Reading aloud: Dissociating the semantic pathway from the non-semantic pathway of the lexical route

According to dual-route models of reading,consistency effects in pseudoword reading areevidence for the activation of lexicalinformation. We investigated whether thislexical interference has a semantic or anon-semantic origin. In Experiment 1,participants named aloud a set of words andpseudowords. The consistency effect in readingpseudowords co-occurred with associativepriming effects in reading words but not withsemantic priming effects. In Experiment 2, onlywords were presented. Comparable effects ofboth associative priming and semantic primingin naming words were found. This patternprovides evidence for the existence of alexical non-semantic pathway in reading aloud.It also shows that this pathway is sensitive toassociative relations among words. Finally, itcalls into question the likelihood of afeedback mechanism from the semantic system tothe orthographic input lexicon.     

Effects of reward pedagogy on spelling scores and prosocial behaviors in primary school students in Singapore

Abstract

Effects of reward pedagogy (competitive, cooperative, individualistic, cooperative-competitive, and cooperative-individualistic) on spelling scores and prosocial behavior in Singapore students were examined alongside its interplay with ability level. A total of 1005 Primary 3 and 4 students were randomly assigned to one of the five reward pedagogies, with students rewarded based on their spelling scores. An ABABA design (A?=?implementation; B?=?withdrawal) was used for each reward pedagogy. Results revealed an interaction between reward pedagogy and ability level on both spelling scores and prosocial behavior, such that different pedagogies were more effective for different ability levels. One promising way forward, however, draws from the finding that cooperative-competitive reward pedagogy was effective for both outcomes across all ability groups.     

Children’s rights in educational relationships

The aim of this study is that of reaching a better comprehension of the topic of children’s rights within educational relationships. In a first stage, we analysed the representational field of children’s rights produced through free associations by the two partners who are in conflict in everyday life, namely adults (n=267) and adolescents (n=143). In a second stage, we chose a sample of 690 adult subjects that were all parents, half of whom were also teachers; through a structured questionnaire we investigated the role of several aspects (responsibility, respect, values, conditions influencing children’s growth and sense of justice) in the organisation of social representations of children’s rights. The results outlined different contrasts in the organisation of the representational scenario. The first opposes adults and adolescents, in the sense that adults emphasise their duties of offering protection and care, while the youngsters describe rights in terms of autonomous field of experience. Within the group of adults, several differences emerged between teachers and parents: the first seem more doubtful about the positive outcomes of personal involvement, while parents are moved by a general feeling of optimism, anchored in the faith in the family’s strength and integrity.     

The Introduction of a Computerised Network to Support Educational Change in Hong Kong

In 1998, there was a major shift in the medium of instruction in Hong Kong secondary schools from English to Chinese. This change had many educational advantages. However, its implementation was not without problems, and many of the problems were non-trivial. This article reports the work of a computer network, specifically established to support the educational change and discuss about the strategy to provide effective support to educational changes through computer networking, including issues on service positions, content provision and the development of network culture interaction.     

Impact of attitudes, ethnicity and quality of prior therapy on New Zealand male prisoners' intentions to seek professional psychological help

A sample of 111 male prisoners returned a questionnaire which assessed helpseeking intentions, psychological distress, treatment fearfulness and attitudes toward professional psychological helpseeking. Results indicated that more favourable attitudes were associated with increased helpseeking intentions. In general, non-Maori inmates and those with positive prior helpseeking experiences had more positive attitudes and higher helpseeking intentions than those who had neutral or negative prior helpseeking experiences. Contrary to expectations male prisoners had lower helpseeking intentions for "suicidal thoughts" than for a "personal-emotional problem".     

What everybody knows about children: Mothers' ideas on early childhood

A sample of 364 mothers were interviewed with a questionnaire investigating 4 topics: developmental conceptions, socialization rules, parental social roles and sexual stereotypes. A subsample of 107 of the same mothers was then submitted to an attitude scale testing the importance they attributed to 19 traits of children's behaviour and the influence they perceived as having on the development of the same traits. The results give evidence of a social representation shared by our sample; this representation refers to a traditional way of rearing children and to a traditional division of parental social roles. The mothers' working positions and levels of instructions are found to discriminate as to their agreement on such a view. Analyses on the degree of importance and of perceived influence on the behavioural traits confirm the same results, but they also define a new emerging image of the child, which stresses different values from the traditional ones.     

Sprint running: how changes in step frequency affect running mechanics and leg spring behaviour at maximal speed

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in selected biomechanical variables in 80-m maximal sprint runs while imposing changes in step frequency (SF) and to investigate if these adaptations differ based on gender and training level. A total of 40 athletes (10 elite men and 10 women, 10 intermediate men and 10 women) participated in this study; they were requested to perform 5 trials at maximal running speed (RS): at the self-selected frequency (SF_s) and at SF ±15% and ±30%SF_s. Contact time (CT) and flight time (FT) as well as step length (SL) decreased with increasing SF, while k_vert increased with it. At SF_s, k_leg was the lowest (a 20% decrease at ±30%SF_s), while RS was the largest (a 12% decrease at ±30%SF_s). Only small changes (1.5%) in maximal vertical force (F_max) were observed as a function of SF, but maximum leg spring compression (ΔL) was largest at SF_s and decreased by about 25% at ±30%SF_s. Significant differences in F_max, Δy, k_leg and k_vert were observed as a function of skill and gender (P < 0.001). Our results indicate that RS is optimised at SF_s and that, while k_vert follows the changes in SF, k_leg is lowest at SF_s.