Psychological characteristics of children with visual impairments: learning, memory and imagery

The performance of children (and sometimes adults) with visual impairments (VI) on a range of tasks that reflect learning, memory and mental imagery is considered in this article. Sometimes the evidence suggests that there are impairments in performance in comparison with typically developing children with vision and sometimes some advantages emerge. The author’s aim is to describe some of her own and others’ findings and explore what they tell us about the cognitive characteristics of such children, so that progress with practical interventions can be advanced through understanding. The article starts by focusing on social-cognitive development and in particular considers the potential benefits of language in that development. This is followed by a review of some studies of learning and memory performance which provide a coherent picture of development without vision and finally ends with a consideration of spatial mental imagery

Remembering the past and imagining the future: A role for nonvisual imagery in the everyday cognition of the blind and the sighted

Images can be generated in all sensory modalities. Nevertheless, research on the everyday use of mental imagery, for example in autobiographical memory tasks, has suggested that it is only visual images that facilitate memory retrieval (e.g., Williams, Healy, & Ellis, 1999). If this is the case, individuals born without sight may be forced to rely more on verbal encoding (Goddard & Pring, 2001). This paper explores the presence and everyday role of nonvisual sensory imagery in 16 individuals with and 16 without sight. Using a cue word paradigm, contrary to previous research, Experiment 1 suggested that for both blind and sighted people, nonvisual imageries have a significant role to play in the generation of autobiographical memories. These results were reinforced by similar findings in Experiment 2, which used the same cue word method to explore the role of visual and nonvisual (auditory) imagery when generating future events. The results refute the claim that “useful” imagery in everyday tasks is exclusively visual

‘Soft’ phonon modes,structured diffuse scattering and the crystal chemistry of Fe-bearing sphalerites

Electron diffraction has been used to carefully investigate the reciprocal lattices of a range of iron-bearing sphalerites looking for evidence of Fe clustering and/or Fe/Zn ordering in the form of either additional satellite reflections or a structured diffuse intensity distribution accompanying the strong Bragg reflections of the underlying sphalerite-type average structure. While a highly structured diffuse intensity distribution in the form of transverse polarized f110g sheets of diffuse intensity has been detected and found to be characteristic of all compositions,it does not appear to arise from Fe clustering and/or Fe/Zn ordering. Rather inherently low frequency,and therefore strongly thermally excited,phonon modes propagating along reciprocal space directions perpendicular to each of the six /110S real space directions of the average structure are suggested to be responsible for these f110g sheets of diffuse intensity. Monte Carlo simulation (for a range of Zn–S,Zn–Zn and S–S interaction strengths) and subsequent Fourier transformation is used to confirm the existence of these low-frequency phonon modes of distortion as well as to show that they are an intrinsic,predictable property of the corner-connected tetrahedral structure of sphalerite. The low-frequency phonon modes involve coupled (Zn,Fe) and S motion in one-dimensional strings along /110S real space directions

Effectiveness of vocabulary intervention for older children with (developmental) language disorder

BACKGROUND: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) frequently have difficulties with word learning and understanding vocabulary. For these children, this can significantly impact on social interactions, daily activities and academic progress. Although there is literature providing a rationale for targeting word learning in such children, there is little evidence for the effectiveness of specific interventions in this area for children with identified DLD. AIMS: To establish whether direct one-to-one intervention for children with DLD over 9 years of age leads to improved abilities to identify, comprehend, define, and use nouns and verbs targeted in intervention as compared with non-targeted control items and whether or not the participants’ rating of their own knowledge of the words changes with intervention. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty-five children and young people with language disorder (aged 9;4–16;1) participated in the study: 18 with DLD and seven with a language disorder associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two assessments of different levels were created: a higher ability (less frequent words) and a lower ability (more frequent words). Participants’ speech and language therapists (SLTs) decided which level would be the most appropriate for each participant. Four tasks were carried out as part of the assessment and the scores were used to identify which words each participant worked on. Participants received one 30-min session per week one-to-one with their own SLT for 7 weeks, plus a 5-min revision session in between each main session. During each of the first five sessions, participants learned two new words; the two final sessions were spent revising the 10 words which had been targeted. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Post-intervention assessment showed an increase in scores for both treated and control words. However, progress on treated words was significantly greater than on control words (d = 1.07), indicating effectiveness of intervention. The difference between progress on targeted and control words was found both for nouns (d = 1.29) and verbs (d = 0.64), but the effect size was larger for nouns. Whether or not the participants had an associated ASD did not affect the results. The children's self-rating of their knowledge of the targeted words was also significantly higher than for control words post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The intervention delivered one-to-one by the participants’ usual SLT was effective in teaching new vocabulary to older children with language disorders. This shows that older children with language disorders can make progress with direct one-to-one intervention focused on vocabulary

Micron- to nano-scale intergrowths among members of the cuprobismutite series and paderaite: HRTEM and microanalytical evidence

Copyright © 2004 The Mineralogical SocietyCoherent intergrowths, at the lattice scale, between cuprobismutite (N = 2) and structurally related padraite along both major axes (15 Åand 17 Årepeats) of the two minerals are reported within skarn from Ocna de Fier, Romania. The structural subunit, DTD, 3 layers of padraite, is involved at interfaces of the two minerals along the 15 Årepeat, as well as in transposition of 1 padraite unit to 2 cuprobismutite units along the 17 Årepeat in slip defects. Lattice images obtained by HRTEM across intervals of 200 -400 nm show short- to long-range stacking sequences of cuprobismutite and padraite ribbons. Such nanoscale slabs mimic µm-scale intergrowths observed in back-scattered electron images at three orders of magnitude greater. These slabs are compositionally equivalent to intermediaries in the cuprobismutite-padraite range encountered during microanalysis. Hodrushite (N = 1.5) is identified in the µm-scale intergrowths, but its absence in the lattice images indicates that, in this case, formation of polysomes between structurally related phases is favoured instead of stacking disorder among cuprobismutite homologues. The tendency for short-range ordering and semi-periodic occurrence of polysomes suggests they are the result of an oscillatory chemical signal with periodicity varying from one to three repeats of 15 Å, rather than simple 'accidents' or irregular structural defects. Lead distribution along the polysomes is modelled as an output signal modulated by the periodicity of stacking sequences, with Pb carried within the D units of padraite. This type of modulator acts as a patterning operator activated by chemical waves with amplitudes that encompass the chemical difference between the minerals. Conversion of the padraite structural subunit DTD to the C unit of cuprobismutite, conserving interval width, emphasizes that polysomatic modularity also assists interference of chemical signals with opposite amplitudes. Observed coarsening of lattice-scale intergrowths up to the µm-scale implies coupling between diffusion-controlled structural modulation, and rhythmic precipitation at the skarn front during crystallization.C.L. Ciobanu, A. Pring and N.J. Coo

“TOT” phenomena: Gesture production in younger and older adults

This study explored age-related changes in gesture in order to better understand the relationship between gesture and word retrieval from memory. The frequency of gestures during “Tip-of-the-Tongue” (TOT) states highlights this relationship. There is a lack of evidence describing the form and content of iconic gestures arising spontaneously in such TOT states, and a parallel gap addressing age-related variations. In this study, TOT states were induced in 45 participants from two age groups (older and younger adults) using a pseudoword paradigm. The type and frequency of gestures produced was recorded during two experimental conditions (single-word retrieval/ narrative task). We found that both groups experienced a high number of TOT states, during which they gestured. Iconic co-TOT gestures were more common than non-iconic gestures. Whilst there was no age-effect on the type of gestures produced, there was a significant, task-specific, age difference in the amount of gesturing. That is, younger adults gestured more in the narrative task, whereas older adults generated more gestures on the single-word retrieval task. Task-specific age differences suggest that there are age-related differences in terms of the cognitive operations involved in TOT gesture production

Composition-induced structural phase transitions in the (Ba1xLax)2In2O5+x (0pxp0.6) system

Composition-induced structural phase changes across the high temperature, fast oxide ion conducting (Ba1xLax)2In2O5+x, 0pxp0.6, system have been carefully analysed using hard mode infrared (IR) powder absorption spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and electron diffraction. An orthorhombic brownmillerite to three-dimensionally disordered cubic perovskite phase transition in this system is signalled by a drastic change in slope of both wavenumber and average line widths of IR spectra as a function of composition. Some evidence is found for the existence of an intermediate tetragonal phase (previously reported to exist from electron diffraction data) around x 0:2: The new spectroscopic data have been used to compare microscopic and macroscopic strain parameters arising from variation in composition. The strain and spectroscopic data are consistent with firstorder character for the tetragonal-orthorhombic transition, while the cubic-tetragonal transition could be continuous. Differences between the variation with composition of spectral parameters and of macroscopic strain parameters are consistent with a substantial order/disorder component for the transitions. There is also evidence for precursor effects within the cubic structure before symmetry is broken

‘Dead people don’t claim’: A psychopolitical autopsy of UK austerity suicides

One of the symptoms of post financial crisis austerity in the UK has been an increase in the numbers of suicides, especially by people who have experienced welfare reform. This article develops and utilises an analytic framework of psychopolitical autopsy to explore media coverage of ‘austerity suicide’ and to take seriously the psychic life of austerity (internalisation, shame, anxiety), embedding it in a context of social dis-ease. Drawing on three distinct yet interrelated areas of literature (the politics of affect and psychosocial dynamics of welfare, post and anti-colonial psychopolitics, and critical suicidology), the article aims to better understand how austerity ‘kills’. Key findings include understanding austerity suicides as embedded within an affective economy of the anxiety caused by punitive welfare retrenchment, the stigmatisation of being a recipient of benefits, and the internalisation of market logic that assigns value through ‘productivity’ and conceptualises welfare entitlement as economic ‘burden’. The significance of this approach lies in its ability to widen analytic framing of suicide from an individual and psychocentric focus, to illuminate culpability of government reforms while still retaining the complexity of suicide, and thus to provide relevant policy insights about welfare reform

Melody and pitch processing in five musical savants with congenital blindness

Abstract. We examined absolute-pitch (AP) and short-term musical memory abilities of five musical savants with congenital blindness, seven musicians, and seven non-musicians with good vision and normal intelligence in two experiments. In the first, short-term memory for musical phrases was tested and the savants and musicians performed statistically indistinguishably, both signifi- cantly outperforming the non-musicians and remembering more material from the C major scale sequences than random trials. In the second experiment, participants learnt associations between four pitches and four objects using a non-verbal paradigm. This experiment approximates to testing AP ability. Low statistical power meant the savants were not statistically better than the musicians, although only the savants scored statistically higher than the non-musicians. The results are evidence for a musical module, separate from general intelligence; they also support the anecdotal reporting of AP in musical savants, which is thought to be necessary for the development of musical-savant skill

Connecting does not necessarily mean learning: Course handbooks as mediating tools in school-university partnerships

This is the author's accepted manuscript (titled "Course handbooks as mediating tools in learning to teach"). The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.Partnerships between schools and universities in England use course handbooks to guide student teacher learning during long field experiences. Using data from a yearlong ethnographic study of a postgraduate certificate of education programme in one English university, the function of course handbooks in mediating learning in two high school subject departments (history and modern foreign languages) is analyzed. Informed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory, the analysis focuses on the handbooks as mediating tools in the school-based teacher education activity systems. Qualitative differences in the mediating functions of the handbooks-in-use are examined and this leads to a consideration of the potential of such tools for teacher learning in school–university partnerships. Following Zeichner’s call for rethinking the relationships between schools and universities, the article argues that strong structural connections between different institutional sites do not necessarily enhance student teacher learning