Does colour preference have a role in colour term acquisition?

A developmental association exists between colour preference and emerging colour term acquisition in young children. Colour preference might influence colour term acquisition by directing attention towards or away from a particular colour, making it more or less memorable. To investigate the role that colour preference may have in the acquisition of colour terms, experimental tasks of colour preference, discrimination, attention, memory, and new colour term learning, were given to three groups of participants (preschool children; primary school children; and adults). Each task utilized the same colour stimuli, which were four computer-simulated colours, matched perceptually to four different Munsell chips, drawn from the same colour category. Three colours varied systematically from an anchor colour (10PB 4/8) only in saturation (10PB 4/4), luminance (10PB 6/8), or hue (5P 4/8). Results showed that within-category colour preferences emerged with age, and that when established within individuals, most preferred colours were named significantly more accurately than least preferred colours, although this association did not appear to be mediated directly by attention or memory. Rather, perceptual saliency was shown to have a mediating role, to some extent, in determining the relationship between colour preference and the cognitive processing of colour.

The interrelation between cognitive and motor development in typically developing children aged 4-11 years is underpinned by visual processing and fine manual control.

We charted the interrelation between cognitive and motor skills in typically developing children aged 4-11 years across broad ability measures from standardized tests and investigated the nature of this relationship by examining effects of age and sex. Results indicated a significant, moderate correlation between gross cognitive and motor scores across all participants. Correlations between indices of the standardized measures and a principal component analysis revealed that visual processing (VP) and fine manual control (FMC) largely accounted for the interrelation between the overall domains. Age and sex affected the strength of gross correlation: 7-year-olds showed a weaker correlation than all other ages and females exhibited a significantly stronger correlation than males. However, the correlation between VP and FMC was constant across all age and sex groups, except 4-year-old males. These findings advance evidence that from an early age, cognitive and motor development is linked by elucidating the underlying nature of this relationship. These results have important implications for clinical, educational, and experimental practice.

Effects of hydrocephalus after cerebellar tumor: a case-by-case approach.

Although hydrocephalus affects approximately 80% of children with a posterior fossa tumor, its impact on neurodevelopmental outcomes remains unclear. We investigated the effects of hydrocephalus severity on the development of cognitive, motor, academic, and attention skills in 15 children with cerebellar injury after treatment for a tumor sustained during preschool years. Significant impairment was indicated by scores 2 S.D.s or more below the test norm mean. Results indicated substantial intra-individual and interindividual variation, with little consistent influence of hydrocephalus severity on outcomes. Generally, children with moderate hydrocephalus were least impaired, but the child without hydrocephalus performed most poorly. Those who received a shunt generally performed higher on many of the cognitive, but not motor, tests. Thus, when considering differences within and across individuals, neither hydrocephalus severity nor shunt placement alone is a strong predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Development of cognitive and motor function following cerebellar tumour injury sustained in early childhood.

We investigated the interrelation between cognitive and motor development and the role of the cerebellum in this relationship by examining performance in each of these domains in 15 children with injury to the cerebellum following tumour before 5 years of age and 242 typically developing control children aged 4-11 years. Each child was given a comprehensive standardised battery of cognitive and motor tests. Results showed depressed levels of performance for the cerebellar patients across both domains at the group level but considerable variation in individual profiles. However, a significant, positive correlation between cognitive and motor skill was found for both the patient and control group, suggesting these domains are developmentally linked. In addition, the effects of several potential moderating variables were explored. Results showed the most reliable predictors of outcome were age at diagnosis and tumour type/treatment. These results suggest that both cognitive and motor skill can be compromised following tumour in the cerebellum in early childhood leading to delayed, but qualitatively typical, development in both domains.