Intelligence assessment: Gardner multiple intelligence theory as an alternative

In the multiple intelligence framework, newer and more contextualized cognitive tasks are suggested as alternative to more traditional psychometric tests. The purpose of this article is to examine whether or not these two types of instruments converge into a general factor of cognitive performance. Thus, the Battery of General and Differential Aptitudes (BADyG: reasoning, memory, verbal aptitude, numerical aptitude and spatial aptitude) and a set of Gardner's multiple intelligence assessment tasks (linguistic, logical, visual/spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic and musical intelligences) were administered to 294 children aged 5 to 7. The confirmatory factor analysis points out the absence of a common general factor considering both batteries, indicating instead the existence of two general factors, which gather the tests that encompass them. Also, these two general factors correspond to traditional and multiple intelligence assessments and show a statistically moderate correlation between them. These results challenge Gardner's original position on refusing a general factor of intelligence, especially when considering the cognitive dimensions measured which do not coincide with the more traditional tests of intelligence.     

Comparison of dynamic visual acuity between water polo players and sedentary students

In this study, we examined differences in dynamic visual acuity between elite and subelite water polo players and sedentary students. To measure dynamic visual acuity binocularly, we asked participants to indicate the orientation of a broken ring, similar to the Landolt C, which increased in size as it moved across a computer screen. Two different speeds, three possible trajectories, and two different levels of contrast were evaluated. There were statistically significant differences between elite players and sedentary students for each combination of speed, contrast, and trajectory. Elite players achieved better dynamic visual acuity scores, and results also improved for some combinations of speed, contrast, and trajectory. Comparison between elite and subelite groups failed to reveal any     

Parent–Child Portfolios: “Look—This Book Is All About Us!”

A team of facilitators describe the process and content of portfolios they create for families attending weekly playgroup sessions based on the philosophy and practices of the Parents Interacting with Infants (PIWI) model. The parent–child portfolios are a form of authentic assessment and highlight children’s development within the context of parent–child relationships. Facilitators complete weekly observations of parent–child interactions, which allow them to monitor children’s progress on goals set by parents, evaluate their own practices, and plan future playgroup sessions.     

LEARNING POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT AND ADAPTATION TO THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT: THE USEFULNESS OF THE ACFS FOR ASSESSING IMMIGRANT PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The objective of this study was to test the usefulness of dynamic assessment for determining cognitive abilities such as classification, auditory and visual memory, pattern sequences, perspective taking, verbal planning, learning potential, and metacognition in immigrant preschool children with and without competence in the dominant language (Spanish). One hundred seventy‐six preschool‐children were distributed in three groups according to the cultural background of their parents (native Spanish/Spanish‐speaking immigrants/non‐Spanish speaking immigrants). The children were assessed by means of the K‐BIT, the Application of Cognitive Functions Scale (ACFS), and metacognition, language competence and academic performance estimates. The results show that although there are initial differences in execution between the two groups (Spanish/immigrants), there are no differences with regard to learning potential. The study also demonstrates the importance of behavioral, attitudinal, and metacognitive variables in children's test execution and academic performance.     

Faculty training: an unavoidable requirement for approaching more inclusive university classrooms

Adequate policies for faculty training in diversity continue to be pending on the agendas of many universities. This paper presents the recommendations of 44 university students with disabilities not only for adequate faculty training, but also on informing them on both matters of the disability itself and how to respond to the needs derived from it. The data analyzed come from research funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness ‘University Barriers and Aids Identified by Students with Disabilities’, which has been underway since 2011. A biographical-narrative methodology was used. The university life histories of the students were compiled by making use of in-depth interviews, lifelines and photographs. The conclusions of the study discuss the main results along with other previous studies, and recommendations are made so universities can provide training plans leading to inclusive education and learning.     

Relevance of the SFU ReviewSP-NEG corpus annotated with the scope of negation for supervised polarity classification in Spanish

Up to now, negation is a challenging problem in the context of Sentiment Analysis. The study of negation implies the correct identification of negation markers, the scope and the interpretation of how negation affects the words that are within it, that is, whether it modifies their meaning or not and if so, whether it reverses, reduces or increments their polarity value. In addition, if we are interested in managing reviews in languages other than English, the issue becomes even more problematic due to the lack of resources. The present work shows the validity of the SFU Review_SP-NEG corpus, which we annotated at negation level, for training supervised polarity classification systems in Spanish. The assessment has involved the comparison of different supervised models. The results achieved show the validity of the corpus and allow us to state that the annotation of how negation affects the words that are within its scope is important. Therefore, we propose to add a new phase to tackle negation in polarity classification systems (phase iii): i) identification of negation cues, ii) determination of the scope of negation, iii) identification of how negation affects the words that are within its scope, and iv) polarity classification taking into account negation.     

The Cost of the Veil: Visual Communication Impacts of Hijab on News Judgments

Using disposition theory as a framework, this 2 (headscarf vs. no headscarf) by 2 (US citizen vs. refugee) experiment sought to elucidate the impact of visual and verbal cues in mediated messages on conclusions drawn from a television news package about a woman accused of consorting with a known terrorist group in the US, in terms of parochial empathy for and perceived innocence of the woman. Parochial empathy measures the difference between ingroup and outgroup empathy; higher levels indicate ingroup empathy is greater than outgroup empathy, meaning the individual’s empathy is very narrow in scope or “parochial.” Political identity was a measured independent variable. The data supported a model in which political identity was a significant moderator of the headscarf’s effect on parochial empathy, and that parochial empathy mediated the relationship between the manipulated and measured predictor variables on perceived innocence. Details of the relationships among variables are reported and the implications for theory and journalism practice are discussed.