Validation of the executive function strategy awareness and use questionnaire (SAUQ) in a university student population.

Objective: The aim of the study is to design and evaluate the Strategy Awareness and Use Questionnaire to estimate students' awareness and use of strategies that optimize control of attention and/or compensate for stress on an executive system due to environmental and/or neurobiological influences. Participants: One hundred and forty-eight undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines at an urban Canadian university campus participated in the Spring 2019 semester. Methods: An item analysis was conducted that included an assessment of dimensionality and item trimming. Results: Findings from an exploratory factor analysis suggest a seven-factor solution is optimal; Comprehension Monitoring, Planning/Organization, Self-Reward, Self-Regulation, Organization with Mobile Phone Technology, Regulating Technology, and Organization of Materials. Conclusion: This measure is likely to benefit students, as well as counselors and coaches interested in improving EF strategy use among students in a university population.

Facial Expression Production in Autism: A Meta-Analysis.

This meta-analysis summarized studies that examined group differences on the production of facial expressions in participants with ASD compared to typically developing or nonautistic clinical comparison groups. The overall summary effect from 67 effect sizes representing the average ASD-comparison group differences in facial expressions was -0.481, indicating a moderate effect size. We conducted subgroup analyses to group effect sizes according to separate facial expression abilities identified in the literature. These analyses revealed that participants with ASD display facial expressions less frequently and for less amount of time, and they are less likely to share facial expressions with others or automatically mimic the expressions of real faces or face stimuli. Their facial expressions are also judged to be lower in quality and are expressed less accurately. However, participants with ASD do not express emotions less intensely, nor is their reaction time of expression onset slower in response to odors, startling sensations, or in response to face stimuli in mimicry studies. ASD-comparison group differences were moderated by matching procedures, age, and intellectual functioning of the ASD participants suggesting that persons with higher IQ and larger number of accumulated life experiences are better able to produce facial expressions that are more consistent with "neurotypical" norms. Group differences were also stronger for "covertly elicited" than "explicitly elicited" facial expressions suggesting individuals with ASD may naturally produce facial expressions differently from other populations, but are less impaired in expressing emotions typically when prompted to do so in a laboratory setting. Autism Research 2018, 11: 1586-1601. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: We reviewed studies that compared facial expressions in people with and without autism. Results revealed that facial expressions of people with autism are atypical in appearance and quality and are used atypically to regulate social interactions. The magnitude of these differences was influenced by participant characteristics (e.g. age and intellectual functioning), and by how facial expressions were measured and analyzed in various studies.

Learning disabilities and the new reductionism: a response to Reid and Valle.

The purpose of this article is to respond to Reid and Valle's article "The Discursive Practice of LD: Implications for Instruction and Parent-School Relations" in this issue. Our response to the discursive analysis is organized around two major themes: (a) the issue of balance in the scholarship on learning disabilities (LD) and (b) the centrality of the discourse of general education to the discourse of LD. Following our response to the discursive analysis, we comment on the implications for instruction and parent-school relations drawn by Reid and Valle. Highlighted in this section is the disconnect between the macro-level findings from the discursive analysis and the micro-level orientation of their "sociopolitical vision" for instruction and parent-school relations.