Effets directs et indirects de l'utilisation multitâche du portable en classe en enseignement supérieur

Basé sur une recherche en deux volets menée auprès d’étudiants du premier cycle universitaire, l’article proposé par Tina Weston, Faria Sana et Melody Wiseheart touche l’utilisation des ordinateurs portables dans les salles de classe en enseignement supérieur. L’utilisation « en mode multitâche » de ces appareils peut avoir des conséquences négatives non seulement sur l’apprentissage des étudiants qui les utilisent au premier chef, mais aussi sur celui des étudiants environnants, pour qui l’ordinateur portable peut aussi être une source de distractions. Pour encourager les étudiants à rester axés uniquement sur la tâche en classe, le professeur peut par exemple incorporer des méthodes d’apprentissage en ligne

Component processes in task switching: cue switch costs are dependent on a mixed block of trials

People are slower when shifting than repeating tasks (switch cost). A considerable portion of the switch cost is due to the possibility of a shift in a mixed block where switches are possible (mixing cost), and to processing a cue that signals a task change (cue switch cost). We use an online sample (n = 12,533) and double cuing paradigm to examine the independent and interactive effects of cue switch costs and mixing costs. All effects were significant, with medium effects for cue changes (ηp2 = 0.06) and task changes (ηp2 = 0.10), a large effect for block context (ηp2 = 0.37), and a small block by cue interaction (ηp2 = 0.04) indicating that the role of the cue depends on the possibility of a switch. These findings offer empirical completeness by measuring the cue change in both blocks of a switching paradigm. The integrative approach quantifies how separable empirical components contribute to the overall switch cost

Community Engagement and Applied Research: Creating Sustainable Solutions for Improved Water Quality and Agricultural Development in Kapeeka, Uganda

The COVE Alliance Project is an international service-learning course sponsored by the Learning in Community (LINC) program in conjunction with COVE Alliance USA, a nongovernmental organization that seeks to promote childrens outreach and vocational education to orphaned youth in Kapeeka, Uganda. Over the course of multiple semesters, the LINC program has collaborated with COVE Alliance to research and develop innovative and sustainable solutions to several core needs. Research has been conducted in creating sustainable solutions for providing clean and accessible water to the COVE campus to counteract acute water-borne illness. Research was conducted into the implementation of biosand biological filtration systems to improve water quality on the campus and collaborative efforts were made with local community and organization members to educate and build the biosand units on the campus. Current research efforts are focused upon developing and implementing water quality testing and qualitative and quantitative data analysis in regards to the effectiveness of these biosand units on the campus in reducing water-borne pathogen infections in the children on campus. In addition, the organization owns an underutilized parcel of land and research was conducted into terrain assessment, soil quality testing, and possible uses for the land including implementation of sustainable agriculture initiatives that could provide the community with access to a stable food source and potential income-generating opportunities. Through the LINC COVE Alliance Project, students from a plethora of distinct academic backgrounds were able to cohesively work together to create innovative and sustainable solutions to real world problems on an international scale.Ope

Multilingualism and metacognitive processing

This chapter critically reviews evidence for overlap and divergence in the neural and psychological basis of metacognition and executive function. It considers the implications for current debate on the proposed cognitive advantages associated with the acquisition and regular use of two or more languages. The chapter focuses on the relationship between executive function and metacognitive abilities, and also considers whether and how multilingualism might impact upon them. Metacognitive awareness is often quantified via confidence judgements in relation to a specific measure of cognitive task performance, such as accuracy or error rate. Whatever the nature of the cortical and subcortical developmental effects of multi-language acquisition, converging evidence is emerging that multilingualism impacts on a broad, distributed network of brain regions, including both primary language and domain general/nonverbal processing sites involved in the emotional regulation and higher-level cognitive control

Bidialectalism and bilingualism: Exploring the role of language similarity as a link between linguistic ability and executive control

The notion of bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF) is based on the assumption that the demands posed by cross-language interference serve as EF training. These training effects should be more pronounced the more cross-language interference bilinguals have to overcome when managing their two languages. In the present study, we investigated the proposed link between linguistic and EF performance using the similarity between the two languages spoken since childhood as a proxy for different levels of cross-language interference. We assessed the effect of linearly increasing language dissimilarity on linguistic and EF performance in multiple tasks in four groups of young adults (aged 18–33): German monolinguals (n = 24), bidialectals (n = 25; German and Swiss German dialect), bilinguals speaking two languages of the same Indo-European ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-English), or bilinguals speaking two languages of different ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-Turkish). Bayesian linear-mixed effects modeling revealed substantial evidence for a linear effect of language similarity on linguistic accuracy, with better performance for participants with more similar languages and monolinguals. However, we did not obtain evidence for the presence of a similarity effect on EF performance. Furthermore, language experience did not modulate EF performance, even when testing the effect of continuous indicators of bilingualism (e.g., age of acquisition, proficiency, daily foreign language usage). These findings question the theoretical assumption that life-long experience in managing cross-language interference serves as EF training

Myelination is associated with processing speed in early childhood:preliminary insights

Processing speed is an important contributor to working memory performance and fluid intelligence in young children. Myelinated white matter plays a central role in brain messaging, and likely mediates processing speed, but little is known about the relationship between myelination and processing speed in young children. In the present study, processing speed was measured through inspection times, and myelin volume fraction (VFM) was quantified using a multicomponent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach in 2- to 5-years of age. Both inspection times and VFM were found to increase with age. Greater VFM in the right and left occipital lobes, the body of the corpus callosum, and the right cerebellum was significantly associated with shorter inspection times, after controlling for age. A hierarchical regression showed that VFM in the left occipital lobe predicted inspection times over and beyond the effects of age and the VFM in the other brain regions. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that myelin supports processing speed in early childhood