Musicians have better memory than nonmusicians: A meta-analysis

Background Several studies have found that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks, but this is not always the case, and the strength of this apparent advantage is unknown. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis with the aim of clarifying whether musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Methods Education Source; PEP (WEB)\u2014Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing; Psychology and Behavioral Science (EBSCO); PsycINFO (Ovid); PubMed; ScienceDirect\u2014AllBooks Content (Elsevier API); SCOPUS (Elsevier API); SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO) and Google Scholar were searched for eligible studies. The selected studies involved two groups of participants: young adult musicians and nonmusicians. All the studies included memory tasks (loading long-term, short-term or working memory) that contained tonal, verbal or visuospatial stimuli. Three meta-analyses were run separately for long-term memory, short-term memory and working memory. Results We collected 29 studies, including 53 memory tasks. The results showed that musicians performed better than nonmusicians in terms of long-term memory, g = .29, 95% CI (.08\u2013.51), short-term memory, g = .57, 95% CI (.41\u2013.73), and working memory, g = .56, 95% CI (.33\u2013.80). To further explore the data, we included a moderator (the type of stimulus presented, i.e., tonal, verbal or visuospatial), which was found to influence the effect size for short-term and working memory, but not for long-term memory. In terms of short-term and working memory, the musicians\u2019 advantage was large with tonal stimuli, moderate with verbal stimuli, and small or null with visuospatial stimuli. Conclusions The three meta-analyses revealed a small effect size for long-term memory, and a medium effect size for short-term and working memory, suggesting that musicians perform better than nonmusicians in memory tasks. Moreover, the effect of the moderator suggested that, the type of stimuli influences this advantage

Dyadic adjustment and parenting stress in internationally adoptive mothers and fathers: the mediating role of adult attachment dimensions.

Previous research has shown that a positive marital functioning represents a resource in adoptive families, leading to a decrease in parenting stress, but little is known about the factors mediating such a relationship. This study aimed to explore whether adult attachment avoidance and anxiety mediate the effect of dyadic functioning on parenting stress in 90 internationally adoptive couples (mothers and fathers) who had adopted a child (aged 3–10 years) in the last 36 months. Participants completed self-report measures of dyadic adjustment, adult attachment, and parenting stress. A series of path analyses supported the mediation hypothesis, but differentially for mothers and fathers. Among mothers, there was a direct and negative relationship between dyadic adjustment and parenting stress. In addition, a better dyadic adjustment was related to lower levels of attachment anxiety, which in turn were associated with less parenting stress. Among fathers, increased dyadic adjustment was related to lower levels of attachment avoidance, which in turn were associated with reduced parenting stress. These findings suggest the importance of including both mothers and fathers in adoption research. Adoptive parents could benefit from specific interventions aimed at reducing attachment avoidance and anxiety by supporting parental sense of competence and involvement for mothers and fathers, respectively

influence.SEM: Case Influence in Structural Equation Models.

influence.SEM provides a set of tools for evaluating several measures of case influence for Structural Equation Models following the approach of Pek and MacCallum (2011)

Little statisticians grow up: Exploring the concept of variability in young children

LITTLE STATISTICIANS GROW UP: EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF VARIA BILITY IN YOUNG CHILDREN Gianmarco Alto\ue8 and Franca Agnoli Universit\ue0 degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy [email protected] Variability is a central concept in statistic al reasoning. Indeed, a major goal of most introductory statistics courses is to help student s understand and be aware of the omnipresence of variability and the quantification and explanation of variability (Cobb, 1992). However, in curriculum design and in statistics education r esearch, variability has not been given enough attention (Reading & Shaughnessy, 2004). Despite the widespread belief in the importa nce of this concept, only recently have educational researchers devoted their attention to the study of how reasoning about variability develops (Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2005). Current resear ch on the concept of statistical variation has mainly focused on high school and college students (e.g., del Mas & Liu, 2005). These studies demonstrate that it is extremely difficult for students with statistical training \u2013 and even for their teachers - to reason about variability. However, little is known about the understanding of statistical variability in young children. The main aim of this study is to explore intuitive ideas about variability in 4-6-year old children using a quantity judgment task. Specifi cally, we assessed whether children\u2019s responses were affected by increasing levels of stimulus va riability. In addition, we investigated the role of age and numerical skills in children\u2019s performance. Participants included 110 children (49% boys) aged 4-6 years recruited in two kindergartens and a primary school in Northern It aly. Children were individually assessed using a computerized task in which they were asked to co mpare two sets of chocolate bars. In the first set, the mean and standard deviation of the chocolate bars were held constant; in the second set, both were manipulated. A standardized test of numerical ability was also administered. The key findings were: 1) Children\u2019s perform ance was affected by stimulus variability following a non-monotonic trend. Increasing levels of variability were associated with a decrease in correct responses, but very low levels of variability (i.e., close to 0) were also unexpectedly related to a decrease in response accuracy; 2) Children\u2019 s performance significantly increased with age following a linear trend; in addition, marked inte r-individual differences were found; 3) Statistical and numerical skills were only moderately intercorrelated. Overall, these results suggest that young child ren have an intuitive idea of the concept of variability. The reasoning processes underlying this concept are complex and need to be further investigated. The next steps will be to replicat e this study among children and young adults to analyze the characteristics of st atistical reasoning about variability across different age groups. In our opinion, understanding how children\u2019s concept of variability develops is necessary to implement efficient teaching strategies in multiple educational settings. REFERENCES Cobb, G. W. (1992). Report of the joint AS A/MAA committee on undergraduate statistics. In the American Statistical Association 1992 proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education , (pp. 281\u2013283). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association. delMas, R. C., & Liu, Y. (2005). Exploring stude nts\u2019 conceptions of the standard deviation. Statistics Education Research Journal , 4 (1), 55\u201382. Garfield, J., & Ben-Zvi, D. (2005). A frame work for teaching and assessing reasoning about variability. Statistics Education Research Journal, 4(1) , 92\u201399. Reading, C., & Shaughnessy, J. M. (2004). Reas oning about variation. In D. Ben-Zvi & J. Garfield (Eds.), The challenge of developing statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking (pp. 201\u2013 226). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers