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Few studies have investigated children's responses to television alcohol advertising. Two separate studies evaluated the appeal of alcohol advertisements on children aged 7-10. An exploratory interview study (N=17) was carried out to assess children's verbal responses to both alcohol and non-alcohol advertisements and to elicit vocabulary to be used in the second study. Whilst the 7-8 years old children were very positive about the alcohol advertisements, older children did not like them, nor did they perceive them to be effective. The second study was designed to assess children's implicit knowledge, in view of developmental theory that knowledge is not always available for verbal report. This study (N=179) used a simple categorization programme on computer. Using this methodology, children of all ages liked the alcohol advertisements and perceived them as effective. Advertising styles affected popularity with humour, cartoon format or the inclusion of an animal, or character increasing the appeal of an advertisement. The discussion draws attention to the importance of multiple methodologies in eliciting valid and accurate information from children, and to policy matters with regard to alcohol advertising regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hebb repetition learning (HRL) refers to neurodevelopmental processes characterised by repeated stimulus exposure without feedback, which result in changes in behaviour and/or responses, e.g., long-term learning of serial order. Here, we investigate effects of HRL on serial order memory. The present research aimed to assess the reliability of new HRL measures and investigate their relationships with language and reading skills (vocabulary, grammar, word reading) in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). A comparison group of children of similar mental age with typical development (TD) was also assessed. ID and TD groups were tested on HRL tasks, evaluating test-retest and split-half reliability. The relationship between HRL and language and reading was analysed after accounting for the influence of mental age and verbal short-term memory. The HRL tasks displayed moderate test-retest (and split-half) reliability, HRL tasks with different stimuli (verbal, visual) were related, and we identified issues with one method of HRL scoring. The planned regression analyses failed to show relationships between HRL and language/reading skills in both groups when mental age, a very strong predictor, was included. However, further exploratory regression analyses without mental age revealed HRL's predictive capabilities for vocabulary in the ID group and reading in the TD group, results which need further investigation and replication. HRL displays promise as a moderately reliable metric and exhibits varied and interpretable predictive capabilities for language and reading skills across groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Hebb repetition learning is a form of long-term serial order learning that can occur when sequences of items in an immediate serial recall task are repeated. Repetition improves performance because of the gradual integration of serial order information from short-term memory into a more stable long-term memory trace., Aims: The current study assessed whether adolescents with non-specific intellectual disabilities showed Hebb repetition effects, and if their magnitude was equivalent to those of children with typical development, matched for mental age., Methods: Two immediate serial recall Hebb repetition learning tasks using verbal and visuospatial materials were presented to 47 adolescents with intellectual disabilities (11-15 years) and 47 individually mental age-matched children with typical development (4-10 years)., Results: Both groups showed Hebb repetition learning effects of similar magnitude, albeit with some reservations. Evidence for Hebb repetition learning was found for both verbal and visuospatial materials; for our measure of Hebb learning the effects were larger for verbal than visuospatial materials., Conclusions: The findings suggested that adolescents with intellectual disabilities may show implicit long-term serial-order learning broadly commensurate with mental age level. The benefits of using repetition in educational contexts for adolescents with intellectual disabilities are considered., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Recent research has suggested that working-memory training interventions may benefit children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The current study investigated a short and engaging adaptive working-memory intervention that targeted executive skills and aimed to improve both language comprehension and working-memory abilities in children with DLD. Forty-seven 6- to 10-year-old children with DLD were randomly allocated to an executive working-memory training intervention ( n = 24) or an active control group ( n = 23). A pre-test/intervention/post-test/9-month-follow-up design was used. Outcome measures included assessments of language (to evaluate far transfer of the training) and working memory (to evaluate near transfer of the training). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses controlling for pre-intervention performance and age found the group to be a significant predictor of sentence comprehension and of performance on six untrained working-memory measures at post-intervention and 9-month follow-up. Children in the intervention group showed significantly higher language comprehension and working-memory scores at both time points than children in the active control group. The intervention programme showed the potential to improve working memory and language comprehension in children with DLD and demonstrated several advantages: it involved short sessions over a short period, caused little disruption in the school day, and was enjoyed by children.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the impacts of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and recent (< 12 months) hamstring strain injury (HSI) on (1) future HSI risk, and (2) eccentric knee flexor strength and between-limb imbalance during the Nordic hamstring exercise. A secondary goal was to examine whether eccentric knee flexor strength was a risk factor for future HSI in athletes with prior ACLR and/or HSI., Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 531 male athletes had preseason eccentric knee flexor strength tests. Injury history was also collected. The main outcome was HSI occurrence in the subsequent competitive season., Results: Overall, 74 athletes suffered at least one prospective HSI. Compared with control athletes, those with a lifetime history of ACLR and no recent HSI had 2.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-4.4; p = 0.029) times greater odds of subsequent HSI while those with at least one HSI in the previous 12 months and no history of ACLR had 3.1 (95% CI 1.8-5.4; p < 0.001) times greater odds for subsequent HSI. Only athletes with a combined history of ACLR and recent HSI had weaker injured limbs (p = 0.001) and larger between-limb imbalances (p < 0.001) than uninjured players. An exploratory decision tree analysis suggested eccentric strength may protect against HSI after ACLR., Conclusion: ACLR and recent HSI were similarly predictive of future HSI. Lower levels of eccentric knee flexor strength and larger between-limb imbalances were found in athletes with combined histories of ACLR and recent HSI. These findings may have implications for injury rehabilitation., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Purpose: Harvest of the semitendinosus (ST) tendon for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) causes persistent hypotrophy of this muscle even after a return to sport, although it is unclear if hamstring activation patterns are altered during eccentric exercise. It was hypothesised that in comparison with contralateral control limbs, limbs with previous ACLR involving ST grafts would display (i) deficits in ST activation during maximal eccentric exercise; (ii) smaller ST muscle volumes and anatomical cross-sectional areas (ACSAs); and (iii) lower eccentric knee flexor strength., Methods: Fourteen athletes who had successfully returned to sport after unilateral ACLR involving ST tendon graft were recruited. Median time since surgery was 49 months (range 12-78 months). Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of their thighs before and after the Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) and percentage change in transverse (T2) relaxation time was used as an index of hamstring activation. Muscle volumes and ACSAs were determined from MRI and distal ST tendons were evaluated via ultrasound. Eccentric knee flexor strength was determined during the NHE., Results: Exercise-induced T2 change was lower for ST muscles in surgical than control limbs (95% CI - 3.8 to - 16.0%). Both ST muscle volume (95% CI - 57.1 to - 104.7 cm 3 ) and ACSA (95% CI - 1.9 to - 5.0 cm 2 ) were markedly lower in surgical limbs. Semimembranosus (95% CI 5.5-14.0 cm 3 ) and biceps femoris short head (95% CI 0.6-11.0 cm 3 ) volumes were slightly higher in surgical limbs. No between-limb difference in eccentric knee flexor strength was observed (95% CI 33 N to - 74 N)., Conclusion: ST activation is significantly lower in surgical than control limbs during eccentric knee flexor exercise 1-6 years after ACLR with ST graft. Lower levels of ST activation may partially explain this muscle's persistent hypotrophy post ACLR and have implications for the design of more effective rehabilitation programs., Level of Evidence: IV.

Use of verbal rehearsal is a key issue in memory development. However, we still lack detailed and triangulated information about the early development and the circumstances in which different forms of rehearsal are used. To further understand significant factors that affect children's use of various forms of rehearsal, the present study involving 108 primary school children adopted a multi-method approach. It combined a carefully chosen word length effect method with a self-paced presentation time method to obtain behavioural indicators of verbal rehearsal. In addition, subsequent trial-by-trial self-reports were gathered. Word length effects in recall suggested that phonological recoding (converting images to names - a necessary precursor for rehearsal) took place, with evidence of more rehearsal among children with higher performance levels. According to self-paced presentation times, cumulative rehearsal was the dominant form of rehearsal only for children with higher spans on difficult trials. The combined results of self-paced times and word length effects in recall suggest that "naming" as simple form of rehearsal was dominant for most children. Self-reports were in line with these conclusions. Additionally, children used a mixture of strategies with considerable intra-individual variability, yet strategy use was nevertheless linked to age as well as performance levels.

Background Understanding hamstring muscle activation patterns in resistance training exercises may have implications for the design of strength training and injury prevention programs. Unfortunately, surface electromyography studies have reported conflicting results regarding hamstring muscle activation patterns in women. Objectives To determine the spatial patterns of hamstring muscle activity during the 45° hip extension and Nordic hamstring exercises in women using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods This was a cross-sectional study in which 6 recreationally active women with no history of lower-limb injury underwent fMRI on both thighs before and immediately after 5 sets of 6 bilateral eccentric contractions of the 45° hip extension exercise or the Nordic exercise. Using fMRI, the transverse (T2) relaxation times were measured from pre-exercise and postexercise scans, and the percentage increase in T2 was used as an index of muscle activation. Results The fMRI revealed a significantly higher biceps femoris long head-to-semitendinosus ratio during the 45° hip extension exercise than in the Nordic exercise (P = .028). The T2 increase after the 45° hip extension exercise was greater for the biceps femoris long head (P<.001), semitendinosus, and semimembranosus (P≤.001) than that for the biceps femoris short head. During the Nordic exercise, the T2 increase of the semitendinosus was greater than that of the biceps femoris short head (P<.001) and biceps femoris long head (P = .001). Conclusion While both exercises involve high levels of semitendinosus activation in women, the Nordic exercise preferentially recruits that muscle, while the hip extension exercise more evenly activates all the biarticular hamstrings. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2018;48(8):607-612. Epub 23 Apr 2018. doi:10.2519/jospt.2018.7748.

The executive function of fluency describes the ability to generate items according to specific rules. Production of words beginning with a certain letter (phonemic fluency) is impaired in dyslexia, while generation of words belonging to a certain semantic category (semantic fluency) is typically unimpaired. However, in dyslexia, verbal fluency has generally been studied only in terms of overall words produced. Furthermore, performance of adults with dyslexia on non-verbal design fluency tasks has not been explored but would indicate whether deficits could be explained by executive control, rather than phonological processing, difficulties. Phonemic, semantic and design fluency tasks were presented to adults with dyslexia and without dyslexia, using fine-grained performance measures and controlling for IQ. Hierarchical regressions indicated that dyslexia predicted lower phonemic fluency, but not semantic or design fluency. At the fine-grained level, dyslexia predicted a smaller number of switches between subcategories on phonemic fluency, while dyslexia did not predict the size of phonemically related clusters of items. Overall, the results suggested that phonological processing problems were at the root of dyslexia-related fluency deficits; however, executive control difficulties could not be completely ruled out as an alternative explanation. Developments in research methodology, equating executive demands across fluency tasks, may resolve this issue. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: There is a long-held view that verbal short-term memory problems of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) might be due to a deficit in verbal rehearsal. However, the evidence is inconclusive and word length effects as indicator of rehearsal have been criticised., Aim & Method: The aim of this multi-site European study was to investigate verbal rehearsal in adolescents with mild ID (n=90) and a comparison group of typically developing children matched individually for mental age (MA, n=90). The investigation involved: (1) a word length experiment with non-verbal recall using pointing and (2) 'self-paced' inspection times to infer whether verbal strategies were utilised when memorising a set of pictorial items., Results: The word length effect on recall did not interact with group, suggesting that adolescents with ID and MA comparisons used similar verbal strategies, possibly phonological recoding of picture names. The inspection time data suggested that high span individuals in both groups used verbal labelling or single item rehearsal on more demanding lists, as long named items had longer inspection times., Conclusions: The findings suggest that verbal strategy use is not specifically impaired in adolescents with mild ID and is mental age appropriate, supporting a developmental perspective., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Executive functioning (EF) deficits are well recognized in developmental dyslexia, yet the majority of studies have concerned children rather than adults, ignored the subjective experience of the individual with dyslexia (with regard to their own EFs), and have not followed current theoretical perspectives on EFs., Aims and Methods: The current study addressed these shortfalls by administering a self-report measure of EF (BRIEF-A; Roth, Isquith, & Gioia, 2005) and experimental tasks to IQ-matched groups of adults with and without dyslexia. The laboratory-based tasks tested the three factors constituting the framework of EF proposed by Miyake et al. (2000)., Results: In comparison to the group without dyslexia, the participants with dyslexia self-reported more frequent EF problems in day-to-day life, with these difficulties centering on metacognitive processes (working memory, planning, task monitoring, and organization) rather than on the regulation of emotion and behaviour. The participants with dyslexia showed significant deficits in EF (inhibition, set shifting, and working memory)., Conclusions and Implications: The findings indicated that dyslexia-related problems have an impact on the daily experience of adults with the condition. Further, EF difficulties are present in adulthood across a range of laboratory-based measures, and, given the nature of the experimental tasks presented, extend beyond difficulties related solely to phonological processing., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Williams (WS) and Down (DS) syndromes have been associated with specifically compromised short-term memory (STM) subsystems. Individuals with WS have shown impairments in visuospatial STM, while individuals with DS have often shown problems with the recall of verbal material. However, studies have not usually compared the development of STM skills in these domains, in these populations. The present study employed a cross-sectional developmental trajectories approach, plotting verbal and visuospatial STM performance against more general cognitive and chronological development, to investigate how the domain-specific skills of individuals with WS and DS may change as development progresses, as well as whether the difference between STM skill domains increases, in either group, as development progresses. Typically developing children, of broadly similar cognitive ability to the clinical groups, were also included. Planned between- and within-group comparisons were carried out. Individuals with WS and DS both showed the domain-specific STM weaknesses in overall performance that were expected based on the respective cognitive profiles. However, skills in both groups developed, according to general cognitive development, at similar rates to those of the TD group. In addition, no significant developmental divergence between STM domains was observed in either clinical group according to mental age or chronological age, although the general pattern of findings indicated that the influence of the latter variable across STM domains, particularly in WS, might merit further investigation., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Conceptualizing the underlying representations and cognitive mechanisms of children's spelling development is a key challenge for literacy researchers. Using the Representational Redescription model (Karmiloff-Smith), Critten, Pine and Steffler (2007) demonstrated that the acquisition of phonological and morphological knowledge may be underpinned by increasingly explicit levels of spelling representation. However, their proposal that implicit representations may underlie early 'visually based' spelling remains unresolved. Children (N = 101, aged 4-6 years) were given a recognition task (Critten et al., 2007) and a novel production task, both involving verbal justifications of why spellings are correct/incorrect, strategy use and word pattern similarity. Results for both tasks supported an implicit level of spelling characterized by the ability to correctly recognize/produce words but the inability to explain operational strategies or generalize knowledge. Explicit levels and multiple representations were also in evidence across the two tasks. Implications for cognitive mechanisms underlying spelling development are discussed., (© 2012 The British Psychological Society.)

Background: A limited range of evidence suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties with higher order thinking and reasoning skills (executive functioning, EF). This study involved a comprehensive investigation of EF in this population taking into account the contributions of age, nonverbal IQ and verbal ability., Methods: Ten separate measures of EF were assessed in 160 children: 41 had SLI; 31 had low language/cognitive functioning but did not fulfil the criteria for SLI (low language functioning or LLF); and 88 were typically developing with no language difficulties. Group differences in performance were assessed after controlling for age, nonverbal IQ and verbal ability in a series of regression analyses., Results: Children with SLI and LLF had significantly lower performance than typical children on 6 of the 10 EF tasks once age and nonverbal IQ had been controlled (verbal and nonverbal executive-loaded working memory, verbal and nonverbal fluency, nonverbal inhibition and nonverbal planning). Performance on these EF tasks remained lower for those in the SLI group even when verbal IQ was entered in the regressions., Conclusions: Children with language impairments showed marked difficulties on a range of EF tasks. These difficulties were present even when adjustments were made for their verbal abilities., (© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Interpretive diversity is the term used by Carpendale and Chandler (1996) to refer to the fact that two individuals exposed to precisely the same stimulus may interpret it in quite different, but equally plausible, ways. An appreciation of interpretive diversity is said by Carpendale and Chandler to represent a development in understanding that is qualitatively different from that necessary to succeed on false belief tasks. A study is reported in which children with autism and children with general delay were given a battery of tasks consisting of false belief tasks and tasks designed to test for an understanding of interpretive diversity. Findings from the present study offer limited support for Carpendale and Chandler's claim that tasks which test for an understanding of interpretive diversity may be more difficult than false belief tasks. Between-group differences in the consistency and quality of responses given by participants suggest that autistic and delayed children may have differed somewhat in their approach to the tasks given.

Prospective memory (PM), remembering to carry out a task in the future, is highly relevant to children's everyday functioning, yet relatively little is known about it. For these reasons the effects of age and task interruption on PM were studied in 3 experiments. Children aged 4, 5, and 7 years were asked to name pictures in stacks of cards (the ongoing task) and to remember to do something when they saw a target picture (the PM task). Significant age differences were identified, but age explained only a small amount of variance. As predicted, children in the no-interruption condition performed significantly better than those who had to interrupt the ongoing activity in order to carry out the PM task. An additional finding was that no relation was detected between performance on prospective and retrospective memory tasks. Taken together, these findings provide support for current models of PM and identify ways to assist children's PM.

The behavioural management approach to treating children's sleeping problems is being used by increasing numbers of health professionals. Despite this there are few formal evaluations of its effectiveness. In this study sleeping patterns of infants in a treatment and a control group were compared. Questionnaires about sleeping were given to mothers before treatment and afterwards, the questionnaires were given to mothers in the control group over a comparable period of time. Both groups of infants appeared to improve their sleeping over the period of the study, and no differences were found in the sleeping patterns of the two groups. The reasons for these findings are discussed.