Locomotor experience: a facilitator of spatial cognitive development

2 studies were designed to test the prediction that spatial search strategies (i.e., "object permanence") may be influenced by locomotor experience. Infants were assigned to 3 groups based on locomotor history: prelocomotor, prelocomotor with walker-assisted experience, and hands-and-knees creeping. Infants in all groups were 8.5 months of age. Results showed that hands-and-knees and walker-assisted locomotor experience facilitated spatial search performance. The longer that infants had been moving, the higher their scores. Furthermore, there were no differences between the hands-and-knees and prelocomotor/walker-assisted groups, suggesting that the relation between locomotor experience and spatial search performance was not merely a function of the maturation of prone progression. A third study found that the quality of locomotion affected object permanence performance: Belly crawlers performed differently than infants with hands-and-knees or walker experience, insofar as they performed at prelocomotor levels regardless of weeks of locomotor experience. Taken together, the pattern of findings suggests that infants with more efficient modes of locomotion are more likely to profit from the experiences generated by locomotion.     

Information processing deficits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, inattentive type, and children with reading disability

We examined the information processing capabilities of children diagnosed with the inattentive subtype of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who had been characterized as having a sluggish cognitive tempo. Children referred for school-related problems (n = 81) and nonreferred community controls (n = 149) participated. Of the referred children, 24 met criteria for ADHD, 42 met criteria for reading disability (RD), and 9 of these were comorbid for RD and ADHD. Children with ADHD differed from those without ADHD on a visual search task but not on an auditory processing task; the reverse was true for children with RD. Decomposition of the visual search task into component operations demonstrated that children in the ADHD group had a slow processing rate that was not attributable to inattention. The children with ADHD were not globally poor at information processing or inattentive, but they demonstrated diminished speed of visual processing.     

The development of detour ability during infancy

3 longitudinal studies were conducted to examine the generalization of detour ability across motor responses and barrier types and the relationship between the development of object permanence and detour ability. In Experiment 1, 12 8-month-olds were tested every 3 weeks for 4 months on 4 different detour problems and Stage 4 and 6 object permanence tasks. In the detour problems, infants had to reach or move around a transparent or opaque barrier to obtain an object. The results indicated that infants made reaching detours before corresponding locomotor ones and generally made detours around opaque barriers before transparent ones. Infants also solved the Stage 4 task before the detour problems but failed to solve the Stage 6 task before testing ended. The results of Experiments 2 and 3 suggested that the difference in reaching and locomotor detour performance was not an artifact of barrier length or the infant's position relative to the barrier. The overall results are discussed in relation to issues of developmental synchrony and Piaget's theory of infant spatial development.     

Differential Contributions of Development and Learning to Infants' Knowledge of Object Continuity and Discontinuity

Sixty infants divided evenly between 5 and 7 months of age were tested for their knowledge of object continuity versus discontinuity with a predictive tracking task. The stimulus event consisted of a moving ball that was briefly occluded for 20 trials. Both age groups predictively tracked the ball when it disappeared and reappeared via occlusion, but not when it disappeared and reappeared via implosion. Infants displayed high levels of predictive tracking from the first trial in the occlusion condition, and showed significant improvement across trials in the implosion condition. These results suggest that infants possess embodied knowledge to support differential tracking of continuously and discontinuously moving objects, but this tracking can be modified by visual experience.     

Developmental trends for object and spatial working memory: a psychophysiological analysis

This study examined developmental trends in object and spatial working memory (WM) using heart rate (HR) to provide an index of covert cognitive processes. Participants in 4 age groups (6-7, 9-10, 11-12, 18-26, n=20 each) performed object and spatial WM tasks, in which each trial was followed by feedback. Spatial WM task performance reached adult levels before object WM task performance. The differential developmental trends for object and spatial WM found in this study are taken to suggest that these WM components are separable. Negative performance feedback elicited HR slowing that was more pronounced for adults than for children. The development of performance monitoring as indexed by covert HR slowing following performance feedback contributes to WM performance.     

基于Kalman滤波器的红外标志点快速识别与跟踪

在军事上,利用移动机器人跟踪前方的引导员,在野外复杂环境中完成后勤运输与救援任务有重要的意义．针对野外复杂环境这个应用背景,提出了一个基于红外标志点的视觉跟踪系统,该系统有效的解决了传统的视觉跟踪方法受周围环境影响而不能够准确的识别跟踪对象的缺陷;针对传统的标志点识别采用全局搜索的方法计算量大、实时性差的缺陷,提出了一种基于Kalman滤波器预测的红外标志点的识别方法,该方法较传统的标志点识别方法识别速度提高了93％．     

Speed of information processing in children referred for learning problems: performance on a visual filtering test

Children referred for evaluation of learning impairment (LI, N =100) and a comparison group of nonreferred (NLI, N = 243) children were evaluated on a visual filtering task. The task was designed hierarchically to provide for evaluation of component operations-serial search, parallel search, decision, and response. With each additional processing demand, response times increased disproportionately for the LI group relative to the NLI group. Overall response time reliably predicted academic skills and cognitive ability, but was more strongly related to group membership. Thus, this nonverbal visual task is sensitive to a characteristic of children with learning problems over and above discrete academic and cognitive skills. Children with problems adapting to the demands of schooling may be distinguished by a disproportionate vulnerability to processing load.     

Performance in a Visual Search Task Uniquely Predicts Reading Abilities in Third-Grade Hong Kong Chinese Children

This study examined the relation between the performance in a visual search task and reading ability in 92 third-grade Hong Kong Chinese children. The visual search task, which is considered a measure of visual-spatial attention, accounted for unique variance in Chinese character reading after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and rapid automatized naming. Visual search skill also explained unique variance in reading comprehension after further controlling for Chinese character reading. The findings of the present study underscore the importance of visual-spatial attention for Chinese reading, at both the character and text levels.     

Relations between drawing cubes and copying line diagrams of cubes in 7- to 10-year-old children

Previous research has suggested both links and differences between children's copying of line diagrams and their drawings of solid objects. If the diagram represents a familiar object, children make more errors than when copying a diagram of a nonobject or unfamiliar object, as if they are drawing from their representation of the object rather than copying the surface features of the diagram. However, copying a diagram yields fewer and different types of errors than drawing the equivalent solid, which suggests a different process. In Experiment 1 (n = 72), possible relations between copying and drawing are investigated by asking children to draw a solid cube, then to copy or trace a line diagram of the cube in oblique projection, and finally to draw the solid again. Copying was better than drawing, and there was positive transfer to a subsequent drawing. Tracing was very accurate, but transfer to drawing did not occur, possibly because of the automatic nature of tracing. In Experiment 2 (n = 120) different groups received versions of the copying task that differed in the extent to which temporal order of line copying was structured. Asking children to copy the lines in a systematic order led to improved copies, but this performance did not carry over to a subsequent drawing of the solid. In contrast, when temporal ordering of line copying was not manipulated, there was positive transfer from copying to the subsequent drawing. In Experiment 3 (n = 80), provision of structure that emphasized faces by color-groupings of lines or coloring faces led to improved copies and did not hinder transfer to drawing the solid. Experiment 4 (n = 90) showed that in a solid drawing task emphasis on faces but not edges produced a positive effect, both on the immediate drawing and on a subsequent drawing of a plain cube. We conclude that emphasis on order of line copying improves performance in a copying task because in that case line-to-line matching is an important element of the skill, whereas this does not aid drawing of the solid object, in which the focus is primarily on representation of faces and their interrelations.     

Computerised screening for visual stress in reading

Visual stress is the experience of unpleasant visual symptoms when engaged in reading and some other visual tasks. There is currently no objective diagnostic test for this condition, which affects a substantial proportion of the population and which can disrupt development of reading skills. The reliability of subjective reports of symptoms has been questioned, especially where children are concerned. Diagnosis by positive response to the preferred treatment method, either the sustained voluntary use of a coloured overlay or immediate improvement in reading rate when using an overlay, is usually regarded as the best option. Recent research has reported that children who are significantly impaired by a visually stressful pattern during reading‐like visual search are more likely to show significant improvement in reading speed when using an overlay. This study was designed to evaluate a prototype computerised visual stress screener that incorporated visual search. The results confirmed that primary and secondary school children who were classified by the screener as having high susceptibility to visual stress had larger percent increases in reading rate with an overlay compared with those with low visual stress. The results also indicated that subjective reports of symptoms may not always be diagnostically effective with younger populations. It was concluded that screening for visual stress in reading using a computerised visual search task is an educationally promising development.     

Search behavior of dogs (Canis familiaris) in invisible displacement problems

Gagnon and Doré (1992) showed that domestic dogs are able to solve a Piagetian object permanence task called the invisible displacement problem. A toy is hidden in a container which is moved behind a screen where the toy is removed and left. Dogs make more errors in these problems than they do in visible displacement tests, in which the object is hidden directly behind the target screen. In Experiment 1, we examined components of the standard procedure of invisible displacements that may make encoding or retention of the hiding location more difficult than it is in visible displacements. In Experiment 2, we compared dogs’ performances in visible and invisible displacement problems when delays of 0, 10, and 20 sec were introduced between the object’s final disappearance and the subject’s release. The results revealed that dogs’ poorer performance in invisible displacement tests is related to the complex sequence of events that have to be encoded or remembered as well as to a difficulty in representing the position change that is signaled, but not directly perceived.     

Impact of prior knowledge of informational content and organization on learning search principles in a database

This study was designed to investigate the effects of procedural knowledge of table search and declarative knowledge of informational content on search performance. Experimental data from 17 undergraduate students of psychology with no experience of interactive computer systems are presented. Two independent variables were manipulated in a factorial design. One comprised prior training in the use of tabular information presented on paper vs. an irrelevant visual search task. The other involved making inferences from a set of written “facts” about the content in the database vs. an irrelevant choice task. The facts were about the content and abstracted essentials; i.e., macrostructural information in the database. The “facts about content” condition facilitated learning of the search principles. The “prior training with tables presented on paper” condition seemed to increase the frequency of inadequate search schemas, but it may have helped the subjects to construct a mental representation of the database. Subjects given table training but not content learned more quickly than subjects given no prior training. A significant interaction between table search and content training appeared.     

Egocentrism and automatic perspective taking in children and adults

Children (aged 6-10) and adults (total N = 136) completed a novel visual perspective-taking task that allowed quantitative comparisons across age groups. All age groups found it harder to judge the other person's perspective when it differed from their own. This egocentric interference did not decrease with age, even though, overall, performance improved. In addition, it was more difficult to judge one's own perspective when it differed from that of the other person, suggesting that the other's perspective was processed even though it interfered with self-perspective judgments. In a logically equivalent, nonsocial task, the same degree of interference was not observed. These findings are discussed in relation to recent findings suggesting precocious theory-of-mind abilities in infancy.     

Immunization and helplessness phenomena in the rat in a nonaversive situation

The performance of rats on a visual discrimination task was found to be impaired following experience with an insoluble problem. The experiment was designed in order to preclude the possibility that the effect could be attributed to the development of an incompatible response. Prior experience with a soluble problem significantly reduced the deleterious effects of the insoluble problem. The results were interpreted as providing evidence of learned helplessness and behavioral immunization in a context where no aversive stimulation was employed.     

Effects of Collective Efficacy,Teamwork Attitudes,and Experience on Group Project Performance: Comparisons Between 2 Food Science Courses

The relationship between past teamwork and task‐related experiences, attitude toward teamwork, collective efficacy, and task performance among undergraduates (N = 298) assigned to group projects (N = 48) in 2 different Food Science courses was examined. The results of survey data collected at the beginning and end of the projects showed that past teamwork and task‐related experience predicted individual student efficacy at the end of the project, and that starting efficacy, but not attitudes toward teamwork, mediated that relationship. Convergence over time among team members’ efficacy, and diversity of past task‐related experiences was positively related to project grade, whereas diversity in past teamwork experiences was negatively related to project grade. The relationship between past experiences, attitude toward teamwork, efficacy, and grades did not differ between the 2 courses. Implications for practices of implementing group class projects are discussed.     

Comparative performance in discrimination learning tasks in two New World primates (Saimiri sciureus andCallicebus moloch)

Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) and titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch) were tested in three two-choice visual discrimination experiments. Although, on average, squirrel monkeys performed more accurately than titis, the range of response accuracies in the two species overlapped considerably in all three experiments and changes in response accuracy over test sessions and across experiments were similar in the two species. Thus, the species shared several behavioral characteristics expected of New World primates in this setting. Squirrel monkeys’ performance appeared to be more affected than titis’ by task difficulty, and squirrel monkeys were individually less consistent than titis. These differences were associated with higher activity levels and briefer overt attentiveness to the repetitive task in squirrel monkeys and, conversely, with lower activity levels, slower working speeds, and sustained interest in the task in titis. The associated differences are discussed in relation to each species performance in other laboratory settings and the characteristic patterns of foraging and use of space in nature.     

“I Don't Have Time to Dig Back Through This”: The Role of Semantic Search in Supporting Physician Information Seeking in an Electronic Health Record

The purpose of the study was twofold: to understand how usability affected physicians' performance as they used an electronic health record (EHR) and to ascertain whether use of a semantic search feature would better support physician performance during an information‐seeking task. Participants (n = 10) were asked to complete two search tasks to find pertinent patient information. In the first task, participants located the information as they normally would (through browsing the EHR). In the second task, participants employed a semantic search tool. Upon task completion, participants were interviewed to further understand their perceptions and information‐seeking behavior in an EHR. Statistically significant results confirmed that participants were able to more efficiently navigate through an EHR in terms of time and number of clicks when using the semantic search feature. Moreover, participants were more confident in the accuracy of their answers when using semantic search compared with the browsing method. Implications for practice are discussed.     

A study of the relationship between learning styles and cognitive abilities in engineering students

Learning preferences have been indirectly linked to student success in engineering programmes, without a significant body of research to connect learning preferences with cognitive abilities. A better understanding of the relationship between learning styles and cognitive abilities will allow educators to optimise the classroom experience for students. The goal of this study was to determine whether relationships exist between student learning styles, as determined by the Felder-Soloman Inventory of Learning Styles (FSILS), and their cognitive performance. Three tests were used to assess student's cognitive abilities: a matrix reasoning task, a Tower of London task, and a mental rotation task. Statistical t-tests and correlation coefficients were used to quantify the results. Results indicated that the global–sequential, active–referential, and visual–verbal FSILS learning styles scales are related to performance on cognitive tasks. Most of these relationships were found in response times, not accuracy. Differences in task performance between gender groups (male and female) were more notable than differences between learning styles groups.     

Symbolic Functioning in Very Young Children: Understanding of Pictures and Models

Before one can understand or use any symbol, one must first realize that it is a symbol, that is, that it stands for or represents something other than itself. This article reports 4 studies investigating very young children's understanding of 2 different kinds of symbolic stimuli--scale models and pictures. The data replicate previous findings that 2.5-year-old children have great difficulty appreciating the relation between a scale model and the larger space it represents, but that they very readily appreciate the relation between a picture and its referent. This result is interpreted in terms of the dual orientation hypothesis. Models are difficult for young children because they require a dual representation--a child must think about a model both as an object itself and as a representation of something else. Because pictures are not salient as real objects, they do not require a dual representation. Several kinds of evidence supporting the dual orientation hypothesis are presented. An additional result was the occurrence of a transfer effect: Prior experience with a picture task led to better performance on a subsequent model task. This finding suggests that experience with a symbolic medium they understand can help young children figure out a different, unfamilar medium that they would otherwise not understand.