The Role of executive function in children\u27s source monitoring with varying retrieval strategies

Previous research on the relationship between executive function and source monitoring in young children has been inconclusive, with studies finding conflicting results about whether working memory and inhibitory control are related to source-monitoring ability. In this study, the role of working memory and inhibitory control in recognition memory and source monitoring with two different retrieval strategies were examined. Children (N = 263) aged 4–8 participated in science activities with two sources. They were later given a recognition and source-monitoring test, and completed measures of working memory and inhibitory control. During the source-monitoring test, half of the participants were asked about sources serially (one after the other) whereas the other half of the children were asked about sources in parallel (considering both sources simultaneously). Results demonstrated that working memory was a predictor of source-monitoring accuracy in both conditions, but inhibitory control was only related to source accuracy in the parallel condition. When age was controlled these relationships were no longer significant, suggesting that a more general cognitive development factor is a stronger predictor of source monitoring than executive function alone. Interestingly, the children aged 4–6 years made more accurate source decisions in the parallel condition than in the serial condition. The older children (aged 7–8) were overall more accurate than the younger children, and their accuracy did not differ as a function of interview condition. Suggestions are provided to guide further research in this area that will clarify the diverse results of previous studies examining whether executive function is a cognitive prerequisite for effective source monitoring

Open-source digital technologies for low-cost monitoring of historical constructions

This paper shows new possibilities of using novel, open-source, low-cost platforms for the structural health monitoring of heritage structures. The objective of the study is to present an assessment of increasingly available open-source digital modeling and fabrication technologies in order to identify the suitable counterparts of the typical components of a continuous static monitoring system for a historical construction. The results of the research include a simple case-study, which is presented with low-cost, open-source, calibrated components, as well as an assessment of different alternatives for deploying basic structural health monitoring arrangements. The results of the research show the great potential of these existing technologies that may help to promote a widespread and cost-efficient monitoring of the built cultural heritage. Such scenario may contribute to the onset of commonplace digital records of historical constructions in an open-source, versatile and reliable fashion.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Binding an event to its source at encoding improves children\u27s source monitoring

Children learn information from a variety of sources and often remember the content but forget the source. While the majority of research has focused on retrieval mechanisms for such difficulties, the present investigation examines whether the way in which sources are encoded influences future source monitoring. In Study 1, 86 children aged 3 to 8 years participated in two photography sessions on different days. Children were randomly assigned to either the Difference condition (they were asked to pay attention to differences between the two events), the Memory control condition (asked to pay attention with no reference to differences), or the No-Instruction control (no special instructions were given). One week later, during a structured interview about the photography session, the 3-4 year-olds in the No-Instruction condition were less accurate and responded more often with \u27don\u27t know\u27 than the 7-8 year-olds. However, the older children in the Difference condition made more source confusions than the younger children suggesting improved memory for content but not source. In Study 2, the Difference condition was replaced by a Difference-Tag condition where details were pointed out along with their source (i.e., tagging source to content). Ninety-four children aged 3 to 8 years participated. Children in the Difference-Tag condition made fewer source-monitoring errors than children in the Control condition. The results of these two studies together suggest that binding processes at encoding can lead to better source discrimination of experienced events at retrieval and may underlie the rapid development of source monitoring in this age range

Combining multi-source information for crop monitoring

Time series of optical satellite images acquired at high spatial resolution constitute an important source of information for crop monitoring, in particular for keeping track of crop harvest. However, the quantity of information extracted from this source is often restricted by acquisition gaps and uncertainty of radiometric values. This paper presents a novel approach that addresses this issue by combining time series of satellite images with other information from crop modeling and expert knowledge. An application for sugarcane harvest detection on Reunion Island using a SPOT5 time series is detailed. In a fuzzy framework, an expert system was designed and developed to combine multi-source information and to make decisions. This expert system was assessed for two sugarcane farms. Results obtained were in substantial agreement with ground truth data; the overall accuracy reached 96.07%. (Résumé d'auteur

Optical monitoring of gamma-ray source fields

The three gamma-ray burst source fields GBS1028+46, GBS1205+24, and GBS2252-03 have been monitored for transient optical emission for a combined total of 52 hours. No optical events were seen. The limiting magnitude for the search was M sub V = 15.8 longer and M sub V = 17.0 for 6.0 s or longer

Monitoring in educational development projects : the development of a monitoring system

Monitoring in education is usually focused on the monitoring of educational systems at different levels. Monitoring of educational projects receives only recently explicit attention. The paper discusses first the concepts of educational monitoring and evaluation. After that, the experience with developing a monitoring system in an educational development project is described as a case. These experiences, in combination with literature on project monitoring in other contexts, provide a rich source of ideas, lessons learned, and problems to avoid in designing project monitoring

A small source in Q2237+0305 ?

Microlensing in Q2237+0305 between 1985 and 1995 (eg. Irwin et al. 1989; Corrigan et al. 1991; Ostensen et al. 1996) has been interpreted in two different ways; as microlensing by stellar mass objects of a continuum source having dimensions significantly smaller than the microlens Einstein radius (ER) (eg. Wambsganss, Paczynski & Schneider 1990; Rauch & Blandford 1991), and as microlensing by very low mass objects of a source as large as 5 ER (Refsdal & Stabell 1993; Haugan 1996). In this paper we present evidence in favour of a small source. Limits on the source size (in units of ER) are obtained from the combination of limits on the number of microlens Einstein radii crossed by the source during the monitoring period with two separate light-curve features. Firstly, recently published monitoring data (Wozniak et al. 2000; OGLE web page) show large variations (~0.8-1.5 magnitudes) between image brightnesses over a period of 700 days or ~15% of the monitoring period. Secondly, the 1988 peak in the image A light-curve had a duration that is a small fraction (<0.02) of the monitoring period. Such rapid microlensing rises and short microlensing peaks only occur for small sources. We find that the observed large-rapid variation limits the source size to be <0.2 ER (95% confidence). The width of the light-curve peak provides a stronger constraint of <0.02 ER (99% confidence). The Einstein radius (projected into the source plane) of the average microlens mass (m) in Q2237+0305 is ER ~ 10^{17}\sqrt{m} cm. The interpretation that stars are responsible for microlensing in Q2237+0305 therefore results in limits on the continuum source size that are consistent with current accretion disc theory.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in M.N.R.A.

Source monitoring and memory confidence in schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The present study attempted to extend previous research on source monitoring deficits in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that patients would show a bias to attribute self-generated words to an external source. Furthermore, it was expected that schizophrenic patients would be overconfident regarding false memory attributions. METHOD: Thirty schizophrenic and 21 healthy participants were instructed to provide a semantic association for 20 words. Subsequently, a list was read containing experimenter- and self-generated words as well as new words. The subject was required to identify each item as old/new, name the source. and state the degree of confidence for the source attribution. RESULTS: Schizophrenic patients displayed a significantly increased number of source attribution errors and were significantly more confident than controls that a false source attribution response was true. The latter bias was ameliorated by higher doses of neuroleptics. CONCLUSIONS: It is inferred that a core cognitive deficit underlying schizophrenia is a failure to distinguish false from true mnestic contents