Short‐Term Second Language and Music Training Induces Lasting Functional Brain Changes in Early Childhood

Immediate and lasting effects of music or second‐language training were examined in early childhood using event‐related potentials. Event‐related potentials were recorded for French vowels and musical notes in a passive oddball paradigm in thirty‐six 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children who received either French or music training. Following training, both groups showed enhanced late discriminative negativity (LDN) in their trained condition (music group–musical notes; French group–French vowels) and reduced LDN in the untrained condition. These changes reflect improved processing of relevant (trained) sounds, and an increased capacity to suppress irrelevant (untrained) sounds. After 1 year, training‐induced brain changes persisted and new hemispheric changes appeared. Such results provide evidence for the lasting benefit of early intervention in young children.     

When to blink and when to think: preference for intuitive decisions results in faster and better tactical choices

Intuition is often considered an effective manner of decision making in sports. In this study we investigated whether a preference for intuition over deliberation results in faster and better lab-based choices in team handball attack situations with 54 male and female handball players of different expertise levels. We assumed that intuitive choices-due to their affective nature--are faster when multiple options are to be considered. The results show that athletes who had a preference for intuitive decisions made faster and better choices than athletes classified as deliberative decision makers. It is important that experts were more intuitive than near-expert and nonexpert players. The results support a take-the-first heuristic defining how options are searched for, how option generation is stopped, and how an option is chosen. Implications for the training of intuitive decision making are presented.     

Search behavior of dogs (Canis familiaris) in invisible displacement problems

Gagnon and Doré (1992) showed that domestic dogs are able to solve a Piagetian object permanence task called the invisible displacement problem. A toy is hidden in a container which is moved behind a screen where the toy is removed and left. Dogs make more errors in these problems than they do in visible displacement tests, in which the object is hidden directly behind the target screen. In Experiment 1, we examined components of the standard procedure of invisible displacements that may make encoding or retention of the hiding location more difficult than it is in visible displacements. In Experiment 2, we compared dogs’ performances in visible and invisible displacement problems when delays of 0, 10, and 20 sec were introduced between the object’s final disappearance and the subject’s release. The results revealed that dogs’ poorer performance in invisible displacement tests is related to the complex sequence of events that have to be encoded or remembered as well as to a difficulty in representing the position change that is signaled, but not directly perceived.     

Does education need strategic piloting?

Entered Unesco in 1965 and held among others the following posts: Co-operative Programme World Bank; Director Educational Policy and Planning; Unesco Special Educational Adviser to six governments in Central America; Adviser attached to the Assistant Director-General for Education responsible for studies on educational futures and coordination of Unesco's Major Project on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean; Director, International Institute for Educational Planning. Since 1988, he has been Assistant Director-General for Planning, Budgeting and Evaluation, Unesco. Author of numerous articles in professional journals on economics of education and educational policy and of a book: Educational Development: Strategies and Decision-making in Central America.     

Cognitive load imposed by ultrasound‐facilitated teaching does not adversely affect gross anatomy learning outcomes

Ultrasonography is increasingly used in medical education, but its impact on learning outcomes is unclear. Adding ultrasound may facilitate learning, but may also potentially overwhelm novice learners. Based upon the framework of cognitive load theory, this study seeks to evaluate the relationship between cognitive load associated with using ultrasound and learning outcomes. The use of ultrasound was hypothesized to facilitate learning in anatomy for 161 novice first‐year medical students. Using linear regression analyses, the relationship between reported cognitive load on using ultrasound and learning outcomes as measured by anatomy laboratory examination scores four weeks after ultrasound‐guided anatomy training was evaluated in consenting students. Second anatomy examination scores of students who were taught anatomy with ultrasound were compared with historical controls (those not taught with ultrasound). Ultrasound's perceived utility for learning was measured on a five‐point scale. Cognitive load on using ultrasound was measured on a nine‐point scale. Primary outcome was the laboratory examination score (60 questions). Learners found ultrasound useful for learning. Weighted factor score on “image interpretation” was negatively, but insignificantly, associated with examination scores [F (1,135) = 0.28, beta = ?0.22; P = 0.61]. Weighted factor score on “basic knobology” was positively and insignificantly associated with scores; [F (1,138) = 0.27, beta = 0.42; P = 0.60]. Cohorts exposed to ultrasound had significantly higher scores than historical controls (82.4% ± SD 8.6% vs. 78.8% ± 8.5%, Cohen's d = 0.41, P < 0.001). Using ultrasound to teach anatomy does not negatively impact learning and may improve learning outcomes. Anat Sci Educ 10: 144–151. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Psychometrics of the emotional intelligence scale in elite,amateur, and non-athletes

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometrics properties of the Emotional Intelligence Scale and assess the measurement invariance across elite (n = 367), amateur (n = 629), and non-athletes (n = 550). In total, 1,546 participants from various sports completed the emotional intelligence scale. Several competing models were compared through exploratory structural equation modeling. The analyses were performed on the whole sample before subsequent invariance testing between athletic groups. The internal consistency of the scale was tested through Omega for the total scale and relevant subscales, which indicated largely unacceptable levels of stability. Results failed to support the purported unidimensional or four-factor models proposed in the literature. However, a six-factor model provided the best fit to the data. Nonetheless, there was no evidence for weak or strong invariance suggesting that the scale may not be appropriate for use within athletic samples.     

La télévision et le monde scolaire

‘La tévé, c'est de l'actualité qui se congèle en histoire’, dit Cidrolin dans les Fleurs bleues de Raymond Queneau. Et, de fait, la télévision apparaît comme notre moyen d'accès à l'histoire qui se fait: ainsi, par exemple, des millions de téléspectateurs ont pu assister, en direct, à l'assassinat du Président Kennedy. Pour reprendre une expression de Michel Tardy, il faut dire que, grâce à la télévision ‘l'histoire est désormais quelque chose qui nous arrive’. En ce sens, la télévision se manifeste à la fois comme véhicule d'une information concurrente de l'information scolaire et comme véhicule d'une information absente de l'espace scolaire.