Research bytes: MS & Gs, numerical development, working memory & bilinguals, Ga-pseudo word repetition tasks, etc

Denney, D. R., Gallagher, K. S., & Lynch, S. G. (2011). Deficits in Processing Speed in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: Evidence from Explicit and Covert Measures. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 26(2), 110-119

Cognitive slowing in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) has been documented by numerous studies employing explicitly timed measures in which speed of responding is an obvious focus of task performance. The present study examined information processing speed in MS patients and controls with a computerized battery of covertly timed as well as explicitly timed measures. The explicit measures were derived from two tests requiring rapid serial processing of visual stimuli, the Stroop Test and a Picture Naming Test. Covert measures were derived from the Rotated Figures Test, Remote Associates Test, and Tower of London, all tasks in which participants’ attention was drawn toward arriving at an accurate solution, and the latency with which they arrived at these solutions was timed by the computer “behind the scenes.” Significant differences in processing speed for patients and controls occurred on both types of measures, although the effect sizes were notably larger on the explicit measures.



Jones, G. (2011). A computational simulation of children's performance across three nonword repetition tests. Cognitive Systems Research, 12(2), 113-121

The nonword repetition test has been regularly used to examine children’s vocabulary acquisition, and yet there is no clear explanation of all of the effects seen in nonword repetition. This paper presents a study of 5–6year-old children’s repetition performance on three nonword repetition tests that vary in the degree of their lexicality. A model of children’s vocabulary acquisition is then presented that captures the children’s performance in all three repetition tests. The model represents a clear explanation of how working memory and long-term lexical and sub-lexical knowledge interact in a way that is able to simulate repetition performance across three nonword tests within the same model and without requiring test specific parameter settings



Bonifacci, P., Giombini, L., Bellocchi, S., & Contento, S. (2011). Speed of processing, anticipation, inhibition and working memory in bilinguals. Developmental Science, 14(2), 256-269.

Literature on the so-called bilingual advantage is directed towards the investigation of whether the mastering of two languages fosters cognitive skills in the non-verbal domain. The present study aimed to evaluate whether the bilingual advantage in non-verbal skills could be best defined as domain-general or domain-specific, and, in the latter case, at identifying the basic cognitive skills involved. Bilingual and monolingual participants were divided into two different age groups (children, youths) and were tested on a battery of elementary cognitive tasks which included a choice reaction time task, a go/no-go task, two working memory tasks (numbers and symbols) and an anticipation task. Bilingual and monolingual children did not differ from each other except for the anticipation task, where bilinguals were found to be faster and more accurate than monolinguals. These findings suggest that anticipation, which has received little attention to date, is an important cognitive domain which needs to be evaluated to a greater extent both in bilingual and monolingual participants



Hyde, D. C., & Spelke, E. S. (2011). Neural signatures of number processing in human infants: evidence for two core systems underlying numerical cognition. Developmental Science, 14(2), 360-371

Behavioral research suggests that two cognitive systems are at the foundations of numerical thinking: one for representing 1–3 objects in parallel and one for representing and comparing large, approximate numerical magnitudes. We tested for dissociable neural signatures of these systems in preverbal infants by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) as 6–7.5-month-old infants (n = 32) viewed dot arrays containing either small (1–3) or large (8–32) sets of objects in a number alternation paradigm. If small and large numbers are represented by the same neural system, then the brain response to the arrays should scale with ratio for both number ranges, a behavioral and brain signature of the approximate numerical magnitude system obtained in animals and in human adults. Contrary to this prediction, a mid-latency positivity (P500) over parietal scalp sites was modulated by the ratio between successive large, but not small, numbers. Conversely, an earlier peaking positivity (P400) over occipital-temporal sites was modulated by the absolute cardinal value of small, but not large, numbers. These results provide evidence for two early developing systems of non-verbal numerical cognition: one that responds to small quantities as individual objects and a second that responds to large quantities as approximate numerical values. These brain signatures are functionally similar to those observed in previous studies of non-symbolic number with adults, suggesting that this dissociation may persist over vast differences in experience and formal training in mathematics


Schleifer, P., & Landerl, K. (2011). Subitizing and counting in typical and atypical development. Developmental Science, 14(2), 280-291.

Enumeration performance in standard dot counting paradigms was investigated for different age groups with typical and atypically poor development of arithmetic skills. Experiment 1 showed a high correspondence between response times and saccadic frequencies for four age groups with typical development. Age differences were more marked for the counting than the subitizing range. In Experiment 2 we found a discontinuity between subitizing and counting for dyscalculic children; however, their subitizing slopes were steeper than those of typically developing control groups, indicating a dysfunctional subitizing mechanism. Across both experiments a number of factors could be identified that affect enumeration in the subitizing and the counting range differentially. These differential patterns further support the assumption of two qualitatively different enumeration processes.

















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