Publications that include data collected at OSAMerkley, R., Thompson, J., Scerif, G. (2015). Of Huge Mice and Tiny Elephants: Exploring the Relationship Between Inhibitory Processes and Preschool Math Skills. Frontiers in Psychology, 6-1903. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01903/full
Manning, C., Neil, L., Karaminis, T., & Pellicano, E. (2015). The effects of grouping on speed discrimination thresholds in adults, typically developing children, and children with autism. Journal of Vision, 15(11):17, 1-10. http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2432510 |
The development of attention and numeracy in young childrenSome past attendees of Oxford Science Adventures participated in experiments that investigated children's understanding of numerical symbols and how they learn novel, abstract symbols. They played games with dinosaurs, pirates, and animals that included numerical symbols and arrays of objects. The results challenged the prominent idea that children can automatically judge the discrete number of objects in an array using an innate 'number sense'. Inhibitory control and selective attention seem to play a role in this process and may also be important for learning the meaning of number symbols. The data from these projects were written up in Rebecca Merkley's doctorate thesis, titled 'Beyond number sense: Contributions of domain-general processes to the development of numeracy in early childhood.
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How do children judge the speed of moving objects?
Some children who came to Oxford Science Adventures in October 2014 played the 'Migrating Birds Game'. Children played against Bernard the Birdwatcher in a game testing their ability to work out which of two flocks of ‘birds’ (actually, dots) was moving faster. Children played the game three times – but each time, the two sets of birds were moving in different directions in relation to each other.
Why did we do it?
Previous research has suggested that adults are poorer at comparing speeds when the things they are comparing seem to be crossing a boundary (middle), compared to when they are moving side-by-side (left). It is thought that this is because adults group things together when they seem to be part of the same motion. We were interested in seeing whether autistic children would group the sets of birds less than children and adults without autism.
What did we find?
As we expected, the adults were better at judging speeds than the children. The autistic children were just as good at judging speeds as children without autism. All of the groups were best at comparing speeds when the birds moved side-by-side (left) compared to when they moved as if they were crossing a boundary (middle). However, they found it even harder when they had to compare the speeds of birds moving in different diagonal directions (right). Our findings suggest that autistic children process speed information similarly to children without autism, while also giving insights into how people judge speeds and directions more generally.
Click here to read the whole study.
Why did we do it?
Previous research has suggested that adults are poorer at comparing speeds when the things they are comparing seem to be crossing a boundary (middle), compared to when they are moving side-by-side (left). It is thought that this is because adults group things together when they seem to be part of the same motion. We were interested in seeing whether autistic children would group the sets of birds less than children and adults without autism.
What did we find?
As we expected, the adults were better at judging speeds than the children. The autistic children were just as good at judging speeds as children without autism. All of the groups were best at comparing speeds when the birds moved side-by-side (left) compared to when they moved as if they were crossing a boundary (middle). However, they found it even harder when they had to compare the speeds of birds moving in different diagonal directions (right). Our findings suggest that autistic children process speed information similarly to children without autism, while also giving insights into how people judge speeds and directions more generally.
Click here to read the whole study.
Repeating words and sentences - why do some children find it hard?
Some children with language difficulties find repeating back words or sentences difficult, more so than children the same age who have normal language skills. Some children with autism have also been found to be poor at repeating back words or sentences. This has led to the suggestion that language difficulties and autism may be related somehow. This project aimed to investigate the overlap between autism and language impairment, comparing children with these difficulties on tasks of verbal imitation (copying back words or sentences). This project also considered children's motor imitation skills (copying back movements or postures). Like verbal imitation, motor imitation problems have been noted in both children with language impairment, and children with autism. This could mean that perhaps children's verbal imitation problems are due to wider problems in imitation generally.
Some children who attended OSA in 2014-2016 took part in this project, and allowed us to compare children with autism and language problems to children the same age who have neither of these difficulties.
The results of this study were written up for Hannah Hobson's doctoral thesis "Imitation: Evaluating neurophysiological signatures and clinical significance". Hannah found that both children with language impairment and children with autism and language impairment showed poor verbal imitation skills. However, children with autism who didn't have language problems did not show any verbal imitation problems. Furthermore, Hannah did not find much evidence of motor imitation problems in children with language difficulties or autism. The difficulties children did show were probably related to the higher rate of motor difficulties in these groups - motor difficulties and dyspraxia are quite common in both autistic and language impaired children.
Hannah's results are different to those found in previous investigations of verbal imitation. One reason for this could be that she set verbal imitation in the context of engaging, child-friendly games (the "Spy Password" games). This may have helped to keep the children interested and copy better.
Some children who attended OSA in 2014-2016 took part in this project, and allowed us to compare children with autism and language problems to children the same age who have neither of these difficulties.
The results of this study were written up for Hannah Hobson's doctoral thesis "Imitation: Evaluating neurophysiological signatures and clinical significance". Hannah found that both children with language impairment and children with autism and language impairment showed poor verbal imitation skills. However, children with autism who didn't have language problems did not show any verbal imitation problems. Furthermore, Hannah did not find much evidence of motor imitation problems in children with language difficulties or autism. The difficulties children did show were probably related to the higher rate of motor difficulties in these groups - motor difficulties and dyspraxia are quite common in both autistic and language impaired children.
Hannah's results are different to those found in previous investigations of verbal imitation. One reason for this could be that she set verbal imitation in the context of engaging, child-friendly games (the "Spy Password" games). This may have helped to keep the children interested and copy better.
Social distraction -- does it affect what children remember?
Children who attended OSA in February and October of 2015 may have played the exciting minion game. This game investigated if social distraction affects how well children remember. Children searched for objects in pictures. Some of these pictures had a person in them while others had an equally prominent non-social distracting item. During this game children’s eye movements were recorded with a non-invasive camera to see if their attention was drawn to the people. After searching each picture several times, children’s memory for where the objects were located was tested. We found that although children did look at the people much more than the non-social distracting items in the pictures, they remembered where objects were located equally well in social and non-social pictures. In fact, their memory performance was much better than adults, who did show worse memory for social pictures!
To the left is an example of where adults looked when search for the hammer in the picture |