Impulsivity in Portuguese and Spanish college students: an invariance study of the brief UPPS impulsive behavior scales

This study aims to assess the measurement invariance of the brief UPPS impulsive behavior scales-short version in Portuguese and Spanish college students. The sample was composed of 351 Portuguese and 716 Spanish students with ages ranging between 18 and 26 years. The four-factor structure — urgency, premeditation, perseverance, and sensation seeking — fit the data, although two of the 20 items had to be discarded. Results also indicated adequate reliability for each of the four factors in each sample. The invariance testing results supported partial invariance. No mean differences between both samples were found in urgency, premeditation, and sensation seeking, but the Portuguese sample had higher levels of perseverance. These findings indicate that although this version is reliable, and the four-factor structure is supported in both samples, cross-cultural comparisons should be interpreted with caution due to the lack of invariance of some parameters. Implications for further studies are discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Instrumentos de avaliação da linguagem: uma perspetiva global

Neste capítulo é feita uma síntese das principais metodologias usadas para a avaliação da linguagem e é efetuada uma síntese dos instrumentos desenvolvidos e/ou adaptados para a avaliação da linguagem em Português Europeu (incluindo público-alvo e dimensões avaliadas).CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), Portugalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Risco de crédito e alocação ótima para uma carteira de debêntures

A debênture vem se tornando um instrumento de captação cada vez mais importante para empresas não financeiras no mercado brasileiro e uma alternativa às elevadas taxas de juros cobradas pelos bancos comerciais em uma operação de financiamento. Um aspecto-chave para o desenvolvimento do mercado secundário deste instrumento é o correto tratamento do risco de crédito, que ocorre quando o emissor não cumpre suas obrigações contratuais. Este trabalho propõe e testa uma metodologia que determina a magnitude deste risco para uma carteira de debêntures de empresas emissoras brasileiras. A abordagem utilizada baseia-se no Modelo de Merton (1974) para bônus corporativos, que utiliza as fórmulas de Black-Scholes para o cálculo do preço de opções. Também são utilizadas técnicas de otimização para a determinação do risco da carteira. Adotando um modelo simples e de baixo custo computacional, chegamos a uma medida de risco mais conservadora do que a obtida com o tradicional modelo VaR (value at risk). Além disso, apresentamos uma metodologia para a obtenção da composição ótima da carteira de debêntures.The debenture (corporate bond) is considered a fantastic financial instrument in terms of funding for the non-financial firms in the Brazilian market. The intermediation would be done in the capital market instead of through the commercial banks. The key issue for the development of this market is the financial engineering involving the credit risk (chance that the corporate issuer can default on its debt obligation). This paper proposes and tests a methodology to quantify this risk in a cross-section of Brazilian debentures. Our approach is based on Merton’s (1974) asset pricing model that uses the Black-Schole’s put option formula. The consequent optimization techniques allow us to infer the risk of debentures. By using a simple and low-cost model, we find a risk measure that is more conservative than the usual VaR (value at risk). Thus, we present a methodology for obtaining the optimum portfolio composed of debentures subject to the default risk

Face-to-face versus remote: effects of an intervention in reading fluency during COVID-19 pandemic

Fluency is a central skill for successful reading. Research has provided evidence that systematic reading fluency interventions can be effective. However, research is scarce on the effects of interventions delivered remotely versus face-to-face. This study investigated the efficacy of a systematic and standardized intervention for promoting reading fluency in third-grade students (N = 207) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study had a pretest, posttest, and follow-up design, with two intervention groups (remote vs face-to-face) and a control group. The intervention groups experienced 20 intervention sessions (2 sessions per week), each lasting approximately 50 min. Word reading accuracy, text reading accuracy, and fluency were measured in the three rounds of assessment. In both intervention groups, all measures of reading showed gains from pretest to posttest. The results also suggested that the efficacy of the intervention was similar in the remote and face-to-face modalities. These findings highlight the relevance of systematic interventions in increasing reading fluency and support the use of remote interventions as an adequate alternative to face-to-face interventions.This work was financially supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science (FCT) and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education through national funds within the framework of the Psychology for Positive Development Research Center-CIPD (grant number UIDB/04375/2020) and the Psychology Research Centre (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020)

Parental reports of preschoolers’ lexical and syntactic development: validation of the CDI-III for European Portuguese

This study presents the validation analysis of the European Portuguese version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory III (CDI-III-PT). The CDI-III-PT is a parental report measure allowing researchers to assess expressive vocabulary and the syntactic abilities of children aged 2;6–4;0. In this study, we present a version comprising a lexical subscale which follows the Swedish adaptation and an original syntactic subscale allowing us to include language-specific structures. The reports of 739 children were collected; in addition, a standardized measure of language was also administered to a sub-sample of these children and the reports of preschool teachers were collected for another sub-sample. The results indicate a high internal consistency of the lexical and syntactic subscales. As for sociodemographic variables often found to be predictors of language development, as measured by this type of instrument, the results indicate that age and maternal education are significant predictors of the scores, and that first-born children attain higher scores in vocabulary than later born children, but no significant gender differences were found. The scores of the CDI-III-PT are positively correlated with the ones obtained in the standardized languagemeasure, thus supporting their validity. A high agreement between the reports of parents and teachers was also found. These findings indicate that the CDI-III-PT has adequate psychometric properties and that it can be a useful tool for research and clinical practice. The age-based norms that are now provided can be used to evaluate whether a child is performing poorly compared to their peers.This work was financially supported by Portuguese national funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) projects under the references UIDB/00317/2020 and UIDP/00317/2020

Aprender a compreender. Da teoria à prática pedagógica

Resumo Neste artigo são apresentados dois programas de ensino explícito da compreensão de leitura – “Aprender a compreender torna mais fácil o saber” e “Aprender a compreender… Do saber ao saber fazer” – destinados a alunos do 3.º ao 6.º anos de escolaridade e que podem ser desenvolvidos em contexto de sala de aula ou em contexto de grupo de apoio/recuperação. São apresentados exemplos de operacionalização das estratégias propostas, com o recurso à Família Compreensão, um conjunto de personagens especialmente criado para estes programas com o objetivo de modelar, no leitor, o uso das estratégias mais adequadas para executar as tarefas, munindo-o de instrumentos para regular a sua compreensão e colmatar lacunas e/ou dificuldades em compreender quer os textos lidos, quer as próprias perguntas que orientam a leitura dos mesmos. Palavras chave: Compreensão da leitura, ensino explícito, metacogniçãoThis article presents two reading comprehension teaching programs. “Aprender a compreender torna mais fácil o saber” and “Aprender a compreender. Do saber… ao saber fazer” created for students from the 3rd to the 6th year of scholarship. They can be developed during class or in support/recovery work groups. In the programs, examples of the proposed learning strategies are presented, through the use of the “Comprehension Family”, a set of characters created specifically for these programs with the purpose of giving the readers different ways to use strategies fitted to complete each task, and also different instruments to regulate comprehension and complement possible gaps and/or difficulties in comprehending the texts read and the questions that complement them.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

Effects of listening comprehension, word recognition, and oral reading fluency on reading comprehension in second-grade students

Several studies have provided evidence regarding the importance of listening comprehension, word recognition and oral reading fluency in successful reading comprehension; however, most of the research has been conducted with English language speakers. This study aims to examine the direct effects of these three variables on reading comprehension using a sample of European Portuguese speakers. A sample of 325 second- grade Portuguese students completed the Test of Word Reading, the Reading Fluency Assessment Test, the Test of Listening Comprehension of Narrative Texts and the Test of Reading Comprehension of Narrative Texts. Path analysis showed that listening comprehension, word recognition and oral reading fluency were all significant predictors with unique effects on reading comprehension at this grade level. The combination of all three predictors explained 41% of the variance observed in reading comprehension. The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications and limitations of the study, and guidelines for future research are presented.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalThis study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds and, when applicable, co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (UID/PSI/01662/2013) and by grant FCOMP-01-0124- FEDER-010733 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the European program COMPETE (Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The interrelatedness between infants’ communicative gestures and lexicon size: a longitudinal study

Research has shown a close relationship between gestures and language development. In this study, we investigate the cross-lagged relationships between different types of gestures and two lexicon dimensions: number of words produced and comprehended. Information about gestures and lexical development was collected from 48 typically developing infants when these were aged 0;9, 1;0 and 1;3. The European Portuguese version of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures (PT CDI:WG) was used. The results indicated that the total number of actions and gestures and the number of early gestures produced at 0;9 and at 1;0 year predicted the number of words comprehended three months later. Actions and gestures’ predictive power of the number of words produced was limited to the 0;9–1;0 year interval. The opposite relationship was not found: word comprehension and production did not predict action and gestures three months later. These results highlight the importance of non-verbal commu- nicative behavior in language development.CiPsi - Psychology Research Centre, Uminho (UID/PSI/ 01662/2013), PortugalCIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), PortugalNational Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio