The effects of a syntactic training on multilingual fifth graders’ spelling patterns of noun capitalisation in German

Distributed cortical networks for syntax processing: Broca’s area as the common denominator

Gender-fair language makes women and other genders, their interests, and their achievements more visible and is particularly relevant to grammatical gender languages such as German, in which most nouns and personal pronouns are assigned to a specific gender. The present study tested the often repeated critical claims that gender-fair language impairs the comprehensibility and aesthetic appeal of videos. In an experiment with N = 105 students, participants watched a video on self-determination theory, either with masculine-only forms or using the glottal stop, a form of spoken gender-fair language that inserts an abrupt and sustained closure of the vocal cords in the larynx between the masculine form or the stem and the feminine ending of words (e.g. in German “Leserʔinnen”, ∼feʔmale readers). Subsequently, participants completed a questionnaire regarding the video's comprehensibility. The results show no statistically significant impairment regarding the general subjective comprehensibility (partial η2 < .01), the ease of ascribing meaning to the words (partial η2 < .01), the ease of decoding the syntax of the sentences (partial η2 = .03), or the aesthetic appeal of the videos (partial η2 = .02). The critics’ claims are therefore questioned.

The present study was conducted within the theory of the Blocking Principle, originally associated with Braine (1971) (who said that there is a blocking of the use of lexical generalisations) and later refined by researchers such as Marcus et al. (1992), and Pinker (1995, 1999) who specifically proposed the interference of the blocking facility when the regular inflection rules are erroneously attached on irregular forms. Basing their conclusions on studies that were conducted on acquisition of English and German noun and verb inflections, these researchers proposed that, through the Blocking Principle, the use of the regular inflections with irregular verbs and nouns is automatically and subconsciously blocked. The present study was conducted in order to answer the research question: What interlanguage rules do children apply to acquire English as a second language (L2) diverse forms of irregular verbs? It hypothesised that, in L2 acquisition, children may be puzzled by the blocking and unblocking of the rule and seek their own interlanguage rules. Data was collected from the language of English medium preschool children. The study concludes that when the Blocking Principle interferes, children resort to a novel interlanguage rule that regularises irregular verbs. This interlanguage rule applies in a similar way to all irregular verbs, thus children produce utterances such as ‘I did (unstressed) fall here’. This conclusion accounts for the apparent scarcity of the regular past tense rule overgeneralisation in the English (L2) data from Sesotho-speaking children (Moloi, 1996, 2001).

Objectives: To explore the transfer effects of cognitive training on working memory among older Chinese adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Methods: Sixty-two MCI participants aged more than 60 years old were recruited by holding recruitment sessions in communities in China [33 for cognitive training, and 29 for mental leisure activities (MLA) control]. Cognitive functions, including working memory, execution function, reasoning ability, verbal ability, ability of daily living, were measured at three time-points (baseline, post-training and 3 months after training).Results: Compared to the MLA control, the cognitive training group showed significant effects in both the trained (working memory) and untrained (execution function and ability of daily living) domains. The effects of cognitive training on overall cognitive function, working memory and daily life ability of daily living of MCI could be maintained for at least 3 months, even without the cognitive training. Besides, complete mediating effects of cognitive training were found in executive function through working memory and working memory in ability of daily living though executive function, which suggests the presence of transfer effect of cognitive training.Conclusions: The present study supported that cognitive training could effectively improve working memory in elders with MCI. The training effects on working memory could transfer to other untrained areas (such as executive function), which also improved the comprehensive ability (ability of daily living). And the effects of training could largely persist for 3 months.

This paper reports the application of neural networks for the numerical analysis of steady-state axisymmetric flow through an indefinitely long corrugated tube. Meshless global radial basis function networks (RBFNs) are employed to represent all dependent variables in the governing differential equations. For a better quality of approximation, the networks used here are constructed based on the integration process rather than the usual differentiation process. Multiple spaces of network weights for each variable are converted into the single space of nodal variable values, resulting in the square system of
\nequations with usual size. The governing equations are discretized in the strong form by point collocation and the resultant nonlinear system is solved with trust-region methods. The corrugated tube flow of a Newtonian fluid, power-law fluid and Oldroyd-B fluid are considered. With relatively low numbers of data points, flow resistance predictions obtained are in good agreement with the benchmark solutions.

The present study investigated whether German speakers compute grammatical gender on the basis of gender-marking regularities. To this purpose two experiments were run. In Experiment 1, participants had to assign the definite article to German nouns in an online task; in the second experiment, participants were confronted with German nouns as well as nonwords in an untimed gender assignment task. In the online experiment, which required the repetition of a visually presented noun with its corresponding definite article as fast as possible, reaction times show that the assignment of the definite determiner to a noun is not facilitated by gender-marking regularities. In an offline gender assignment task, however, participants profited from gender cues during gender assignment to nonwords.

Top-down knowledge supports the retrieval of lexical information from degraded speech

Evidence for memory problems in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is accumulating. Attempting to counter such problems, in the present study children with ADHD aged 8–12 years underwent a six-week metacognitive memory strategy training (MST) or one of two other active trainings, either a metacognitive attention-perceptual-motor training (APM) or placebo training consisting of playing board games (PLA). Effects of the training on episodic memory and underlying brain processes were investigated by comparing performance and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) on pre- and post-training sessions in an old/new recognition task between the three training groups. Potential far transfer effects of the memory strategy training were investigated by measuring performance on neuropsychological attention and memory-span tasks and parent-rated ADHD symptoms. The metacognitive memory strategy training led to significantly improved memory performance and enhanced amplitude of left parietal P600 activity associated with the process of memory recollection when compared to PLA, but APM training evoked similar improvements. Memory performance gains were significantly correlated with the memory-related ERP effects. Preliminary far transfer effects of MST training were found on attention and working memory performance and on parent-rated ADHD symptoms, although these results need replication with larger and better IQ-matched groups.

Recent research addressed the relationship between staff behaviour and challenging behaviour of individuals with an intellectual disability (ID). Consequently, research on interventions aimed at staff is warranted. The present study focused on the effectiveness of a staff training aimed at emotional intelligence and interactions between staff and clients. The effects of the training on emotional intelligence, coping style and emotions of support staff were investigated. Participants were 214 support staff working within residential settings for individuals with ID and challenging behaviour. The experimental group consisted of 76 staff members, 138 staff members participated in two different control groups. A pre-test, post-test, follow-up control group design was used. Effectiveness was assessed using questionnaires addressing emotional intelligence, coping and emotions. Emotional intelligence of the experimental group changed significantly more than that of the two control groups. The experimental group showed an increase in task-oriented coping, whereas one control group did not. The results with regard to emotions were mixed. Follow-up data revealed that effects within the experimental group were still present four months after the training ended. A staff training aimed at emotional intelligence and staff-client interactions is effective in improving emotional intelligence and coping styles of support staff. However, the need for more research aiming at the relationship between staff characteristics, organisational factors and their mediating role in the effectiveness of staff training is emphasised.

While several studies have investigated the effects of exercise training in human skeletal muscle and the chronic effect of β2 -agonist treatment in rodent muscle, their effects on muscle proteome signature with related functional measures in humans are still incompletely understood. Herein we show that daily β2 -agonist treatment attenuates training-induced enhancements in exercise performance and maximal oxygen consumption, and alters muscle proteome signature and phenotype in trained young men. Daily β2 -agonist treatment abolished several of the training-induced enhancements in muscle oxidative capacity and caused a repression of muscle metabolic pathways; furthermore, β2 -agonist treatment induced a slow-to-fast twitch muscle phenotype transition. The present study indicates that chronic β2 -agonist treatment confounds the positive effect of high intensity training on exercise performance and oxidative capacity, which is of interest for the large proportion of persons using inhaled β2 -agonists on a daily basis, including athletes. Although the effects of training have been studied for decades, data on muscle proteome signature remodelling induced by high intensity training in relation to functional changes in humans remains incomplete. Likewise, β2 -agonists are frequently used to counteract exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, but the effects β2 -agonist treatment on muscle remodelling and adaptations to training are unknown. In a placebo-controlled parallel study, we randomly assigned 21 trained men to 4weeks of high intensity training with (HIT+β2 A) or without (HIT) daily inhalation of β2 -agonist (terbutaline, 4mgdose-1 ). Of 486 proteins identified by mass-spectrometry proteomics of muscle biopsies sampled before and after the intervention, 32 and 85 were changing (false discovery rate (FDR)≤5%) with the intervention in HIT and HIT+β2 A, respectively. Proteome signature changes were different in HIT and HIT+β2 A (P=0.005), wherein β2 -agonist caused a repression of 25 proteins in HIT+β2 A compared to HIT, and an upregulation of 7 proteins compared to HIT. β2 -Agonist repressed or even downregulated training-induced enrichment of pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation and glycogen metabolism, but upregulated pathways related to histone trimethylation and the nucleosome. Muscle contractile phenotype changed differently in HIT and HIT+β2 A (P≤0.001), with a fast-to-slow twitch transition in HIT and a slow-to-fast twitch transition in HIT+β2 A. β2 -Agonist attenuated training-induced enhancements in maximal oxygen consumption (P≤0.01) and exercise performance (6.1 vs. 11.6%, P≤0.05) in HIT+β2 A compared to HIT. These findings indicate that daily β2 -agonist treatment attenuates the beneficial effects of high intensity training on exercise performance and oxidative capacity, and causes remodelling of muscle proteome signature towards a fast-twitch phenotype.

French plural markers and German noun capitalization encode syntactic information. Both syntactic markers present the syntactic information needed reliably and saliently, and both are unrelated to phonology. A main difference between both is that French plural spelling is part of inflection morphology and encodes the plural morphemes in written French. German noun capitalization is not a morpheme or a grapheme, but an allograph licensed in a particular function of the sentence, the head of the NP. Although both are substantially different, studies have shown that syntactic training is effective at improving the spelling of these syntactic markers. The current study presents two intervention studies in Grade 4 (N = 176) to examine whether learners who become literate in German and French benefit from a syntactic training in French plural spelling and German noun capitalization. All participants were trained in both languages and tested at four test points. Instruction was provided through learner videos (10 × 10 minutes) shown in a classroom setting. In both languages, the main goal of the training was to raise awareness of the syntactic unit of the NP as well as the syntactic information encoded in spelling. The results show large, short-term and long-term effects of the French training. However, unlike in previous studies, no training effects were found in German when compared with the control group. The paper discusses the results with a focus on the detailed comparison of French plural spelling and German noun capitalization as well as the feedback of the participating teachers in order to provide hypothetical explanations of the mixed training results. The discussed findings have an impact on the conception of syntactic spelling, as well as its teaching and learning.

Research has shown that phonological decoding is critical for orthographic learning of new words during independent reading. Moreover, correlational studies have demonstrated that the strength of orthographic learning is related to the orthographic knowledge with which readers approach a text. The present training study was conducted to assess experimentally whether this relation between prior orthographic knowledge and orthographic learning while reading is causal by assessing whether instruction designed to increase sublexical orthographic knowledge would facilitate orthographic learning during independent reading. A group of Danish‐speaking third graders (n = 21) was taught conditional spelling patterns conforming to the opaque Danish writing system, with emphasis on how to map the spellings onto their pronunciations. A matched control group (n = 21) received no treatment. Both groups were exposed to 12 novel words containing trained spelling patterns in an orthographic learning task. Posttests revealed a moderate transfer effect from training to orthographic learning, measured as the students’ ability to identify target word spellings in an orthographic choice task, and a strong transfer effect when measured as their ability to reproduce target word spellings in a spelling task. However, no advantage of explicit training over reading only could be detected when orthographic learning was measured as target word naming. The findings support the view that larger sound spelling units are used to form connections between spellings and pronunciations of words. Additionally, the findings support the view that preexisting orthographic knowledge is causally related to the degree and quality of orthographic learning during independent reading.

Introduction: Physical activity and age are among the factors affecting lactate levels and lactate dehydrogenase activity. Physical activity appears to be able to counterbalance the morphological and metabolic changes associated with aging that decrease physical ability and performance. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of interval training on blood lactate levels and lactate dehydrogenase activity in young and old rats. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 male rats were selected and then divided into two age groups -the old group (20 rats aged 27 months and weighing 389±31 g) and the young group (20 rats aged 3 months and weighing 224±13 g). Each group was itself randomly divided into an experimental group (n=10) and a control group (n=10). The training protocol involved 4 minutes of running on the treadmill with intervals of 2 minutes active resting in 10 training bouts of 60 minutes, for 6 sessions per week and for 8 weeks and gradually increasing in intensity. Twenty-four hours after the last training session, the rats were anesthetized with a mixture of ketamine and xylazine in order for their blood sample to be collected from their cardiac puncture. Their lactate levels and LDH activity were then measured by an enzymatic method. Data were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test. Results: The results showed no significant differences in blood lactate levels between the four groups; however, LDH activity was significantly higher in the young experimental group than in the young control group (p<0/05). Conclusion: The results indicate that lactate is increasingly cleared by interval training. It also appears that the effect of training on lactate clearance is similar in both young age and old age. Monitoring blood lactate levels benefits muscle glycogen replenishment and intracellular pH (pHi) regulation.

The objectives of the present study were threefold: (1) the effects of training in /r/-/l/ perceptual identification on /r/-/l/ production; (2) the effects of training in /r/-/l/ production on /r/-/l/ perceptual identification; and (3) the effects of perceptual and production training on learners’ motivation to study English. Results indicate that both the perceptual and the production training sessions resulted in improving not only the intended skill but both the receptive and productive skills. Thus, both receptive or productive skill sessions can be used to promote Japanese college EFL learners English oral communication skills. Nevertheless, the motivation questionnaire shows (1) the importance for teachers to encourage their students to self-study for improving receptive skill and (2) the significance for teachers to understand the efficacy of output practice in small groups to help their students gain confidence in productive skill.

IntroductionHomonymous visual field defects (HVFD) are a common consequence of postchiasmatic acquired brain injury and often lead to mobility-related difficulties. Different types of compensatory scanning training have been developed, aimed at decreasing consequences of the HVFD by changing visual scanning.AimThe aim of the present study is to examine the effects of a compensatory scanning training program using horizontal scanning on mobility-related activities and participation in daily life.MethodThe main interest of this study is to assess the effectiveness of training on mobility-related activities and participation in daily life. Visual scanning tests, such as dot counting and visual search, and control measures for visual functions and reading have been included as well. First, it is examined how performance on scanning and mobility-related measures is affected in patients with HVFD by comparing scores with scores of a healthy control group (n = 25). Second, the effect of training is assessed using an RCT design, in which performance of 26 patients before and after training is compared to performance of 23 patients in a waiting list control group.ResultsSelf-reported improvements after training were found, accompanied by improvements in detecting peripheral stimuli and avoiding obstacles during walking, especially in dual task situations in which a second task limits the attentional capacity available for compensatory scanning. Training only improved mobility-related activities in which detection of peripheral stimuli is important, while no improvement was found on tests that require other visual skills, such as reading, visual counting and visual search.ConclusionThis is the first RCT to evaluate the effects of a compensatory scanning training that is based on a systematic horizontal scanning rhythm. This training improved mobility-related activities. The results suggest that different types of compensatory scanning strategies are appropriate for different types of activities.Trial RegistrationISRCTN Registry ISRCTN16833414