Motor fluency deficits in the sequencing of actions in schizophrenia.

Many everyday activities depend on the capacity to organize and smoothly execute motor sequences. The authors tested the hypothesis that a sequencing deficit is associated with schizophrenia. They used a new method to distinguish between lower and higher order mechanisms for the impairment. The 1st task involved triggered sequences in which sensory information from 1 movement was the cue for initiation of the following movement. Results showed that the motor sequences were performed as fluently in patients as in controls. The 2nd and 3rd tasks involved sequences in which the entire movement sequence could be preplanned. Patients executed the sequences less fluently than controls but only under the condition where action sequences were required. Furthermore, the patients' fluency deficit increased with sequence complexity. The high discrimination power of Task 3 gave the authors a means to control for a potential psychometric confound involving differential discriminating power and to argue in favor of a specific higher order motor fluency deficit in patients with schizophrenia. It is suggested that basic lower order mechanisms that integrate sensory information with outgoing motor commands are preserved in schizophrenia, whereas higher order integrative mechanisms that are required for the smooth coordination of motor sequences are impaired. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of teacher judgments in predicting oral reading fluency.

The relationship between teachers' judgments versus actual performance on curriculum-based measures in reading was examined. A total of 30 regular education teachers were asked to predict the oral reading fluency score of students along with a rating scale of reading subskills. Correlations between teacher judgment measures and student performance found that teachers were accurate reporters of student performance levels in reading. However, some questions were raised whether teachers were accurate at predicting the actual level of student oral reading fluency when effect sizes were used to compare teacher judgment and actual student performance. Recommendations for continued research in understanding the parameters of the accuracy of teacher judgment are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overcoming intuition: Metacognitive difficulty activates analytic reasoning.

Humans appear to reason using two processing styles: System 1 processes that are quick, intuitive, and effortless and System 2 processes that are slow, analytical, and deliberate that occasionally correct the output of System 1. Four experiments suggest that System 2 processes are activated by metacognitive experiences of difficulty or disfluency during the process of reasoning. Incidental experiences of difficulty or disfluency--receiving information in a degraded font (Experiments 1 and 4), in difficult-to-read lettering (Experiment 2), or while furrowing one's brow (Experiment 3)--reduced the impact of heuristics and defaults in judgment (Experiments 1 and 3), reduced reliance on peripheral cues in persuasion (Experiment 2), and improved syllogistic reasoning (Experiment 4). Metacognitive experiences of difficulty or disfluency appear to serve as an alarm that activates analytic forms of reasoning that assess and sometimes correct the output of more intuitive forms of reasoning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

语块教学法与语言输出能力的实验研究

文章根据Michael Lewis的语块理论,运用语块教学法进行了为期一年的教学实验,借以考证语块法对非英语专业大学生的输出性能力的作用。调查问卷和实验统计分析证明:语块法比传统的词汇教学方法更加有效地提升了学生的口头和书面表达能力,在流利性、地道性以及连贯性等方面都优于传统词汇教学方法。     

Auditory Feedback in Music Performance: The Role of Melodic Structure and Musical Skill.

Five experiments explored whether fluency in musical sequence production relies on matches between the contents of auditory feedback and the planned outcomes of actions. Participants performed short melodies from memory on a keyboard while musical pitches that sounded in synchrony with each keypress (feedback contents) were altered. Results indicated that altering pitch contents can disrupt production, but only when altered pitches form a sequence that is structurally similar to the planned sequence. These experiments also addressed the role of musical skill: Experiments 1 and 3 included trained pianists; other experiments included participants with little or no musical training. Results were similar across both groups with respect to the disruptive effects of auditory feedback manipulations. These results support the idea that a common hierarchical representation guides sequences of actions and the perception of event sequences and that this coordination is not acquired from learned associations formed by musical skill acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech Recognition Technology and Students With Writing Difficulties: Improving Fluency.

The present study investigated the effects of speech recognition technology (SR) and advance planning on children's writing processes. Fluent and less fluent writers, ages 11 to 14, composed 4 narratives, via handwriting and SR, both with and without advance planning. Less fluent children's handwritten narratives were significantly inferior to those of fluent children in terms of length, quality, and surface errors. For less fluent writers, SR (a) significantly increased the length and (b) decreased the surface errors of narratives. Although narrative length related positively to holistic quality, SR did not significantly improve quality. Advance planning helped children to compose more fully developed stories. For children with writing difficulties, advance planning and SR may each independently support text generation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motormouth: Mere exposure depends on stimulus-specific motor simulations.

The authors apply an embodied account to mere exposure, arguing that through the repeated exposure of a particular stimulus, motor responses specifically associated to that stimulus are repeatedly simulated, thus trained, and become increasingly fluent. This increased fluency drives preferences for repeated stimuli. This hypothesis was tested by blocking stimulus-specific motor simulations during repeated exposure. In Experiment 1, chewing gum while evaluating stimuli destroyed mere exposure effects (MEEs) for words but not for visual characters. However, concurrently kneading a ball left both MEEs unaffected. In Experiment 2, concurrently whispering an unrelated word destroyed MEEs for words but not for characters, even when implemented either exclusively during the initial presentation or during the test phase and when the first presentation involved an evaluation or a mere study of the stimuli. In Experiment 3, a double dissociation between 2 classes of stimuli was demonstrated, namely, words (oral) and tunes (vocal). A concurrent oral task (tongue movements) destroyed MEEs for words but not for tone sequences. A concurrent vocal task (humming “mm-hm”) destroyed MEEs for tone sequences but not for words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of text‐based CMC on improving L2 oral fluency

This paper reports on a study investigating the potential effect of synchronous and asynchronous text‐based computer‐mediated communication (CMC) on oral fluency development of second‐language (L2) learners. Sixty‐three intermediate learners of English were randomly assigned to one of three groups (two experimental groups and one control group), each consisting of 21 participants. The participants in the experimental groups completed four communicative tasks under two different instructional environments: synchronous text‐based CMC environment and asynchronous text‐based CMC environment. The average length of pauses, the articulation rate, the fluent‐run, the phonation‐time ratio and the speaking rate served as dependent variables. The study found that the participants in synchronous CMC group improved their L2 oral fluency significantly compared with their peers in the other two groups. The results also revealed the students in asynchronous CMC group obtained higher mean scores than those in the control group, although the differences between groups were not statistically significant.     

Teachers' perceptions of students' reading abilities: An examination of the relationship between teachers' judgments and students' performance across a continuum of rating methods.

Teacher perceptions about students' academic abilities are important for several reasons (e.g., instructional decision making, special education entitlement decisions). Not surprisingly, researchers have investigated the accuracy of teachers' decisions. Although some data reveal that teachers are relatively good judges of academic performance, other findings have suggested otherwise. A likely explanation for conflicting findings is the varying assessment methods (e.g., direct vs. indirect, norm-referenced vs. peer-independent) and different data analysis procedures that have been used across studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate a continuum of teacher-perception assessment methods as they corresponded to students' oral reading fluency performance. Participants included 10 teachers and 87 first, second, and third grade students from a suburban school in the northeast. Overall results suggested that teachers were generally accurate when estimating students' performance when students had strong oral reading fluency skills, but teachers had more difficulty judging students with average to low oral reading fluency. Further, data interpretation of teachers' judgment accuracy differed somewhat depending upon the statistical method employed. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research related to this study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining Ethnic, Gender, Language, and Socioeconomic Bias in Oral Reading Fluency Scores among Caucasian and Hispanic Students.

Research has demonstrated that oral reading fluency probes are reliable and valid for indexing reading achievement. If these probes are to be used for decision making, bias must be examined for various factors, including ethnicity, gender, language background, and socioeconomic status. Data from nearly 4,000 Caucasian and Hispanic students in grades one through three were used to examine potential bias in oral reading fluency scores predicting Stanford Achievement Test-Ninth Edition (SAT-9; Harcourt Brace & Co., 1997a, 1997b) Total Reading scores. Using a series of hierarchical multiple regression models, bias was first examined using concurrent SAT-9 scores as the criterion and then examined using subsequent SAT-9 scores as the criterion. The results reveal that it is the combination of factors, not any one in isolation, that significantly contributes to intercept bias findings. Overall, home language emerged as the strongest factor influencing bias in the prediction of SAT-9 scores from oral reading fluency scores. The implications of these findings are discussed as related to current and proposed uses of oral reading fluency probes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)