Lateral preference patterns as a discriminator of learning difficulties.

In Study 1, the lateral preference patterns for 246 normal and 108 learning-disabled (LD) children (8.3–12.7 yrs) were compared using factors of the Dean Laterality Preference Schedule. Results indicate that although Ss did not differ in their patterns for peripheral activities across factors, LD Ss were significantly more bilateral on factors involving visually guided fine motor activity, listening, and fine motor foot preference. Further analysis showed that one significant discriminant function correctly predicted the group placement of some 71% of the Ss. Findings are interpreted as supporting a hypothesis of less coherent lateralized cerebral systems for many LD children. Study 2 examined the verbal—spatial abilities of 78 LD 5th graders classified as normal or mixed in their preference patterns using the discriminant function derived in Study 1. Results indicate that whereas Ss of mixed dominance for peripheral activities were deficient in spatial abilities, they were verbally more adept than normally lateralized LD Ss. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of concurrent auditory input on tactual processing in very young children: Developmental changes.

Investigated right-hemispheric specialization for tactual processing in 96 2–5 yr old right-handed children. Cross-modal transfer from touch to vision was assessed under conditions where Ss palpated shapes with either their left or right hand while music was simultaneously played to the left ear, right ear, or neither ear. This task pitted music against palpation such that both tasks involved the same or different cerebral hemispheres (if music and haptic perception are both lateralized in the right hemisphere as is thought). Results show that in the absence of music, Ss at each age showed a left-hand (right-hemisphere) advantage. The adultlike patterns of ipsilateral interference from music were evident among 4- and 5-yr-olds, in that music to the left ear selectively disrupted left-hand performance. The adultlike pattern was absent at ages 2 and 3 yrs, and music to the right ear disrupted left-hand performance at these ages. Music had an overall, nonselective interference on right-hand performance at all ages. The early appearing left-hand advantage and the lateralized nature of the interference observed among older Ss support the idea of a right-hemispheric specialization for tactual processing of form in young children. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of speech motor development in children.

Pulsed ultrasound was used to study tongue movements in the speech of 11 children, aged 3 yrs 3 mo to 11 yrs 6 mo. The stimuli were CV syllables that were produced at a normal speech rate with alternate vowels stressed. In Ss over 6 yrs of age, the pattern of tongue dorsum movement was identical to that observed in adults. For all Ss, the maximum velocity of tongue dorsum raising and lowering was correlated with the extent of the gesture. The slope of the relationship differed for stressed and unstressed vowels, although the differences were not consistent prior to age 6 yrs. For all Ss, the correlation between displacement and peak velocity was accompanied by a relatively constant interval from the initiation of the movement to the point of maximum velocity. The similarity in the tongue dorsum kinematics of children and adults is consistent with the idea that speech motor development involves a refinement of basic modes of motor operation rather than any significant change in the control of the speech apparatus. The speech data obtained are characteristic of systems that can be described by 2nd-order differential equations. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of directed attention on cerebral asymmetries in normal and learning-disabled children.

Using a dichotic listening task employing both undirected and directed attention conditions, cerebral asymmetries were examined in matched populations of 32 normal and 32 learning-disabled (LD) children (ages 7 yrs 6 mo–13 yrs 2 mo). The analysis of recall performance indicated that development was not a significant factor in either group; both the normal and LD Ss showed a right-ear effect, although the LD Ss performed at a degraded level and were unable to demonstrate a right-ear advantage (REA) when attention was directed to the left ear, unlike normal Ss, who produced the REA despite the directed attention conditions. Results suggest that LD children probably do not suffer from developmental delays but rather from a defect in callosal functioning that interferes with their ability to process verbal information simultaneously. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EEG hemispheric asymmetry during sexual arousal: Psychophysiological patterns in responsive, unresponsive, and dysfunctional men.

Investigated patterns of EEG hemispheric asymmetry and penile tumescence in 12 sexually functional and 6 dysfunctional men. All Ss were aged 31–60 yrs. Six sexually functional Ss were responsive and 6 were unresponsive to laboratory presentations of erotic stimuli. Each S was exposed to a counterbalanced sequence of visual and auditory conditions over 2 sessions of testing. Response measures included bilateral temporal and occipital EEG amplitude integrated over 5-sec epochs, strain gauge measures of penile tumescence, and subjective estimates of arousal. Analysis of the hemispheric laterality results indicated a pattern of right-temporal activation in association with maximum tumescence responses in the high-normal Ss. In contrast, the dysfunctional Ss showed moderate tumescence in response to the visual erotic stimuli but greater right-hemisphere activation in response to the auditory erotic stimuli. These psychophysiological patterns are consistent with the literature on cerebral asymmetry and affective arousal. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hemispheric changes in information processing during development.

Hemispheric processing of visually presented words and pictures was examined in 3 groups of Ss with mean ages of 8 yrs 8 mo, 12 yrs 3 mo, and 27 yrs 9 mo (154 Ss). Pictorial or symbolic stimuli were presented singly to either the right or left visual hemifield. Ss had to decide whether the 1st stimulus in a pair matched the 2nd stimulus. The major results were that (a) age groups differed in the strength of lateral differences, and (b) for all age groups, the right hemisphere was significantly faster in processing unmatched stimuli. Results suggest that lateral specialization of the left hemisphere is not complete until adolescence and that over the age range tested, the left hemisphere becomes progressively more specialized for the processing of matched data. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateralized presentation and hemispheric integration.

Argues that, in the intact brain, behavior is the result of the integrated functioning of both hemispheres, even if input is lateralized. The fact that left-hemisphere presentation results in faster or more efficient processing than right-hemisphere presentation will be interpreted differently depending on performance with central presentation. In a limited review of 34 articles involving lateralized presentation of visual material, only 9 included a central presentation condition as a control condition. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responding to threat: Hemispheric asymmetries and interhemispheric division of input.

This investigation examined how hemispheric asymmetry and interhemispheric processing contribute to attentional biases toward emotional information. Participants (n?=?88) named the color of lateralized squares presented concurrently with neutral, positive, or threatening words. A left-hemisphere advantage in color naming was reduced when distractors were emotional, suggesting right-hemisphere priming by emotional stimuli. Furthermore, the advantage of dividing the word and color across visual fields was increased for emotion words when they were frequently presented, indicating a strategic use of interhemispheric division of labor to reduce the distracting effect of emotional words. Finally, participants with high levels of anxious apprehension were most likely to make use of this interhemispheric processing strategy, supporting a processing efficiency theory of cognitive function in anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal control of behavior: The effects of shouting.

Tested the implication of A. R. Luria's (1961, 1969) theory that children under 5 yrs of age would have more difficulty obeying instructions to inhibit a response the greater the intensity (loudness) of the instruction; this should not be true for children over 5 yrs of age. In the present study, 18 younger children (aged 3 yrs 6 mo to 4 yrs 9 mo) and 18 older children (aged 4 yrs 10 mo to 6 yrs 4 mo) played a game in which they were to follow instructions and either perform or refrain from performing simple acts. Instructions were loud, medium, or soft in intensity. Results for younger Ss were clear and significant in supporting Luria's theory. For older Ss, however, results do not neatly fit Luria's theory: Increased intensity facilitated compliance with instructions to inhibit a response. Data support the contention that an important aspect of language development is the decontextualization of meaning. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual asymmetry in psychosis-prone college students: Evidence for left-hemisphere overactivation.

The hypothesis that psychosis-prone students demonstrate a pattern of exaggerated perceptual asymmetry across both left- and right-hemisphere dichotic-listening tasks (consonant-vowel [CV] and tonal contour discrimination) was investigated. Ss who scored high on the Perceptual Aberration or Magical Ideation scale or both (n?=?20) demonstrated a significantly exaggerated right-ear advantage on a CV task in relation to normal control Ss (n?=?27) but showed a reduced left-ear advantage on a tone task. The hypothesis of exaggerated functional lateralization across hemispheres in the psychosis-prone Ss was not supported, but the results are consistent with a hypothesis of left hemisphere overactivation in this sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laterality effects in the processing of melody and timbre

Laterality for the processing of melody and timbre was investigated in 64 right-handed non-musicians. In one block of dichotic-listening trials, participants listened for a prespecified target melody, and in a second block they listened for a prespecified target instrument. Females were more accurate on the left ear in the melody task (whereas males tended to show no ear advantage), but there were no significant ear differences in the timbre task for either sex. This supports the idea of a complementary sex-based pattern of lateralization, with males more strongly lateralized for verbal stimuli and females more strongly lateralized for non-verbal stimuli. No relation was observed between lambda measures for the two tasks, suggesting that laterality for melody processing is independent of laterality for timbre processing.     

Performance of male and female children, adolescents and adults on spatial tasks that involve everyday objects and settings.

Administered 9 spatial tasks to 52 male and 52 female children (aged 7–9 yrs), 30 male and 33 female adolescents (aged 18–19 yrs), and 46 male and 48 female undergraduate (adult) Ss. Eight of the tests involved stimuli and settings with which Ss would have everyday experience. Significant sex differences were observed on 2 of the 9 tasks: estimating the length of a floor and identifying embedded figures. Adults performed better than other age groups on the embedded figures task and a wall height estimation task. In those cases where sex differences were observed, the effect sizes were well below .100, suggesting the magnitudes of sex differences were minimal. The fact that no sex differences were found on 7 or the 9 spatial tasks allows, at most, the statement that males perform better than females on some spatial tasks. There is no justification for the global statement that males excel in spatial abilities. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of age and ritalin dosage on the mother–child interactions of hyperactive children.

Observed interactions between mothers and 54 hyperactive children in 3 age groups (4 yrs to 5 yrs 11 mo, 6 yrs to 7 yrs 11 mo, and 8 yrs to 9 yrs 11 mo) during a drug–placebo evaluation of 2 daily dosages (0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg) of Ritalin (methylphenidate). Results indicate few age or drug effects on social interactions during free play; however, numerous age and drug effects were seen in the task period. With age, children increased their compliance and decreased their negative behavior, and their mothers decreased their levels of control and management. Both doses of methylphenidate increased child compliance equally, but only at the higher dose were significant drug effects found on mothers' behavior: Mothers decreased their control and negative behavior toward children during the high-dose condition. Drug effects on these interactions were not affected by children's ages. It is concluded that although the parent–child interactions of hyperactive children improve with age, methylphenidate produces further improvements in task-related interactions. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dichotic lag effect in children 7 to 15.

Children 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 yrs of age were tested on their ability to identify simultaneous and time-staggered dichotic CV stimuli. At each age level, 15 males and 15 females listened to 300 dichotic trials, 60 at each of 5 onset asynchronies: 0, 15, 30, 60, and 90 msec. Results on the simultaneous-onset trials confirmed previous findings of a right-ear advantage and improvement in performance with age. Asynchronous presentation resulted in a lag effect with a pattern similar to adults. Additionally, however, there were age- and sex-related differences in the rate of performance increase as asynchronies were increased, suggesting that CV processing may take longer for younger children, expecially males, than for adults. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of the perception of musical relations: Semitone and diatonic structure.

Examined the development of sensitivity to 2 musical relations significant in Western tonal music, the semitone and diatonic structure, in 2 experiments with 30 preschoolers (aged 4.2–5.9 yrs) and 40 infants (aged 9.1–11 mo). Ss were tested for their detection of a semitone change in any position of a 5-note melody. Two standard melodies were used, one composed of diatonic tones only and the other containing a nondiatonic tone. In Exp I, preschoolers were superior in detecting the semitone change in the diatonic context compared with the nondiatonic context. In Exp II, infants detected the semitone change in all positions, but their performance was not influenced by diatonic context. It is concluded that infants and children can discriminate a semitone in a musical context and that the priority of diatonic structure emerges by 4–6 yrs of age. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grammatical awareness in the spoken and written language of language-disabled children.

Two experiments examined judgment, revision, and error-identification deficits in relation to expressive language skills and morphemic errors in writing. 12 language-disabled (LND) children (aged 8 yrs 2 mo to 12 yrs 4 mo) and 11 controls (aged 6 yrs 3 mo to 6 yrs 11 mo) matched for language ability participated in Exp 1. 11 LND children (aged 9 yrs 1 mo to 12 yrs 2 mo), 11 age-matched children with no language disability, and 11 children (aged 6 yrs 2 mo to 8 yrs 0 mo) matched to LND Ss for language ability participated in Exp 2. LND Ss who did not lack expressive use of target morphemes also did not differ from language-matched Ss in their ability to (1) judge the grammaticality of spoken sentences, (2) revise them, and (3) identify errors. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le phénomène de la transformation verbale: Nouvelles modalités de fonctionnement.

Investigated the effects of an irregular presentation of the stimulus repetition on the verbal transformation effect (VTE). Ss were 48 children (aged 8–13 yrs), 48 adults (aged 19–30 yrs), and 60 aged persons (aged 65–90 yrs), and were presented 4 separate stimuli repeated either irregularly (experimental group) or regularly (control group). Results show that VTE appeared earlier and provoked more verbal transformations (VTs) on an irregular stimulus presentation. In both conditions, there was a gradual increment in the number of VTEs as listening continued. Age group comparisons showed a marked decrease in VTE as Ss' ages increased. Finally, the choice of stimuli according to their absolute frequency of occurrence in the French language showed that high frequency words produced less VT than low frequency words; however, there was no significant difference for reaction time (RT) and number of forms on that variable. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's conception of lying: Moral intuition and the denotation and connotation of "to lie."

126 children (aged 4 yrs 2 mo to 5 yrs 11 mo) were told stories in which a protagonist with the intention to communicate truthfully said something false because he himself was mistaken. Ss were asked to judge whether the protagonist should be rewarded or punished for his false statement (moral judgment) and whether he had lied (lexical judgment). Replicating an earlier finding by the present authors (see record 1984-14615-001), there was a high number of inconsistent responses when the moral judgment was elicited first: Frequent subjectivist reward judgments were followed by realist "lying" judgments. Such an inconsistent response pattern was nearly absent when the lexical judgment was elicited first. Here the frequent realist lying judgments led to subsequent realist punishment judgments. Findings show (1) that young children's moral intuition about lying is advanced as compared to their definition to lie and (2) that children's realist definition of to lie carries a strong negative moral connotation that overrides their usual subjectivist moral intuitions. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lateralized Lexical Decision in Schizophrenia: Hemispheric Specialization and Interhemispheric Lexicality Priming.

Reports of left-hemisphere dysfunction and abnormal interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenia are mixed. The authors used a unified paradigm, the lateralized lexical decision task, to assess hemispheric specialization in word recognition, hemispheric error monitoring, and interhemispheric transfer in male, right-handed participants with schizophrenia (n=34) compared with controls (n=20). Overall, performance and error monitoring were worse in patients. However, patients like controls showed left-hemisphere superiority for lexical processing and right-hemisphere superiority for error monitoring. Only patients showed selective-interhemispheric lexicality priming for accuracy, in which performance improved when the lexical status of target and distractor stimuli presented to each hemifield was congruent. Results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with impaired monitoring and with increased interhemispheric automatic information transfer rather than with changed hemispheric specialization for language or error monitoring. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A canonical correlation analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability in a sample referred for suspected learning disabilities.

Examined the degree of overlap between the WISC—R and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA) from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery in 152 Ss (aged 7 yrs 4 mo to 12 yrs 10 mo) referred for evaluation because of suspected learning disabilities (LD). Analysis yielded 3 significant canonical correlations. The redundancy index showed that approximately 28.6% of the WJTCA subtest variance was predictable from the linear combination of the WISC—R subtests, and approximately 32.7% of the WISC—R subtest variance was predictable from the WJTCA subtests. Analysis of the structure correlations showed that the 1st canonical variates shared a general intelligence factor, the 2nd a perceptual speed factor, and the 3rd a numerical-memory factor. It is suggested that, if these findings are substantiated with a larger sample, the mean-score discrepancy previously found between the WJTCA and the WISC—R for children suspected of having LD is attributable to unique factor structures. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)