George Spanoudis

The development of mental processing : efficiency, working memory, and thinking

This Monograph aims to contribute to the information processing, the differential, and the developmental modeling of the mind, and to work these into an integrated theory. Toward this aim, a longitudinal study is presented that investigates the relations between processing efficiency, working memory, and problem solving from the age of 8 years to to the age of 16 years. The study involved 113 participants, about equally drawn among 8-, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-olds at the first testing; these participants were tested two more times spaced one year apart. Participants were tested with a large array of tasks addressed to processing efficiency (i.e., speed of processing and inhibition), working memory (in terms of Baddeleys model, phonological storage, visual storage, and the central executive of working memory), and problem solving (quantitative, spatial, and verbal reasoning). Confirmatory factor analysis validated the presence of each of the above dimensions and indicated that they are organized in a three-stratum hierarchy. The first stratum includes all of the individual dimensions mentioned above. These dimensions are organized, at the second stratum, in three constructs: processing efficiency, working memory, and problem solving. Finally, all second-order constructs are strongly related to a third-order general factor. This structure was stable in time. Structural equation modeling indicated that the various dimensions are interrelated in a cascade fashion so that more fundamental dimensions are part of more complex dimensions. That is, speed of processing is the most important aspect of processing efficiency, and it perfectly relates to the condition of inhibition, indicating that the more efficient one is in stimulus encoding and identification, the more efficient one is in inhibition. In turn, processing efficiency is strongly related to the condition of executive processes in working memory, which, in turn, is related to the condition of the two modality-specific stores (phonological and visual). Finally, problem solving is related to processing efficiency and working memory, the central executive in particular. All dimensions appear to change systematically with time. Growth modeling suggested that there are significant individual differences in attainment in each of the three aspects of the mind investigated. Moreover, each of the three aspects of the mind as well as their interrelations change differently during development. Mixture growth modeling suggested that there are four types of developing persons, each defined by a different combination of performance in these aspects of the mind. Some types are more efficient and stable developers than others. These analyses indicated that processing efficiency is a factor closely associated with developmental differences in problem solving, whereas working memory is associated with individual differences. Modeling by logistic equations uncovered the rates and form of change in the various dimensions and their reciprocal interactions during development. These findings are discussed from the point of view of information processing, differential, and developmental models of thinking, and an integrative model is proposed.

The Dimensionality of Phonological Abilities in Greek

A BSTRA C T The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to examine the unidimensionality of phonological abilities in Greek, a language with a transparent orthography, and (b) to compute the reliabilities and test the construct validity of a comprehensive phonological battery that was developed to operationally measure and conceptualize phonological abilities in Greek. A secondary focus was to examine gender differences in phonological abilities. The dimensionality of phonological abilities in Greek was examined longitudinally among 280 Greek-Cypriot school children (141 boys and 139 girls) from kindergarten to grade 1. A scale of 10 tasks composed of 140 items tapping phonological skills at syllabic and phonemic levels was used to measure phonological skills. Both exploratory factor analysis at the item level and Rasch modeling (WINSTEPS; Linacre & Wright, 2003) were used to examine the dimensionality of the phonological scale. The results of both analyses indicated that performance on these tasks was represented by a single latent construct. The infit and outfit indices demonstrated the scale’s good fit with a 1-parameter item response Rasch model. The separation index for both person and items was higher than 0.95, indicating that the separability of the scale was also very good. Reliability analysis yielded the same results. Further, the results of the present study did not provide any support for gender differences in phonological abilities in the first years of schooling. Overall, this study provides converging evidence for the underlying developmental view of phonological sensitivity as a single ability, especially in a language with a transparent orthography.

Mental Verbs And Pragmatic Language Difficulties

BACKGROUND Pragmatic language impairment has recently been the subject of a number of studies that attempted to illuminate classification and diagnostic issues, and identify the profile of children with pragmatic language difficulties. Although much progress has been made, the nature of pragmatic difficulties remains unclear. AIMS To contrast typically developing children with those with pragmatic difficulties and specific language impairment as well as their ability to produce and comprehend pragmatic inferences about given or presupposed knowledge in mental state verbs; and to explore the general hypothesis that children with pragmatic difficulties make some, but not all, of the pragmatic inferences necessary for successful communication. METHODS & PROCEDURES Study groups consisted of 18 children with pragmatic language difficulties, 28 children with specific language impairment and 40 typically developing children. The groups were matched on non-verbal intelligence and age and differed in verbal intelligence, language achievement and pragmatic ability. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The language-impaired groups performed significantly more poorly than typically developing children on all mental verb measures. In addition, significant differences between specific language impairment and pragmatic difficulties groups were found in composite score performance, but not on individual test performance. CONCLUSIONS Both inferential mental verb tasks (pragmatics) and non-inferential mental verb tasks (semantics) were more difficult for the children with language impairments compared with typically developing peers. Inferential and non-inferential abilities showed significant differences between the two language-impaired groups in favour of the children with specific language difficulties. Childrens Communication Checklist scales in conjunction with mental verb measures were found to classify the three groups well.

Sixth Graders' Co-Construction of Explanations of a Disturbance in an Ecosystem: Exploring Relationships between Grouping, Reflective Scaffolding, and Evidence-Based Explanations.

We report on a study investigating the relationship between cognitive ability grouping, reflective inquiry scaffolding, and students’ collaborative explanations of an ecosystem disturbance which took place when a number of flamingo birds died in a salt lake because of nearby intensive human activities. Twenty-six pairs of students from two intact sixth-grade classes participated in the study. All students investigated scientific data relating to the ecosystem problem using a web-based learning environment. One class was provided with web-based reflective inquiry scaffolding (WorkSpace), while the other class used PowerPoint. The main data analyzed for this study consisted of each pair’s written explanation and task-related artifacts. Findings show that the web-based reflective scaffolding supported students in providing valid evidence in support of their explanations. The analyses of the students’ collaborative explanations showed no statistically significant differences that could be attributed to prior achievement between students in the WorkSpace condition, while differences were found between the different cognitive ability pairs in the PowerPoint class. These findings suggest that the WorkSpace scaffolding may have provided more influential support to lower cognitive ability pairs in creating evidence-based explanations.

E-KINDEX: A Dietary Screening Tool to Assess Children's Obesogenic Dietary Habits

Background: To date, no published dietary indices have evaluated the overall effects of various dietary components, beliefs, and practices on the development of obesity in children. Objective: To develop a dietary index that contains dietary characteristics and practices implicated in the development of obesity. Methods: The proposed index (i.e., the E-KINDEX [Electronic Kids Dietary Index]) incorporates 3 subindices: (1) a food groups intake index (13 items), (2) an index related to eating beliefs and behaviors (8 items), and (3) an index that evaluates dietary practices (9 items). The theoretical overall score ranges from 1 (worst) to 87 (best). For validation of the E-KINDEX, multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were applied that had as dependent outcomes various body composition indices of 622 children (9–13 years) from the CYKIDS (Cyprus Kids) study. In all models, adjustments were made for age, gender, physical activity level, TV viewing time, socioeconomic status, breastfeeding, and parental obesity status. Results: The highest E-KINDEX category (>60 points) was associated with 85% less likelihood of a child being obese or overweight (odds ratio [OR], 0.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.05–0.41) and 86% less likelihood of having a waist circumference ≥75th percentile (OR, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.05–0.43). The correct classification rate of E-KINDEX (C-statistic) against excess body fat percentage was 84% (CI, 0.74–0.94). Moreover, for a single SD increase in the index score (i.e., 7.81 units), a decrease of 2.31 ± 0.23 kg/m2 in body mass index (BMI), of 2.23 ± 0.35 in percent of body fat (BF%), and of 2.16 ± 0.61 cm in waist circumference was observed. Similar results were found during 1-year follow-up of study participants. In particular, baseline E-KINDEX levels were inversely associated with childrens BMI at 1-year follow-up (p = 0.024). Latent class analysis showed that the index has good discriminative value for only 68% of the total sample. Conclusion: The proposed E-KINDEX could be helpful in dietary assessment and in further research in the field of childhood obesity.

Embedding cognizance in intellectual development

This study examined whether cognizance of cognitive processes (i.e., awareness of the perceptual and inferential origins of knowledge) mediates between basic processing efficiency functions (i.e., processing speed, attention control, and working memory) and fluid cognition (e.g., performance on Raven-like matrices) during development. For this aim, children from 4 to 8 years of age were examined by various measures addressed to each of these processes. All processes developed systematically throughout this age period. Structural equation modeling showed that awareness does have this mediating role, that this mediation is phase specific based on perceptual awareness and theory of mind during the 5- and 6-year phase and on inferential awareness during the 7- and 8-year phase, and that it builds up within each developmental cycle. Attention control emerges from, rather than directs, working memory and largely remains beyond awareness through the age span studied. Implications for theory of intellectual development are discussed.

How Is RAN Related to Reading Fluency? A Comprehensive Examination of the Prominent Theoretical Accounts

We examined the prominent theoretical explanations of the RAN-reading relationship in a relatively transparent language (Greek) in a sample of children (n = 286) followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Specifically, we tested the fit of eight different models, as defined by the type of reading performance predicted (oral vs. silent word reading fluency), the type of RAN tasks (non-alphanumeric vs. alphanumeric), and the RAN effects (direct vs. indirect). Working memory, attention, processing speed, and motor skills were used as “common cause” variables predicting both RAN and reading fluency and phonological awareness and orthographic processing were used as mediators of RANs effects on reading fluency. The findings of both concurrent and longitudinal analyses indicated that RAN is a unique predictor of oral reading fluency, but not silent reading fluency. Using alphanumeric or non-alphanumeric RAN did not particularly affect the RAN-reading relationship. Both phonological awareness and orthographic processing partly mediated RANs effects on reading fluency. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Memory functioning and mental verbs acquisition in children with specific language impairment

Memory and language operate in synergy. Recent literature stresses the importance of memory functioning in interpreting language deficits. Two groups of 50 children each, ages 8-12 were studied. The first group included children with specific language impairment, while the participants in the second group were typically developing children. The two groups, which were matched on age, nonverbal intelligence and varied significantly in verbal ability were examined, using a test battery of four memory functioning (phonological, working and long-term memory) and five mental verb measures. The statistical analyses indicated that the two groups differed significantly in all language and memory measures; a logistic regression analysis revealed that within each main group existed nested subgroups of different developmental patterns with working and long-term memory measures as the most robust discriminate markers of classification. Language impaired children had more difficulties in the acquisition of mental verbs because they are less able to process and store phonological information in working memory and long-term lexicon.

Modeling the Stroop phenomenon: Processes, processing flow, and development.

Abstract A model of the Stroop phenomenon is proposed which postulates that the classic effect is an additive function of three parameters, that is, dimension selection (decision making about which dimension to respond to), dimension identification (encoding and identification of the relevant dimension), and interference control (filtering out of interference from non-relevant dimensions). The study used stimuli addressed to three symbol systems (verbal, numerical, and figural), two types of stimulus composition (compatible vs. incompatible), and two types of dimension selection (decision needed about the to-be-identified dimension vs. no decision needed). Participants were 9, 11, 13, and 15 years old and they were tested twice. The model was found to hold under all stimulus and presentation conditions. Moreover, it was found that the three parameters are differentially related to age. The implications of the model for general theories of cognition and cognitive development are discussed.

Coping With Logical Fallacies: A Developmental Training Program for Learning to Reason

This study trained children to master logical fallacies and examined how learning is related to processing efficiency and fluid intelligence (gf). A total of one hundred and eighty 8- and 11-year-old children living in Cyprus were allocated to a control, a limited (LI), and a full instruction (FI) group. The LI group learned the notion of logical contradiction and the logical structure of the schemes involved. The FI group learned, additionally, to recognize other deductive reasoning principles. Reasoning improved proportionally to training. Awareness improved equally in LI and FI. Changes in reasoning and awareness changes were related to attention control and gf. Awareness mediated the influence of training on reasoning but not vice versa, suggesting that awareness is necessary for conditional reasoning. Implications are discussed.