Goal‐Directed Correlates and Neurobiological Underpinnings of Adolescent Identity: A Multimethod Multisample Longitudinal Approach

This multimethod multisample longitudinal study examined how neurological substrates associated with goal directedness and information seeking are related to adolescents’ identity. Self‐reported data on goal‐directedness were collected across three biannual waves in Study 1. Identity was measured one wave later. Study 1 design and measurements were repeated in Study 2 and extended with structural brain data (nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and prefrontal cortex gray matter volume [PFC]), collected across three biannual waves. Study 1 included 497 adolescents (M_{age T1} = 13.03 years) and Study 2 included 131 adolescents (M_{age T1} = 14.69 years). Using latent growth curve models, goal directedness, NAcc, and PFC volume predicted a stronger identity one wave later. These findings provide crucial new insights in the underlying neurobiological architecture of identity.     

小学阶段本地儿童与随迁儿童学业成绩影响因素的分析 ——基于Shapley值的分解

利用江苏省2018年年度义务教育质量监测数据,建立多元线性回归模型,实证分析个体非认知因素、家庭背景以及学校条件对小学阶段随迁儿童与本地儿童学业成绩的影响,并通过Shapley值法揭示两者学业成绩影响机制的差异.研究发现,1)在小学阶段,随迁儿童与本地儿童存在显著的学业成绩差异,且家庭背景、学校条件和个体非认知因素是解...     

Inclusion of Mobility‐Impaired Children in the One‐to‐One Computing Era: A Case Study

In recent times many developing countries have adopted a one‐to‐one model for distributing computers in classrooms. Among the various effects that such an approach could imply, it surely increases the availability of computer‐related Assistive Technology at school and provides higher resources for empowering disabled children in their learning and communicating abilities. New environments are created in which technology is no more a specific solution, but a matter of fact. This article describes three case studies involving children from Uruguayan special schools undergoing integration projects in mainstream schools. The children could count on a computer technology which did not mark them as “those who need some different tools,” but as special users of the same tools as the rest of the students.     

Getting to No: Pragmatic and Semantic Factors in Two‐ and Three‐Year‐Olds' Understanding of Negation

Although infants say “no” early, older children have difficulty understanding its truth‐functional meaning. Two experiments investigate whether this difficulty stems from the infelicity of negative sentences out of the blue. In Experiment 1, given supportive discourse, 3‐year‐olds (N = 16) understood both affirmative and negative sentences. However, with sentence types randomized, 2‐year‐olds (N = 28) still failed. In Experiment 2, affirmative and negative sentences were blocked. Two‐year‐olds (N = 28) now succeeded, but only when affirmatives were presented first. Thus, although discourse felicity seems the primary bottleneck for 3‐year‐olds' understanding of negation, 2‐year‐olds struggle with its semantic processing. Contrary to accounts where negatives are understood via affirmatives, both sentence types were processed equally quickly, suggesting previously reported asymmetries are due to pragmatic accommodation, not semantic processing.     

泛函分析在数据同化伴随方法中的应用

介绍了数据同化的伴随方法中所用到的伴随算子、lagraIlger乘子和Gateaux微分等相关泛函理论,以初值优化为例,推导了初值问题的伴随方程。     

环序数和序数差对牛顿环测量透镜曲率半径的影响研究

针对学生在牛顿环实验中提出的问题,本文通过对实验数据处理进行分析,指出牛顿环实验数据采集和数据处理过程中选取环序数和序数差应注意事项,并指出在数据处理过程中使用绘图拟合软件Origin进行线性拟公得到曲率半径的方法是可行的.     

Group‐Difference Effect Sizes: Gauging the Practical Importance of Findings from Group‐Experimental Research

Effect sizes are powerful tools for evaluating the practical importance of study findings that should be considered in the context of study characteristics such as participants, dependent variables, and comparison condition. In this article, we discuss how group‐difference effect sizes are used to gauge the practical importance of group experimental studies. We first define different types of group‐difference effect sizes and discuss how they can provide valuable information for research consumers. Second, we present guidelines for interpreting group‐difference effect sizes. Third, we discuss important contextual variables that should be taken into account when interpreting group‐difference effect sizes reported in the literature. Last, we provide two examples of how group‐difference effect sizes have been used in the learning disabilities research base.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of Well‐Being of Ghanaian Children in Transnational Families

This study is the first to employ panel data to examine well‐being outcomes—self‐rated health, happiness, life satisfaction, and school enjoyment—of children in transnational families in an African context. It analyzes data collected in 2013, 2014, and 2015 from secondary schoolchildren and youth (ages 12–21) in Ghana (N = 741). Results indicate that children with fathers, mothers, or both parents away and those cared for by a parent, a family, or a nonfamily member are equally or more likely to have higher levels of well‐being as children in nonmigrant families. Yet, there are certain risk factors—being a female, living in a family affected by divorce or by a change in caregiver while parents migrate—that may decrease child well‐being.     

Drawing and the Aestheticisation of the Human Figure by Four‐ to Ten‐Year‐Old Botswana Children: Implications for Pedagogy

Drawing is one of children's modes of communication which has recently excited academic inquiry in non‐Western cultures. It is the means through which children express their fears, desires, anxieties and conception of phenomena. This study investigated drawings by four‐ to ten‐year‐old Botswana children in response to the human figure as an aesthetic object. The methodology involved observing a sample of forty purposively selected children engaged in the drawing process and analysing their visual productions in addition to conversational talk about their art. The study found that the human figure was the dominant aesthetic subject across ages represented in both conventionalised form and personalised imagery. Older children showed interest in culture specific imagery and demonstrated mastery of occlusion and depth cues, while four‐year‐old children had limited spatial awareness. The study also found that children demonstrated gradual improvement of drawing skills with age. There was no significant difference in drawing competence between sexes. Pedagogical implications are suggested to scaffold children through the stages of art development.     

阅读困难儿童的脑神经机制与认知技能缺陷分析

阅读困难儿童是学习困难中的一个特殊群体,他们在遗传、脑神经机制以及认知技能等多方面同普通儿童相比都存在差异,其中脑神经机制和认知技能的差异是研究者比较关注的两个方面.在脑神经机制方面,阅读困难儿童在脑结构和脑功能上存在异常;在认知技能方面,阅读困难儿童存在语言学范畴和非语言学范畴两个方面的缺陷.在对以上两个方面的差异与缺陷进行分析的基础上,对汉语阅读困难儿童未来的研究进行了展望.     

Evaluating a Multidimensional Reading Comprehension Program and Reconsidering the Lowly Reputation of Tests of Near‐Transfer

We conducted a 14‐week experimental study of 2 versions of a relatively comprehensive RC intervention that involved 50 classroom teachers, 15 tutors, and 116 children drawn in equal proportions from grades 3 and 5 in 13 schools in a large urban school district. Students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to the two tutoring conditions and a control group. Results indicated that students in the two tutored groups tended to perform comparably on all tests and to outperform controls (more so in grade 5 than grade 3) on near‐transfer but not far‐transfer measures of RC. This differential pattern of program effects for near‐ versus far‐transfer measures raises questions about how tests of near‐transfer and far‐transfer are conventionally understood.     

中学生科学学习的性别差异与课程应对——基于PISA 2015中国四省市的数据分析

在PISA2015科学素养的测试中,我国学生在科学整体认知、科学能力、科学知识、科学内容等认知维度多个层面的表现上,男生整体优于女生。同时,在与科学相关的非认知背景调查中,男生在乐意学习科学、科学学习兴趣以及科学活动三个变量上的表现亦明显优于女生。基于我国学生在科学学习中认知和非认知层面上的性别差异,为缩小或消除中学生科学学习的性别差异,在科学课程编制中,需要凸显科学知识选择的公正性以消除课程内容的性别偏见;在学校课程建设中,需要彰显学校课程的适应性以增强学校课程的性别适应;在教师课程实施中,需要尊重学生的差异性以保持课程实施的性别敏感。     

Letter Processing and the Formation of Memory Representations in Children with Naming Speed Deficits

The ability to recognize letter patterns within words as a single unit is important for fluent reading. This skill is based on previously established memory representations of common letter patterns. The ability to form these memory representations may be impaired in some poor readers, particularly readers with naming speed deficits (NSD). This study explored factors that influence letter processing and the subsequent formation of memory representations of letter strings in children with and without a NSD. Children were presented with a letter string, followed by a probe unit that was either a single letter, a two-letter cluster, or a repetition of the whole string. Children indicated whether or not the probe had been present in the preceding string. Two factors were manipulated: (a) amount of time to process the initial letter string, and (b) level of orthographic structure present in the letter string. Results indicated that overall, children with NSD performed less accurately than children without NSD. However, children with NSD showed no differential benefit in performance as a result of longer time to process a letter string. In addition, all readers were able to make use of the orthographic structure in a letter string to aid performance. Implications of results for establishing memory representations of letter strings are discussed.     

The Influence of Reading Expertise in Mirror‐Letter Perception: Evidence From Beginning and Expert Readers

The visual word recognition system recruits neuronal systems originally developed for object perception which are characterized by orientation insensitivity to mirror reversals. It has been proposed that during reading acquisition beginning readers have to “unlearn” this natural tolerance to mirror reversals in order to efficiently discriminate letters and words. Therefore, it is supposed that this unlearning process takes place in a gradual way and that reading expertise modulates mirror‐letter discrimination. However, to date no supporting evidence for this has been obtained. We present data from an eye‐movement study that investigated the degree of sensitivity to mirror‐letters in a group of beginning readers and a group of expert readers. Participants had to decide which of the two strings presented on a screen corresponded to an auditorily presented word. Visual displays always included the correct target word and one distractor word. Results showed that those distractors that were the same as the target word except for the mirror lateralization of two internal letters attracted participants' attention more than distractors created by replacement of 2 internal letters. Interestingly, the time course of the effects was found to be different for the 2 groups, with beginning readers showing a greater tolerance (decreased sensitivity) to mirror‐letters than expert readers. Implications of these findings are discussed within the framework of preceding evidence showing how reading expertise modulates letter identification.     

On the Difference Between Designing Children and Raising Them: Ethics and the Use of Educationally Oriented Biotechnology

The use of educationally oriented biotechnology has grown drastically in recent decades and is likely to continue to grow. Advances in both the neurosciences and genetics have opened up important areas of application and industry, from psychopharmacology to gene-chip technologies. This article reviews the current state of educationally oriented biological technologies, eventually focusing on the use of psychiatric drugs with children and adolescents to improve their academic performance. Distinguishing between “good” and “bad” uses of biological technologies is complicated by conflicting theoretical views about human development, the etiology of disability, and the diagnostic categories that structure treatments. To address these issues I introduce a set of ethical concepts, which are based on a biopsychosocial approach to human development. The difference between designing children and raising children marks an ethically salient difference between approaches that focus on only part of the child (e.g., her brain) and approaches that focus on the full biopsychosocial complexity of the developing child in context. This clarifies the importance of the child's right to both autonomy and care. Implications for policy and practice are offered.     

关于BP网中隐含层层数及其节点数选取方法浅析

介绍了BP网络结构的重要性，总结了设计BP网时确定隐含层层数及其节点数的几种传统方法及一种新方法，此方法将矩阵分解理论引入BP网络结构优化中，为其指出了一个全新的思路及未来的发展趋势。     

The Use of Letter Position Cues in the Visual Processing of Words by Children with an Intellectual Disability and Nondisabled Children

TWO EXPERIMENTS were designed to investigate possible deficiencies in strategies used for decoding words by children with an intellectual disability. The experiments focused specifically on the use of letter position cues as aids to word identification. In Experiment 1,20 children with an intellectual disability (ID) aged 10 to 12 years were matched with two groups of nondisabled children, one for mental age (MA) and one for chronological age (CA), on a visual search task, with response times to array types (word, pseudoword, or nonword) and target position in positive arrays as the dependent variable. The ID group showed response time advantages only when the target letter was in the initial position of an array; however both nondisabled groups responded faster when the target letter was in either the initial or final position, compared to the medial position, and this pattern occurred for words (MA group) and words and pseudowords (CA group) but not for nonwords. Experiment 2 extended the investigation to the oral reading of isolated words. In substitution errors made by children with an intellectual disability, the incorrect word tended to resemble the test word only in the initial letter. In errors made by MA‐matched children, however, both the initial and final letters tended to be the same as those in the test word, suggesting that these are salient cues to word recognition. The findings are interpreted with reference to previous work on early reading acquisition and to research which suggests a more generalised deficiency in the acquisition and use of strategies by ID subjects in cognitive tasks.     

Shyness‐Sensitivity and Social,School, and Psychological Adjustment in Urban Chinese Children: A Four‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This study examined reciprocal contributions between shyness‐sensitivity and social, school, and psychological adjustment in urban Chinese children. Longitudinal data were collected once a year from Grade 3 to Grade 6 (ages 9–12 years) for 1,171 children from multiple sources. Shyness‐sensitivity positively contributed to social, school, and psychological difficulties over time, with the most consistent effects on peer preference and loneliness. Social and school adjustment negatively contributed to the development of shyness‐sensitivity. The initial levels of shyness‐sensitivity and social and school adjustment moderated the growth of each other, mainly as a resource‐potentiating factor. The results indicate the significance of shyness‐sensitivity for adjustment and the role of adjustment in the development of shyness‐sensitivity in today's urban Chinese society.     

Using Nonword Repetition Tasks for the Identification of Language Impairment in Spanish‐English‐Speaking Children: Does the Language of Assessment Matter?

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to evaluate the clinical utility of a verbal working memory measure, specifically, a nonword repetition task, with a sample of Spanish-English bilingual children and (2) to determine the extent to which individual differences in relative language skills and language use had an effect on the clinical differentiation of these children by the measures. A total of 144 Latino children (95 children with typical language development and 49 children with language impairment) were tested using nonword lists developed for each language. The results show that the clinical accuracy of nonword repetition tasks varies depending on the language(s) tested. Test performance appeared related to individual differences in language use and exposure. The findings do not support a monolingual approach to the assessment of bilingual children with nonword repetition tasks, even if children appear fluent speakers in the language of testing. Nonword repetition may assist in the screening of Latino children if used bilingually and in combination with other clinical measures.     

Realizing Relevance: The Influence of Domain‐Specific Information on Generation of New Knowledge Through Integration in 4‐ to 8‐Year‐Old Children

In accumulating knowledge, direct modes of learning are complemented by productive processes, including self‐generation based on integration of separate episodes. Effects of the number of potentially relevant episodes on integration were examined in 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds (N = 121; racially/ethnically heterogeneous sample, English speakers, from large metropolitan area). Information was presented along with unrelated or related episodes; the latter challenged children to identify the relevant subset of episodes for integration. In Experiment 1, 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds integrated in the unrelated context. Six‐year‐olds also succeeded in the related context in forced‐choice testing. In Experiment 2, 8‐year‐olds succeeded in open‐ended and forced‐choice testing. Results illustrate a developmental progression in productive extension of knowledge due in part to age‐related increases in identification of relevant information.