Task-irrelevant speech impairs short-term serial recall appreciably. On the interference-by-process account, the processing of physical (i.e., precategorical) changes in speech yields order cues that conflict with the serial-ordering process deployed to perform the serial recall task. In this view, the postcategorical properties (e.g., phonology, meaning) of speech play no role. The present study reassessed the implications of recent demonstrations of auditory postcategorical distraction in serial recall that have been taken as support for an alternative, attentional-diversion, account of the irrelevant speech effect. Focusing on the disruptive effect of emotionally valent compared with neutral words on serial recall, we show that the distracter-valence effect is eliminated under conditions-high task-encoding load-thought to shield against attentional diversion whereas the general effect of speech (neutral words compared with quiet) remains unaffected (Experiment 1). Furthermore, the distracter-valence effect generalizes to a task that does not require the processing of serial order-the missing-item task-whereas the effect of speech per se is attenuated in this task (Experiment 2). We conclude that postcategorical auditory distraction phenomena in serial short-term memory (STM) are incidental: they are observable in such a setting but, unlike the acoustically driven irrelevant speech effect, are not integral to it. As such, the findings support a duplex-mechanism account over a unitary view of auditory distraction. (PsycINFO Database Record

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Childhood is associated with improvements in task accuracy, response time, and reductions in intraindividual trial-to-trial variability in reaction times. The aims of this study were to investigate neural indicators of error monitoring to better understand the mechanisms underlying these cognitive developments in primary school aged children. Specifically, this study explored the development of error processing in 36 children aged 7 years and 41 children aged 9 years, as indexed by two electrophysiological indices of error processing, the error-related negativity (ERN) and the error positivity (Pe). Notably, the amplitude and latency of the ERN and Pe did not differ significantly between the age groups. However, intraindividual variability in response time (RT) was strongly related to ERN amplitude. These data suggest the utility of comparing neural and behavioral indicators of cognitive performance in children and uniquely highlight the importance of considering intraindividual variability in task performance in studies that explore error processing.

Summary -This paper presents a methodology to control construction task complexity and examined the relationships between construction performance and spatial and mathematical abilities in children. The study included three groups of children ( N=96); aged 7-8, 10-11 and 13-14 years. Each group constructed seven pre-specified objects.The study replicated and extended previous findings that indicated that the degree of component symmetry and variety, and the number of components for each object and available for selection, significantly predicted construction task difficulty. Results showed that this methodology is a valid and reliable technique for assessing and predicting construction play task difficulty. Furthermore, the study found that construction play performance predicts mathematical attainment independently of spatial ability.

Inhibition and switching are executive functions (EFs) that have different developmental trajectories across childhood. The development of specific processes unique to each EF may contribute to these trajectories. Interference suppression and reversal were examined in a large sample of children aged 7 and 9 years (n = 120) and followed-up after two-years to investigate developmental trajectories of inhibition and switching. The N2 and P3b components provided neural correlates of conflict monitoring and attentional processing of conflict involved in interference suppression and reversal. Interference suppression improved over time, however, switching performance did not significantly change between 7 and 11 years. Improvements in correct RT with age and time indicated increased efficiency of stimulus evaluation, response preparation and execution. N2 amplitude decreased with both age and time, indicating less reliance on conflict monitoring to signal cognitive control to manage stimulus and response conflict. P3b amplitude modulations indicated that different amounts of attention were allocated to updating mental representations of interference suppression and reversal task features. These data indicated different developmental trajectories of specific processes unique to inhibition and switching across the childhood period of 7-11 years, providing further empirical evidence that 7-11 years is a critical period for cognitive development.

According to the rapid auditory processing theory, the ability to parse incoming auditory information underpins learning of oral and written language. There is wide variation in this low-level perceptual ability, which appears to follow a protracted developmental course. We studied the development of rapid auditory processing using event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by tone pairs presented at varying inter-stimulus intervals (25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 ms) in a sample of children (N = 103) aged 7-9 years initially and again at 9-11 years. We also assessed their ability to repeat nonsense words at both time-points. The amount of difference between the ERP to single tones and paired tones (as assessed by the intra-class correlation coefficient, ICC) provided a measure of the brain's capacity to discriminate auditory information delivered at different presentation rates. Results showed that older children showed greater neural discrimination to tone pairs than younger children at rapid presentation rates, although these differences were reduced at slower presentation rates. The ICC at time 1 significantly predicted nonword repetition scores two years later, providing support for the view that rapid auditory temporal processing ability affects oral language development in typically developing children.