The Impact of Motivation on Sustained Attention in Very Preterm and Term-born Children: An ERP Study.

Objective: To compare the effect of motivational features on sustained attention in children born very preterm and at term.

Method: EEG was recorded while 34 8-to-11-year-old children born very preterm and 34 term-born peers completed two variants of a cued continuous performance task (CPT-AX); a standard CPT-AX with basic shape stimuli, and structurally similar variant, with a storyline, familiar characters, and feedback.

Results: Higher hit rates, quicker response times and larger event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes were observed during the motivating, compared with the standard, task.

Transfer of congruency effects between Stroop and multiplication tasks: Evidence that retrieval of multiplication facts requires inhibitory control.

Inhibitory control is classically considered a domain-general process, yet recent findings suggest it may operate in context-specific ways. This has important implications for theories in other cognitive domains, such as mathematics, in which inhibitory control is proposed to play a key role. Inhibitory control has been implicated in resolving interference between competing number facts when retrieving them from memory, yet clear evidence for this is lacking.

Higher level domain specific skills in mathematics; The relationship between algebra, geometry, executive function skills and mathematics achievement.

Algebra and geometry are important components of mathematics that are often considered gatekeepers for future success. However, most studies that have researched the cognitive skills required for success in mathematics have only considered the domain of arithmetic. We extended models of mathematical skills to consider how executive function skills play both a direct role in secondary-school-level mathematical achievement as well as an indirect role via algebra and geometry, alongside arithmetic.

Endogenous control is insufficient for preventing attentional capture in children and adults.

Adults are known to have developed the ability to selectively focus their attention in a goal-driven (endogenous) manner but it is less clear at what stage in development (5-6 & 9-11 years) children can endogenously control their attention and whether they behave similarly to adults when managing distractions. In this study we administered a child-adapted cued visual search task to three age-groups: five- to six-year-olds (N = 45), nine- to eleven-year-olds (N = 42) and adults (N = 42). Participants were provided with a cue which either guided their attention towards or away from an upcoming target.

A comparison of simultaneous and sequential visuo-spatial memory in children born very preterm.

Research suggests that children born very preterm (≤32 weeks' gestation) are at greater risk of impairments in information processing (particularly when information is presented simultaneously rather than sequentially) and visuo-spatial short-term and working memory relative to children born at term. This study compared the performance of children born very preterm with their term-born peers to elucidate the nature of group differences in these areas. 113 children (65 very preterm; 48 term-born) aged 8-to-11 years completed four visuo-spatial recall tasks.

Etiology of persistent mathematics difficulties from childhood to adolescence following very preterm birth.

Children born very preterm (VP; <32 weeks' gestation) have poorer mathematics achievement than term-born peers. This study aimed to determine whether VP children's mathematics difficulties persist from primary to secondary school and to explore the nature of mathematics difficulties in adolescence. For this study, 127 VP and 95 term-born adolescents were assessed at age 11-15 years.

No Excess of Mathematics Anxiety in Adolescents Born Very Preterm.

Objective: To assess whether adolescents born very preterm (VP; <32 weeks' gestation) have an excess of mathematics anxiety compared with their classmates born at term.

Methods: This cohort study included 127 adolescents born VP (51% male, mean age 13.9 years, SD 0.

The Role of Executive Functions in Socioeconomic Attainment Gaps: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

The socioeconomic attainment gap in mathematics starts early and increases over time. This study aimed to examine why this gap exists. Four-year-olds from diverse backgrounds were randomly allocated to a brief intervention designed to improve executive functions (N = 87) or to an active control group (N = 88).

Using drift diffusion modeling to understand inattentive behavior in preterm and term-born children.

Objective: Children born very preterm are at increased risk of inattention, but it remains unclear whether the underlying processes are the same as in their term-born peers. Drift diffusion modeling (DDM) may better characterize the cognitive processes underlying inattention than standard reaction time (RT) measures. This study used DDM to compare the processes related to inattentive behavior in preterm and term-born children.

Improving developmental and educational support for children born preterm: evaluation of an e-learning resource for education professionals.

Objectives: Children born preterm are at higher risk for special educational needs and poor academic attainment compared with term-born peers, yet education professionals receive limited training and have poor knowledge of preterm birth. We have developed an interactive e-learning resource and evaluated its efficacy in improving teachers' knowledge of preterm birth and their confidence in supporting the learning of children born preterm.

Setting: Eight primary, infant or junior schools in England.

Cross-modal interference-control is reduced in childhood but maintained in aging: A cohort study of stimulus- and response-interference in cross-modal and unimodal Stroop tasks.

Interference-control is the ability to exclude distractions and focus on a specific task or stimulus. However, it is currently unclear whether the same interference-control mechanisms underlie the ability to ignore unimodal and cross-modal distractions. In 2 experiments we assessed whether unimodal and cross-modal interference follow similar trajectories in development and aging and occur at similar processing levels.

Understanding arithmetic concepts: The role of domain-specific and domain-general skills.

A large body of research has identified cognitive skills associated with overall mathematics achievement, focusing primarily on identifying associates of procedural skills. Conceptual understanding, however, has received less attention, despite its importance for the development of mathematics proficiency. Consequently, we know little about the quantitative and domain-general skills associated with conceptual understanding.

Cognitive predictors of parent-rated inattention in very preterm children: The role of working memory and processing speed.

Inattention is one of the most common neurobehavioral problems following very preterm birth. Attention problems can persist into adulthood and are associated with negative socio-emotional and educational outcomes. This study aimed to determine whether the cognitive processes associated with inattention differ between term-born and very preterm children.

The threshold for the McGurk effect in audio-visual noise decreases with development.

Across development, vision increasingly influences audio-visual perception. This is evidenced in illusions such as the McGurk effect, in which a seen mouth movement changes the perceived sound. The current paper assessed the effects of manipulating the clarity of the heard and seen signal upon the McGurk effect in children aged 3-6 (n = 29), 7-9 (n = 32) and 10-12 (n = 29) years, and adults aged 20-35 years (n = 32).

Vision dominates audition in adults but not children: A meta-analysis of the Colavita effect.

The Colavita effect occurs when participants respond only to the visual element of an audio-visual stimulus. This visual dominance effect is proposed to arise from asymmetric facilitation and inhibition between modalities. It has also been proposed that, unlike adults, children appear predisposed to auditory information.

From research to evidence-informed decision making: a systematic approach.

Background: Knowledge creation forms an integral part of the knowledge-to-action framework aimed at bridging the gap between research and evidence-informed decision making. Although principles of science communication, data visualisation and user-centred design largely impact the effectiveness of communication, their role in knowledge creation is still limited. Hence, this article aims to provide researchers a systematic approach on how knowledge creation can be put into practice.

Fostering the exchange of real world data across different countries to answer primary care research questions: an UNLOCK study from the IPCRG.

There is growing awareness amongst healthcare planners, providers and researchers of the need to make better use of routinely collected health data by translating it into actionable information that improves efficiency of healthcare and patient outcomes. There is also increased acceptance of the importance of real world research that recruits patients representative of primary care populations and evaluates interventions realistically delivered by primary care professionals. The UNLOCK Group is an international collaboration of primary care researchers and practitioners from 15 countries.

When is working memory important for arithmetic? The impact of strategy and age.

Our ability to perform arithmetic relies heavily on working memory, the manipulation and maintenance of information in mind. Previous research has found that in adults, procedural strategies, particularly counting, rely on working memory to a greater extent than retrieval strategies. During childhood there are changes in the types of strategies employed, as well as an increase in the accuracy and efficiency of strategy execution.

Direct and indirect influences of executive functions on mathematics achievement.

Achievement in mathematics is predicted by an individual's domain-specific factual knowledge, procedural skill and conceptual understanding as well as domain-general executive function skills. In this study we investigated the extent to which executive function skills contribute to these three components of mathematical knowledge, whether this mediates the relationship between executive functions and overall mathematics achievement, and if these relationships change with age. Two hundred and ninety-three participants aged between 8 and 25years completed a large battery of mathematics and executive function tests.

Congruency effects in dot comparison tasks: convex hull is more important than dot area.

The dot comparison task, in which participants select the more numerous of two dot arrays, has become the predominant method of assessing Approximate Number System (ANS) acuity. Creation of the dot arrays requires the manipulation of visual characteristics, such as dot size and convex hull. For the task to provide a valid measure of ANS acuity, participants must ignore these characteristics and respond on the basis of number.

FRESH AIR: an implementation research project funded through Horizon 2020 exploring the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic respiratory diseases in low-resource settings.

This protocol describes FRESH AIR, an implementation science project exploring how to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic lung diseases in contexts with limited healthcare resources. It consists of inter-related studies that take place in four countries that are part of the International Primary Care Respiratory Group's (IPCRG) global network: Uganda, the Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam and Greece. The project has been funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 research programme and runs from October 2015 until September 2018.

Explaining the relationship between number line estimation and mathematical achievement: The role of visuomotor integration and visuospatial skills.

Performance on number line tasks, typically used as a measure of numerical representations, are reliably related to children's mathematical achievement. However, recent debate has questioned what precisely performance on the number line estimation task measures. Specifically, there has been a suggestion that this task may measure not only numerical representations but also proportional judgment skills; if this is the case, then individual differences in visuospatial skills, not just the precision of numerical representations, may explain the relationship between number line estimation and mathematical achievement.

The development of stimulus and response interference control in midchildhood.

Interference control, the ability to overcome distraction from irrelevant information, undergoes considerable improvement during childhood, yet the mechanisms driving these changes remain unclear. The present study investigated the relative influence of interference at the level of the stimulus or the response. Seven-, 10-, and 20-year-olds completed a flanker paradigm in which stimulus and response interference was experimentally manipulated.

Differential modulation of the N2 and P3 event-related potentials by response conflict and inhibition.

Background: Developing reliable and specific neural markers of cognitive processes is essential to improve understanding of healthy and atypical brain function. Despite extensive research there remains uncertainty as to whether two electrophysiological markers of cognitive control, the N2 and P3, are better conceptualised as markers of response inhibition or response conflict. The present study aimed to directly compare the effects of response inhibition and response conflict on the N2 and P3 event-related potentials, within-subjects.