Relationships between cardiorespiratory fitness,inhibition, and math fluency: A cluster analysis

ABSTRACT

This study identified clusters of adolescents who share similar cardiorespiratory fitness levels and analysed the relationships between cardiorespiratory fitness, inhibition, and math fluency in each of the clusters. The subjects were 490 high-school students aged 10–16 years. The mean age was 13.82 years (SD = 1.12). Latent class analysis identified three clusters with high, medium, and low levels of cardiorespiratory fitness. The high-fitness cluster achieved higher scores in inhibition and math fluency than the low-fitness cluster. Path analysis revealed that the influence of cardiorespiratory fitness on inhibition was non-existent in the three clusters. The effect of inhibition on math fluency was positive and significant in all three cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Cardiorespiratory fitness had a direct, positive, and significant effect on math fluency only in the high-fitness cluster. Therefore, a high level of cardiorespiratory fitness is a significant determining factor in the explanation of math fluency. These results indicate that inhibition does not mediate the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and math fluency. However, the benefits of cardiorespiratory fitness affect math fluency, which has important implications for the educational environment and the teaching/learning process.     

The Impact of Prior Counseling on Predictors of College Counseling Center Use

Path analyses revealed that one's tendency to conceal distressing information, social support, psychological distress, and attitudes toward seeking help predicted intended use of counseling services for college students who had and had not previously been in counseling. Prospective analyses revealed that attitudes toward seeking help predicted actual use of the campus counseling center. These findings have implications for campus outreach programs and in‐session work with clients.     

Pressure driven spinning: A multifaceted approach for preparing nanoscaled functionalized fibers, scaffolds, and membranes with advanced materials

Electrospinning, a flexible jet-based fiber, scaffold, and membrane fabrication approach, has been elucidated as having significance to the heath sciences. Its capabilities have been most impressive as it possesses the ability to spin composite fibers ranging from the nanometer to the micrometer scale. Nonetheless, electrospinning has limitations and hazards, negating its wider exploration, for example, the inability to handle highly conducting suspensions, to its hazardous high voltage. Hence, to date electrospinning has undergone an exhaustive research regime to a point of cliché. Thus, in the work reported herein we unveil a competing technique to electrospinning, which has overcome the above limitations and hazards yet comparable in capabilities. The fiber preparation approach unearthed herein is referred to as “pressure driven spinning (PDS).” The driving mechanism exploited in this fiber spinning process is the pressurized by-pass flow. This mechanism allows the drawing of either micro- or nanosized fibers while processing polymeric suspensions containing a wide range of advanced materials spanning structural, functional, and biological entities. Similar to electrospinning if the collection time of these continuous formed fibers is varied, composite scaffolds and membranes are generated. In keeping with our interests, multicompositional structural entities such as these could have several applications in biology and medicine, for example, ranging from the development of three-dimensional cultures (including disease models) to the development of synthetic tissues and organ structures to advanced approaches for controlled and targeted therapeutics.     

Teachers' Perceptions of a Learner-Centered Teacher Evaluation System

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Promoting success for all students is the driving force to develop and implement sound teacher evaluation systems. As Stronge suggests,...     

What makes a landmark effective? Sex differences in a navigation task

In Experiment 1, two groups of female rats were trained in a triangular pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of a single a landmark, a cylinder outside the pool. For one group, the landmark had only a single pattern (i.e., it looked the same when approached from any direction), while for the other, the landmark contained four different patterns (i.e., it looked different when approached from different directions). The first group learned to swim to the platform more rapidly than the second. Experiment 2 confirmed this difference when female rats were trained in a circular pool but found that male rats learned equally rapidly (and as rapidly as females trained with the single-pattern landmark) with both landmarks. This second finding was confirmed in Experiment 3. Finally, in Experiment 4a and 4b, male and female rats were trained either with the same, single-pattern landmark on all trials or with a different landmark each day. Males learned equally rapidly (and as rapidly as females trained with the unchanged landmark) whether the landmark changed or not. We conclude that male and female rats learn rather different things about the landmark that signals the location of the platform.     

The neural correlates of working memory training in typically developing children

Working memory training improves children's cognitive performance on untrained tasks; however, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms. This was investigated in 32 typically developing children aged 10–14 years (19 girls and 13 boys) using a randomized controlled design and multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging (Devon, UK; 2015–2016). Training improved working memory performance and increased intrinsic functional connectivity between the bilateral intraparietal sulci. Furthermore, improvements in working memory were associated with greater recruitment of the left middle frontal gyrus on a complex span task. Repeated engagement of fronto-parietal regions during training may increase their activity and functional connectivity over time, affording greater working memory performance. The plausibility of generalizable cognitive benefits from a neurobiological perspective and implications for neurodevelopmental theory are discussed.     

How Does It Look? Level 2 Perspective‐Taking at 36 Months of Age

Previous research has found that children engage in Level 2 visual perspective-taking, that is, the understanding that others may see things in a different way, between 4 and 5 years of age (e.g., J. H. Flavell, B. A. Everett, K. Croft, & E. R. Flavell, 1981). This ability was reexamined in 36-month-olds using color filters. In Experiment 1 (N = 24), children had to recognize how an object looked to an adult when she saw it through a color filter. In Experiment 2 (N = 24), a novel production test was applied. Results of both studies show that 36-month-olds know how an object looks to another person. The discussion focuses on the psychological requirements of visual perspective-taking and its relation to other "theory of mind" abilities, such as the distinction between appearance and reality and understanding false belief.     

Assessing the counselling needs of high school students in Kenya

The Student Counselling Needs Scale (SCNS) was administered to 867 participants recruited from high schools in Kenya. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis yielding five factors: human relationships, career development, self development, social values, and learning skills were assessed. The findings highlighted the importance of using assessment instruments to identify students’ counselling needs in Kenya.