Attentional shifts induced by uninformative number symbols modulate neural activity in human occipital cortex

Presentation (2012, July 17)

Number processing interacts with space encoding in a wide variety of experimental paradigms. Most intriguingly, the passive viewing of uninformative number symbols can shift visuo-spatial attention to ... [more ▼]

Number processing interacts with space encoding in a wide variety of experimental paradigms. Most intriguingly, the passive viewing of uninformative number symbols can shift visuo-spatial attention to different target locations according to the number magnitude, i.e. small/large numbers facilitate processing of left/right targets, respectively. The brain architecture dedicated to these attention shifts associated with numbers currently remains unknown. Evoked potential recordings indicate that both early and late stages are involved in this spatio-numerical interaction, but the neuro-functional anatomy needs to be specified. Here we use, for the first time, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate attentional orienting following uninformative Arabic digits. We show that BOLD response in occipital visual regions was modulated by the congruency between digit magnitude (small/large) and target side (left/right). Additionally, we report higher BOLD responses following large (8, 9) compared to small (1, 2) digits in two bilateral parietal regions, yielding a significant effect of digit magnitude. We propose and discuss the view that automatic encoding of semantic representations related to number symbols in parietal cortex lead to shifts in visuo-spatial attention and enhanced visual processing in the occipital cortex according to number-space congruency rules. [less ▲]

Working memory, executive functions, language, and socio-economical status: A latent variable study of children from Brazil

Presentation (2012, June)

Large-scale assessments and Collaborative Problem Solving: An impossible mix?

Presentation (2012, May 04)

Differences between Dyscalculic children, Typical Children and Adults during a Visuo-Spatial and Addition task

Presentation (2012, February 17)

Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children

in Psychological Science (2012), 23(11), 1364-1371

This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young children challenged by poverty and if so, which specific processes are most ... [more ▼]

This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young children challenged by poverty and if so, which specific processes are most affected. Forty Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilingual children from low-income immigrant families in Luxembourg and 40 matched monolingual children from Portugal completed visuo-spatial tests of working memory, abstract reasoning, selective attention, and interference suppres-sion. Two broad cognitive factors of executive functioning labeled representation (abstract reason-ing and working memory) and control (selective attention and interference suppression) emerged from principal components analysis. Whereas there were no group differences in representation, the bilinguals performed significantly better than the monolinguals in control. These results demon-strate first, that the bilingual advantage is neither confounded with nor limited by socioeconomic and cultural factors and second, that separable aspects of executive functioning are differentially af-fected by bilingualism. The bilingual advantage lies in control but not in visuo-spatial representa-tional processes. [less ▲]

A developmental investigation of the SNARC effect using a colour discrimination task.

Poster (2012)

How do number-space interactions develop from childhood to adulthood? The SNARC effect (Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes) reflects the finding that participants respond faster to small ... [more ▼]

How do number-space interactions develop from childhood to adulthood? The SNARC effect (Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes) reflects the finding that participants respond faster to small numbers with their left hand and to large numbers with their right hand during a number classification task. Typically assessed through magnitude-independent parity judgment tasks, the SNARC effect is thought to show the automaticity of the number-space link. Using a parity task on children Berch et al. (1999) found a SNARC effect no earlier than from 9.2 years onwards. However, we hypothesise that parity judgments might be inappropriate to assess younger children. Therefore a more age-appropriate colour judgment task (implicit) and a magnitude judgement task (explicit) were designed and tested on 363 children from kindergarten to Grade 6 (5.8-12 years). The experimental tasks were complemented by a brief assessment of arithmetic skills. The results revealed overall significant SNARC effects [colour task t(355)=2.6, p<0.01; magnitude task t(340)=4.7, p<0.001], which interacted with grade [colour task F(6,355)=2.18; p<0.05; magnitude task F(6,340)=2.09; p=0.05]. Most interestingly, even the kindergartners already display both effects [colour task t(28)=1.96; p<0.05; magnitude task t(24)=1.7; p=0.05]. These results show explicit and implicit access to numerical magnitude in children as young as 5.8 years. [less ▲]

L'évaluation des compétences scientifiques au 21eme siècle : cadre conceptuel et prototypes pour une évaluation transformée-par-ordinateur

in Actes du 24e colloque international de l'ADMEE-Europe (2012)

En parallèle à l’évolution récente de l’enseignement des sciences (vers des modes d’enseignement basée sur la découverte guidée ou autonome), on observe une course aux nouvelles méthodes d’évaluation des ... [more ▼]

En parallèle à l’évolution récente de l’enseignement des sciences (vers des modes d’enseignement basée sur la découverte guidée ou autonome), on observe une course aux nouvelles méthodes d’évaluation des compétences scientifiques. Nous proposons ici un cadre conceptuel que nous avons développé et que nous utilisons actuellement pour guider le développement d’un environnement informatique d’apprentissage et d’évaluation intégré, qui pourra être utilisé (1) pour offrir aux apprenants une large panoplie de situations d’apprentissage relativement authentiques, implémentant l’ensemble des activités de l’investigation scientifique et (2) pour évaluer leurs connaissances du processus d’investigation scientifique, pour évaluer leurs compétences « en action » et pour évaluer comment ils appliquent leurs connaissances d’un domaine scientifique donné. Ce cadre conceptuel sera illustré à l’aide de prototypes d’items d’évaluation développés pour des ordinateurs mobiles à écran tactile. [less ▲]

The Genetics Lab_Theoretical background & psychometric evaluation

Report (2012)

Épreuves Standardisées: Ziele und methodische Grundlagen

in Martin, Romain; Brunner, Martin (Eds.) Épreuves Standardisées. Nationaler Bericht 2011‐2012 (2012)

Schlussfolgerungen

in Martin, Romain; Brunner, Martin (Eds.) Épreuves Standardisées. Nationaler Bericht 2011‐2012 (2012)