Frontal Activation Asymmetry and Social Competence at Four Years of Age

The pattern of frontal activation as measured by the ongoing electroencephalogram (EEG) may be a marker for individual differences in infant and adult disposition to respond with either positive or negative affect. We studied 48 4-year-old children who were first observed in same-sex quartets during free-play sessions, while making speeches, and during a ticket-sorting task. Social and interactive behaviors were coded from these sessions. Each child was subsequently seen 2 weeks later when EEG was recorded while the child attended to a visual stimulus. The pattern of EEG activation computed from the session was significantly related to the child's behavior in the quartet session. Children who displayed social competence (high degree of social initiations and positive affect) exhibited greater relative left frontal activation, while children who displayed social withdrawal (isolated, onlooking, and unoccupied behavior) during the play session exhibited greater relative right frontal activation. Differences among children in frontal asymmetry were a function of power in the left frontal region. These EEG/behavior findings suggest that resting frontal asymmetry may be a marker for certain temperamental dispositions.     

A Comparison of Reader Strategies on Two Versions of A Newspaper Editorial

Reading is seen as a communication process, a meaningful interaction between the reader and his reading text. A number of factors are known to affect this interaction. One prominent factor is the type of text being read. That is, reader strategies may vary in relation to text characteristics. This study used miscue analysis to find out patterns of reader strategies on two types of texts: a syntactically complex and high vocabulary loaded text and a syntactically simple and low vocabulary loaded text. To this end, cloze tests of passages derived from two versions of a newspaper editorial completed by twenty undergraduate education students from the University of Jos were analysed. The results indicated that the readers of the difficult text had less access to semantic and syntactic cues than the readers of the simplified text. Readers for whom the difficult text was on frustration level made less use of context than did readers for whom the same text was on instructional level. There was very little difference in quality of miscues by readers of the simplified text reading on independent level as compared with those reading the same text on instructional level. Readers who performed on instructional level on the difficult passage used similar reading strategies to those who performed on instructional level on the simplified passage. The implications of the findings for reading instruction were discussed.     

Difficult serial anticipation learning in rats: Rule-encoding vs. memory

Rats, trained in a runway, were asked to anticipate, while running slowly, the last two events in repeating series of .045-g food pellets. The series were either weakly monotonic (14, 5, 5, 1, and then 0 pellets/run) or nonmonotonic (5-5-14-1-0). While the terminal 0-pellet event was better anticipated in the weakly monotonic series, the reverse was the case for the next-to-last 1-pellet event. These findings were expected from a memory-discrimination learning hypothesis of serial learning, which suggests that the memory of one event in a series can be used to signal the next event. However, the better anticipation of the 1-pellet event by the nonmonotonic group was inconsistent with the recently stated rule-encoding position of Hulse (1980). According to that view, difficult series of the sort employed in the present investigation are learned by encoding the rule structure of the series, with events in the series with the simple rule structure (the weakly monotonic series in this investigation) being better anticipated than events in the series with the complex rule structure.     

Nonlinear Growth Mixture Models With Fractional Polynomials: An Illustration With Early Childhood Mathematics Ability

Applications of growth mixture modeling have become widespread in the fields of medicine, public health, and the social sciences for modeling linear and nonlinear patterns of change in longitudinal data with presumed heterogeneity with respect to latent group membership. However, in contrast to linear approaches, there has been relatively less focus on methods for modeling nonlinear change. We introduce a nonlinear mixture modeling approach for estimating change trajectories that rely on the use of fractional polynomials within a growth mixture modeling framework. Fractional polynomials allow for more parsimonious and flexible models in comparison to conventional polynomial models. The procedures are illustrated through the use of math ability scores obtained from 499 children over a period of 3 years, with 4 measurement occasions. Techniques for identifying the best empirically derived growth mixture model solution are also described and illustrated by way of substantive example and a simulation.     

The Contribution of Naming Speed to the Simple View of Reading

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether naming speed makes a contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension, after taking into account the product of word decoding and listening comprehension (i.e., the Simple View of Reading; [Gough, P.B. & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). Remedial and Special Education 7, 6–10]), and phonological awareness. In grade 3, word decoding was measured with the Woodcock [(1998). Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests – Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Services]. Word Identification and Word Attack subtests, listening comprehension with the Woodcock (1991) [Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery – Revised. Chicago: Riverside Publishing Company] test of Listening Comprehension, naming speed with a picture naming task, and 4 measures assessed phonological awareness. Reading comprehension was assessed in grades 3, 4, and 5 with the Woodcock (1998) Passage Comprehension subtest and in grade 5 with the Gates–MacGinitie reading test. The Simple View was evaluated twice: first, with a pseudoword measure for decoding (Grapheme–Phoneme-conversion product) and, second, with a word identification measure for decoding (word recognition product). Hierarchical regression and commonality analyses indicated that the decoding and listening comprehension products accounted for considerable variance in reading comprehension. Naming speed had a small but significant effect after accounting for the Grapheme–Phoneme-conversion product (2–3%), but little effect after accounting for the word-recognition product (0–2%). Subgroup analyses indicated that naming speed had its primary effect for less able readers. Commonality analyses supported the interpretation that naming speed contributes after the Grapheme–Phoneme-conversion product but not after the word recognition product because naming speed has already had its effect upon word recognition. These results indicate that it is important how the Simple View decoding term is defined, and that the Simple View may be incomplete, especially for less able readers.     

Super-resolution inpainting

INTRODUCTION Video sequences can be interfered with by noise.When the noise ratio of a video is high,even though itis not possible to restore the original,to repair videoframes or damaged artifacts with visually good resultis a hopefully achievable goal(see example in Fig.3),especially for archival resources in digital museumprojects.One of the simplest but efficient mecha-nisms is presented in(Oliveira et al.,2001).The dif-fusion kernel can repair damages of small area with abarrier to …     

Analogical instruction within the information processing paradigm: effective means to facilitate learning

Research on the structure of memory has led to evidence that relating unfamiliar information to that which is familiar facilitates the new material's acquisition and retention; moreover, such associations can be efficiently achieved through the use of analogies. The present paper discusses the current information processing conceptualization of memory, the processes of learning by analogy, and the overall desired outcomes of their use to acquire and retain new information. Additionally, instructional implications of how, when, and why to use analogies are discussed.     

“Practice What You Preach”: Teachers’ Perceptions of Emotional Competence and Emotionally Supportive Classroom Practices

Research Findings: The connections between parents’ emotional competence (emotion expression, regulation, and knowledge) and children’s social–emotional learning (SEL) have been well studied; however, the associations among teachers’ emotional competencies and children’s SEL remain widely understudied. In the present study, private preschool and Head Start teachers (N = 32) were observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Participating teachers from each center also participated in focus group discussions about emotional competence in preschool classrooms. For analyses, teachers were divided into Moderately and Highly Supportive groups based on observed emotional support quality. Teachers’ focus group responses were compared. Practice or Policy: Comparison groups differed with regard to their discussions of emotion regulation and emotion knowledge. These differences elucidate ways in which intervention programs and in-service training can be developed to help teachers better meet the SEL needs of children.     

Attitudes toward computers: A study of post-secondary students in Singapore

Research has found that computer attitudes not only play an influential role in determining the extent to which students accept the computer as a learning tool but also future behaviours towards the computer such as using it for further study and vocational purposes. A sample of 183 post-secondary students was assessed for their computer attitudes using a Likert-type questionnaire with three subscales, Computer Importance, Computer Enjoyment, and Computer Anxiety. Additionally, the effects of gender and computer ownership at home were also examined. One-way MANOVA revealed no significant differences in computer attitudes by gender although male students reported more positive attitudes towards the computer than female students. Significant differences in computer attitudes were found between students who own computers at home and those who do not. Students who own a computer at home also reported a lower level of computer anxiety compared to those who do not.     

Liberal education and the criminal justice major

New perspectives on the impact of college on students, on linking general education, the major, electives and extra-classroom experiences toward the goal of “integrated learning,” and renewed emphasis on the importance of producing liberally educated college graduates, present opportunities for criminal justice educators to make their field a keystone in the architecture of a liberal education. In this essay, I argue that the multidisciplinary perspectives that characterize the field of criminal justice, as well as its core intellectual concerns, make criminal justice well-suited to serve as the infrastructure for a high-quality undergraduate liberal education program.