Improving time discrimination in children and adults in a temporal bisection task: the effects of feedback and no forced choice on decision and memory processes.

In children aged 5 and 8 years old as well as in adults, Experiment 1 tested the effect of feedback on temporal performance using a bisection task. Experiment 2 added a no-forced-choice condition by giving the participants the possibility of responding "I don't know". The results of Experiment 1 showed that providing feedback increased the bisection point value (point of subjective equality) in all age groups and increased sensitivity to time in the youngest children.

Time, number and length: similarities and differences in discrimination in adults and children.

The aim of this study was to focus on similarities in the discrimination of three different quantities--time, number, and line length--using a bisection task involving children aged 5 and 8 years and adults, when number and length were presented nonsequentially (Experiment 1) and sequentially (Experiment 2). In the nonsequential condition, for all age groups, although to a greater extent in the younger children, the psychophysical functions were flatter, and the Weber ratio higher for time than for number and length. Number and length yielded similar psychophysical functions.

Perceived social support and locus of control after a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Research Design: The aim of the study was to investigate the social rehabilitation related to the perceived social support and the locus of control (LC) of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods And Procedures: A group of 46 patients 3-5 years after injury was evaluated. For the social rehabilitation, patients were categorized as 'high rehabilitation' or 'low rehabilitation' as regards vocational rehabilitation.

Extraction of proteins from slaughterhouse by-products: Influence of operating conditions on functional properties.

This study investigated the extraction and functional properties of proteins from slaughterhouse by-products: pork lungs, beef lungs and mechanically deboned chicken meat (MDCM). The extraction yield was investigated as a function of pH, temperature and time. Membrane technology was used for purification of proteins from pork and beef lungs, while for MDCM a method based on PI was applied.

A further investigation of the filled-duration illusion with a comparison between children and adults.

This study investigated the filled duration illusion in children in comparison to adults, using a temporal bisection task with two ranges of anchor durations (1 vs. 4s and 2 vs. 8s).

A comparison of algorithms for a complete backtranslation of oligopeptides.

In the context of new metabolic pathways discovery, a full backtranslation of oligopeptides can be a promising approach. When studying complex environments where the composing microorganisms are unknown it is also preferable to have all the complete nucleic sequences corresponding to an enzyme of interest. In this paper, we revisit the existing bioinformatics applications, which bring partial reverse translation solutions, and we compare two algorithms based on oligopeptide degeneracy able to efficiently compute a complete backtranslation of oligopeptides.

PhylArray: phylogenetic probe design algorithm for microarray.

Motivation: Microbial diversity is still largely unknown in most environments, such as soils. In order to get access to this microbial 'black-box', the development of powerful tools such as microarrays are necessary. However, the reliability of this approach relies on probe efficiency, in particular sensitivity, specificity and explorative power, in order to obtain an image of the microbial communities that is close to reality.

Testing the representation of time in reference memory in the bisection and the generalization task: the utility of a developmental approach.

This study examined the effect of the variability of representation of durations in reference memory on temporal discrimination performance in children aged 5 and 8 years as well as in adults using a bisection (Experiment 1) and a generalization task (Experiment 2). In each task, the participants were familiarized before the blocks of tested trials with either the same referent duration values (fixed condition) or a distribution of referent duration values, with a mean equal to the referent durations used in the fixed condition and a .20 coefficient of variation (variable condition).

Cycling peak power in obese and lean 6- to 8-year-old girls and boys.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible effect of the difference in percentage body fat (%BF) and fat-free mass (FFM) on cycling peak power (CPP) in 6- to 8-year-old obese and lean untrained girls and boys. Obese (35 girls, 35 boys) and lean (35 girls, 35 boys) children were measured for obesity, %BF, calculated from skinfold measurements. FFM was calculated as body mass (BM) minus body fat.

Anger and time perception in children.

The present study investigated age-related variations in judgments of the duration of angry facial expressions compared with neutral facial expressions. Children aged 3, 5, and 8 years were tested on a temporal bisection task using angry and neutral female faces. Results revealed that, in all age groups, children judged the duration of angry faces to be longer than that of neutral faces.

Sensory modality and time perception in children and adults.

This experiment investigated the effect of signal modality on time perception in 5- and 8-year-old children as well as young adults using a duration bisection task in which auditory and visual signals were presented in the same test session and shared common anchor durations. Durations were judged shorter for visual than for auditory signals by all age groups. However, the magnitude of this modality difference was larger in the children than in the adults.

A further analysis of time bisection behavior in children with and without reference memory: the similarity and the partition task.

Experiment 1 compared the temporal performance of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds and adults in a bisection task with and without referent durations (similarity vs. partition). The results showed that temporal sensitivity was lower in the partition than in the similarity condition in children, whereas it was similar in these two conditions in the adults.

Counting in a time discrimination task in children and adults.

The present study investigated in 5- and 8-year-olds, as well as in adults, the effect of verbal counting on temporal discrimination behavior in a generalization task with two duration ranges in order to test the scalar timing property. The results showed that counting improved temporal sensitivity in all age groups, although sensitivity to time remained lower in the younger children. Furthermore, in the 5-year-olds, the temporal generalization behavior conformed well to the scalar property of variance both in the counting and the non-counting condition.

The long-term retention of time: a developmental study.

Two experiments investigated the age-related changes in long-term retention of duration and their effects on time judgement. Children aged 3, 5, and 8 years old were given a temporal bisection task with or without a 15-min interfering task (Experiment 1), or a retention delay lasting for 0 min, 15 min, or 24 hr (Experiment 2) between the presentation of the standard durations and the comparison stimulus durations. An interfering task and the increase of the retention delay significantly decreased the time sensitivity in the 3- and the 5-year-olds, and to a greater extent in the younger children, but had no effect in the 8-year-olds.

The effect of feedback on timing in children and adults: the temporal generalization task.

Children aged 5 and 8 years and adults were tested on a temporal generalization task with a standard duration of 600 ms in a condition with or without corrective feedback. In all conditions, the participants produced orderly temporal generalization gradients, although these were flatter in the younger children, especially in the no-feedback condition. Nevertheless, the results show that the feedback increased the steepness of the generalization gradient in all age groups and in a greater extent in the younger children.

High-intensity intermittent activities at school: controversies and facts.

In comparison to continuous aerobic type activity, little is known about high-intensity intermittent physical activity in children. Repeated short-term high-intensity activities (> maximal aerobic speed and <10 s) are more characteristic of the spontaneous physical activity of children. Recent studies have shown during repetitive bouts of sprints separated by short recovery intervals, that prepubescent children compared with adults are more able to maintain their performance without substantial fatigue.

Modalities of submaximal exercises on ratings of perceived exertion by young girls: a pilot study.

This pilot study compared the rating of perceived exertion scores (RPE) in young girls for two modalities of exercises (running vs cycling) performed at the same absolute heart rate. 23 girls, ages 8 to 11 years, from a gymnastic club performed graded, intermittent, and submaximal running and cycling exercises at a similar absolute heart rate (+/-5 bpm). These exercises consisted of three stages of 3 min.

GoArrays: highly dynamic and efficient microarray probe design.

Motivation: The use of oligonucleotide microarray technology requires a very detailed attention to the design of specific probes spotted on the solid phase. These problems are far from being commonplace since they refer to complex physicochemical constraints. Whereas there are more and more publicly available programs for microarray oligonucleotide design, most of them use the same algorithm or criteria to design oligos, with only little variation.

Augmented reality in spine surgery: critical appraisal and status of development.

In spinal surgery, computer assistance in the operating room is gaining fast-paced acceptance, but it would be simplistic to imagine that added technology is systematically beneficial to the patient. As surgeons are not experts in computer technology, there is a tendency to abandon the evaluation to the market and say the best will emerge. Based on our experience with the development of our own system and confronted with the emergence of new systems adopting solutions we had rejected, we propose a framework to compare various systems between them.

Perception of the duration of auditory and visual stimuli in children and adults.

This experiment investigated the effect of modality on temporal discrimination in children aged 5 and 8 years and adults using a bisection task with visual and auditory stimuli ranging from 200 to 800 ms. In the first session, participants were required to compare stimulus durations with standard durations presented in the same modality (within-modality session), and in the second session in different modalities (cross-modal session). Psychophysical functions were orderly in all age groups, with the proportion of long responses (judgement that a duration was more similar to the long than to the short standard) increasing with the stimulus duration, although functions were flatter in the 5-year-olds than in the 8-year-olds and adults.

Alerting attention and time perception in children.

This experiment investigated the effect of a signal (i.e., a click) warning of the arrival of a stimulus to be timed on temporal discrimination in children aged 3, 5, and 8 years (N=86), using a bisection task with visual stimuli ranging from 0.

Scalar timing in temporal generalization in children with short and long stimulus durations.

This experiment investigated temporal generalization performance in children aged 3, 5, and 8 years by using auditory stimulus durations where the standard was 0.4 s or 4.0 s, and non-standard stimuli were spaced linearly around the standard.

Short-term muscle power during growth and maturation.

During growth and maturation, the study of very brief high-intensity exercise has not received the same attention from researchers as, for instance, aerobic function. In anaerobic tasks or sports events such as sprint cycling, jumping or running, the children's performance is distinctly lower than that of adults. This partly reflects children's lesser ability to generate mechanical energy from chemical energy sources during short-term intensive activity.

Speeding up an internal clock in children? Effects of visual flicker on subjective duration.

Children of 3, 5, and 8 years of age were trained on a temporal bisection task where visual stimuli in the form of blue circles of 200 and 800 ms or 400 and 1600 ms duration, preceded by a 5-s white circle, served as the short and long standards. Following discrimination training between the standards, stimuli in the ranges 20-800 ms or 400-1,600 ms were presented with the white circle either constant or flickering. Relative to the constant white circle, the flicker (1) increased the proportion of "long" responses (responses appropriate to the long standard), (2) shifted the psychophysical functions to the left, (3) decreased bisection point values, at all ages, and (4) did not systematically affect measures of temporal sensitivity, such as difference limen and Weber ratio.

Temporal generalization in 3- to 8-year-old children.

Children aged 3, 5, and 8 years were tested on temporal generalization with visual stimuli. Different groups received 4- and 8-s standards. Gradients at all ages superimposed when plotted on the same relative scale, indicating underlying scalar timing.