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Objectives: The prospective longitudinal Mannheim Study of Children at Risk followed the development of children from the age of 2 years up to the age of 8 years. Are there differences between the developmental risk load in toddlers (psychopathology, cognition, motor or neurological development. and educational differences) who suffer from a hyperactive disorder at age 8 and that of undisturbed children of the same age? Are there specific harbingers of hyperkinetic disorders for the group concerned? Methods: In terms of their developmental risk load at the age of 2 years, 26 primary school children with hyperkinetic disorders were compared to 241 healthy primary school children, as well as to 25 children of the same age with emotional disturbances and 30 children of the same age with socially disruptive behavior. Results: A significant combination of predictors of later hyperkinetic disorders at primary school age proved to be increased fidgetiness and irritability, as well as a reduced language comprehension, at the age of two. Conclusions: The predictive value of symptoms in early childhood for later hyperkinetic disorder in children of primaryschool age is higher than that of symptoms assessed in infancy, which although expected is without relevant specificity.
Objectives: Are there any differences (organic, psychosocial, psychopathological, cognitive or educational, respectively differences in the motor or neurological development) between infants who later on at the age of 8 years suffer from a hyperactive disorder and those who later on at the same age are undisturbed? Are there specific harbingers for hyperactive disorders in the group concerned? Methods: With regard to their developmental risk load at the age of 3 months, 26 primary school children with hyperactive disorders were compared with 241 healthy children, 25 children with emotional disturbances, and 30 children with socially disruptive behaviour, all of the same age. Results: Identified as the most important predictors for the onset of hyperactive disorders were a reduced birth weight, the mother's origin from a shattered family, early contact impairments on the part of the child, and the mother's neglect of the infant. Conclusions: Altogether, however, the prediction of later hyperactivity in primary school children on the basis of salient features in the infant children remains unsatisfactory and unspecific.
Fixation durations in reading are longer for within-word fixation positions close to word center than for positions near word boundaries. This counterintuitive result was termed the Inverted-Optimal Viewing Position (IOVP) effect. We proposed an explanation of the effect based on error-correction of mislocated fixations [Nuthmann, A., Engbert, R., & Kliegl, R. (2005). Mislocated fixations during reading and the inverted optimal viewing position effect. Vision Research, 45, 2201-2217], that suggests that the IOVP effect is not related to word processing. Here we demonstrate the existence of an IOVP effect in "mindless reading", a G-string scanning task. We compare the results from experimental data with results obtained from computer simulations of a simple model of the IOVP effect and discuss alternative accounts. We conclude that oculornotor errors, which often induce mislocalized fixations, represent the most important source of the IOVP effect. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Objective: Despite theoretical discrepancies between different concepts of temperament, some core dimensions are thought to be common to the various models. We compared temperamental traits derived from the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS) model and the Cloninger dimensions in the developmental course and investigated the associations of temperament with sex as well as with obstetric risks or psychosocial risks present at birth. - Methods: Participants were 151 boys and 157 girls born at differing degrees of obstetric and psychosocial risk from a longitudinal study on a high-risk community sample. In infancy and childhood, NYLS-derived temperamental characteristics were assessed by a highly structured parent interview and standardized behavioral observations. At age 15 years, the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory/1218 was administered. - Results: Moderate correlations were found between Junior Temperament and Character Inventory scales in adolescence and NYLS-derived factors in childhood. The psychosocial risk load seemed to influence the expression of novelty seeking or corresponding NYLS-derived factors, whereas the obstetric risks did not contribute to variation in temperament. Our findings further support highly sex-specific gene x environment interactions on temperament in the developmental course. - Conclusion: The content of our NYLS-derived factors and the specific type of association across different temperament constructs fit into the increasing consensus regarding a small number of higher-order temperamental traits. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
We examined relations between eye movements (single-fixation durations) and RSVP-based event-related potentials (ERPs; N400s) recorded during reading the same sentences in two independent experiments. Longer fixation durations correlated with larger N400 amplitudes. Word frequency and predictability of the fixated word as well as the predictability of the upcoming word accounted for this covariance in a path-analytic model. Moreover, larger N400 amplitudes entailed longer fixation durations on the next word, a relation accounted for by word frequency. This pattern offers a neurophysiological correlate for the lag-word frequency effect on fixation durations: word processing is reliably expressed not only in fixation durations on currently fixated words, but also in those on subsequently fixated words.