Typical hierarchical processing in autistic adults

Previous research suggests that autistic individuals exhibit atypical hierarchical processing, however, most of these studies focused solely on children. Thus, the main aim of the current study was to investigate the presence of atypical local or global processing in autistic adults using a traditional divided attention task with Navon’s hierarchical figures. Reaction time data of 27 autistic and 25 neurotypical (NT) adults was analysed using multilevel modelling and Bayesian analysis. The results revealed that autistic, like NT, adults experienced a global precedence effect. Moreover, both autistic and NT participants experienced global and local interference effects. In contrast to previous findings with children, the current study suggests that autistic adults exhibit a typical, albeit unexpected, processing of hierarchical figures

A longitudinal study of theory of mind and listening comprehension: Is preschool theory of mind important?

Theory of mind has been shown to be important for listening comprehension for children at a range of ages. However, there is a lack of longitudinal evidence for a relationship between early theory of mind and later listening comprehension. The aim of this study was to examine whether preschool theory of mind has a longitudinal direct effect on later listening comprehension over and above the effects of concurrent theory of mind. A total of 147 children were tested on measures of theory of mind, working memory, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge at Time 1 (mean age = 4;1 [years;months]) and Time 2 (mean age = 5;11). In addition, at Time 2 listening comprehension, comprehension monitoring, and inference making measures were taken. Data were fitted to concurrent and longitudinal models of listening comprehension. Concurrent findings at Time 2 showed theory of mind to have a direct effect on listening comprehension. However, longitudinal findings showed that earlier theory of mind in preschool (Time 1) did not have a direct effect on listening comprehension 22 months later; instead, there was only an indirect effect of earlier theory of mind on later listening comprehension via concurrent theory of mind (Time 2). Taken together, the results give further support for the importance of theory of mind for listening comprehension but show that there are limited additional benefits of early theory of mind acquisition. Implications for the development of children's listening comprehension are discussed. [Abstract copyright: Crown Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Theory of mind in emerging reading comprehension: a longitudinal study of early indirect and direct effects

The relation between children’s theory of mind (ToM) and emerging reading comprehension was investigated in a longitudinal study over 2.5 years. 80 children were tested for ToM, decoding, language skills and executive function (EF) at Time 1 (mean age = 3:10 years). At Time 2 (mean age = 6:03 years) children's word reading efficiency, language skills and reading comprehension were measured. Mediation analysis showed that ToM at Time 1, when children were around four years old, indirectly predicted Time 2 reading comprehension, when children were six years old, via language ability, after controlling for age, non-verbal ability, decoding, EF and earlier language ability. Importantly, ToM at four years old also directly predicted reading comprehension two and a half years later at six years. This is the first longitudinal study to show a direct contribution of theory of mind to reading comprehension in typical development. Findings are discussed in terms of the Simple View of Reading (SVR); ToM not only supports reading comprehension indirectly by facilitating language, but also directly contributes to it over and above the SVR. The potential role of metacognition is considered when accounting for the direct contribution of early ToM to later reading comprehension

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

IPCC, 2023: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland.

This Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) summarises the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. It integrates the main findings of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) based on contributions from the three Working Groups1 , and the three Special Reports. The summary for Policymakers (SPM) is structured in three parts: SPM.A Current Status and Trends, SPM.B Future Climate Change, Risks, and Long-Term Responses, and SPM.C Responses in the Near Term.This report recognizes the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies; the value of diverse forms of knowledge; and the close linkages between climate change adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being and sustainable development, and reflects the increasing diversity of actors involved in climate action. Based on scientific understanding, key findings can be formulated as statements of fact or associated with an assessed level of confidence using the IPCC calibrated language

Technological change in the New Zealand sawmilling industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Studies at Massey University

This thesis addresses the role of technological change in the New Zealand sawmilling industry. It consists of an examination of the importance of technological change on economic and industrial growth. The mechanisms by which technological change occurs in industries are examined, particularly the technological push model of Schumpeter, the demand pull model of Schmookler, and the technological paradigm/trajectory model of Dosi. The technological paradigm/trajectory model is expanded upon and operationalised to examine the New Zealand sawmilling industry in terms of that model's parameters. Two empirical studies were conducted to ascertain the historical effect of technological change in the development of sawmilling in New Zealand. The first study examined various input and output variables in an econometric framework, with an emphasis on a production function approach. The second study utilised a factor analytic approach to reduce various technology related variables to a lesser number of variables. This was in order to describe a pathway of technological change in as simple terms as possible. The factor analytic approach facilitated the use of the technological paradigm/trajectory model. Generally, results showed that the economic and technological development of New Zealand sawmilling was characterised as having an emphasis on throughput of timber, possibly because economies of scale are difficult to achieve in sawmilling. Specific findings were that the production of sawn timber in New Zealand has been increasing in an exponential manner, that there has been a slow but steady increase in the number of persons engaged in the industry, that the number of kilowatts in the industry has been increasing rapidly, that value added to timber, while being erratic, has been rising, that the level of value added per person has been rising, whilst the level of value added per kilowatt has been static. It was concluded that capital was substituted for labour in the production of sawn timber, and that the skill levels of labour in sawmilling increased. It was estimated that through time, the effects of technological change were such that an additional 2,402 cubic metres of sawn timber were added to the national output every year. It was concluded that, given the globalisation of manufacturing, and process value adding in general, New Zealand sawycrc need to saw to particular customer standards, in smaller order lots, and with greater degree of manufacturing flexibility than has hither to been the case. This implies that sawmilling technology might well be on the point of a paradigm shift