Visual and language processing deficits in compensated and uncompensated college students with dyslexia

In seven experiments, we investigated whether compensated and uncompensated adults with dyslexia show different patterns of deficits in magnocellular visual processing and in language processing tasks. In four visual tasks, we failed to find evidence of magnocellular deficits in either group. However, both groups of adults with dyslexia showed deficits in component language skills, and the degree of reading impairment predicted the nature and extent of these deficits. Uncompensated readers showed deficits in orthographic and especially phonological coding and awareness and were slower on rapid naming. Compensated readers showed word and nonword performance below controls but better than the uncompensated readers. The compensated group was not significantly less accurate than controls on phonological awareness, nor significantly worse overall on rapid naming.     

The role of rationality in university budgeting

Many organizational functions, such as institutional research, assume that organizations make decisions rationally. The assumption is largely unjustified by empirical accounts of actual decision making. Higher education institutions are usually seen as political, collegial, or anarchic in their decision patterns. This study tests the participants' claim that the budget decision making process at Stanford University during the 1970s was rational. Although the study tends to support the claim, the results are neither conclusive nor comprehensive. The study provides (1) a rigorous and replicable procedure for testing the rational model, (2) evidence that rational decision making is feasible in higher education, and (3) grounds for refusing to assume pure rationality without abandoning hope of any rationality.     

Attachment for Infants in Foster Care: The Role of Caregiver State of Mind

The concordance between foster mothers' attachment state of mind and foster infants' attachment quality was examined for 50 foster mother-infant dyads. Babies had been placed into the care of their foster mothers between birth and 20 months of age. Attachment quality was assessed between 12 and 24 months of age, at least 3 months after the infants' placement into foster care. The two-way correspondence between maternal state of mind and infant attachment quality was 72%, kappa = .43, similar to the level seen among biologically intact mother-infant dyads. Contrary to expectations, age at placement was not related to attachment quality. Rather, concordance between maternal state of mind and infant attachment was seen for relatively late-placed babies, as well as early placed babies. These findings have two major implications. First, following a disruption in care during the first year and a half of life, babies appear capable of organizing their behavior around the availability of new caregivers. Second, these data argue for a nongenetic mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of attachment.     

More evidence that less is better: Sub-optimal choice in dogs

The less-is-better effect is a preference for the lesser of two alternatives sometimes observed when they are evaluated separately. For example, a dinner service of 24 intact pieces might be judged to be more valuable than a 40-piece dinner service containing nine broken pieces. Pattison and Zentall (Animal Cognition, 17: 1019-1022, 2014) reported similar sub-optimal choice behavior in dogs using a simultaneous choice procedure. Given a choice between a single high-value food item (cheese) or an equivalent high-value item plus a lower-value food item (carrot), their dogs chose the individual item. In a subsequent test, the dogs preferred two high-value items to a single high-value item, suggesting that avoidance of multiple items did not cause the sub-optimal choice behavior. In two experiments, we replicated Pattison and Zentall’s procedure while including additional controls. In Experiment 1, habituation of neophobia for multiple items was controlled for by intermixing the two types of test trial within a single experimental session. In Experiment 2, we controlled for avoidance of heterogeneous rewards by including test trials in which a choice was offered between the combination of items and a single low-value item. In both experiments we observed sub-optimal choice behavior which could not be explained by either of these putative mechanisms. Our results, as well as those of Pattison and Zentall, are consistent with the suggestion that dogs’ assessment of the total value of multiple items is based, at least partly, on their average quality.     

Using performance methods to enhance students' reading fluency

The quasi-experimental study examined the effects of pairing Rock and Read with Readers Theater and only Rock and Read on second grade students' reading fluency scores. The 51 subjects were pre- and post-tested on five different reading fluency measures. A series of 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant interaction effects on three of the five outcome measures: expression and volume, phrasing, and pace. The analysis of simple effects showed large mean difference effect sizes in both treatments.     

Encouraging the transformation of personal epistemology

Educators assume a positive relationship between epistemological development and learning. But our understanding of this relationship is limited because it focuses mostly on higher education, and supporting data are biased by gender, ethnicity, and geography. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that encourage changes in Malaysian women's epistemology. Within a cultural framework, two questions guide this study: (a) How does higher education stimulate changes in epistemology in other cultural contexts, and (b) What factors other than higher education encourage changes in epistemology? Based on constant comparative analysis of in-depth interviews with 14 Malaysian women, the author identified three cultural factors that encourage transformation of thinking and knowing: family support of education for women and girls, formal and informal learning experiences, and extended international opportunities. Epistemological development occurs as a woman negotiates conflict between her cultural and personal models of self.     

The Role of Sports as a Social Status Determinant for Children

Abstract

This study was designed to examine children's attitudes toward the role of sports in determining social status, as well as the activities in which children prefer to participate. A total of 227 boys and 251 girls in Grades 4, 5, and 6 completed a questionnaire to determine which criteria were most important in determining personal, female, and male popularity. Personal popularity was answered by the girls and boys according to “what would make you well liked by your classmates. “Female and male popularity was determined by asking both girls and boys to decide “what would make (girls, for female subjects, and boys, for male subjects) well liked by your classmates. “A comparison of results from the Buchanan, Blankenbaker, and Cotten (1976) investigation and the present study indicated that, in the last 15 years, appearance has become more important and academic achievement less important in determining personal popularity for girls. For boys, the comparison revealed that sports have become more important and academic achievement less important in determining personal popularity. Boys reported sports to be the most important determinant of personal and male popularity and appearance as the most important determinant of female popularity. Sports and appearance became more important for boys with each higher grade level Girls reported appearance to be the most important determinant of personal, male, and female popularity. For girls, appearance became more important with each higher grade level A comparison of results from the Buchanan et al. (1976) and the present study indicated that the activities in which girls and boys preferred to participate have changed. The importance of “making good grades” has decreased and the importance of “being popular” has increased.