Verbal Test Scores Research Articles

A longitudinal study of cognitive and educational outcomes of those born small for gestational age.

AimThis study examined the long‐term cognitive and educational outcomes of being born small for gestational age (SGA) and assessed whether the family's attitude towards education modified the effect of being born SGA on educational attainment.MethodsWe used anonymised data on 9598 individuals from the Stockholm Birth Cohort. This study focused on babies born in 1953 in the Stockholm metropolitan area, who were followed up for 50 years, and included educational data at the age of 13 and 48. Ordinary least squares regression analyses, modification analyses and logistic regression analyses were conducted.ResultsThe findings suggested that individuals who were born SGA (n = 798) had lower mean verbal, spatial and numerical test scores than those born appropriate for gestational age (AGA) (n = 7364) and large for gestational age (n = 1436). The SGA/AGA differences were small, but statistically significant, and the effects of being born SGA on the test scores was modified by the family's attitude towards education. The findings also suggested that attaining higher education was largely, but not entirely, explained by the family's attitude towards education.ConclusionThe detrimental effects of being born SGA were limited on cognitive and educational outcomes, but may have been reduced by positive family attitudes.

The corpus callosum as anatomical marker of intelligence? A critical examination in a large-scale developmental study

Intellectual abilities are supported by a large-scale fronto-parietal brain network distributed across both cerebral hemispheres. This bihemispheric network suggests a functional relevance of inter-hemispheric coordination, a notion which is supported by a series of recent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies demonstrating correlations between intelligence scores (IQ) and corpus-callosum anatomy. However, these studies also reveal an age-related dissociation: mostly positive associations are reported in adult samples, while negative associations are found in developing samples. In the present study, we re-examine the association between corpus callosum and intelligence measures in a large (734 datasets from 495 participants) developmental mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal sample (6.4–21.9 years) using raw test scores rather than deviation IQ measures to account for the ongoing cognitive development in this age period. Analyzing mid-sagittal measures of regional callosal thickness, a positive association in the splenium of the corpus callosum was found for both verbal and performance raw test scores. This association was not present when the participants’ age was considered in the analysis. Thus, we did not reveal any association that cannot be explained by a temporal co-occurrence of overall developmental trends in intellectual abilities and corpus callosum maturation in the present developing sample.

T-complex measures in bilingual Spanish-English and Turkish-German children and monolingual peers.

BackgroundLateral temporal neural measures (Na and T-complex Ta and Tb) of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) index maturation of auditory/speech processing. These measures are also sensitive to language experience in adults. This paper examined neural responses to a vowel sound at temporal electrodes in four- to five-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals and in five- to six-year-old Turkish-German bilinguals and German monolinguals. The goal was to determine whether obligatory AEPs at temporal electrode sites were modulated by language experience. Language experience was defined in terms of monolingual versus bilingual status as well as the amount and quality of the bilingual language experience.MethodAEPs were recorded at left and right temporal electrode sites to a 250-ms vowel [Ɛ] from 20 monolingual (American)-English and 18 Spanish-English children from New York City, and from 11 Turkish-German and 13 monolingual German children from Ulm, Germany. Language background information and standardized verbal and non-verbal test scores were obtained for the children.ResultsThe results revealed differences in temporal AEPs (Na and Ta of the T-complex) between monolingual and bilingual children. Specifically, bilingual children showed smaller and/or later peak amplitudes than the monolingual groups. Ta-amplitude distinguished monolingual and bilingual children best at right electrode sites for both the German and American groups. Amount of experience and type of experience with the target language (English and German) influenced processing.ConclusionsThe finding of reduced amplitudes at the Ta latency for bilingual compared to monolingual children indicates that language specific experience, and not simply maturational factors, influences development of the neural processes underlying the Ta AEP, and suggests that lateral temporal cortex has an important role in language-specific speech perception development.

Explaining academic-track boys' underachievement in language grades: Not a lack of aptitude but students' motivational beliefs and parents' perceptions?

Boys earn lower grades in languages than girls. The expectancy-value model by Eccles etal. (, A series of books in psychology. Achievement and achievement motives. Psychological and sociological approaches, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, CA, 76) is a comprehensive theoretical model for explaining gender differences in educational outcomes. In the past, most studies have focused on girls' disadvantage in math and science and on the role of the students' motivational beliefs. We aimed to explain boys' lower language grades by applying the expectancy-value model while taking into account students' motivational beliefs as well as their aptitude, prior achievement, and socializers' beliefs. In addition, we aimed at exploring the incremental contribution of each potential mediator. Five hundred and twenty German students (age M=17years; 58% female) and 374 parents (age M=47years). Student-reported ability self-concept (ASC) and task values, parents' perceptions of students' ability, students' prior achievement as reported by schools, and students' verbal intelligence test scores were all tested as mediators of the effect of gender on grades in German while controlling for parents' socioeconomic status. Single-mediator models and a multiple-mediator model were estimated using structural equationmodelling. All variables proved to be relevant for explaining boys' underachievement in language grades. Whereas students' ASC, task values, prior achievement, and parents' perceptions mediated the gender effect, verbal intelligence was identified as a suppressor variable increasing the gender effect. Our results challenge the stereotypic belief that boys' lower grades are due to lower verbal aptitude. Rather, students' motivational beliefs and parents' perceptions seem critical factors. Implications for both future research and practice are discussed.

Verbal Memory Decline following DBS for Parkinson's Disease: Structural Volumetric MRI Relationships.

BackgroundParkinson’s disease is a chronic degenerative movement disorder. The mainstay of treatment is medical. In certain patients Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) may be offered. However, DBS has been associated with post-operative neuropsychology changes, especially in verbal memory.ObjectivesFirstly, to determine if pre-surgical thalamic and hippocampal volumes were related to verbal memory changes following DBS. Secondly, to determine if clinical factors such as age, duration of symptoms or motor severity (UPDRS Part III score) were related to verbal memory changes.MethodsA consecutive group of 40 patients undergoing bilateral Subthalamic Nucleus (STN)-DBS for PD were selected. Brain MRI data was acquired, pre-processed and structural volumetric data was extracted using FSL. Verbal memory test scores for pre- and post-STN-DBS surgery were recorded. Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between score change and structural volumetric data.ResultsA significant relationship was demonstrated between change in List Learning test score and thalamic (left, p = 0.02) and hippocampal (left, p = 0.02 and right p = 0.03) volumes. Duration of symptoms was also associated with List Learning score change (p = 0.02 to 0.03).ConclusionVerbal memory score changes appear to have a relationship to pre-surgical MRI structural volumetric data. The findings of this study provide a basis for further research into the use of pre-surgical MRI to counsel PD patients regarding post-surgical verbal memory changes.

Low-level arsenic exposure and developmental neurotoxicity in children: A systematic review and risk assessment

Risk assessments of arsenic have focused on skin, bladder, and lung cancers and skin lesions as the sensitive cancer and non-cancer health endpoints, respectively; however, an increasing number of epidemiologic studies that can inform risk assessment have examined neurodevelopmental effects in children. We conducted a systematic review and risk assessment based on the epidemiologic literature on possible neurodevelopmental effects at lower arsenic exposures. Twenty-four cross-sectional, case-control, and cohort studies were identified that report on the association between low-level arsenic exposure (i.e., largely <100 μg/L of arsenic in drinking water) and neurological outcomes in children. Although the overall evidence does not consistently show a causal dose-response relationship at low doses, the most rigorously conducted studies from Bangladesh indicate possible inverse associations with cognitive function, predominantly involving concurrent arsenic exposure as measured by biomarkers (i.e., arsenic in urine or blood) and raw verbal test scores at ages 5-11 years. Issues such as non-comparability of outcome measures across studies; inaccuracies of biomarkers and other measures of inorganic arsenic exposure; potential effect modification by cultural practices; insufficient adjustment for nutritional deficiencies, maternal IQ, and other important confounders; and presence of other neurotoxicants in foreign populations limit generalizability to U.S. Of the few U.S. studies available, the most rigorously conducted study did not find a consistent dose-response relationship between arsenic concentrations in tap water or toenails and decrements in IQ scores. Assuming that the strongest dose-response relationship from the most rigorous evidence from Bangladesh is generalizable to U.S. populations, possible reference doses were estimated in the range of 0.0004-0.001 mg/kg-day. These doses are higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose for chronic lifetime exposure, thus indicating protectiveness of the existing value for potential neurotoxicity in children. This reference dose is undergoing revision as EPA considers various health endpoints in the reassessment of inorganic arsenic health risks.

WOMEN IN SCIENCE. Response to Comment on "Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines".

Ginther and Kahn claim that academics' beliefs about the importance of brilliance do not predict gender gaps in Ph.D. attainment beyond mathematics and verbal test scores. However, Ginther and Kahn's analyses are problematic, exhibiting more than 100 times the recommended collinearity thresholds. Multiple analyses that avoid this problem suggest that academics' beliefs are in fact uniquely predictive of gender gaps across academia.

Gender differences and school influences with respect to three indicators of general intelligence: Evidence from Saudi Arabia.

This study utilized multilevel modeling to examine the student characteristics (gender and age) and school factors (private vs. public school, urban vs. rural school, socioeconomic status, curricular organization, resources, activities, and equipment) associated with individual and between-school differences in the verbal, numerical, and figural intelligence test scores of 7,189 students in Grades 4–9 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Regarding student characteristics, results showed no substantial gender differences in the 3 intelligence subtests, whereas age accounted for 0.01%–0.06% of the individual differences in subtest performance. School factors accounted for 57.2%–71.6% of the differences in mean intelligence scores across schools. Moreover, 16.3% (figural) to 19.5% (verbal) of the variance was conditioned by different school experiences. Children in public schools achieved higher scores in all subtests, and a higher number of core, extra, and special courses consistently predicted higher scores. These findings extend the view that factors from the educational system are important correlates of intelligence, though they may vary across countries.

No clinically relevant effect on cognitive outcomes after low-dose radiation to the infant brain: A population-based cohort study in Sweden

While the detrimental effects of cranial radiotherapy on the developing brain are well known, the effects on cognitive performance of low doses of ionizing radiation is less studied. We performed a population-based cohort study to determine whether low doses of ionizing radiation to the brain in infancy affects cognitive function later in life. Further we hypothesized that the dose to the hippocampus predicts cognitive late side effects better than the anterior or the posterior brain doses.Material and methods. During 1950–1960 3860 boys were treated with radiation in Sweden for cutaneous hemangiomas before the age of 18 months. Of these, 3030 were analyzed for military test scores at the age of 18 years and 2559 for the highest obtained educational level.Results. Logical, spatial and technical test scores were not affected by increasing irradiation doses. The verbal test scores displayed a significant trend for decreasing scores with increasing doses to the hippocampus (p = 0.005). However, the absolute mean difference between the zero dose and the highest dose category (median 680 mGy) was very small, only 0.64 stanine points, and the significance was dependent on the highest dose category, containing few subjects. The educational level was not affected by brain irradiation. Overall, the hippocampal dose was a better predictor of late cognitive side effects than the doses to the anterior or the posterior brain. In conclusion, there was no decrease in logical, spatial and technical verbal or global test scores after ionizing radiation doses up to 250 mGy, but a subtle decrease in verbal test scores if the highest dose category was included (median 680 mGy). However, the clinical relevance of this decline in the highest dose group is questionable, since we could not find any effect on the highest obtained educational level.

Misunderstandings, Mischaracterizations, and the Problematic Choice of a Specific Instance in Which the IE Should Never Be Applied

Misunderstandings, Mischaracterizations, and the Problematic Choice of a Specific Instance in Which the IE Should Never Be Applied

School Tracking and Development of Cognitive Skills

We evaluate the effects of the school system on mathematical, verbal, and logical reasoning skills using data from the Finnish comprehensive school reform that abolished the two-track school system. We use a difference-in-differences approach that exploits the gradual implementation across the country. Cognitive skills are measured using test scores from the Finnish Army Basic Skills Test. The reform had small positive effects on verbal test scores but no effect on the mean performance in the arithmetic or logical reasoning tests. However, the reform significantly improved the scores of the students whose parents had less than a high school education.

Assessing the Significance of Cohort and Period Effects in Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Models: Applications to Verbal Test Scores and Voter Turnout in U.S. Presidential Elections.

In recently developed hierarchical age-period-cohort (HAPC) models, inferential questions arise: How can one assess or judge the significance of estimates of individual cohort and period effects in such models? And how does one assess the overall statistical significance of the cohort and/or the period effects? Beyond statistical significance is the question of substantive significance. This paper addresses these questions. In the context of empirical applications of linear and generalized linear mixed-model specifications of HAPC models using data on verbal test scores and voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections, respectively, we describe a two-step approach and a set of guidelines for assessing statistical significance. The guidelines include assessments of patterns of effects and statistical tests both for the effects of individual cohorts and time periods as well as for entire sets of cohorts and periods. The empirical applications show strong evidence that trends in verbal test scores are primarily cohort driven, while voter turnout is primarily a period phenomenon.

Regular breakfast consumption is associated with increased IQ in kindergarten children

BackgroundStudies have documented a positive relationship between regular breakfast consumption and cognitive outcomes in youth. However, most of these studies have emphasized specific measures of cognition rather than cognitive performance as a broad construct (e.g., IQ test scores) and have been limited to Western samples of school-age children and adolescents. This study aims to extend the literature on breakfast consumption and cognition by examining these constructs in a sample of Chinese kindergarten-age children. MethodsThis cross-sectional study consisted of a sample of 1269 children (697 boys and 572 girls) aged 6 years from the Chinese city of Jintan. Cognition was assessed with the Chinese version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence — Revised. Breakfast habits were assessed through parental questionnaire. Analyses of variance and linear regression models were used to analyze the association between breakfast habits and IQ. Socioeconomic and parental psychosocial variables related to intelligence were controlled for. ResultsFindings showed that children who regularly have breakfast on a near-daily basis had significantly higher full scale, verbal, and performance IQ test scores (all p<0.001) compared to children who “sometimes” have breakfast. This relationship persisted for VIQ (verbal IQ) and FIQ (full IQ) even after adjusting for gender, current living location, parental education, parental occupation, and primary child caregiver. ConclusionFindings may reflect nutritional as well as social benefits of regular breakfast consumption on cognition, and regular breakfast consumption should be encouraged among young children.

Sex‐specific Differential Prediction of Academic Achievement by German Ability Tests

Tests of cognitive ability play a major role in the selection of students. Still, data regarding the fairness of standardized tests in Germany is scarce. We use three samples (N = 2,616; 58% women) from German universities to investigate the sex‐specific differential prediction of college performance based on intelligence tests. The predictive bias we find is small and in line with US‐American research. The direction of the effect depends on the cognitive ability domain investigated: Numeric test scores are prone to disadvantage women whereas verbal test scores are more likely to discriminate against men. Including high school grade point average in the prediction model can help to offset differential prediction that underestimates women's academic achievement.

Assessing the Significance of Cohort and Period Effects in Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Models: Applications to Verbal Test Scores and Voter Turnout in U.S. Presidential Elections

Assessing the Significance of Cohort and Period Effects in Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort Models: Applications to Verbal Test Scores and Voter Turnout in U.S. Presidential Elections

A longitudinal study of preschoolers' language-based bedtime routines, sleep duration, and well-being.

To investigate the associations of caregiver-reported use of language-based bedtime routines among preschoolers at age 3 with children's nighttime sleep duration and cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes at age 5. Furthermore, we wanted to identify whether parental or household characteristics help explain these associations. We used data on 4,274 children from birth to age 5, drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), a longitudinal birth cohort study of at-risk children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 U.S. cities. We used ordinary least squares (for continuous outcomes) and logistic regressions (for dichotomous outcomes) to estimate associations of language-based bedtime routines at age 3 with sleep duration and cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes at age 5, net of a host of child and family background characteristics. After adjustment for child and family characteristics, we observed a positive association between language-based bedtime routines and both nighttime sleep duration and verbal test scores. Language-based bedtime routines were also inversely associated with behavior problems (anxious, withdrawn, and aggressive behaviors) and positively associated with better general health, yet adjustment for family background characteristics attenuated these associations. No associations were found between language-based bedtime routines and obesity. Results were confirmed using propensity score matching. This research suggests regular use of language-based bedtime routines including singing, reading, and/or storytelling at bedtime may have a lasting positive benefit for children's sleep duration and cognitive development; we find little evidence of such a benefit for child behavior or health.

School Tracking and Development of Cognitive Skills

The Finnish comprehensive school reform replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the test scores in the Finnish Army Basic Skills test. The identification strategy relies on a differences-in-differences strategy and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across the country during a six-year period between 1972 and 1977. We find that the reform had a small positive effect on the verbal test scores but no effect on the mean performance in the arithmetic or logical reasoning tests. Still in all tests the reform improved the scores of students from families where parents had only basic education.

The Effects of Children’s Head Start Enrollment Age on Their Short‐ and Long‐Term Developmental Outcomes

This study examines how the age at which children enter Head Start affects their academic and behavioral outcomes. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are incorporated to analyze the progress of 1,553 Head Start children. The research examines outcomes through assessments conducted at ages 5–6 and at ages 11–12. The results suggest that the measured outcomes vary with complicated interactions among age at Head Start entry, maternal education levels, and maternal verbal test scores. In many cases, early age of entry is estimated to improve outcomes for children whose mothers have low education and test scores.

P3-144: Relationship of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) to neuropsychological functions in Korean elderly outpatients with Alzheimer's disease

Although much is known about the relationship between BPSD and the severity of cognitive impairments, relatively little is known about the association with specific cognitive impairments. Such studies are important because insight in this relationship is relevant as the profile of neuropsychological impairments may provide information about the pathophysiological basis of BPSD. Nine hundred twenty-eight subjects over the age of 65 with Alzheimer's dementia were recruited from psychiatry outpatients clinics of Seoul national university hospital, Boramae hospital between July 2004 and June 2007. All of them were examined by psychiatrists and psychologists. Dementia was defined using the DSM-IV criteria. Other causes of dementia were investigated by careful medical history taking and physical/neurological examinations. In order to determine the patients' decreased cognitive function and psychopathology, the Korean version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease(CERAD-K) and Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory(K-NPI) were used. BPSD were extremely common, occurring in 93.3% of the subjects with Alzheimer's disease; the most common was depression (60.4%), followed by anxiety(47.9%), agitation(41.4%) and apathy(39.5%). Several symptoms of behavioral pathology showed associations with verbal memory test scores, including delusion, hallucination, agitation, apathy, disinhibition, irritability and night-time behavior. Impairment of executive and visuoperceptual function was related to psychotic symptoms. Futhermore, specific associations were found between agitation and executive dysfunction; depression and impairments of attention and recent memory; anxiety and impairment of attention; apathy and executive dysfunction; and aberrant motor behavior and impairments of attention and visuoperceptual function. These results suggest that some non-cognitive symptoms may be related to the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the increased cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease.

Does age at adoption and geographic origin matter? A national cohort study of cognitive test performance in adult inter-country adoptees

Inter-country adoptees run risks of developmental and health-related problems. Cognitive ability is one important indicator of adoptees' development, both as an outcome measure itself and as a potential mediator between early adversities and ill-health. The aim of this study was to analyse relations between proxies for adoption-related circumstances and cognitive development. Results from global and verbal scores of cognitive tests at military conscription (mandatory for all Swedish men during these years) were compared between three groups (born 1968-1976): 746 adoptees born in South Korea, 1548 adoptees born in other non-Western countries and 330 986 non-adopted comparisons in the same birth cohort. Information about age at adoption and parental education was collected from Swedish national registers. South Korean adoptees had higher global and verbal test scores compared to adoptees from other non-European donor countries. Adoptees adopted after age 4 years had lower test scores if they were not of Korean ethnicity, while age did not influence test scores in South Koreans or those adopted from other non-European countries before the age of 4 years. Parental education had minor effects on the test performance of the adoptees - statistically significant only for non-Korean adoptees' verbal test scores - but was prominently influential for non-adoptees. Negative pre-adoption circumstances may have persistent influences on cognitive development. The prognosis from a cognitive perspective may still be good regardless of age at adoption if the quality of care before adoption has been 'good enough' and the adoption selection mechanisms do not reflect an overrepresentation of risk factors - both requirements probably fulfilled in South Korea.