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Biomedical subjects

J G Wishart

Publications and source records attributed to J G Wishart.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Recognition of identity and expression in faces by children with Down syndrome.

The ability of three groups of children (with Down syndrome, age-matched with nonspecific developmental delay, and younger typically developing) to recognize identity and expression in adult faces was examined. In Experiment 1, the children with Down syndrome were equally proficient at recognizing unfamiliar faces when expression was varied but significantly poorer at recognizing expression overall, with a specific deficit in perceiving surprise and fear. In Experiment 2, using rotated faces, they were significantly worse at recognizing expression as well as at identifying known faces. These results, in conjunction with lack of any improvement with age, suggest that there is a specific deficit in processing facial expressions associated with Down syndrome, a finding consistent with the emerging picture of neurological disruption in this syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

The influence of classroom peers on cognitive performance in children with behavioural problems.

BACKGROUND: Identifying factors linked to underachievement is fundamental to understanding the associated academic difficulties and crucial to the development of effective intervention strategies. Underachievement in a number of academic domains has been shown to be associated with behavioural problems in the classroom but the nature of the association and direction of any causal link has yet to be clarified. AIMS: This study explored the association between poor academic achievement and behavioural problems by examining the direct effects of peer presence on classroom performance in children with identified behavioural difficulties. Specifically, it was hypothesised that independent performance on a cognitive task would decrease as number of classroom peers present increased. SAMPLE: A total of 24 children attending two special schools for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties participated in the study. Age range was 9-14 years. METHODS: A within-subjects design was used in which performance on a set of perceptual/conceptual matching tasks was assessed under three conditions: the child working alone, alongside one other peer, or within a group of six. Measures of non-verbal intelligence and academic attainment were collected, along with teacher ratings of the severity of each child's problem behaviour. RESULTS: Performance was found to be significantly influenced by peer presence, both in terms of number of correct responses and time taken to complete the matching tasks. Direction of effects on these two performance indicators differed according to number of peers present. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of contextual factors in determining classroom performance in children with behavioural difficulties. Given the current pressure to educate all children in mainstream classes, findings have implications for classroom management.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Trainee teachers' attitudes to inclusive education for children with Down's syndrome.

The attitudes of 231 trainee teachers towards inclusive education for children with Down's syndrome were surveyed in two UK colleges of education, one in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland. While the right to educational integration for children with special educational needs was widely endorsed, considerable reservations were expressed about its implementation in practice. Only 13% of respondents indicated that they would welcome the opportunity to teach in an integrated setting and 96% felt that their professional training did not prepare them to meet this challenge. Many underestimated potential levels of achievement in children with Down's syndrome and over half wrongly associated the condition with very short life expectancy.

Attitude↗
PubMed1995

Use of pointing and other gestures by young children with Down syndrome.

Pointing, reaching, and other communicative gestures were elicited from 22 children with Down syndrome ages 21 to 47 months in two communicative contexts (referential/declarative vs. instrumental/imperative) and with two partners (mother vs. agemate with Down syndrome). Linguistic competence was assessed using the Vineland and Reynell Scales. High levels of pointing were produced in both communicative contexts and with each partner. Advance visual checking of the partner appeared to indicate awareness of the necessary conditions for successful declarative pointing. Comparisons with matched data from typically developing infants revealed both similarities and differences in gesture use. Findings were discussed in relation to delayed language development in children with Down syndrome.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1993

The development of learning difficulties in children with Down's syndrome.

This paper examines individual developmental profiles drawn from a series of longitudinal studies of cognitive development and problem-solving in children with Down's syndrome (DS) from birth to 11 years of age. These highlight the difficulties in explaining DS development in terms of a slowed-down version of normal development and illustrate how, from a very early age, developmental progress in DS is undermined by the children's failure to exercise and maintain existing skills and by their counter-productive approach to learning new skills. Developmental instability and inefficient learning were found to characterize performance on contingency detection tasks, on tests of object concept development, and on standardized intelligence tests. Implications of the findings for assessment, educational practice and developmental theory are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1990

The effects of experience on attribution of a stereotyped personality to children with Down's syndrome.

A questionnaire in the form of a bipolar rating scale was constructed using 26 personality attributes drawn from the literature on personality of children with Down's syndrome (DS). This was administered to nine groups of adults with differing levels of experience and contact with children with DS. Adults who had frequent contact proved to be significantly less likely to rate the personality of children with DS as stereotypical than those with little contact. The implications of acceptance of the stereotype are discussed in relation to integration and to development of the mother-child relationship.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Instability of performance on cognitive tests in infants and young children with Down's syndrome.

Stability of cognitive performance in assessment situations was investigated in a group of 18 children with Down's Syndrome (DS) aged 6 months to 4 years. Two widely used tests of early cognitive development were presented: the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and a series of Piagetian object concept tasks. Both sets of tasks were presented in the same testing session, with testing repeated one to two weeks later. Both qualitative and quantitative aspects of performance were recorded. Even when overall scores were similar, patterns of pass/fails were very different in the two testing sessions. Successes showed poor stability over sessions with fails often occurring by default, the result of a refusal to engage fully in a particular task. This pattern of results suggests: (1) that single-session testing may not adequately assess cognitive status in DS children; (2) that the relationship between performance and competence may be unstable in such children, and (3) that "slow development" theories may not adequately describe cognitive development in young children with DS.

Achievement↗
PubMed1987

Performance of young nonretarded children and children with Down syndrome on Piagetian infant search tasks.

Two groups of 3- to 5-year-old children, a nonretarded and a Down syndrome group, were tested six times over 2.5 months on three Piagetian infant search tasks. Two opposing trends in performance over sessions were evident: Scores of children in the Down syndrome group increased significantly whereas the performance of nonretarded subjects declined. The data suggest that cognitive ability of children with Down syndrome may be poorly measured by single-session testing; also, that in the absence of normative data from nonretarded children, caution is necessary in evaluating the performance of children with mental retardation on tests designed for and validated on younger, nonretarded subjects.

Attention↗
PubMed1986

The effects of step-by-step training on cognitive performance in infants with Down's syndrome.

A study of Morss (1984) suggested that the characteristically poor performance of Down's syndrome (DS) infants on object concept tasks could be enhanced by embedding the standard task within a short training sequence. This paper reports an attempt to replicate that study and to test for any carry-over of improved performance to subsequent testing sessions 2 and 6 weeks later. Ten DS subjects (mean age: 19 months) took part in the study. The search behaviour of almost all subjects improved, both in qualitative terms and in terms of the frequency of successful retrievals of the hidden object. Many also, however, showed evidence of a highly-specific form of 'switching out' of the testing sessions. The problems that this cognitive avoidance causes for establishing statistical criteria for attribution of success/failure on these tasks are discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed1986

Siblings as models in early infant learning.

4 groups of infants, 2 at 6 months and 2 at 12 months, were tested on the Stage IV-V and V-VI object concept tasks. All groups were then retested on the same tasks 1 week later. Retesting of the experimental groups was preceded by an all-correct demonstration of the 2 search tasks by the infant's preschool sibling; control groups were not exposed to any model prior to reassessment. No effect of exposure to the sibling model was initially found in either age group. If, however, infants' initial stage of development was taken into account, cognitive performance on the lower-level task did show a significant improvement after modeling. Overall, the results suggest that sibling modeling could possibly be an effective method of facilitating cognitive development in infancy, but that the success or failure of any modeling attempt may be stage- rather than age-dependent.

Child Development↗
PubMed1984

Modelling the stages of the identity theory of object-concept development in infancy.

A computational model is presented for the three stages of development of the object concept in infancy identified by Bower and Wishart in their research. The stages are described by sets of PROLOG clauses that interpret object structures representing the perceptual phenomena interpreted by the infants themselves. The infant's changes between developmental stages can be described by differences between the rules modelling each stage. Three experiments are presented and the behaviour of the PROLOG model is described for each stage of development. Motion, rest, and boundedness of objects constitute the theoretical underpinning of the running PROLOG model and are hypothesized as the invariant aspects of perception that explain the behaviour of the infant at each stage of development. A possible explanation for transitions between stages is offered and justified in part by the output of the model, which in turn is used to predict the behavioural outcome of an experiment.

Child Development↗
PubMed1983

A model of the development of the early infant object concept.

A computational model is proposed for the early stages of development of the object concept in infancy. Stages in development are represented as a sequence of grammars or rewrite rules that parse a set of perceptual phenomena. The infant's changes between developmental stages can be described by differences between the grammar rules that model each stage. The program replicates five studies by Bower et al on the development of the object concept and reaffirms the primacy of rest and motion parameters as explanatory invariants in early object-concept development.

Concept Formation↗