Longitudinal assessments of functional near-infrared spectroscopy background functional connectivity in low- and middle-income infants during a social cognition task.

Shortly after birth, human infants demonstrate behavioral selectivity to social stimuli. However, the neural underpinnings of this selectivity are largely unknown. Here, we examine patterns of functional connectivity to determine how regions of the brain interact while processing social stimuli and how these interactions change during the first 2 years of life. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we measured functional connectivity at 6 (n = 147) and 24 (n = 111) months of age in infants from Bangladesh who were exposed to varying levels of environmental adversity (i.e., low- and middle-income cohorts). We employed a background functional connectivity approach that regresses out the effects of stimulus-specific univariate responses that are believed to affect functional connectivity. At 6 months, the two cohorts had similar fNIRS patterns, with moderate connectivity estimates for regions within and between hemispheres. At 24 months, the patterns diverged for the two cohorts. Global (brain-wide) connectivity estimates increased from 6 to 24 months for the low-income cohort and decreased for the middle-income (MI) cohort. In particular, connectivity estimates among regions of interest within the right hemisphere decreased for the MI cohort, providing evidence of neural specialization by 2 years of age. These findings provide insights into the impact of early environmental influences on functional brain development relevant to the processing of social stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Walking another pathway: The inclusion of patterning in the pathways to mathematics model.

According to the Pathways to Mathematics model [LeFevre et al. (2010), Child Development, Vol. 81, pp. 1753-1767], children's cognitive skills in three domains-linguistic, attentional, and quantitative-predict concurrent and future mathematics achievement. We extended this model to include an additional cognitive skill, patterning, as measured by a non-numeric repeating patterning task. Chilean children who attended schools of low or high socioeconomic status (N = 98; 54% girls) completed cognitive measures in kindergarten (Mage = 71 months) and numeracy and mathematics outcomes 1 year later in Grade 1. Patterning and the original three pathways were correlated with the outcomes. Using Bayesian regressions, after including the original pathways and mother's education, we found that patterning skills predicted additional variability in applied problem solving and arithmetic fluency, but not number ordering, in Grade 1. Similarly, patterning skills were included in the best model for applied problem solving and arithmetic fluency, but not for number ordering, in Grade 1. In accord with the hypotheses of the original Pathways to Mathematics model, patterning varied in its unique and relative contributions to later mathematical performance, depending on the demands of the tasks. We conclude that patterning is a useful addition to the Pathways to Mathematics model, providing further insights into the range of cognitive precursors that are related to children's mathematical development.

Paths to postsecondary education enrollment among adolescents with and without childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A longitudinal analysis of symptom and academic trajectories.

We examined developmental trajectories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, standardized achievement, and school performance for adolescents with and without ADHD who did and did not enroll in postsecondary education (PSE; N = 749; 79% boys; 63% White, 17% non-Hispanic Black, 10% Hispanic, and 10% other ethnicities). In a multisite study (recruitment based in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California, and Quebec), participants were originally enrolled between 1994 and 1998 at ages 7 to 9.9 and followed up through 2012 (Mage = 25 at final follow-up). Adolescents who eventually enrolled in PSE had less severe symptoms, but differences were modest and trajectories were similar over time. For all adolescents, standardized achievement trajectories declined up to two thirds of a standard deviation from ages 9 to 17. By the end of high school, the average GPA of adolescents with ADHD was three quarters of a point higher for those who eventually enrolled in PSE compared to those who did not. Overall, school performance mattered more than academic achievement for understanding eventual enrollment of adolescents with ADHD.

Fraction mapping and fraction comparison skills among grade 4 Chinese students: An error analysis.

BACKGROUND: Mapping fraction symbols to magnitudes is easier for students to master than comparing fraction magnitudes. Fraction mapping assesses students' understanding of part-whole interpretations of fractions; fractions represent the parts of an object or set of objects. Fraction comparison assesses students' understanding of measurement interpretations of fractions; a fraction is a single numerical quantity, not a combination of two whole numbers. AIM: To examine and compare the types of errors made by emergent fraction learners on fraction mapping and comparison tasks. SAMPLE: Grade 4 Chinese students (N = 1036; 577 boys; Mage  = 9.9 years). METHOD: We examined performance and identified errors on fraction mapping and comparison tasks. For mapping, students converted pictorial representations into fraction notation. For comparison, they chose the larger of two symbolic fractions. RESULTS: Consistent with curriculum expectations, most students successfully mapped pictorial representations to fraction notation. In contrast, few students were able to accurately compare fraction magnitudes. Within each task, students' errors were consistent across trials, suggesting that they applied systematic but incorrect procedures. However, errors were not consistent between tasks and the correlation between mapping and comparison performance was weak. CONCLUSION: Emergent fraction learners can acquire part-whole knowledge of fractions without acquiring measurement interpretations of fractions. Moreover, misconceptions about different interpretations of fractions need not overlap. Awareness of the types of errors that students make can assist educators in identifying misconceptions early so that students do not build their fraction knowledge on erroneous beliefs.

The subject matters: relations among types of anxiety, ADHD symptoms, math performance, and literacy performance.

In this study, we extended a model of the relations among ADHD symptoms, anxiety, and academic performance. Undergraduates (N = 515) completed self-report measures of anxiety (i.e. trait, test, math, and literacy) and ADHD symptoms. During the study, they completed math and literacy measures and reported their current (i.e. state) anxiety three times. There were significant correlations among ADHD symptoms and all measures of anxiety. However, neither ADHD symptoms nor trait anxiety were correlated with math or literacy performance. Test-anxious students reported increasing state anxiety as the study progressed. In contrast, math-anxious students reported increased state anxiety following the math tasks but not the literacy tasks and literacy-anxious students reported increased state anxiety following the literacy tasks but not the math tasks. With respect to performance, math-anxious students had worse math performance and literacy-anxious students had worse literacy performance whereas test anxiety was not directly related to performance on either math or literacy tasks. Patterns of relations did not differ for men and women, but, except for literacy anxiety, women reported higher levels of all types of anxiety. These results could help educators understand how affective responses are related to university students' academic performance.