Search results for " ability"
showing 10 items of 240 documents
Sublexical effects on eye movements during repeated reading of words and pseudowords in Finnish
2011
The role of different orthographic units (letters, syllables, words) in reading of orthographically transparent Finnish language was studied by independently manipulating the number of letters (NoL) and syllables (NoS) in words and pseudowords and by recording eye movements during repeated reading aloud of these items. Fluent adult readers showed evidence for using larger orthographic units in (pseudo)word recoding, whereas dysfluent children seem to be stuck in a letter-based decoding strategy, as lexicality and item repetition decreased the NoL effect only among adult readers. The NoS manipulation produced weak repetition effects in both groups. However, dysfluent children showed evidence…
The role of literacy skills in adolescents' mathematics word problem performance – Controlling for visuo-spatial ability and mathematics anxiety
2014
Abstract The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between eighth-grade adolescents' literacy skills and mathematics word problem performance. Moreover, visuo-spatial ability and mathematics anxiety were considered as covariates. According to the analyses of (co)variance, literacy skills were significantly associated with mathematics word problem skills among the 99 8th grade participants of the study. It is primarily for boys that reading comprehension skill predicts success in solving math word problems, while technical reading predicts both calculation skill and word problem solving skill across genders. Visuo-spatial ability was not a significant covariate in either of…
Task-motivation during the first school years: A person-oriented approach to longitudinal data
2005
Abstract The present study investigated the kinds of motivational patterns primary school students show in terms of the value they place on math, reading and writing, respectively, and the extent to which these patterns are prospectively associated with academic performance, and related to self-concept of ability. Two-hundred and eleven 6- to 7-year-old children were examined twice during Grade 1, and twice during Grade 2. On each measurement occasion, they were assessed on their performance in reading and math, and on their self-concept of ability and task-motivation in those skills. The clustering-by-states analysis for longitudinal data identified four groups of children: those who place…
Predicting children's mathematical performance in grade one by early numeracy
2010
Abstract This longitudinal study examined how children's early numeracy assessed in kindergarten predicts their mathematical performance in the first grade, after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and parents' education. The participants were 212 Finnish children (107 girls and 105 boys). At the time of the first assessment (kindergarten), the mean age was six years, and the second assessment was conducted one year later. The results demonstrate that the acquisition of counting and relational skills before formal schooling are predictive of the acquisition of basic arithmetical skills and overall mathematical performance in grade one, above and beyond the effects of demographic fa…
Effect of cognitive impairment on basic activities of daily living in hip fracture patients: a 1-year follow-up.
2007
Background and aims: To compare changes in basic self-care activities in various cognitive groups of hip fracture patients by the Katz Index of Independence in activities of daily living (ADL). Methods: 117 community-dwelling elderly subjects with acute hip fracture (age 67–92 years), referred to the geriatric unit of Jyvaskyla Central Hospital for rehabilitation, participated in the study. Basic self-care activities were evaluated by the Katz ADL Index and cognition by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results: Prior to hip fracture, the patients in the lowest MMSE group had a significantly lower Katz Index than the other three groups (p<0.001). Disability increased in a statistica…
Group fitness activities for the elderly: an innovative approach to reduce falls and injuries
2013
Aim The aim of this study was to examine the opportunity to adopt, for the elderly, already validated function ability tests to better understand how to prevent falls and injuries and to better plan group fitness activities like ballroom dance classes (e.g., Valzer, Polka, Mazurka). Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Barthel Index (BI) were administered and the occurrence of falls during the previous 2 years was evaluated by anamnesis. One hundred and twenty-two elderly subjects living in Palermo city participated to the study. According to the anamnesis, subjects were divided into two groups: experimental group (EG) and control group (CG). T…
Muscle function and functional ability improves more in community-dwelling older women with a mixed-strength training programme
2005
Supervised training can reach a limited number of elderly people.To determine the impact of a 1-year mixed-strength training programme on muscle function (MF), functional ability (FA) and physical activity (PA).Twice-a-week hospital-based exercise classes and a once-a-week home session.twenty-eight healthy community-dwelling men and women on the training programme and 20 controls aged over 75 years.Training with two multi-gym machines for the lower limbs at 60% of the repetition maximum (1RM). At-home subjects used elastic bands.Maximum isometric strength of knee extensors (KE), ankle plantar flexors (PF), leg extensor power (LEP), functional reach (FR), chair rise 1 (CR1) and 10 times (CR1…
Working memory and children’s use of retrieval to solve addition problems
2005
This study tested the hypothesis that children with high working memory capacities solve single-digit additions by direct retrieval of the answers from long-term memory more often than do children with low working memory capacities. Counting and reading letter span tasks were administered to groups of third-grade (mean age=107 months) and fourth-grade (mean age=118 months) children who were also asked to solve 40 single-digit additions. High working memory capacity was associated with more frequent use of retrieval and faster responses in solving additions. The effect of span on the use of retrieval increased with the size of the minimum addend. The relation between working memory measures …
Relationships between depressive symptoms and self-reported unintentional injuries: the cross-sectional population–based FIN-D2D survey
2012
Background There is a lack of knowledge on the influence of different levels of physical activity (PA) on unintentional injuries among those with depressive symptoms (DS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between PA categories and unintentional injuries among participants with and without DS based on a cross-sectional population–based FIN-D2D survey conducted in 2007. Methods Out of 4500, 2682 participants (60%) aged 45–74 years attended in this study. The unintentional injuries over the past year were captured in a questionnaire. DS were determined with the Beck Depression Inventory (≥ 10 points) and PA with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The stati…
Support Systems for Poor Readers: Empirical Data From Six EU Member States
2011
International audience; This study surveyed and compared support systems for poor readers in six member states of the European Union (EU). The goal was to identify features of effective support systems. A large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted among mainstream teachers (n = 4,210) and remedial teachers (n = 2,395). Results indicate that the six support systems differed substantially, with effective support systems showing high performance on all variables measured. More specifically, effective support systems were characterized by (a) high levels of both teacher and student support and (b) frequent interactions between teachers and remedial teachers as well as between remedial teach…