The role of prior exposure on the capture of attention by items in working memory

The Biased Competition Model (BCM) suggests both top-down and bottom-up biases operate on selective attention (e.g., Desimone & Duncan, 1995). It has been suggested that top-down control signals may arise from working memory. In support, Downing (2000) found faster responses to probes presented in the location of stimuli held vs. not held in working memory. Soto, Heinke, Humphreys, and Blanco (2005) showed the involuntary nature of this effect and that shared features between stimuli were sufficient to attract attention. Here we show that stimuli held in working memory had an influence on the deployment of attentional resources even when: (1) It was detrimental to the task, (2) there was equal prior exposure, and (3) there was no bottom-up priming. These results provide further support for involuntary top-down guidance of attention from working memory and the basic tenets of the BCM, but further discredit the notion that bottom-up priming is necessary for the effect to occur

Ability of dyslexic and control teenagers to sustain attention and inhibit responses

Dyslexia and attentional difficulty have often been linked, but little is known of the nature of the supposed attentional disorder. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART: Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley and Yiend, 1997) was designed as a measure of sustained attention and requires the withholding of responses to rare (one in nine) targets. To investigate the nature of the attentional disorder in dyslexia, this paper reports two studies which examined the performance of teenagers with dyslexia and their age-matched controls on the SART, the squiggle SART (a modification of the SART using novel and unlabellable stimuli rather than digits) and the go-gap-stop test of response inhibition (GGST). Teenagers with dyslexia made significantly more errors than controls on the original SART, but not the squiggle SART. There were no group differences on the GGST. After controlling for speed of reaction time in a sequential multiple regression predicting SART false alarms, false alarms on the GGST accounted for up to 22% extra variance in the control groups (although less on the squiggle SART) but negligible amounts of variance in the dyslexic groups. We interpret the results as reflecting a stimulus recognition automaticity deficit in dyslexia, rather than a sustained attention deficit. Furthermore, results suggest that response inhibition is an important component of performance on the standard SART when stimuli are recognised automatically

Widening access to Higher Education:an evaluative case study of a foundation year alternative to access

Universities are encouraged to widen access to a broad range of applicants, including mature students taking Access qualifications. Admissions tutors can find it difficult to compare and choose between Access and A-level applications, and Access applicants for popular courses may be disadvantaged relative to students with good A-levels. In this evaluative case study a foundation year designed to avoid Access selection problems and widen participation in psychology, biology, optometry and pharmacy is reviewed. Progression and success rates are compared to national averages for Access courses and issues in Foundation Year management considered. The Foundation Year is rejected as unsatisfactory and it is concluded that widening participation for mature students can be achieved through Access courses. Difficulties in achieving this for high-demand courses in leading universities are discussed

No regrets? Measuring the career benefits of a psychology placement year

We report an analysis of whether a psychology placement year provides a significant benefit to graduates’ careers. Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey data six months post-graduation suggested that placement programme graduates across the university are more likely to be (i) in work and (ii) in graduate level jobs. For psychology, the association between graduates’ placement status and employment status at six months post graduation was not significant overall. However, when analyses were split by degree classification obtained, it was shown that amongst those graduates with 2.1 classification degrees reporting themselves as working, more placement programme vs. non-placement programme graduates had obtained graduate level jobs (63% vs. 33%). In 2.2 graduates there was no significant association. This pattern persisted in the data from a survey of psychology alumni (from 18 months to six and a half years post graduation). Psychology placement programme alumni were more satisfied with their careers even when ethnicity, gender, degree classification and entry year were taken into account. They also earn more, although not when background factors are taken into account. This study was therefore able to show some measurable and persistent effects of a psychology placement year, although whether the benefits can be claimed to outweigh the costs is inconclusive. Limitations and implications are discussed

Measuring the benefits of a psychology placement year

Placement programmes are considered to provide students with an induction into the work environment and a valuable learning experience. Aston University maintains one of the highest success rates of any UK university for graduate employment and it is thought that the placement year plays a large role in this success. However, the benefits of placements in theoretical subjects like Psychology are often less obvious than those for practical subjects like Optometry or Engineering. Here we compared Psychology students on the 3-year vs. the 4-year sandwich course on a number of attributes using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Final year students who had taken a placement year achieved significantly higher marks in their final year (F 1,407=31.52, p<0.001) and were rated more favourably by academic staff on a measure of transferable skills (F1,43= 11.08, p<0.005). In addition, post-graduation, students who had taken a placement year reported a better idea of their career direction and could be argued to be further on in terms of their career progression and pay levels. Qualitatively, focus groups of placement and non-placement students suggested a number of benefits of taking a placement year, including better time management, confidence and responsibility. Whether the benefits of a sandwich placement in a psychology degree outweigh the costs to students and their families, and the need for further research to identify the scope and longevity of possible early career benefits are discussed. © 2006 Taylor & Francis

Dyslexia : challenging theories.

Experiments presented challenge theories on their ability to provide causal explanations of the pattern of performance in dyslexia. Studies la and 1 b employed a prism adaptation paradigm to investigate the Cerebellar Deficit Hypothesis (CDH). No group differences were found, although unfortunately it was concluded that the paradigm could not satisfactorily isolate cerebellar function from other compensation mechanisms. Studies 2a and 2b exploited a sequential stereopsis technique to test the visual deficit hypothesis. No group differences were found, although the dyslexic group did exhibit a fatigue effect on one condition. Using an attention shifting paradigm, Study 3 found a dissociation between focus and shift attention conditions in dyslexic children, but that they sustained their attention as well as controls. In Study 4, supporting the Dyslexia Automatisation Deficit (DAD) as opposed to a general resources deficit, control performance suffered most under visually degraded conditions of the same attention paradigm. Study 5 further investigated attention on a test thought to be sensitive to attentional lapses; dyslexic children did make more errors, although conclusions were limited by their qualitatively normal performance. Deficits in dyslexia were found to be wider reaching than many theories of dyslexia would suggest. At a cognitive level of explanation the DAD was able to account successfully for many of the findings. However, like the Phonological Deficit Theory the DAD specifies no neurological mechanism for the deficit; this is provided by the CDH (for which no evidence was found here). Analyses do point towards the need for either a very general explanation, or the identification of a smaller number of core deficits, for the apparently disparate deficits found. The fatigue effect found only in the dyslexic group on part of the vision experiment has further direct and immediate implications for future research

Attention deficits in dyslexia:Evidence for an automatisation deficit?

Both attentional difficulties and rapid processing deficits have recently been linked with dyslexia. We report two studies comparing the performance of dyslexic and control teenagers on attentional tasks. The two studies were based on two different conceptions of attention. Study 1 employed a design that allowed three key components of attention - focusing, switching, and sustaining - to be investigated separately. One hypothesis under investigation was that rapid processing problems - in particular impaired ability to switch attention rapidly - might be associated with dyslexia. However, although dyslexic participants were significantly less accurate than their controls in a condition where they had to switch attention between two target types, the nature of the deficit suggested that the problem was not in switching attention per se. Thus, in Study 2, we explored an alternative interpretation of the Study 1 results in terms of the classic capacity-limited models of "central" attention. We contrasted two hypotheses: (1) that dyslexic teenagers have reduced cognitive resources versus (2) that they suffer from a general impairment in the ability to automatise basic skills. To investigate the automaticity of the shape recognition component of the task a similar attention paradigm to that used in Study 1 was employed, but using degraded, as well as intact, stimuli. It was found that stimulus degradation led to relatively less impairment for dyslexic than for matched control groups. The results support the hypothesis that dyslexic people suffer from a general impairment in the ability to automatise skills - in this case the skill of automatic shape recognition

Financial support differentially aids retention of students from households with lower incomes: a UK case study

Around the world each year, large sums of money are expended in helping students access higher education institutions (HEIs), but there is remarkably little evidence to show whether this investment is effective or not. Here we use data from a UK university to investigate the relationship between financial support and continuation of students beyond their first year of study. As a result of changing scholarship policies over the course of three years, a natural experiment was created that allowed us to investigate the effect of financial support on rates of withdrawal of students from households with different incomes. Controlling for multiple demographic and attainment factors (age, gender, ethnic grouping, disability, nationality, household income, prior educational attainment, and local Higher Education participation rates), the data suggest that scholarships improved student retention, but principally for those students from households with low and intermediate incomes. Interestingly, the value of the scholarships, which varied from £500 to £3,000, did not have a measurable effect on withdrawal. We also found that some students who appeared to be eligible for a scholarship and would likely have benefitted from it did not receive one, and we discuss the reasons why this might be so. These results have important implications for scholarship policies in Higher Education internationally; to maximise impact, scholarships should be awarded to those most in financial need

Placement year academic benefit revisited:effects of demographics, prior achievement and degree programme

Investigations of whether students taking undergraduate work placements show greater academic improvement than those who do not have shown inconsistent results. In most studies, sample sizes have been relatively small and few studies have taken into account pre-existing student differences.Here data from over 6000 students at one university over six cohorts and a range of programmes are analysed. Consistent academic benefit from placement experience, regardless of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background and subject is shown. However the impact of demographic factors on both achievement and on the probability of taking a placement suggests that future research should take these factors into account. The role of placements in promoting employability is contextualised as a secondary benefit to the primary goal of educating the mind in the Newman (1852) tradition. Possible causes of, and further research into, the improved academic performance identified are discussed

Optimising the impact of a multi-intervention outreach programme on progression to Higher Education:recommendations for future practice and research

Despite substantial financial commitment to widening participation activities internationally, robust evidence demonstrating ‘what works’ in facilitating disadvantaged learners to access Higher Education (HE) is remarkably sparse. Much effort has been directed at measuring immediate post-intervention changes in the aspirations, attitudes and behaviours thought to drive access to HE, rather than actual access itself. Here, we present an innovative quasi-experimental study of a multi-intervention outreach programme (UniConnect) consisting of 1,386 learners from the Aimhigher West Midlands database whose HE application results were known, while controlling for multiple variables, including estimates of deprivation. The results showed that any engagement with UniConnect, no matter how limited, was associated with an improved chance of achieving a place in HE, but the type of engagement, the extent of engagement and the combination of types of engagement all mattered. The more learners engaged with UniConnect, the greater were their chances of HE acceptance, but the benefit of each additional engagement beyond five or six engagements was small. To our knowledge, these findings are the first to indicate the number, type and combinations of interventions that are most effective in supporting progression to HE. These results therefore have important implications for future practice, enabling funding for such work to be used for optimal impact. Furthermore, we found large differences in success between schools, even when controlling for several other variables; a finding which has important implications for future evaluation research