Formación universitaria a distancia para la inserción laboral de personas con discapacidad intelectualUna experiencia en la UNED / University Distance Learning for the Labor Market Integration of People with Intellectual Disabilities: An Experience at UNED

El presente artículo describe una experiencia de formación universitaria a distancia, la cual se ha basado en los principios del diseño universal para el aprendizaje y la accesibilidad cognitiva para promover la inserción laboral de personas con discapacidad intelectual. El principal objetivo de esta experiencia formativa fue contribuir al desarrollo de competencias que ayudaran a estudiantes con discapacidad intelectual a avanzar en su actualización profesional para la inserción laboral en la Administración Pública española. Participaron 179 personas con discapacidad intelectual. Los resultados mostraron una tasa de éxito del 89 % y una tasa de abandono del 11 %. A través de un cuestionario ad hoc, se evaluó el grado de satisfacción de los diferentes elementos del diseño curricular de esta experiencia de aprendizaje a distancia. En particular, los participantes mostraron índices de satisfacción elevada con los contenidos seleccionados, los materiales y recursos multimedia disponibles en el aula virtual, así como con los posibles beneficios de la instrucción de estrategias de autorregulación emocional. Cabe concluir que el diseño curricular implementado ha sido muy satisfactorio y ha mejorado las habilidades para el empleo que propicien la inserción laboral de los estudiantes. (AU)

This paper focuses on the description of an experience carried out in a Spanish distance university, which was based on the principles of universal design for learning and cognitive accessibility to promote the labour insertion of people with intellectual disabilities. The main objective of the training proposal was to contribute to the development of some competencies that would help students with intellectual disabilities to improve their professional updating for job placement in the Spanish Public Administration. A total of 179 people with intellectual disabilities participated in the course. The results evidenced a high success rate of 89% and a low dropout rate of 11%. Through an ad hoc questionnaire, we evaluated the degree of learners´ satisfaction with different elements of the curricular design for this online learning experience. Particularly, participants reported high satisfaction rates with the selected contents, educational materials and multimedia resources available in the virtual classroom, as well as with the possible benefits of the instruction of emotional self-regulation strategies. It can be concluded that the instructional design has led to high satisfaction and improved the employability abilities of the students to deal with the labour market. (AU)

Executive Functions and Improvement of Thinking: An Intervention Program to Enhance Deductive Reasoning Abilities.

Empirical and theoretical advances and application to society are moved at different speed. Application work is frequently developed later because it requires the integration of knowledge from different research areas. In the present paper, we integrate literature coming from diverse areas of research in order to design a deductive reasoning intervention, based on the involved executive functions. Executive functions include working memory (WM)'s online executive processes and other off-line functions such as task revising and planning. Deductive reasoning is a sequential thinking process driven by reasoners' meta-deductive knowledge and goals that requires the construction and manipulation of representations. We present a new theoretical view about the relationship between executive function and higher-level thinking, a critical analysis of the possibilities and limitations of cognitive training, and a metacognitive training procedure on executive functions to improve deductive reasoning. This procedure integrates direct instruction on deduction and meta-deductive concepts (consistency, necessity) and strategies (search for counterexamples and exhaustivity), together with the simultaneous training of WM and executive functions involved: Focus and switch attention, update WM representations, inhibit and revise intuitive responses, and control the emotional stress yielded by tasks. Likewise, it includes direct training of some complex WM tasks that demands people to carry out similar cognitive assignment than deduction. Our training program would be included in the school curriculum and attempts not only to improve deductive reasoning in experimental tasks, but also to increase students' ability to uncover fallacies in discourse, to automatize some basic logical skills, and to be able to use logical intuitions.

The role of working memory updating, inhibition, fluid intelligence, and reading comprehension in explaining differences between consistent and inconsistent arithmetic word-problem-solving performance.

Children's performance in arithmetic word problems (AWPs) predicts their academic success and their future employment and earnings in adulthood. Understanding the nature and difficulties of interpreting and solving AWPs is important for theoretical, educational, and social reasons. We investigated the relation between primary school children's performance in different types of AWPs and their basic cognitive abilities (reading comprehension, fluid intelligence, inhibition, and updating processes). The study involved 182 fourth- and fifth-graders. Participants were administered an AWP-solving task and other tasks assessing fluid intelligence, reading comprehension, inhibition, and updating. The AWP-solving task included comparison problems incorporating either the adverb more than or the adverb less than, which demand consistent or inconsistent operations of addition or subtraction. The results showed that consistent problems were easier than inconsistent problems. Efficiency in solving inconsistent problems is related to inhibition and updating. Moreover, our results seem to indicate that the consistency effect is related to updating processes' efficiency. Path analyses showed that reading comprehension was the most important predictor of AWP-solving accuracy. Moreover, both executive functions-updating and inhibition-had a distinct and significant effect on AWP accuracy. Fluid intelligence had both direct and indirect effects, mediated by reading comprehension, on the overall measure of AWP performance. These domain-general factors are important factors in explaining children's performance in solving consistent and inconsistent AWPs.

Executive Functions and Improvement of Thinking: An Intervention Program to Enhance Deductive Reasoning Abilities

Empirical and theoretical advances and application to society are moved at different speed. Application work is frequently developed later because it requires the integration of knowledge from different research areas. In the present paper, we integrate literature coming from diverse areas of research in order to design a deductive reasoning intervention, based on the involved executive functions. Executive functions include working memory (WM)’s online executive processes and other off-line functions such as task revising and planning. Deductive reasoning is a sequential thinking process driven by reasoners’ meta-deductive knowledge and goals that requires the construction and manipulation of representations. We present a new theoretical view about the relationship between executive function and higher-level thinking, a critical analysis of the possibilities and limitations of cognitive training, and a metacognitive training procedure on executive functions to improve deductive reasoning. This procedure integrates direct instruction on deduction and meta-deductive concepts (consistency, necessity) and strategies (search for counterexamples and exhaustivity), together with the simultaneous training of WM and executive functions involved: Focus and switch attention, update WM representations, inhibit and revise intuitive responses, and control the emotional stress yielded by tasks. Likewise, it includes direct training of some complex WM tasks that demands people to carry out similar cognitive assignment than deduction. Our training program would be included in the school curriculum and attempts not only to improve deductive reasoning in experimental tasks, but also to increase students’ ability to uncover fallacies in discourse, to automatize some basic logical skills, and to be able to use logical intuitions. (AU)

The Comprehension of Counterfactual Conditionals: Evidence From Eye-Tracking in the Visual World Paradigm.

Three experiments tracked participants' eye-movements to examine the time course of comprehension of the dual meaning of counterfactuals, such as "if there had been oranges then there would have been pears." Participants listened to conditionals while looking at images in the visual world paradigm, including an image of oranges and pears that corresponds to the counterfactual's conjecture, and one of no oranges and no pears that corresponds to its presumed facts, to establish at what point in time they consider each one. The results revealed striking individual differences: some participants looked at the negative image and the affirmative one, and some only at the affirmative image. The first experiment showed that participants who looked at the negative image increased their fixation on it within half a second. The second experiment showed they do so even without explicit instructions, and the third showed they do so even for printed words.

A New Look to a Classic Issue: Reasoning and Academic Achievement at Secondary School.

Higher-order thinking abilities such as abstract reasoning and meaningful school learning occur sequentially. The fulfillment of these tasks demands that people activate and use all of their working memory resources in a controlled and supervised way. The aims of this work were: (a) to study the interplay between two new reasoning measures, one mathematical (Cognitive Reflection Test) and the other verbal (Deductive Reasoning Test), and a third classical visuo-spatial reasoning measure (Raven Progressive Matrices Test); and (b) to investigate the relationship between these measures and academic achievement. Fifty-one 4th grade secondary school students participated in the experiment and completed the three reasoning tests. Academic achievement measures were the final numerical scores in seven basic subjects. The results demonstrated that cognitive reflection, visual, and verbal reasoning are intimately related and predicts academic achievement. This work confirms that abstract reasoning constitutes the most important higher-order cognitive ability that underlies academic achievement. It also reveals the importance of dual processes, verbal deduction and metacognition in ordinary teaching and learning at school.

Efecto diferencial del estilo educativo paterno y materno en la agresividad durante la adolescencia / Differential effect of paternal and maternal parenting style during adolescence

El objetivo principal de este trabajo fue analizar el efecto diferencial de las dimensiones del estilo educativo paterno y materno en la agresividad del adolescente. Participaron 271 estudiantes de entre 10 y 14 años cumplimentando medidas de autoinforme. Los resultados muestran que los chicos puntúan más alto que las chicas en agresividad física y verbal, y que la agresividad física aumenta con la edad. Se encuentra una elevada coincidencia entre las diferentes dimensiones del estilo educativo paterno y materno, así como puntuaciones más elevadas de las madres que de los padres en todas las dimensiones. Los análisis de correlación muestran valores significativos negativos entre casi todas las dimensiones del estilo educativo paterno y materno y la agresividad. El análisis de regresión arroja diferencias en el efecto de las dimensiones estilo educativo parental paterno vs materno sobre la agresividad. Se discuten los resultados respecto al papel del control psicológico y de la promoción de la autonomía por parte de los progenitores en la variación del nivel de agresividad durante la transición de la niñez a la adolescencia

The main goal of the present study was to analyze the differential effect of paternal and maternal parenting styles on aggressiveness during adolescence. The sample was made up of 271 students, aged 10-14, who completed questionnaires. The analysis of the data shows that boys display higher scores in physical and verbal aggressiveness than girls, with physical aggressiveness increasing with age. A high level of coincidence between paternal and maternal parenting style´s dimensions was found as well as higher scores for mothers than fathers in all the dimensions. Correlation analysis shows significant negative values in almost all dimensions of paternal and maternal parenting styles. Regression analysis reveals differences in paternal vs. maternal parenting style regarding aggressiveness. The effect of psychological control and promotion of autonomy on the level of aggressiveness during the transition from childhood to adolescence is discussed

Executive Functions and the Improvement of Thinking Abilities: The Intervention in Reading Comprehension.

In this paper, we propose a preliminary theory of executive functions that address in a specific way their relationship with working memory (WM) and higher-level cognition. It includes: (a) four core on-line WM executive functions that are involved in every novel and complex cognitive task; (b) two higher order off-line executive functions, planning and revision, that are required to resolving the most complex intellectual abilities; and (c) emotional control that is involved in any complex, novel and difficult task. The main assumption is that efficiency on thinking abilities may be improved by specific instruction or training on the executive functions necessary to solving novel and complex tasks involved in these abilities. Evidence for the impact of our training proposal on WM's executive functions involved in higher-level cognitive abilities comes from three studies applying an adaptive program designed to improve reading comprehension in primary school students by boosting the core WM's executive functions involved in it: focusing on relevant information, switching (or shifting) between representations or tasks, connecting incoming information from text with long-term representations, updating of the semantic representation of the text in WM, and inhibition of irrelevant information. The results are consistent with the assumption that cognitive enhancements from the training intervention may have affected not only a specific but also a more domain-general mechanism involved in various executive functions. We discuss some methodological issues in the studies of effects of WM training on reading comprehension. The perspectives and limitations of our approach are finally discussed.

Comprensión lectora y procesos ejecutivos de la memoria operativa / Reading comprehension and working memory's executive processes

En el presente trabajo se estudiaron las relaciones entre los procesos ejecutivos de la memoria operativa, lainteligencia fluida y la comprensión lectora en una muestra de 77 escolares de 3º de Educación Primaria.Asimismo, se analizó la capacidad predictiva de la MO y de la inteligencia fluida con respecto al rendimientoen comprensión lectora. Como se predijo, los resultados mostraron un patrón de correlaciones positivasy significativas: las medidas de comprensión lectora -en particular, inferencias e integración- correlacionaroncon las medidas de los procesos ejecutivos de la MO y de inteligencia fluida. Los análisis de regresiónmostraron que las habilidades cognitivas de alto nivel -actualización semántica en la MO e inteligenciafluida- contribuyen de manera independiente a explicar el 33 % de la varianza en comprensión lectora

The aim of this paper is focused on the relationship of executive processes of working memory and fluidintelligence with reading comprehension, in a group of 77 third-grade primary students. Moreover, westudied the predictive capacity of working memory and fluid intelligence on reading comprehension. Aspredicted, there was a pattern of positive and significant correlations: reading comprehension measures -particularly, inferences and integration- correlated with working memory´s executive processes and fluidintelligence measures. Regression analyses showed that this highest cognitive variables -particularly,semantic updating in working memory, and intelligence- contributed independently to explain a relevantamount of the variance ( 33 %) in reading comprehension measures

A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students / Estudio predictivo de la comprensión lectora en estudiantes españoles de tercero de Primaria

The study of the contribution of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension is an important goal of current reading research. However, reading comprehension is not easily assessed by a single instrument, as different comprehension tests vary in the type of tasks used and in the cognitive demands required. Method: This study examines the contribution of basic language and cognitive skills (decoding, word recognition, reading speed, verbal and nonverbal intelligence and working memory) to reading comprehension, assessed by two tests utilizing various tasks that require different skill sets in third-grade Spanish speaking students. Results: Linguistic and cognitive abilities predicted reading comprehension. A measure of reading speed (the reading time of pseudo-words) was the best predictor of reading comprehension when assessed by the PROLEC-R test. However, measures of word recognition (the orthographic choice task) and verbal working memory were the best predictors of reading comprehension when assessed by means of the DARC test. Conclusion: These results show, on the one hand, that reading speed and word recognition are better predictors of Spanish language comprehension than reading accuracy. On the other, the reading comprehension test applied here serves as a critical variable when analyzing and interpreting results regarding this topic (AU)

Antecedentes: el estudio de la contribución de habilidades lingüísticas y cognitivas a la comprensión lectora es un objetivo relevante de la investigación actual de la lectura. Sin embargo, la comprensión lectora no es fácilmente explicada ni medida por una única prueba ya que los diferentes test de comprensión varían en el tipo de tareas utilizadas y en las demandas cognitivas requeridas. Método: el presente estudio examina la contribución de habilidades lingüísticas y cognitivas (decodificación, reconocimiento de palabras, velocidad lectora, inteligencia verbal y no verbal y memoria de trabajo) a la comprensión lectora, evaluada por dos test que utilizan diferentes tareas y requieren diferentes habilidades. Resultados: la medida de velocidad en pseudopalabras predijo la comprensión evaluada por el test PROLEC-R. Sin embargo, la medida de reconocimiento de palabras (la tarea de elección ortográfica) y la medida de memoria de trabajo verbal predijeron la comprensión medida por el test DARC. Conclusiones: estos resultados muestran, por un lado, que la velocidad lectora y el reconocimiento de palabras son mejores predictores de la comprensión en español que la precisión lectora, y por el otro, que el test de comprensión lectora utilizado es una variable crítica cuando analizamos e interpretamos resultados sobre este tema (AU)

A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students.

BACKGROUND: The study of the contribution of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension is an important goal of current reading research. However, reading comprehension is not easily assessed by a single instrument, as different comprehension tests vary in the type of tasks used and in the cognitive demands required. METHOD: This study examines the contribution of basic language and cognitive skills (decoding, word recognition, reading speed, verbal and nonverbal intelligence and working memory) to reading comprehension, assessed by two tests utilizing various tasks that require different skill sets in third-grade Spanish-speaking students. RESULTS: Linguistic and cognitive abilities predicted reading comprehension. A measure of reading speed (the reading time of pseudo-words) was the best predictor of reading comprehension when assessed by the PROLEC-R test. However, measures of word recognition (the orthographic choice task) and verbal working memory were the best predictors of reading comprehension when assessed by means of the DARC test. CONCLUSION: These results show, on the one hand, that reading speed and word recognition are better predictors of Spanish language comprehension than reading accuracy. On the other, the reading comprehension test applied here serves as a critical variable when analyzing and interpreting results regarding this topic.