Neuropsychological Predictors of Math Calculation and Reasoning in School-Aged Children

After multiple reviews of the literature, which documented that multiple cognitive processes may be involved in mathematics ability and disability, Geary (1993) proposed a model that included three subtypes of math disability: Semantic, Procedural, and Visuospatial. A review of the extant literature produced three studies that examined Geary\u27s three subtypes, which provided some support for Geary\u27s model. Given the paucity of research examining Geary\u27s subtypes of math disability, this study aimed to add to the literature by exploring the presence of these three subtypes in a sample of school-aged children. The sample consisted of 60 participants (30 males, 30 females) ranging in age from 7 to 13. Participants were taken from the standardization sample of the NEPSY-II. Individuals with data on the NEPSY-II (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 2007) and the Math Calculation and Math Reasoning subtests of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Second Edition (WIAT-II; Wechsler, 2001) were included in the primary analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results showed that the model consisting of select NEPSY-II subtests used to create Geary\u27s three domains was a good fitting model. After creating domain scores for each participant, regression analyses were conducted in order to determine if Geary\u27s three subtypes accounted for a significant amount of variance in math reasoning and math calculation performance. Results showed that the Semantic subtype did not contribute a significant amount of variance to numerical operations performance when examined in isolation. Hierarchical regression analysis, which consisted of entering the Semantic domain first and then adding the Procedural and Visouspatial domains simultaneously, showed that the model did not account for any variance in numerical operations performance. When all three domains were entered simultaneously, the Visuospatial domain was the only domain to account for a significant amount of variance in numerical operations performance. In terms of math reasoning, the Semantic domain was the only one to account for a significant amount of variance. The results of the current study are discussed within the context of Geary\u27s theory and previous research related to Geary\u27s theory. Finally, limitations, directions for future research, and implications are considered

Randomized Comparison of Two Internet-Supported Fertility Awareness Based Methods of Family Planning

Background: The aim was to compare the efficacy and acceptability of two Internet-supported fertility-awareness-based methods of family planning. Study design: Six hundred and sixty-seven women and their male partners were randomized into either an electronic hormonal fertility monitor (EHFM) group or a cervical mucus monitoring (CMM) group. Both groups utilized a Web site with instructions, charts and support. Acceptability was assessed online at 1, 3 and 6 months. Pregnancy rates were determined by survival analysis. Results: The EHFM participants (N=197) had a total pregnancy rate of 7 per 100 users over 12 months of use compared with 18.5 for the CMM group (N=164). The log rank survival test showed a significant difference (pb.01) in survival functions. Mean acceptability for both groups increased significantly over time (pb.0001). Continuation rates at 12 months were 40.6% for the monitor group and 36.6% for the mucus group. Conclusion: In comparison with the CMM, the EHFM method of family planning was more effective. All users had an increase in acceptability over time. Results are tempered by the high dropout rate

From Being Known in the Classroom to “Moments of Meeting”: What Intersubjectivity offers Contemplative Pedagogy

Despite recent advances in psychological theory and research, often empirical knowledge of intersubjectivity is not incorporated into teaching. In this paper we suggest that using the intersubjective space of the classroom can provide students with experiences of being known and “moments of meeting” which can result in transformative learning. Using a conceptual framework, we explore why being known is a relevant concept in education and contemplative pedagogy, and highlight student perspectives and an example from our own teaching. We suggest that contemplative pedagogical activities are inherently intersubjective, thereby providing opportunities for being known and educational moments of meeting

Dealing With the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Defense Strategies Relate to Empathic Reactions During Lockdowns

The COVID-19 pandemic with its substantial changes to social life affects social cognitions, which are important for solidarity during a global crisis. We investigated how distal defense strategies for dealing with threat, perceived threat, and contact experiences relate to people’s empathic reactions during lockdowns in two countries. In three studies ( N = 1,332), we found that more experienced threat is associated with higher personal distress. In Germany, but not in the United Kingdom, people who applied social defenses reported more empathic concern. Additionally, general positive contact experiences related positively to empathic concern and perspective taking. These other-directed empathic reactions correlated highly with solidarity with others across all studies. The findings indicate that people’s empathy changes with their social experiences during this global crisis

A Review of Academic Literature on Internal Control Reporting Under SOX

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) mandates reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) by public company management and auditors. Such reporting began for fiscal years ended Nov 15, 2004 for accelerated filers and is scheduled to be fully implemented for non-accelerated filers in mid-2010. Section 404(a) of SOX requires public company management to include an assessment of the effectiveness of the company\u27s ICFR in its annual internal control report, and Section 404(b) requires attestation by the company\u27s auditor. The authors review the literature on internal control reporting under both Sections 302 and 404 in the post-SOX period. The internal control literature has grown substantially since the passage of SOX due to the availability of data regarding ICFR effectiveness that were not previously available. They conducted a literature search through mid-2009 resulting in the inclusion of many published papers and working papers that address ICFR issues covered in our taxonomy

A Comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms and Feature Sets for Automatic Vocal Emotion Recognition in Speech

Vocal emotion recognition (VER) in natural speech, often referred to as speech emotion recognition (SER), remains challenging for both humans and computers. Applied fields including clinical diagnosis and intervention, social interaction research or Human Computer Interaction (HCI) increasingly benefit from efficient VER algorithms. Several feature sets were used with machine-learning (ML) algorithms for discrete emotion classification. However, there is no consensus for which low-level-descriptors and classifiers are optimal. Therefore, we aimed to compare the performance of machine-learning algorithms with several different feature sets. Concretely, seven ML algorithms were compared on the Berlin Database of Emotional Speech: Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP), J48 Decision Tree (DT), Support Vector Machine with Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO), Random Forest (RF), k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Simple Logistic Regression (LOG) and Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) with 10-fold cross validation using four openSMILE feature sets (i.e., IS-09, emobase, GeMAPS and eGeMAPS). Results indicated that SMO, MLP and LOG show better performance (reaching to 87.85%, 84.00% and 83.74% accuracies, respectively) compared to RF, DT, MLR and KNN (with minimum 73.46%, 53.08%, 70.65% and 58.69% accuracies, respectively). Overall, the emobase feature set performed best. We discuss the implications of these findings for applications in diagnosis, intervention or HCI

Why Not Both: A Qualitative Analysis of Alternative Outcomes

Scientific thinking relies on consideration of alternative possible outcomes to research. We considered whether 1. engaging with psychological research results—some of which were surprising—in a learning phase transferred to consideration of alternative outcomes for a different set of research studies in a test phase, and 2. whether transfer was heightened by predicting results before learning the actual outcomes (foresight), as opposed to indicating what one would have predicted after learning the actual outcomes (hindsight). One indication of transfer would be decreased confidence in the outcome one believed to be true, but we did not observe this trend. However, we did see evidence of transfer for a subset of participants: No participants in the learning phase provided reasons for alternative outcomes, but a sizable minority of participants, across both hindsight and foresight groups, did so in the test phase. We will discuss what factors distinguish participants who showed transfer