Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later

Aerobically fit children outperform less fit peers on cognitive control challenges that involve inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether, compared with less fit children, more fit 9- and 10-year-old pre-adolescents exhibit superior performance on a modified compatible and incompatible flanker task of cognitive control at the initial time of fitness testing and approximately one year later. We found that more fit children demonstrated increased flanker accuracy at both test sessions, coupled with a superior ability to flexibly allocate strategies during task conditions that required different amounts of cognitive control, relative to less fit children. More fit children also gained a speed benefit at follow-up testing. Structural MRI data were also collected to investigate the relationship between basal ganglia volume and task performance. Bilateral putamen volumes of the dorsal striatum and globus pallidus volumes predicted flanker performance at initial and follow-up testing one year later. The present findings suggest that childhood aerobic fitness and basal ganglia volumes relate to cognitive control at the time of fitness testing and may play a role in cognitive performance in the future. We hope that this research will encourage public health and educational changes that will promote a physically active lifestyle in children.     

Knowledge networks: Dilemmas and paradoxes

After defining knowledge networks and the basic concepts of paradox and dilemmas, I analyze a sample of paradoxes/dilemmas commonly associated with them involving culture, structure, cognition, and actionable knowledge. In doing this I focus on how one side of the dilemmas is often associated with negative connotations that drive managers away from that choice. So, for example, hoarding, while it clearly benefits individuals in certain contexts, is typically viewed as a selfish act that hurts the collective. I conclude this essay with a discussion of the need for managers to deliberately confront dilemmas.     

Estimating the “Impact” of Out‐of‐Home Placement on Child Well‐Being: Approaching the Problem of Selection Bias

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4–17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out‐of‐home placement on children’s cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized change, simple change, difference‐in‐difference, and fixed effects models. Models were estimated using the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Although results from the unmatched OLS and residualized change models suggested that out‐of‐home placement is associated with increased child behavior problems, estimates from models that more rigorously adjust for selection bias indicated that placement has little effect on children’s cognitive skills or behavior problems.     

Biological Motion Displays Elicit Social Behavior in 12-Month-Olds

To test the hypothesis that biological motion perception is developmentally integrated with important social cognitive abilities, 12-month-olds ( N  =   36) were shown a display of a human point-light figure turning to observe a target. Infants spontaneously and reliably followed the figure's "gaze" despite the absence of familiar and socially informative features such as a face or eyes. This suggests that biological motion displays are sufficient to convey rich psychological information such as attentional orientation and is the first evidence to show that biological motion perception and social cognitive abilities are functionally integrated early in the course of typical development. The question of whether common neural substrates for biological motion perception and analysis of gaze direction underlies the functional integration seen behaviorally is discussed.     

Adults matter: Protecting children from the negative impacts of bullying

This study examines the degree to which support from parents and teachers buffers the level of depression for four groups of children involved in bullying (victim, bully, bully‐victims, or not involved children). Nine hundred and seventy‐seven 5th‐, 9th‐, and 11th‐grade students in the rural South completed questionnaires on bullying, social support, and depression. Children who were not involved in bullying reported less depression and more social support than children involved in bullying, and bully‐victims were the most at‐risk group. Furthermore, results indicate that in all four bully status groups, children reported fewer symptoms of depression when support from parents was high compared to when it was low. For all groups except victims, when parental support was low, support from teachers was associated with fewer symptoms of depression. When parental support was high, the impact of support from the teacher was not significant. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Teenage technological experts’ views of schooling

Utilising Pierre Bourdieu’s formula for studying social practice, this study explored the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers. The qualitative study employed observations and interviews with five boys and three girls aged 13–17, who considered themselves to be technological experts; their peers and/or their family also considered them to be technological experts. For seven of the eight participants, their primary site of leisure was their home computer use. This article gives some examples about how the participants’ understand schooling and its relevance to them. It engages with ideas concerning the performance of school, and argues that the participants’ practice in this field of home computer use for leisure tends to be misrecognised. The article concludes by discussing the implications this misrecognition has for the structures of formal schooling.