Search

While reading is among the most important and well-researched topics of developmental psychology, sublexical regularities and how these regularities relate to reading skills have attracted less interest so far. This study tested general orthographic knowledge (GOK) using an indirect reaction time (RT)-based task, in which participants had to detect letters appearing within frequent and infrequent letter clusters. The aim of the method was to minimise the roles of phonological activation and metalinguistic decision. Three different age-groups of German-speaking individuals were tested: first graders ( N = 60), third graders ( N = 68), and adults ( N = 44). Orthographic regularity affected RTs in all three groups, with significantly lower RTs for frequent than for infrequent clusters. The indirect measure of GOK did not show an association with reading measures in first graders and adults, but in the case of third graders it explained variance over and above age and phonological skills. This study provides evidence for phonology-independent GOK, at least in third graders.

International audience

Findings on the neurophysiological correlates of developmental dyslexia are mixed, due to the differential conceptualization of the impairment. Studies differ on whether participants with developmental dyslexia are recruited based on reading skills only or reading as well as spelling skills. The current study contrasts the contribution of impaired reading and spelling to ERP correlates of print sensitivity, lexico-semantic access and sensitivity to orthographic regularities. Four groups of children were recruited: isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined reading and spelling deficit, and typically developing. Their neural correlates (EEG) of word, pseudohomophone, and pseudoword reading, as well as false font processing were compared. 1) All groups showed higher N1 amplitudes to letters than to false fonts. 2) Good spellers exhibited more negative N400 amplitudes for meaningless (pseudowords) than for meaningful stimuli (words and pseudohomophones). This effect was not observed in poor spellers. 3) Good readers showed sensitivity to orthographic regularities in a later time window (700-900 ms), whereas this was not the case for poor readers. 1) Print sensitivity is not affected by reading and/or spelling deficit in German-speaking 3rd graders. 2) Spelling deficits are associated with a reduced orthographic lexicon, 3) Reading deficits are associated with atypical use of sublexical information. As this effect was observed after lexico-semantic access, the results are discussed in terms of a possible orthographic reanalysis hypothesis.

The striatal dopaminergic dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been associated with deficits in skill learning in numerous studies, but some of the findings remain controversial. Our aim was to explore the generality of the learning deficit using two widely reported skill learning tasks in the same group of Parkinson's patients. Thirty-four patients with PD (mean age: 62.83 years, SD: 7.67) were compared to age-matched healthy adults. Two tasks were employed: the Serial Reaction Time Task (SRT), testing the learning of motor sequences, and the Weather Prediction (WP) task, testing non-sequential probabilistic category learning. On the SRT task, patients with PD showed no significant evidence for sequence learning. These results support and also extend previous findings, suggesting that motor skill learning is vulnerable in PD. On the WP task, the PD group showed the same amount of learning as controls, but they exploited qualitatively different strategies in predicting the target categories. While controls typically combined probabilities from multiple predicting cues, patients with PD instead focused on individual cues. We also found moderate to high correlations between the different measures of skill learning. These findings support our hypothesis that skill learning is generally impaired in PD, and can in some cases be compensated by relying on alternative learning strategies.

A central issue in sequence learning is whether learning operates on stimulus-independent abstract elements, or whether surface features are integrated, resulting in stimulus-dependent learning. Using the serial reaction-time (SRT) task, we test whether a previously presented sequence is transferrable from one domain to another. Contrary to previous artificial grammar learning studies, there is mapping between pre- and posttransfer stimuli, but contrary to previous SRT studies mapping is not obvious. In the pre-transfer training phase, participants face a dot-counting task in which the location of the dots follows a predefined sequence. In the test phase, participants face an auditory SRT task in which the spatial organization of the response locations is either the same as spatial sequence in the training phase, or not. Sequence learning is compared to two control conditions: one with a non-sequential random-dot counting in the training phase, and one with no training phase. Results show that sequential training proactively interferes with later sequence learning, regardless of whether the sequence is the same or different in the two phases. Results argue for the existence of a general sequence processor with limited capacity, and that sequence structures and sequenced elements are integrated into a single sequential representation.

Although the improvement of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) after deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is well documented, there are open questions regarding its impact on cognitive functions. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of bilateral DBS of the STN on executive functions in PD patients using a DBS wait-listed PD control group. Ten PD patients with DBS implantation (DBS group) and ten PD wait-listed patients (Clinical control group) participated in the study. Neuropsychological tasks were used to assess general mental ability and various executive functions. Each task was administered twice to each participant: before and after surgery (with the stimulators on) in the DBS group and with a matched delay between the two task administration points in the control group. There was no significant difference between the DBS and the control groups' performance in tasks measuring the updating of verbal, spatial or visual information (Digit span, Corsi and N-back tasks), planning and shifting (Trail Making B), and conflict resolution (Stroop task). However, the DBS group showed a significant decline on the semantic verbal fluency task after surgery compared to the control group, which is in line with findings of previous studies. Our results provide support for the relative cognitive safety of the STN DBS using a wait-listed PD control group. Differential effects of the STN DBS on frontostriatal networks are discussed.

This Research to Practice Work in Progress paper presents an innovative, scientifically evaluated Educational Robotics project aiming at teaching fundamental Robotics topics to gifted high school students. Robotics plays an increasingly important role in our life. The increased need for well-trained people underlines the importance of a systematic education in Robotics, from K-12 to university. In recent years, a number of Educational Robotics projects and initiatives have emerged, mainly focusing on introducing children and youth to Robotics, but without going into greater detail on fundamental Robotics concepts. In order to close the gap between these introductory Robotics courses for beginners at K-12 level and common Robotics university courses, the MINT-Robo project was developed. Based on previously implemented K-12 Robotics projects, it is designed around the central topic of autonomous mobile robots. Complex contents, usually taught at university level, are prepared for the project’s target group. Following the principles of constructionism, the project comprises a variety of hands-on elements, applying a project-based learning approach. The first pilot course was implemented and evaluated in form of youth research week in summer 2018. First results indicate that the goal of imparting fundamental Robotics concepts to talented high school students was achieved.

Does number-word structure have a long-lasting impact on transcoding? Contrary to English, German number words comprise decade-unit inversion (e.g., vierundzwanzig is literally translated as four-and-twenty). To investigate the mental representation of numbers, we tested the effect of visual and linguistic-morphological characteristics on the development of verbal-visual transcoding. In a longitudinal cross-linguistic design, response times (RTs) in a number-matching experiment were analyzed in Grade 2 (119 German-speaking and 179 English-speaking children) and in Grade 3 (131 German-speaking and 160 English-speaking children). To test for long-term effects, the same experiment was given to 38 German-speaking and 42 English-speaking adults. Participants needed to decide whether a spoken number matched a subsequent visual Arabic number. Systematic variation of digits in the nonmatching distractors allowed comparison of three different transcoding accounts (lexicalization, visual, and linguistic-morphological). German speakers were generally slower in rejecting inverted number distractors than English speakers. Across age groups, German speakers were more distracted by Arabic numbers that included the correct unit digit, whereas English speakers showed stronger distraction when the correct decade digit was included. These RT patterns reflect differences in number-word morphology. The individual cost of rejecting an inverted distractor (inversion effect) predicted arithmetic skills in German-speaking second-graders only. The moderate relationship between the efficiency to identify a matching number and arithmetic performance could be observed cross-linguistically in all age groups but was not significant in German-speaking adults. Thus, findings provide consistent evidence of a persistent impact of number-word structure on number processing, whereas the relationship with arithmetic performance was particularly pronounced in young children.

The current study investigates whether a unimodal visual and a unimodal auditory sequence is learned separately in a multimodal learning situation. In two experiments participants faced a modified version of the Serial Reaction-Time task, in which auditory and visual elements followed each other, forming a multimodal sequence as well as two unimodal sequences. Learning of both the multimodal and the unimodal sequences were tested. Results showed evidence of multimodal sequence learning. The unimodal sequence formed by the auditory stimuli was also learned, while participants did not acquire the concurrent visual sequence. The experiments argue for a domain- and modality-general sequence learning mechanism that is more sensitive to auditory and response-based information than to visual information.

Introduction Prospective memory (PM) is defined as the ability to formulate, retain and carry out intentions, plans and promises at the appropriate time or in the appropriate context. Previous studies found evidence that patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) beside the executive deficit manifest impairment in various PM tasks (Harris et al., 2010; Racsmany et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2015). Our aim with this study was to investigate the influence of emotional stimuli on event-based PM performance in OCD. Material And Methods Thirteen OCD patients took part in the study. An emotional event-based PM task was administered to each participant under two conditions: (1) a baseline condition in which no PM stimuli occurred and the ongoing trials were presented in three blocks based on the stimulus valence as positive, negative and neutral and a (2) PM condition in which beside the ongoing trials positive, negative and neutral PM stimuli also occurred. There were two arrows, pointing right and left, and one of them was black, the other was white. The order of colours varied randomly. Two pictures also appeared on the screen and were located at equal distances above and below the arrows. Participants in the baseline condition were asked to press the arrow key corresponding to the black arrow (ongoing task). In the PM condition the task was similar, except participants were told to press the up-arrow key if the two pictures above and below the fixation point were the same on any trial, this instruction served as a PM task. Results And Conclusions Based on our preliminary results and analysis it seems that the stimulus valence does not influence significantly the accuracy rate and reaction time scores on PM trials. The emotional cues have no beneficial effect on patients PM performance as suggested in previous findings. Further analysis and the recruitment of a healthy control group are under way.

Objective An increasing number of results show that specific language impairment (SLI) is often associated with impairments in executive functions (EF), but the nature, extent, and generality of these deficits is yet unclear. The aim of the paper is to present results from verbal and nonverbal tasks examining EF in children with SLI and their age-matched typically developing (TD) peers. Method 31 children with SLI were tested on verbal and nonverbal versions of simple and complex span, fluency, N-back, and Stroop tasks. Their performance was compared with 31 TD children matched on age and nonverbal IQ. The design allows us to examine whether executive functions are similarly affected in SLI in verbal and nonverbal tasks. Results The SLI group showed difficulties in verbal versions of complex span (listening span task) and fluency but not in inhibition (Stroop tasks) relative to TD age-matched children. Including simple verbal span (digit span) as a covariate eliminated group differences on both verbal tasks. Conclusions Children with SLI were found to be impaired on several verbal measures of EF, but these differences were largely due to more fundamental deficits in verbal short-term span.

The role of sleep in memory and skill-learning processes is an important and widely debated issue. The current study explores the nature of the relationship between sleep and off-line improvement in three tasks for measuring different aspects of skill learning: the serial reaction time (SRT) task, which is a motor sequence learning task; the artificial grammar learning (AGL) task, testing abstract verbal sequence learning; and the weather prediction (WP) task, which is a non-sequential categorization task. Each participant was tested on one of the three tasks twice, either in a Wake condition (with a 12-h off-line period without sleep), or in a Sleep condition (with sleep). Results showed no sleep-related off-line improvement throughout the three tasks in a two-session re-learning design, but a sleep-independent time-based effect was found on the SRT task. No performance boost was observed in the WP and AGL tasks. Performance on the SRT showed a time of the day effect: the Sleep group outperforming the Wake group; however, this effect was restricted to overall response latencies. Taken together, no evidence was found in favor of sleep-dependent off-line enhancement in skill learning, but methodological concerns warrant further investigations.

While sequence learning research models complex phenomena, previous studies have mostly focused on unimodal sequences. The goal of the current experiment is to put implicit sequence learning into a multimodal context: to test whether it can operate across different modalities. We used the Task Sequence Learning paradigm to test whether sequence learning varies across modalities, and whether participants are able to learn multimodal sequences. Our results show that implicit sequence learning is very similar regardless of the source modality. However, the presence of correlated task and response sequences was required for learning to take place. The experiment provides new evidence for implicit sequence learning of abstract conceptual representations. In general, the results suggest that correlated sequences are necessary for implicit sequence learning to occur. Moreover, they show that elements from different modalities can be automatically integrated into one unitary multimodal sequence.

We examined learning and retention in nonverbal and verbal declarative memory in Hungarian children with (n = 21) and without (n = 21) SLI. Recognition memory was tested both 10 minutes and one day after encoding. On nonverbal items, only the children with SLI improved overnight, with no resulting group differences in performance. In the verbal domain, the children with SLI consistently showed worse performance than the typically-developing children, but the two groups showed similar overnight changes. The findings suggest the possibility of spared or even enhanced declarative memory consolidation in SLI.