57) sensitive but 82% (298/364) specific. With this level of specificity, 18% of the blood donors without malaria would have been deferred. Therefore, it is imperative that all donors with accumulated risk ≥5 be screened for malaria using either malaria rapid test kit or microscopy.

Revisiting Inexorable Moral Confusion About the Moral Status of Human–Nonhuman Chimeras

In “Crossing Species Boundaries” (Robert and Baylis 2003), the authors explored the history, ethics, and prospective future of stem cell research involving chimeras made in part from human cells. They dismissed the various then-extant ethical objections to the creation of such chimeras, finding them all inadequate. In their stead, they sketched (but did not elaborate or defend) an alternative response—namely, that their creation would create a kind of inexorable moral confusion. Since then, a variety of alternative objections to—as well as justifications for—this research have emerged, alongside advances in the technologies for introducing genetic and cellular material across putative species boundaries. In this chapter, the authors revisit the notion of inexorable moral confusion, further specifying and elaborating the original concept in light of recent scientific and technical developments and ethical insights.