Exposure to scientific theories affects women's math performance.
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Stereotype threat occurs when stereotyped groups perform worse as their group membership is highlighted. We investigated whether stereotype threat is affected by accounts for the origins of stereotypes. In two studies, women who read of genetic causes of sex differences performed worse on math tests than those who read of experiential causes. (+info)
Teaching the outstanding medical learner.
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Medical students and residents are typically prescribed a standardized curriculum. Learners who have difficultly meeting requirements of this curriculum often require extra attention and an individualized program of remediation. Outstanding medical learners, on the other hand, are rarely given an individualized learning program, even if they can easily master the standardized curriculum. These learners are likely to belong to a group that educators call "gifted adults." No literature on this group of medical learners currently exists, and no research has been conducted on them. This article is designed to begin a dialog on the best approach to educating outstanding medical learners using the framework of the gifted adult. Gifted adults possess a unique set of characteristics and have needs that set them apart from the majority of medical learners. There are also well-described pitfalls that these learners encounter. Gifted adults can best exercise their talents and maximize their potential when they receive an individualized educational approach that focuses on providing intellectual challenges with permission to explore interest areas. Research, publishing, teaching opportunities, and leadership roles are some examples of ways to challenge these learners. They should be strongly encouraged to extensively pursue individual interests. Effort should be made to ensure that these learners have contact with peers and mentors of equal intellectual abilities. Gifted adults who are not intellectually stimulated on a routine basis and are not able to interact with other talented individuals may get bored and frustrated with their education. Medical educators who understand the characteristics and drives of gifted adults will be better able to ensure that these learners are regularly challenged, with needed assistance to avoid common pitfalls. (+info)
Poor facial affect recognition among boys with duchenne muscular dystrophy.
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Children with Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy (MD) have delayed language and poor social skills and some meet criteria for Pervasive Developmental Disorder, yet they are identified by molecular, rather than behavioral, characteristics. To determine whether comprehension of facial affect is compromised in boys with MD, children were given a matching-to-sample test with four types of visual recognition (Object, Face, Affect, and Situation matching) developed by Lucci and Fein. Within-group analyses on 50 boys with MD found decreased Affect matching relative to the other matching conditions. Between-group comparisons on 20 sibling pairs found the boys with Duchenne performed more poorly only on the Affect-matching condition. Thus, mildly impaired facial affect recognition may be part of the phenotype associated with Duchenne or Becker MD. (+info)
Reduced language abilities in adolescents who snore.
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Polysomnographic assessment of 20 adolescents who were referred to hospital for loud and frequent snoring showed they suffered from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Their apneas and desaturation rates (SaO(2)) were abnormal in comparison with the non-snoring adolescents, who served as their controls. The snoring group obtained lower scores on phonemic and semantic tests and had lower marks in the Greek language subject at school than the non-snoring group. These findings could be explained by the fact that OSAS causes certain physiological disturbances which may lead to dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex which plays an active role in language and verbal skills. (+info)
Arbitrarily applicable comparative relations: experimental evidence for a relational operant.
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Arbitrarily applicable derived relational responding has been argued by relational frame theorists to be a form of operant behavior. The present study examined this idea with 4 female participants, ages 4 to 5 years old, who could not perform a series of problem-solving tasks involving arbitrary more than and less than relations. In a combined multiple baseline (across responses and participants) and multiple probe design (with trained and untrained stimuli), it was shown that reinforced multiple-exemplar training facilitated the development of arbitrary comparative relations, and that these skills generalized not just across stimuli but also across trial types. The sequence of training identified potential prerequisites in the development of comparative relations (e.g., nonarbitrary comparative relations). Taken as a whole, the present data, along with previous work by others in this area, suggest that relating arbitrary events comparatively is an operant. The implications of this conclusion for the analysis of complex behavior are discussed. (+info)
Androgens and eye movements in women and men during a test of mental rotation ability.
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Eye movements were monitored in 16 women and 20 men during completion of a standard diagram-based test of mental rotation ability to provide measures of cognitive function not requiring conscious, decisional processes. Overall, women and men allocated visual attention during task performance in very similar, systematic ways. However, consistent with previous suggestions that sex differences in attentional processes during completion of the mental rotation task may exist, eye movements in men compared to women indicated greater discrimination and longer processing of correct alternatives during task performance. Other findings suggested that androgens may enhance cognitive processes that are recruited differentially by women and men as a function of the task. Specifically, smaller (i.e., more masculine) digit ratios were associated with men's shorter fixations on distracters, suggesting that perinatal androgen action may influence brain systems that facilitate the identification of relevant task stimuli. In women, higher circulating testosterone levels appeared to contribute to more general processes engaged during task performance, for example higher levels of visual persistence. It is possible that variability in the relative contribution of such hormone sensitive cognitive processes to accuracy scores as a function of different sample characteristics or assessment methods may partially account for the inconsistent findings of previous research on hormonal factors in mental rotation ability. (+info)
Subtyping stuttering II: contributions from language and temperament.
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This paper is the second in a series of two articles exploring subtypes of stuttering, and it addresses the question of whether and how language ability and temperament variables may be relevant to the study of subtypes within the larger population of children who stutter. Despite observations of varied profiles among young children who stutter, efforts to identify and characterize subtypes of stuttering have had limited influence on theoretical or clinical understanding of the disorder. This manuscript briefly highlights research on language and temperament in young children who stutter, and considers whether the results can provide guidance for efforts to more effectively investigate and elucidate subtypes in childhood stuttering. Issues from the literature that appear relevant to research on stuttering subtypes include: (a) the question of whether stuttering is best characterized as categorical or continuous; (b) interpretation of individual differences in skills and profiles; and (c) the fact that, during the preschool years, the interaction among domains such as language and temperament are changing very rapidly, resulting in large differences in developmental profiles within relatively brief chronological age periods. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (1) discuss possible associations of language ability and temperament to the development of stuttering in young children; (2) summarize the subtyping research from the literature on language ability and temperament in young children; (3) generate directions for future research of stuttering subtypes drawn from the literature related to language ability and temperament in young children. (+info)
Performance efficiency and its changes among aging municipal employees.
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The aims of the study were to compare the performance efficiency of aging municipal workers in different work categories and to determine the changes that occurred in visual search, short-term memory, and fine motor performance over a four-year follow-up period beginning at about 51 years of age. The mental capacity of the workers in mental work was better than that of the workers in physical and mixed physical and mental work, and the results between the physical and mixed work groups did not differ significantly. In four years, the workers' complex short-term memory weakened 6-7% in all three work content groups. Fine motor speed decreased 2-7% in the physical and mental work groups. It was concluded that the mental capacity of older workers depends on the mental demands of their work tasks. The weakening of performance is 2-7% between the ages of 51 to 55 years. (+info)