Onko varhaisen tuen päiväkoti mahdollinen? : Tutkimus varhaiskasvatuksen yhteisöllisestä kehittämisestä

Is the early childhood day care facility possible? The research considering communal development of the early education. In Finland mothers and fathers look after 400 000 pre-school children. Half of these attend day care facilities, in which 50 000 staff are employed. The aim of this research is to develop co-operation practices within the day care centre. This research refines and expands my own interest in and knowledge of day care management and content development. The basis of the research draws upon ethnographic material covering the period 1999–2005. The day care centre chosen as a central informant was the first suburban centre founded in 1963, and it provided a rich local and welfare state research perspective. It became clear that the day care facility’s co-operation practices formed the basis of bringing up children and at the same time produced a new multi-operational and multi-layered community for child participation. Adult day care centre workers bringing up the children as a professional work and solutions defining the conditions for the work are expressed in a child’s upbringing. This obviously has an impact in where as the development of communities. From the human and community scientific point of view, the group of youngest children will take up a future position as key players in communities as essential actors and reformers. The research was carried out as multiphase and multiscientific practical research and iterative data formation. The results verified that the co-operation between parents and day care staff produces important benefits for all the stakeholders. However, the day care staff has difficulties in implementing the benefits. During the research process, it became clear that conceptually day care staff saw the practices as ”very important, but not easily realised in practice”. As a result this demanded further research to address this issue and to extend this to the carefacility’s co-operation practises and their communal and social conditions. The research looks at the carefacility’s co-operation with key stakeholders. At the same time it undertakes an analytical and historical examination of carefacilitys’s with an experimental focus as two day care centres chosen as experimental objects. The results of the research showed that the benefits gained by children were determined by the day care centre’s socio-political structure and the parent’s resources. The research framework categorised early childhood education as generational and gender based structures. As part of the research, the strains endemic to these formations have been examined. The system for bringing up children was created as part of a so called welfare state project by implemented by the Day Care Act in year 1973. The law secured the subjective right for every pre-school child to have access to day care facilities. The law also introduced a labour and sosiopolitical phase and the refinement of the day care facility’s education-care concept. The latest phase that started during the early 1990´s was called the market-based social services strategy. As a result of this phase, state support was limited and the screening function of the law was relaxed. This new strategy resulted in a divisive and bureaucratic social welfare system, that individualised and segregated children and their parents, leaving some families outside the communal and welfare state benefit net. The modern day care centre is a hybrid of different aims. Children spend longer and more irregular time in day care. The families are multicultural and that requires more training for the staff. The work in day care has been enhanced, for example he level of education for the staff has been lowered and productivity has been improved. However, administrative work and different kinds of support and net work functions together with the continuous change have taken over from the work done face to face with children. Staff experiences more pressure as the management and the work load has increased. Consequently the long-term planning and daily implementation of the nuclear task of the day care facility is difficult to control. This will have an effect on both motivation and manageability of the work. Overall quality of the early childhood upbringing has been weakened. The possibilities for the near future were tested in the two day care centres chosen as an experi-ment objects. The analysis of these experiments showed that generative interaction work will benefit everyone: children, parents and employees. The main results of the research are new concepts of an early support day care centre, which can be empirically and theoretically possi-ble for development the near future. Key words: Day care facility’s co-operation practises, early childhood education as generational structure, child’s multi-operational and multi-layered community, multi-subjective operator, generative interaction work, communal composition.

Finnish Homicides and Mental Disorders: An investigation of offense and offender characteristics

Although the majority of people with mental illness are not violent, scientific studies over the last decades show that certain psychiatric disorders increase the risk of violent behavior, including homicide. This thesis examined crime scene behaviors and offender background characteristics among mentally ill Finnish homicide offenders. Previously, homicide crime scene behaviors have been investigated in relation to offender demographic characteristics, whereas this study compares the behaviors of offenders with various mental illnesses. The study design was a retrospective chart review of the forensic psychiatric statements of Finnish homicide offenders. The work consists of four substudies. The aims of the study were as follows: To describe differences in the childhood and family backgrounds as well as in the adolescent and adult adjustment of Finnish homicide offenders belonging to different diagnostic categories (schizophrenia, personality disorder, alcoholism, drug addiction or no diagnosis). Further, the study examined associations between the crime scene behaviors and mental status of these offenders. Also, the distinguishing characteristics between two groups of offenders with schizophrenia were examined: early starters, who present antisocial behavior before the onset of schizophrenia, and late starters, who first offend after the onset of mental disorder. Finally, it was investigated how the use of excessive violence is associated with clinical and circumstantial variables as well as offender background characteristics among homicide offenders with schizophrenia. The main findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, offenders with personality disorder or drug addiction had experienced multiple difficulties in their early environments: both family and individual problems were typical. Offenders with schizophrenia were relatively well-adjusted in childhood compared to the other groups. However, in adolescence and adulthood, social isolation, withdrawal and other difficulties attributable to these offenders illness became evident. In several aspects, offenders with alcohol dependency resembled offenders with no diagnosis in that these offenders had less problematic backgrounds compared to other groups. Second, the results showed that crime scene behaviors, victim gender and the victim-offender relationship differ between the groups. In particular, offenders with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or drug addiction have some unique features in their crime scene behaviors and choice of victims. Offenders with schizophrenia were more likely to kill a blood relative, to use a sharp weapon and to injure the victim s face. Drug addiction was associated with stealing from the victim and trying to cover up the body. Third, the results suggest that the offense characteristics of early- and late-start offenders with schizophrenia differ only modestly. However, several significant differences between the groups were found in characteristics of offenders: early starters had experienced a multitude of problems in their childhood surroundings and also later in life. Fourth, violent acts where the offender did not commit the offense alone or had previous homicidal history were predictive of excessive violence among offenders with schizophrenia. Positive psychotic symptoms did not predict the use of excessive violence. Nearly one third of the cases in the sample involved multiple and severe violence, including features such as sadism, mutilation, sexual components or extreme stabbing. In sum, mentally disordered homicide offenders are heterogeneous in their offense characteristics as well as their background characteristics. Empirically based information on how the offender s mental state is associated with specific crime scene behaviors can be utilized within the police force in developing methods of prioritizing suspects in unsolved homicide cases. Also, these results emphasise the importance of early interventions for problem families and children at risk of antisocial behavior. They may also contribute to the development of effective treatment for violent offenders.

Developmental origins of psychological vulnerability factors for mental disorders

Premature birth and associated small body size are known to affect health over the life course. Moreover, compelling evidence suggests that birth size throughout its whole range of variation is inversely associated with risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in subsequent life. To explain these findings, the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) model has been introduced. Within this framework, restricted physical growth is, to a large extent, considered either a product of harmful environmental influences, such as suboptimal nutrition and alterations in the foetal hormonal milieu, or an adaptive reaction to the environment. Whether inverse associations exist between body size at birth and psychological vulnerability factors for mental disorders is poorly known. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to study in three large prospective cohorts whether prenatal and postnatal physical growth, across the whole range of variation, is associated with subsequent temperament/personality traits and psychological symptoms that are considered vulnerability factors for mental disorders. Weight and length at birth in full term infants showed quadratic associations with the temperamental trait of harm avoidance (Study I). The highest scores were characteristic of the smallest individuals, followed by the heaviest/longest. Linear associations between birth size and psychological outcomes were found such that lower weight and thinness at birth predicted more pronounced trait anxiety in late adulthood (Study II); lower birth weight, placental size, and head circumference at 12 months predicted a more pronounced positive schitzotypal trait in women (Study III); and thinness and smaller head circumference at birth associated with symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children who were born at term (Study IV). These associations occured across the whole variation in birth size and after adjusting for several confounders. With respect to growth after birth, individuals with high trait anxiety scores in late adulthood were lighter in weight and thinner in infancy, and gained weight more rapidly between 7 and 11 years of age, but weighed less and were shorter in late adulthood in relation to weight and height measured at 11 years of age (Study II). These results suggest that a suboptimal prenatal environment reflected in smaller birth size may affect a variety of psychological vulnerability factors for mental disorders, such as the temperamental trait of harm avoidance, trait anxiety, schizotypal traits, and symptoms of ADHD. The smaller the birth size across the whole range of variation, the more pronounced were these psychological vulnerability factors. Moreover, some of these outcomes, such as trait anxiety, were also predicted by patterns of growth after birth. The findings are concordant with the DOHaD model, and emphasise the importance of prenatal factors in the aetiology of not only mental disorders but also their psychological vulnerability factors.

Constructing skilled images

When experts construct mental images, they do not rely only on perceptual features; they also access domain-specific knowledge and skills in long-term memory, which enables them to exceed the capacity limitations of the short-term working memory system. The central question of the present dissertation was whether the facilitating effect of long-term memory knowledge on working memory imagery tasks is primarily based on perceptual chunking or whether it relies on higher-level conceptual knowledge. Three domains of expertise were studied: chess, music, and taxi driving. The effects of skill level, stimulus surface features, and the stimulus structure on incremental construction of mental images were investigated. A method was developed to capture the chunking mechanisms that experts use in constructing images: chess pieces, street names, and visual notes were presented in a piecemeal fashion for later recall. Over 150 experts and non-experts participated in a total of 13 experiments, as reported in five publications. The results showed skill effects in all of the studied domains when experts performed memory and problem solving tasks that required mental imagery. Furthermore, only experts' construction of mental images benefited from meaningful stimuli. Manipulation of the stimulus surface features, such as replacing chess pieces with dots, did not significantly affect experts' performance in the imagery tasks. In contrast, the structure of the stimuli had a significant effect on experts' performance in every task domain. For example, taxi drivers recalled more street names from lists that formed a spatially continuous route than from alphabetically organised lists. The results suggest that the mechanisms of conceptual chunking rather than automatic perceptual pattern matching underlie expert performance, even though the tasks of the present studies required perception-like mental representations. The results show that experts are able to construct skilled images that surpass working memory capacity, and that their images are conceptually organised and interpreted rather than merely depictive.

Valta kotikasvatuksessa

The aim of this research was to explore how issues of power manifest themselves in bringing up children at home. The starting point for the study was a phenomenon centered, power focused, and theoretically orientated view which also included an empirical part as well. The most common aim of the research was to find out and theoretize of power which is suitable for bringing up children at home. Power was defined and researched on the basis of existing power theories, mostly those presented in anglo-american research on power. For closer investigation I chose the most common categorizations and theories of power, namely, the nature of power, the four dimensions of power, and forms of power. The empirical part of the research consisted of 22 thematic interviews with mothers, fathers and 14 – 16-year-old teenagers from 11 different families. The interviewees were found through snowball sampling. The questions for the interviews were based on power theories. The result of the research was that the most common categorizations and theories of power were useful but not satisfactory in the study of power in bringing up children at home. The nature of authority in bringing up children at home appears to have same characteristics as the categorization of authority put forward by Weber but in addition it included extra categories called moral authority and ontological-existential authority. Theoretically the most challenging problem concerns the conflict between modern and postmodern views of power. None of them alone is able to describe power in bringing up children at home. The best solution appeared to be to add an assumption about the inner relation to the modern power view and an assumption about the Popperian three worlds to the postmodern view of power. The relationship between the parent and the child is necessary the inner power relation where the relation itself modifies the parties’ identities. In that case positive and productive elements are also included in the power relationship. Parents use many forms of power in bringing up children at home. Manipulative and violent forms of power are not justifiable but other forms of power and their open exercise is sometimes necessary. The important criteria to use in order to determine the most suitable forms of power and the most appropriate ways of exercising that power is to see how they improve the development of the identity and internalization of values of the child. An ethically justified exercise of power in bringing up children at home is based on a dialogical, pedagogical relationship between the parent and the child, focuses on the relationship between the parent and the child, orientates itself further than present, aspires to promote the good of the child, and comes true in a caring atmosphere.

Depression and its assessment among stroke patients and their caregivers

Approximately one-third of stroke patients experience depression. Stroke also has a profound effect on the lives of caregivers of stroke survivors. However, depression in this latter population has received little attention. In this study the objectives were to determine which factors are associated with and can be used to predict depression at different points in time after stroke; to compare different depression assessment methods among stroke patients; and to determine the prevalence, course and associated factors of depression among the caregivers of stroke patients. A total of 100 consecutive hospital-admitted patients no older than 70 years of age were followed for 18 months after having their first ischaemic stroke. Depression was assessed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hamilton Rating Scale (HRSD), Visual Analogue Mood Scale (VAMS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and caregiver ratings. Neurological assessments and a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery were performed. Depression in caregivers was assessed by BDI. Depressive symptoms had early onsets in most cases. Mild depressive symptoms were often persistent with little change during the 18-month follow-up, although there was an increase in major depression over the same time interval. Stroke severity was associated with depression especially from 6 to 12 months post-stroke. At the acute phase, older patients were at higher risk of depression, and a higher proportion of men were depressed at 18 months post-stroke. Of the various depression assessment methods, none stood clearly apart from the others. The feasibility of each did not differ greatly, but prevalence rates differed widely according to the different criteria. When compared against DSM-III-R criteria, sensitivity and specificity were acceptable for the CGI, BDI, and HRSD. The CGI and BDI had better sensitivity than the more specific HRSD. The VAMS seemed not to be a reliable method for assessing depression among stroke patients. The caregivers often rated patients depression as more severe than did the patients themselves. Moreover, their ratings seemed to be influenced by their own depression. Of the caregivers, 30-33% were depressed. At the acute phase, caregiver depression was associated with the severity of the stroke and the older age of the patient. The best predictor of caregiver depression at later follow-up was caregiver depression at the acute phase. The results suggest that depression should be assessed during the early post-stroke period and that the follow-up of those at risk of poor emotional outcome should be extended beyond the first year post-stroke. Further, the assessment of well-being of the caregivers of stroke patients should be included as a part of a rehabilitation plan for stroke patients.

Tarkkaavaisuuden vaikutus puheen merkityssisällön käsittelyyn: Aivojen herätevastetutkimus

Semantic processing can be studied with semantic priming. Target words that are preceded by semantically related prime words are recognized faster and more accurately than targets preceded by unrelated prime words. Semantic priming also affects the magnitude of the N400 event-related potential. The response is smaller to a target word when it is preceded by a related than an unrelated prime word. The effect is called the N400 effect. It is not yet clear, however, how attention modulates semantic priming and the N400 effect. This study investigated how the direction of attention affects the semantic processing of speech. The N400 effect was studied in experimental conditions in which the subjects attention was directed 1) away from the speech stimuli, 2) to phonological features of the speech stimuli, and 3) to semantic features of the speech stimuli. The first aim of the study was to investigate whether the N400 effect for spoken words is dependent on attention to the auditory information. The second aim was to study the differences in the N400 effect when attention is directed to the semantic or other features of speech stimuli. The results showed an N400 effect even when attention was directed away from the speech stimuli. The N400 effect was, however, stronger in conditions during which the speech stimuli were attended. The magnitude of the behavioral semantic priming and the N400 effect did not differ between the conditions during which attention was directed to the semantic or phonological features of the words. The findings indicate that the semantic processing of spoken words is not dependent on attention to auditory information. Furthermore, the results suggest that whether or not semantic processing is relevant for the task performance does not affect the semantic processing of attended spoken words.

Exploring Problem Decomposition in Conceptual Design

Design embraces several disciplines dedicated to the production of artifacts and services. These disciplines are quite independent and only recently has psychological interest focused on them. Nowadays, the psychological theories of design, also called design cognition literature, describe the design process from the information processing viewpoint. These models co-exist with the normative standards of how designs should be crafted. In many places there are concrete discrepancies between these two in a way that resembles the differences between the actual and ideal decision-making. This study aimed to explore the possible difference related to problem decomposition. Decomposition is a standard component of human problem-solving models and is also included in the normative models of design. The idea of decomposition is to focus on a single aspect of the problem at a time. Despite its significance, the nature of decomposition in conceptual design is poorly understood and has only been preliminary investigated. This study addressed the status of decomposition in conceptual design of products using protocol analysis. Previous empirical investigations have argued that there are implicit and explicit decomposition, but have not provided a theoretical basis for these two. Therefore, the current research began by reviewing the problem solving and design literature and then composing a cognitive model of the solution search of conceptual design. The result is a synthetic view which describes recognition and decomposition as the basic schemata for conceptual design. A psychological experiment was conducted to explore decomposition. In the test, sixteen (N=16) senior students of mechanical engineering created concepts for two alternative tasks. The concurrent think-aloud method and protocol analysis were used to study decomposition. The results showed that despite the emphasis on decomposition in the formal education, only few designers (N=3) used decomposition explicitly and spontaneously in the presented tasks, although the designers in general applied a top-down control strategy. Instead, inferring from the use of structured strategies, the designers always relied on implicit decomposition. These results confirm the initial observations found in the literature, but they also suggest that decomposition should be investigated further. In the future, the benefits and possibilities of explicit decomposition should be considered along with the cognitive mechanisms behind decomposition. After that, the current results could be reinterpreted.

Toimintatutkimus tietokoneavusteisten opetusohjelmien hyödynnettävyydestä ammatillisessa koulutuksessa sähköalalla

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tutkia tietokoneavusteisen opetuksen opetusmenetelmänä ja tietokoneavusteisten opetusohjelmien oppimateriaalina soveltuvuutta erilaisiin sähköalan ammatillisiin opetus- ja oppimistilanteisiin. Tietokoneavusteisilla opetusohjelmilla tarkoitetaan tässä tutkimuksessa erilaisia digitaaliseen muotoon tallennettuja oppimateriaaleja ja tietokoneavusteisella opetuksella näiden digitaalisten oppimateriaalien hyödyntämistä erilaisissa oppimistilanteissa. Opetusteknologian kehittymisen myötä myöskin opettajin valittavissa olevat opetusmenetelmät lisääntyvät ja monipuolistuvat. Vastaavalla tavalla myöskin oppimateriaalit kehittyvät ja mahdollistavat oppijan näkökulmasta entistä yksilöllisemmät opiskelumahdollisuudet. Tutkimuksen viitekehyksen liittyvinä keskeisinä elementteinä olivat tietokoneavusteinen opetus opetusmenetelmänä ja sen valintaan liittyvät tekijät: oppisisällöt ja oppimiselle asetetut tavoitteet, opettajan opetusmenetelmällinen osaaminen, erilaiset oppijat yksilöllisine oppimistavoitteineen sekä käytettävissä olevat erilaiset oppimateriaalit. Tutkimus toteutettiin toimintatutkimuksena ja siihen osallistui tutkijan lisäksi 15 sähköalan opettajaa kahdesta erikokoisesta ammattioppilaitoksesta. Varsinainen toimintatutkimus aloitettiin keväällä 1994 ja se jatkui kevääseen 1996. Lisäksi suoritettiin vertaileva tutkimus, johon osallistui 9 opettajaa kolmesta erillisestä ammattioppilaitoksesta syksyllä 1996 jatkuen kevääseen 1997. Keskeisimmistä tutkimustuloksista mainitsen opettajien heikon tuntemuksen tietokoneavusteisesta opetuksesta ja sen hyödyntämiseen liittyvistä elementeistä. Opettajilta puuttuu taito suunnitella tietokoneavusteisia opetusohjelmia oppimateriaaleina hyödyntäviä opetus- ja oppimistilanteita. Tutkimuksen mukaan opettajilla ei kuitenkaan ole negatiivista ennakkoasennetta opetusmenetelmää kohtaan ja opiskelijat suhtautuvat erittäin myönteisesti erilaisiin tietokoneavusteisiin opetusohjelmiin oppimateriaaleina. Avainsanat: Tietokoneavusteinen opetus, tietokoneavusteinen oppiminen, tietokoneavusteinen oppimateriaali

The effect of interrogative function on intonation in spontaneous and read Finnish

Goals This study aims to map the effect of interrogative function on the intonation of spontaneous and read Finnish. Earlier research shows that the most prominent feature in Finnish question intonation is an appeal to the listener. Question word questions typically start with a high peak which is followed by falling intonation. In yes/no questions, F0 remains on a high level until the word carrying sentence stress and then falls. Final rises are mainly found in intonation clichés such as "Ai mitä?" ("What?") These earlier results are based on read speech and enacted dialogues. In this study, questions and statements found in spontaneous dialogues were compared. These utterances were also compared with read versions of the same utterances. Fundamental frequency values were compared using a mixed model. Contours were also grouped using auditory and visual inspection. Thus it was possible to compare frequencies of contour types according to utterance type and speech style. The position of questions in the F0 distribution of the whole material was also investigated in this study. Method The material consisted of four spontaneous dialogues and their read versions. The speakers were young adults from the Helsinki metropolitan area, four females and four males. The whole material was first divided into broad dialogue function categories arising from the material and F0 curves were calculated for each category. After this, 277 questions and 244 statements were selected for closer inspection. Values reflecting F0 distribution and contour shape were measured from the F0 contours of these utterances. A mixed model was used to analyse the differences. Utterance type, question type, speech style and speaker gender were used as fixed effects. The frequencies of F0 contour types were compared using a Chi square test. Additional material in this study came from eight young female speakers in central Finland. Results and conclusions In the mixed model analysis, significant differences were found both between questions and statements and between spontaneous and read speech. Generally, utterance type affected the variables reflecting contour type while speech style affected the variables reflecting F0 distribution. The effect of question type was not clearly visible. In read speech the contours resembled earlier results more closely. Speakers had different strategies in differentiating between questions and statements. In the whole material, F0 was slightly higher in questions than in statements. The effect of dialectal background could be seen in the contour types. The results show that interrogative function affects intonation in both spontaneous and read Finnish.

Metal Auger Intensity Ratios in Transition Metals and Their Compounds

Metal Auger intensity ratios of the type Z(CVV)/I(CC'V) and Z(CVV)/Z(CC'C"), where C, C' and C" denote core levels and V stands for a valence level, are shown to increase progressively with the number of valence electrons in the metal in the case of second-row transition metals and their oxides. Metal Auger intensity ratios in chalcogenides of transition metals can be correlated by taking the effective atomic charge on the metal into consideration. The possible use of metal Auger intensity ratios in the study of surface oxidation of second-row transition metals is illustrated in the case of zirconium.

Minimalistinen yhdyssanateoria ja käsitteiden yhdistely

The thesis aims to link the biolinguistic research program and the results of studies in comceptual combination from cognitive psychology. The thesis derives a theory of syntactic structure of noun and adjectival compounds from the Empty Lexicon Hypothesis. Two compound-forming operations are described: root-compounding and word-compounding. The aptness of theory is tested with finnish and greek compounds. From the syntactic theory semantic requirements for conceptual system are derived, especially requirements for handling morphosyntactic features. These requirements are compared to three formidable theories of conceptual combination: relation theory CARIN, Dual-Process theory and C3-theory. The claims of explanatory power of relational distributions of modifier in CARIN-theory ared discarded, as the method for sampling and building relational distributions is not reliable and the algorithmic instantiation of theory does not compute what it claims to compute. From relational theory there still remains results supporting existence of 'easy' relations for certain concepts. Dual-Process theory is found to provide results that cannot in theory be affected by linguistic system, but the basic idea of property compounds is kept. C3-theory is found to be not computationally realistic, but the basic results of diagnosticity and local properties (domains) of conceptual system are solid. The three conceptual combination models are rethought as a problem of finding the shortest route between the two concepts. The new basis for modeling is suggested to be bare conceptual landscape with morphosyntactiic or semantic features working as guidance and structural features of landscape basically unknown, but such as they react to features from linguistic system. Minimalistic principles to conceptual modeling are suggested.

3 - 5-vuotiaiden lukemaan oppiminen : montessorivälineet kielellisen tietoisuuden ja varhaisen lukitaidon edistäjinä

Aims. The beginning point of this research was confusion between studies claiming, that children mature Metalinguistic to read at 6-7 of age, and the fact, that in Montessori playschools children easily start writing and reading at age 3 to 5. Aim was also find out how conception of slow Metalinguistic development has started, and if there is some evidence of phoneme awareness of reading of young children in the field of research of reading. Aim was also seek evidence of the sensitive period of reading as Montessori described it. The research also wanted to turn up, if phoneme awareness only develops in children, who work with graphemes and with reading, or could it be found in children, who do not. The mean was to research how the Montessori reading material supports child’s Metalinguistic development, when child begins learning to read. The research plans to represent knowledge about how young children learn to write and read. Methods. Research performed in ordinary kindergarten and in Montessori playschool in Espoo. In kindergarten observed six children, age 3-4, at eight grapheme-rhyme sessions from January to April 2007, and conducting a test based on Chaney’s (1992) study of phoneme awareness of young children. In Montessori kindergarten were observed 17 children about their phoneme awareness and reading competition from January 2007 to March 2008. Their developments in reading were also measured three times from 1.9.07 to 20.3.08 with classification constructed for this study, loosely based on Chall’s (1983) reading stages. The Montessori reading material was analyzed about the influence they have to a child’s Metalinguistic development. This was done based to theory and its concepts from the field of research of reading; phoneme awareness, morphological, syntactical and semantic consciousness. Results and conclusions. Research proved that children 3-5 have naturally developed phoneme awareness. In kindergarten and in Montessori playschool children between 2 and 4 could do phoneme synthesis, and in the latter they also could do phoneme segmentation of words. Montessori reading material guided children gradually, except to read, also to observe and absorb Metalinguistic knowledge. Children learned to write and read. At the last evaluating day almost 50 % of children write and read clauses or stories, and 82 % could read at least words. Children can develop Metalinguistic awareness, while using the Montessori materials for learning to write and read. To reach literacy is easy for children because of their phoneme awareness.

Verkko-oppimateriaalin multimodaalisuus : kohteena YLEn Kansalaisen ABC -verkko-oppimateriaalit

Today information and communication technology allows us to use multimedia more than ever before in e-learning materials. Multimedia though can increase cognitive load in learning process. Because of that it cannot be taken granted what kind of learning materials should be produced. This paper intended to study the diversity of e-learning materials and the factors related cognitive load. The main purpose was to study the multimodality of the multimedia learning materials. The subject of this study is the learning materials on the web site Kansalaisen ABC published by YLE. Learning materials in the web site were approached from three different perspectives. The specific questions were: (1) What kind of form features are used in the representations of the learning material? Are certain form features preferred over others? (2) How do the cognitive load factors take shape in learning materials and between the forms? (3) How does the multimodality phenomenon appear in the learning materials and in what ways are form features and cognitive load factors related to multimodality? In this case study a qualitative approach was used. Analysis of the form features and the cognitive load factors in learning materials were based on content analysis. Form features included the specification of a format, the structure, the interactivity type and the type of learning material. The results showed that the web sites include various representations of both verbal and visual forms. Cognitive load factors were related mostly to visual than verbal material. Material presented according to the principles of cognitive multimedia theory multimedia representations did not cause cognitive overload in the informants. Cognitive load was increased in the case of students needing to split their attention between the multimedia forms in time and place. The results indicated how different individual characteristics are reflected by the cognitive load factors.

Integrated semantic processing of complex pictures and spoken sentences - Evidence from event-related potentials

It has been suggested that semantic information processing is modularized according to the input form (e.g., visual, verbal, non-verbal sound). A great deal of research has concentrated on detecting a separate verbal module. Also, it has traditionally been assumed in linguistics that the meaning of a single clause is computed before integration to a wider context. Recent research has called these views into question. The present study explored whether it is reasonable to assume separate verbal and nonverbal semantic systems in the light of the evidence from event-related potentials (ERPs). The study also provided information on whether the context influences processing of a single clause before the local meaning is computed. The focus was on an ERP called N400. Its amplitude is assumed to reflect the effort required to integrate an item to the preceding context. For instance, if a word is anomalous in its context, it will elicit a larger N400. N400 has been observed in experiments using both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Contents of a single sentence were not hypothesized to influence the N400 amplitude. Only the combined contents of the sentence and the picture were hypothesized to influence the N400. The subjects (n = 17) viewed pictures on a computer screen while hearing sentences through headphones. Their task was to judge the congruency of the picture and the sentence. There were four conditions: 1) the picture and the sentence were congruent and sensible, 2) the sentence and the picture were congruent, but the sentence ended anomalously, 3) the picture and the sentence were incongruent but sensible, 4) the picture and the sentence were incongruent and anomalous. Stimuli from the four conditions were presented in a semi-randomized sequence. Their electroencephalography was simultaneously recorded. ERPs were computed for the four conditions. The amplitude of the N400 effect was largest in the incongruent sentence-picture -pairs. The anomalously ending sentences did not elicit a larger N400 than the sensible sentences. The results suggest that there is no separate verbal semantic system, and that the meaning of a single clause is not processed independent of the context.