Sex differences in the association of math achievement with visual-spatial and verbal working memory: Does the type of math test matter?

Previous research on sex differences in mathematical achievement shows mixed findings, which have been argued to depend on types of math tests used and the type of solution strategies (i.e., verbal versus visual-spatial) these tests evoke. The current study evaluated sex differences in (a) performance (development) on two types of math tests in primary schools and (b) the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory on math achievement. Children (N = 3175) from grades 2 through five participated. Visual-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed using online computerized tasks. Math performance was assessed five times during two school years using a speeded arithmetic test (math fluency) and a word problem test (math problem solving). Results from Multilevel Multigroup Latent Growth Modeling, showed that sex differences in level and growth of math performance were mixed and very small. Sex differences in the predictive value of verbal and visual-spatial working memory for math performance suggested that boys seemed to rely more on verbal strategies than girls. Explanations focus on cognitive and emotional factors and how these may interact to possibly amplify sex differences as children grow older

Prepulse Inhibition and P50 Suppression in Relation to Creativity and Attention: Dispersed Attention Beneficial to Quantitative but Not Qualitative Measures of Divergent Thinking

The current study investigated whether lower sensory and sensorimotor gating were related to higher levels of creativity and/or attentional difficulties in a natural population of primary school children (9- to 13-year-old). Gating abilities were measured with P50 suppression and prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex (PPI). The final sample included 65 participants in the P50 analyses and 37 participants in the PPI analyses. Our results showed that children with a high P50 amplitude to testing stimuli scored significantly higher on the divergent outcome measures of fluency and flexibility but not originality compared to children with a lower amplitude. No significant differences were found on any of the creativity measures when the sample was split on average PPI parameters. No significant differences in attention, as measured with a parent questionnaire, were found between children with low or high levels of sensory or sensorimotor gating. The data suggest that quantitative, but not qualitative measures of divergent thinking benefit from lower psychophysiological gating and that attentional difficulties stem from specific instead of general gating deficits. Future studies should take the effect of controlled attention into consideration

Twilight ascents by common swifts, Apus apus, at dawn and dusk: acquisition of orientation cues?

Common swifts are specialist flyers spending most of their life aloft, including night-time periods when this species roosts on the wing. Nocturnal roosting is preceded by a vertical ascent in twilight conditions towards altitudes of up to 2.5 km, behaviour previously explained as flight altitude selection for sleeping. We examined the nocturnal flight behaviour of swifts, as uniquely identified by a Doppler weather radar in central Netherlands using continuous measurements during two consecutive breeding seasons. Common swifts performed twilight ascents not only at dusk but also at dawn, which casts new light on the purpose of these ascents. Dusk and dawn ascents were mirror images of each other when time-referenced to the moment of sunset and sunrise, suggesting that the acquisition of twilight-specific light-based cues plays an important role in the progression of the ascents. Ascent height was well explained by the altitude of the 280 K isotherm, and was not significantly related to wind, cloud base height, humidity or the presence of nocturnal insects. We hypothesize that swifts profile the state of the atmospheric boundary layer during twilight ascents and/or attempt to maximize their perceptual range for visual access to distant horizontal landmarks, including surrounding weather. We compare twilight profiling by swifts with vertical twilight movements observed in other taxa, proposed to be related to orientation and navigation. (C) 2012 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved