Search

Background: Self-regulation has frequently been shown to be context-sensitive, suggesting the influence of different cultural contexts on its development. However, up until now, self-regulation has been mainly studied in Western countries with similar cultural contexts. Objective: Thus, with the present study we compared self-regulation of preschool children in Iran and Germany, hypothesizing that self-regulation differs between these two countries. Methods: In total, 148 preschool children (n = 100 Iranian, n = 48 German) participated in this study. Self-regulation was operationalized as waiting in the delay of gratification task. Moreover, behavioral strategies (i.e., focusing, withholding, and distracting) used by children while waiting in the task were video recorded and later rated using a behavioral rating scale. Results: On average, Iranian children waited less time than their German peers and used fewer withholding strategies to stop themselves from touching the reward. Interestingly, focusing strategies directing attention towards the reward undermined the waiting time in the delay of gratification task for German but not Iranian children. Conclusion: Our findings are consistent with previous cross-cultural/national studies in suggesting that childhood self-regulation may be developed and applied differently depending on cultural context. However, based on our results, the assumption that children from Eastern countries generally show a greater level of self-regulation than children from Western countries as discussed in previous cross-cultural/national studies is to be viewed critically.

This study set out to examine the basic reading skills (accuracy and fluency in decoding, word and text reading) and some of the reading-related language skills (phonological awareness and rapid-naming) of 54 adults with low reading comprehension, who read the transparent German orthography. Participants were born in Germany and showed a typical non-verbal processing speed. With the exception of reading accuracy, participants were expected to present deficits in all basic reading and reading-related skills. The average performance in measures of decoding and word reading fluency was extremely low. A notable proportion of the sample, however, did not present a deficit in these measures. As expected, the average rate of reading errors was generally low. Nevertheless, text reading accuracy was deficient for one quarter of the sample. Tests addressing the reading-related language skills also indicated an average low performance in phonological awareness, but not in rapid-naming. Here too, a notable variance was observed. These results suggest that deficits in the basic reading skills and in phonological awareness characterise, on average, adults with low reading comprehension. At the same time, significant deficits in reading comprehension in this population do not necessarily imply deficits in the more basic skills of reading as well. In addition, the results indicate that reading accuracy constitutes a source of difficulty for some of these adults, despite the reading of a transparent orthography. The sources for the variance in performance throughout the different reading and reading-related measures remain to be explored.

Introduction: Despite having sufficient formal education, a large group of people cannot complete everyday tasks like reading, writing, or making basic calculations. Regarding reading, millions of people are not able to understand more complex texts despite the ability to read simple words or sentences; they have low literacy skills. Even though this problem has been known for decades, the causes and predictors of their poor reading comprehension skills are not fully explored. Socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and reading-related (i.e., linguistic) factors, especially of English-speaking participants and thus users of an opaque orthography, were often assessed. The goal of this study was to examine which linguistic, domain-general, or numerical factors predict substandard complex text reading as the core symptom of low literacy skills in adulthood. Methods: To this end, we assessed a group of German-speaking participants--users of a transparent orthography--who are at risk for complex text reading deficits. Results: The results indicated that linguistic variables (reduced word/pseudoword reading, weaker oral semantic and grammatical comprehension), working memory, and age predicted lower performance in text comprehension. This model explained 73% of the total variance, indicating that most of the deficits in complex text reading can be explained by a group of basic underlying linguistic and domain-general factors. Discussion: We conclude that interventions for adults with low literacy skills and others at risk for complex text reading deficits should address word/pseudoword reading and focus on both written and oral comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is under debate whether the neural representation of numbers and letters might rely on distinct neural correlates, or on a mostly shared neural network. In the present study, a total of 47 children in fifth grade (Experiment 1) and sixth grade (Experiment 2) simply copied numbers and letters on a touch screen while brain activation changes were recorded by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS data of both experiments and a joint analysis revealed that a shared neural network, particularly in the left hemisphere, was activated in response to both number and letter copying. Interestingly, no difference was observed in brain activation patterns between these two stimuli, as revealed by Bayesian analysis. Our findings indicate that both number and letter copying lead to similar brain activation in children. We further suggest methodological and applied applications of these findings in the frame of educational neuroscience.

The metaphor of the mental number line accounts for numerous empirical effects of spatial-numerical associations. In the present study, we aimed at investigating directional spatial-numerical associations reflected by SNARC-like digit-direction and sign-direction congruency effects as well as the sign-digit compatibility effect when 6th graders performed magnitude comparisons of multi-symbol numbers (i.e., positive and negative numbers). As spatial-numerical associations were associated with sensorimotor experiences, we used whole-body and finger tapping responses to manipulate the extent of motor responses. We only observed a SNARC-like digit-direction congruency effect, but neither a sign-direction congruency nor a sign-digit compatibility effect. This indicates that 6th graders may already have developed spatial-numerical associations for absolute number magnitude, but not yet for polarity signs. Furthermore, not observing a sign-digit compatibility effect seemed to suggest that 6th graders may not yet process multi-symbol numbers in the same parallel componential way as adults do. We argue that while 6th graders are able to process negative numbers, they are not yet automatically associated with space or integrated in the place-value structure of the Arabic number system like multi-digit numbers are at this age.

"Embodied trainings" allowing children to move their whole body in space have recently been shown to foster the acquisition of basic numerical competencies (e.g. magnitude understanding, addition performance). Following a brief summary of recent embodied training studies, we integrate the different results into a unified model framework to elucidate the working mechanisms of embodied trainings: Mapping processes, interaction between different regions of personal space, and the integration of different spatial frames of reference are addressed as potential factors underlying the effectiveness of embodied numerical trainings. In the concluding section, we elaborate on the practical applications of embodied numerical trainings in educational setting. We discuss under which circumstances embodied trainings work best, that is, for which age group and/or which numerical content embodied trainings should be most beneficial and which aspects need to be considered when aiming at applying embodied numerical trainings in formal educational settings like kindergartens or schools.

Spatial processing of numbers has emerged as one of the basic properties of humans' mathematical thinking. However, how and when number-space relations develop is a highly contested issue. One dominant view has been that a link between numbers and left/right spatial directions is constructed based on directional experience associated with reading and writing. However, some early forms of a number-space link have been observed in preschool children who cannot yet read and write. As literacy experience is evidently not necessary for number-space effects, we are searching for other potential sources of this association. Here we propose and test a hypothesis that the number-space link can be quickly constructed in preschool children's cognition on the basis of spatially oriented visuo-motor activities. We trained 3- and 4-year-old children with a non-numerical spatial movement task (left-to-right or right-to-left), where via touch screen children had to move a frog across a pond. After the training, children had to perform a numerosity comparison task. After left-to-right training, we observed a SNARC-like effect (reactions to smaller numbers were faster on the left side, and reactions to larger numbers on the right side), and after right-to-left training a reverse effect. These results are the first to show a causal link between visuo-motor activities and number-space associations in children before they learn to read and write. We argue that simple activities, such as manual games, dominant in a given society, might shape number-space associations in children in a way similar to lifelong reading training.