Age-related changes in how 5- to 8-year-old children use and execute finger-based strategies in arithmetic.

To determine how young children use and execute finger-based strategies, 5- to 8-year-olds were asked to solve simple addition problems under a choice condition (i.e., they could choose finger-based or non-finger strategies on each problem) and under two no-choice conditions (one in which they needed to use finger-based strategies on all problems and one in which they could not use finger-based strategies).

Physical modeling of embryonic transcriptomes identifies collective modes of gene expression.

Starting from one totipotent cell, complex multicellular organisms form through a series of differentiation and morphogenetic events, culminating in a multitude of cell types arranged in a functional and intricate spatial pattern. To do so, cells coordinate with each other, resulting in dynamics which follow a precise developmental trajectory, constraining the space of possible embryo-to-embryo variation. Using recent single-cell sequencing data of early ascidian embryos, we leverage natural variation together with modeling and inference techniques from statistical physics to investigate development at the level of a complete interconnected embryo - an embryonic transcriptome.

France needs a chief science adviser.

France is at a crossroads, facing environmental and social challenges that are profoundly altering its society. Yet, the French government keeps prioritizing short-term political gains over long-term evidence-based planning for major transitions that France, like most countries, will undergo over the next 20 years. There is an urgent need for France to implement long-term science-informed policy-making.

Are There Age-Related Differences in Effects of Positive and Negative Emotions in Arithmetic?

We investigated effects of emotions on arithmetic problem-solving and age-related differences in these effects. Young and older adults verified addition problems displayed superimposed on emotionally negative, positive, or neutral pictures. Participants obtained poorer performance in emotion than in neutral conditions, with stronger interference by negative than positive emotions.

Aging, emotion, and cognition: The role of strategies.

In three experiments, I examined the role of emotions in arithmetic and investigated how this role changes with aging. I adopted a strategy approach and examined strategic aspects of participants' performance under emotionally neutral and negative conditions. The data showed that negative emotions led participants to (a) use fewer strategies and change how often they used each available strategy (Experiment 1), (b) select the better strategy on each problem less often while solving both easier and harder problems (Experiment 2), and (c) obtain poorer performance (Experiments 1 and 3), even when strategy repertoire, distribution, and selection were controlled.

How Distracting Events Influence Young and Older adults' Arithmetic Performance?

In this study, I investigated the role of distraction on arithmetic performance and whether this role changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to verify one-digit addition problems (Expt. 1) or to estimate the results of two-digit multiplication problems (Expt.

The influence of irrelevant emotionally negative stimuli on early and late retrospective metacognitive judgements.

It is well established that negative emotions influence a range of cognitive processes. How these emotions influence the metacognitive judgement individuals make about their own performance and whether this influence is similar depending on the conditions under which metacognition is assessed, however, is far less understood. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether exposure to emotional stimuli could influence metacognitive judgements made under short or long time constraints.

Emotions and arithmetic in children.

How do negative emotions influence arithmetic performance and how such influence changes with age during childhood? To address these issues, I used a within-trial emotion induction procedure while children solve arithmetic problems. More specifically, 8-15 year-old participants (N = 207) solved arithmetic problems (8 + 4 = 13. True? False?) that were displayed superimposed on emotionally negative or neutral pictures.

Influence of emotional stimuli on metacognition: A study in arithmetic.

We investigate the role of negative emotional stimuli on direct and indirect metacognition, and document age-related differences in this role during adulthood. Participants were presented with negative or neutral pictures while asked to select which of two available strategies was the better strategy to find approximate estimates of two-digit multiplication problems. Following each strategy selection, participants provided either a direct (confidence judgment; Expt.

How do distracting events influence children's arithmetic performance?

To understand how distraction influences children's arithmetic performance, we examined effects of irrelevant sounds on children's performance while they solve arithmetic problems. Third and fifth graders were asked to verify true/false, one-digit addition problems (e.g.

How negative emotions affect young and older adults' numerosity estimation performance.

In this study, we investigated the influence of negative emotions on numerosity estimation and whether this influence changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to estimate and compare the numerosity of collections of elements (cars or dots) with a two-digit number. Collections of elements were preceded by emotionally neutral (e.

Protein kinases and protein phosphatases encoded in the Ciona robusta genome.

Protein kinases (PKs) and protein phosphatases (PPs) regulate the phosphorylation of proteins that are involved in a variety of biological processes. To study such biological processes systematically, it is important to know the whole repertoire of PKs and PPs encoded in a genome. In the present study, we surveyed the genome of an ascidian (Ciona robusta or Ciona intestinalis type A) to comprehensively identify the genes that encoded PKs and PPs.

Methods for the Study of Apical Constriction During Ascidian Gastrulation.

Gastrulation is the first major morphogenetic event during ascidian embryogenesis. Ascidian gastrulation begins with the invagination of the endodermal progenitors, a two-step process driven by individual cell shape changes of endoderm cells. During the first step, endoderm cells constrict apically, thereby flattening the vegetal side of the embryo.

Effects of presentation modality and duration on children's strategy use: A study in computational estimation.

Two experiments were run to determine how presentation modality and duration influence children's arithmetic performance and strategy selection. Third and fourth graders were asked to find estimates for two-digit addition problems (e.g.

Age-related differences in how negative emotions influence arithmetic performance.

In this study, we investigated the role of negative emotions on arithmetic and whether this role changes with aging during adulthood. Young and older adults were asked to verify one-digit addition problems (Experiment 1) and to estimate the results of two-digit multiplication problems (Experiment 2). In both experiments, easier and harder problems were displayed superimposed on emotionally neutral (e.

Mechanical and genetic control of ascidian endoderm invagination during gastrulation.

Gastrulation is a near universal developmental process of animal embryogenesis, during which dramatic morphogenetic events take place: the mesodermal and endodermal tissues are internalized, the ectoderm spreads to cover the embryo surface, and the animal body plan and germ layers are established. Morphogenesis during gastrulation has long been considered the result of spatio-temporally localised forces driven by the transcriptional programme of the embryo. Recent work has shown that tissue rheological properties, which define the mechanical response of tissues to internally-generated or external forces, are also important dynamic regulators of gastrulation.

Effects of prior-task failure on arithmetic performance: A study in young and older adults.

Effects of prior-task failure (i.e., decreased performance on a target task following failure on a prior task) were tested in young and older adults.

Alzheimer's disease disrupts domain-specific and domain-general processes in numerosity estimation.

Introduction: This study investigated how Alzheimer's Disease (AD) affects numerosity estimation abilities (e.g., finding the approximate number of items in a collection).

A Nodal/Eph signalling relay drives the transition from apical constriction to apico-basal shortening in ascidian endoderm invagination.

Gastrulation is the first major morphogenetic event during animal embryogenesis. Ascidian gastrulation starts with the invagination of 10 endodermal precursor cells between the 64- and late 112-cell stages. This process occurs in the absence of endodermal cell division and in two steps, driven by myosin-dependent contractions of the acto-myosin network.

Contact area-dependent cell communication and the morphological invariance of ascidian embryogenesis.

Marine invertebrate ascidians display embryonic reproducibility: Their early embryonic cell lineages are considered invariant and are conserved between distantly related species, despite rapid genomic divergence. Here, we address the drivers of this reproducibility. We used light-sheet imaging and automated cell segmentation and tracking procedures to systematically quantify the behavior of individual cells every 2 minutes during embryogenesis.

Cultural Differences in Susceptibility to Stereotype Threat: France versus India.

Objectives: Negative aging stereotypes make older adults perform below their true potential in a number of cognitive domains. This phenomenon, known as Age-Based Stereotype Threat, is currently viewed as a powerful factor contributing to an overestimation of cognitive decline in normal aging. However, age-based stereotype threat has been investigated almost exclusively in Western countries.

Assaying Chromatin Accessibility Using ATAC-Seq in Invertebrate Chordate Embryos.

-regulatory elements (CREs) are non-coding DNA regions involved in the spatio-temporal regulation of gene expression. Gene regulatory changes drive animal development and play major roles during evolution of animal body plans. Therefore, we believe that determining CREs at different developmental stages and across animal lineages is critical to understand how evolution operates through development.

Age-Related Changes in Verbal Working Memory Strategies.

: Maintenance in verbal working memory is thought to rely on two main systems: a phonological and a semantic system. The three objectives of the present study were to clarify how these systems are organized and interact, to examine whether their involvement in maintenance changes with aging, and to identify which underlying mechanism accounts for both age-related changes in the available set of mechanisms and immediate recall.: To address these issues, we examined age-related changes in strategic aspects of maintenance of information in working memory.

How Emotions Modulate Arithmetic Performance.

The goal of the present study was to test whether and how emotions influence arithmetic performance. Participants had to verify arithmetic problems. True problems were either easier or harder problems.