A developmental dissociation of view-dependent and view-invariant object recognition in adolescence

Spatial generalization skills in school children aged 8-16 were studied with regard to unfamiliar objects that had been previously learned in a cross-modal priming and learning paradigm. We observed a developmental dissociation with younger children recognizing objects only from previously learnt perspectives whereas older children generalized acquired object knowledge to new viewpoints as well. Haptic and - to a lesser extent - visual priming improved spatial generalization in all but the youngest children. The data supports the idea of dissociable, view-dependent and view-invariant object representations with different developmental trajectories that are subject to modulatory effects of priming. Late-developing areas in the parietal or the prefrontal cortex may account for the retarded onset of view-invariant object recognition. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developmental trajectories of part-based and configural object recognition in adolescence.

Three experiments assessed the development of children's part and configural (part-relational) processing in object recognition during adolescence. In total, 312 school children aged 7-16 years and 80 adults were tested in 3-alternative forced choice (3-AFC) tasks. They judged the correct appearance of upright and inverted presented familiar animals, artifacts, and newly learned multipart objects, which had been manipulated either in terms of individual parts or part relations. Manipulation of part relations was constrained to either metric (animals, artifacts, and multipart objects) or categorical (multipart objects only) changes. For animals and artifacts, even the youngest children were close to adult levels for the correct recognition of an individual part change. By contrast, it was not until 11-12 years of age that they achieved similar levels of performance with regard to altered metric part relations. For the newly learned multipart objects, performance was equivalent throughout the tested age range for upright presented stimuli in the case of categorical part-specific and part-relational changes. In the case of metric manipulations, the results confirmed the data pattern observed for animals and artifacts. Together, the results provide converging evidence, with studies of face recognition, for a surprisingly late consolidation of configural-metric relative to part-based object recognition.

Earlier development of analytical than holistic object recognition in adolescence

Background. Previous research has shown that object recognition may develop well into late childhood and adolescence. The present study extends that research and reveals novel differences in holistic and analytic recognition performance in 7-12 year olds compared to that seen in adults. We interpret our data within a hybrid model of object recognition that proposes two parallel routes for recognition (analytic vs. holistic) modulated by attention. Methodology / Principal Findings. Using a repetition-priming paradigm, we found in Experiment 1 that children showed no holistic priming, but only analytic priming. Given that holistic priming might be thought to be more ‘primitive’, we confirmed in Experiment 2 that our surprising finding was not because children’s analytic recognition was merely a result of name repetition. Conclusions / Significance. Our results suggest a developmental primacy of analytic object recognition. By contrast, holistic object recognition skills appear to emerge with a much more protracted trajectory extending into late adolescence.

Developmental dissociation of analytical and holistic object recognition in adolescence

Previous research (e.g., Jüttner et al, 2013, Developmental Psychology, 49, 161-176) has shown that object recognition may develop well into late childhood and adolescence. The present study extends that research and reveals novel di erences in holistic and analytic recognition performance in 7-11 year olds compared to that seen in adults. We interpret our data within Hummel’s hybrid model of object recognition (Hummel, 2001, Visual Cognition, 8, 489-517) that proposes two parallel routes for recognition (analytic vs. holistic) modulated by attention. Using a repetition-priming paradigm, we found in Experiment 1 that children showed no holistic priming, but only analytic priming. Given that holistic priming might be thought to be more ‘primitive’, we confirmed in Experiment 2 that our surprising finding was not because children’s analytic recognition was merely a result of name repetition. Our results suggest a developmental primacy of analytic object recognition. By contrast, holistic object recognition skills appear to emerge with a much more protracted trajectory extending into late adolescence

Developmental commonalities between object and face recognition in adolescence

In the visual perception literature, the recognition of faces has often been contrasted with that of non-face objects, in terms of differences with regard to the role of parts, part relations and holistic processing. However, recent evidence from developmental studies has begun to blur this sharp distinction. We review evidence for a protracted development of object recognition that is reminiscent of the well-documented slow maturation observed for faces. The prolonged development manifests itself in a retarded processing of metric part relations as opposed to that of individual parts and offers surprising parallels to developmental accounts of face recognition, even though the interpretation of the data is less clear with regard to holistic processing. We conclude that such results might indicate functional commonalities between the mechanisms underlying the recognition of faces and non-face objects, which are modulated by different task requirements in the two stimulus domains.

Dissociation of detection and evaluation of facial expressions in adolescence

Holistic face perception, i.e. the mandatory integration of featural information across the face, hasbeen considered to play a key role when recognizing emotional face expressions (e.g., Tanaka et al.,2002). However, despite their early onset holistic processing skills continue to improvethroughout adolescence (e.g., Schwarzer et al., 2010) and therefore might modulate theevaluation of facial expressions. We tested this hypothesis using an attentional blink (AB)paradigm to compare the impact of happy, fearful and neutral faces in adolescents (10–13 years)and adults on subsequently presented neutral target stimuli (animals, plants and objects) in a rapidserial visual presentation stream. Adolescents and adults were found to be equally reliable whenreporting the emotional expression of the face stimuli. However, the detection of emotional butnot neutral faces imposed a significantly stronger AB effect on the detection of the neutral targetsin adults compared to adolescents. In a control experiment we confirmed that adolescents ratedemotional faces lower in terms of valence and arousal than adults. The results suggest a protracteddevelopment of the ability to evaluate facial expressions that might be attributed to the latematuration of holistic processing skills.

Stressors, mediators, and health care outcomes of home enteral nutrition in family caregivers and their older adult care recipients

Family caregivers manage home enteral nutrition (HEN) for over 77% of an estimated 1 of every 400 Medicare recipients. Increasing usage of HEN in older adults combined with reliance on family caregivers raises concerns for the quality, outcomes, and costs of care. These concerns are relevant in light of Medicare limitations on nursing assistance and non-reimbursement for nutrition services, despite annual costs of over $600 million. This study applied stress process theories to assess stressor, mediator, and outcome variables salient to HEN and caregiving. In-home structured interviews occurred with a multi-ethnic sample of 30 caregiving dyads at 1–3 months after discharge on HEN. Care recipients were aged ≥60 (M = 68.4 years) and did not have dementia. Caregivers were aged ≥21, unpaid, and lived within 45 minutes of care recipients. Caregivers performed an average of 19.7 tasks daily for 61.9 hours weekly. Training needs were identified for 33 functional, care management, technical, and nutritional tasks. Preparedness scores were low (M = 1.73/4.0), and positively correlated with competence, self-rated quality of care and positive feelings, and negatively with overload, role captivity, and negative feelings (Ps < .05). Caregivers had multiple changes in lifestyle and dietary behaviors. Lifestyle changes positively correlated with overload, and negatively with preparedness and positive feelings. Dietary changes positively correlated with number of tasks, overload, role captivity and negative feelings, and negatively with preparedness (Ps < .01). Fifty-seven percent of caregivers aged >50 were at nutrition risk. Care recipients fared worse. Average weight change was −4.35 pounds (P < .001). Physical complications interrupted daily enteral infusions. Water intake was half of fluid need and associated with signs of dehydration (P < .001). Physical and social function was poor, with older subjects more impaired ( P < .04). Those with better prepared or less overloaded caregivers had higher functionality and QOL (P < .002). Complications, type of feeding tube, and caregiver preparedness correlated with frequency of health care utilization (Ps < .05). Efficacy of HEN in older adults requires specialized caregiver training, attention to caregivers' needs, and frequent monitoring from a highly skilled multidisciplinary team including dietitians. ^

Concept maps as a tool to analyze the ideas of teacher training students regarding what to teach on human nutrition in Primary Education

Concept maps are a technique used to obtain a visual representation of a person's ideas about a concept or a set of related concepts. Specifically, in this paper, through a qualitative methodology, we analyze the concept maps proposed by 52 groups of teacher training students in order to find out the characteristics of the maps and the degree of adequacy of the contents with regard to the teaching of human nutrition in the 3rd cycle of primary education. The participants were enrolled in the Teacher Training Degree majoring in Primary Education, and the data collection was carried out through a training activity under the theme of what to teach about Science in Primary School? The results show that the maps are a useful tool for working in teacher education as they allow organizing, synthesizing, and communicating what students know. Moreover, through this work, it has been possible to see that future teachers have acceptable skills for representing the concepts/ideas in a concept map, although the level of adequacy of concepts/ideas about human nutrition and its relations is usually medium or low. These results are a wake-up call for teacher training, both initial and ongoing, because they shows the inability to change priorities as far as the selection of content is concerned.

The impact of childhood residential mobility on mental health outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood: a record linkage study.

Background Understanding the causes of poor mental health in early childhood and adolescence is important as this can be a significant determinant of mental well-being in later years. One potential and relatively unexplored factor is residential mobility in formative years. Previous studies have been relatively small and potentially limited due to methodological issues. The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between early residential instability and poor mental health among adolescents and young adults in Northern Ireland.

Methods A Census-based record linkage study of 28% of children aged 0–8 years in 2001 in Northern Ireland (n=49 762) was conducted, with six monthly address change assessments from health registration data and self-reported mental health status from the 2011 Census. Logistic regression models were built adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES), household composition and marital dissolution.

Results There was a graded relationship between the number of address changes and mental ill-health (adjusted OR 3.67, 95% CIs 2.11 to 6.39 for 5 or more moves). This relationship was not modified by SES or household composition. Marital dissolution was associated with poor mental health but did not modify the relationship between address change and mental health (p=0.206). There was some indication that movement after the age of five was associated with an increased likelihood of poor mental health.

Conclusions This large study clearly confirms the close relationship between address change in early years and later poor mental health. Residential mobility may be a useful marker for children at risk of poorer mental health in adolescence and early adulthood