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We evaluated the process of inferential revision during text comprehension in adults. Participants with high or low working memory read short texts, in which the introduction supported two plausible concepts (e.g., 'guitar/ violin'), although one was more probable ('guitar'). There were three possible continuations: a neutral sentence, which did not refer back to either concept; a no-revise sentence, which referred to a general property consistent with either concept (e.g., '…beautiful curved body'); and a revise sentence, which referred to a property that was consistent with only the less likely concept (e.g., '…matching bow'). Readers took longer to read the sentence in the revise condition, indicating that they were able to evaluate their comprehension and detect a mismatch. In a final sentence, a target noun referred to the alternative concept supported in the revise condition (e.g., 'violin'). ERPs indicated that both working memory groups were able to evaluate their comprehension of the text (P3a), but only high working memory readers were able to revise their initial incorrect interpretation (P3b) and integrate the new information (N400) when reading the revise sentence. Low working memory readers had difficulties inhibiting the no-longer-relevant interpretation and thus failed to revise their situation model, and they experienced problems integrating semantically related information into an accurate memory representation.Keywords Revising information . Inference making . Working memory . P3a . P3b . N400Successful text comprehenders construct an integrated, coherent, and accurate mental representation of the state of affairs described by the text. The construction of this situation model requires the reader to go beyond a representation of the surface characteristics of the text by generating inferences and incorporating world knowledge from long-term memory (Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978). The construction of the situation model is a dynamic process (e.g., Kintsch, 1998;McNamara & Magliano, 2009;Rapp & van den Broek, 2005); the text is processed incrementally (e.g., word by word and sentence by sentence) and, therefore, the situation model is constantly being updated as the text unfolds. As each new piece of information is processed, it must be integrated with the mental representation constructed so far. This involves monitoring for comprehension to identify when and where additional processing, such as inference generation, is necessary to ensure coherence (Kintsch, 1998;Perfetti, Stafura, & Adlof, 2013).Comprehension monitoring is the metacognitive awareness that readers have about what they are reading (Wagoner, 1983). Baker (1985) distinguished two monitoring phases: evaluation and regulation. Evaluation, more recently defined as validation (Singer, 2013), refers to the process that allows readers to detect an inconsistency or mismatch in the text (e.g., Vauras, Kinnunen, Salonen, & Lehtinen, 2008). Current evidence on this process in adult readers converges on the view that evaluation is a rou...

Regulation of thoughts and behavior requires attention, particularly when there is conflict between alternative responses or when errors are to be prevented or corrected. Conflict monitoring and error processing are functions of the executive attention network, a neurocognitive system that greatly matures during childhood. In this study, we examined the development of brain mechanisms underlying conflict and error processing with event-related potentials (ERPs), and explored the relationship between brain function and individual differences in the ability to self-regulate behavior. Three groups of children aged 4–6, 7–9, and 10–13 years, and a group of adults performed a child-friendly version of the flanker task while ERPs were registered. Marked developmental changes were observed in both conflict processing and brain reactions to errors. After controlling by age, higher self-regulation skills are associated with smaller amplitude of the conflict effect but greater amplitude of the error-related negativity. Additionally, we found that electrophysiological measures of conflict and error monitoring predict individual differences in impulsivity and the capacity to delay gratification. These findings inform of brain mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive control and self-regulation.

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Scatter analysis of IQ profiles has a long and controversial history. We conducted this study to determine whether the validity of scatter information is any greater for 2 new IQ batteries, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Fourth Edition Stanford-Binet (SB4), than for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Within a sample of referred children, we computed numerical indexes of profile elevation, shape, and variability for all IQ tests. Using hierarchical multiple regression with achievement scores as dependent variables, we found shape information had marginal incremental validity over elevation as a predictor for the WISC-R, even less for the SB4, and virtually none for the K-ABC. We discuss implications of these results.

Life history and recruitment information of tropical trees in natural populations is scarce even for important commercial species. This study focused on a widely exploited Neotropical canopy species, Pachira quinata (Malvaceae), at the southernmost, wettest limit of its natural distribution, in the Colombian Amazonia. We studied phenological patterns, seed production and natural densities; assessed the importance of seed dispersal and density-dependent effects on recruitment, using field experiments. At this seasonal forest P. quinata was overrepresented by large adult trees and had very low recruitment caused by the combination of low fruit production, high seed predation and very high seedling mortality under continuous canopies mostly due to damping off pathogens. There was no evidence of negative distance or density effects on recruitment, but a clear requirement of canopy gaps for seedling survival and growth, where pathogen incidence was drastically reduced. In spite of the strong dependence on light for survival of seedlings, seeds germinated readily in the dark. At the study site, the population of P. quinata appeared to be declining, likely because recruitment depended on the rare combination of large gap formation with the presence of reproductive trees nearby. The recruitment biology of this species makes it very vulnerable to any type of logging in natural populations. Rev. Biol. Trop. 59 (2): 921-933. Epub 2011 June 01.

When the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC; A. S. Kaufman & N. L. Kaufman, 1983a, 1983b) was published just over 10 years ago, it had many unique features, including its information processing model and specific recommendations for educational remediation. Although the test has received much attention because of these characteristics, the K-ABC has also been the subject of much controversy. Through consideration of some of these arguments, lessons that researchers in the field of child assessment may learn from the K-ABC and their implications for future directions are identified. Based in part on lessons learned from the K-ABC, an alternative assessment model for the evaluation of children with reading problems is proposed at the end of this article. The state of child cognitive assessment just over a decade ago was one of both stagnation and altercation. From a scientific perspective, there had been few fundamental changes in either theory or tests since the turn of the century. For instance, thencontemporary IQ tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R; Wechsler, 1974) and Form L-M of the Stanford-Binet (SB-LM; Terman & Merrill, 1973) had basically the same formats and subtests as their respective progenitors, Binet's original 1905 scale and the 1939 Wechsler-Bellevue (e.g., Sternberg, 1992). From a social perspective, the use of IQ tests for the special education placement of minority children was the subject of many court cases (e.g., Reschley, 1990). It was against this troubled background that the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC; ages 2 '/,-12 '/ 2 years; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983a, 1983b) was published. At the time, many of the K-ABC's features seemed to be direct rejoinders to some of these controversies. For instance, some K-ABC subtests were quite novel compared to those that make up the WISC-R or the SB-LM. Also, the K-ABC is based on specific theoretical models, the application of which are intended to provide more pure estimates of ability versus achievement, identify children who have particular types of information processing deficits, and help psychologists make specific recommendations for educational remediation. None of the aforementioned characteristics were unique in the early 1980s. Other tests were organized according to specific conceptual models (e.g., Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability; Kirk, McCarthy, & Kirk, 1968) or were intended to assess reasoning rather than acquired knowledge (e.g., Raven's Stan