http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/ en Copyright 2009 Sun, 03 May 2009 14:26:10 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss "Sustained attention and social competence in typically developing preschool-aged children." Bennett-Murphy, Laurie-Rose, Brinkman, & McNamara (2007) I actually found this article by researching for a paper for a different class. I spent time with preschool children this semester through an internship, and for my final paper further explored the development of social competence during preschool. I came across this correlation study that was interested in whether children who had better sustained attention were more socially competent because they could attend to verbal and non-verbal cues during interaction with their peers. Bennett Murphy, Laurie-Rose, Brinkman, and McNamara (2007) used a five minute computerized visual vigilance task to measure sustained attention adapted for preschool children. The participants were forty preschool children, twenty boys and twenty girls ages 3-5 years. The vigilance task asked participants to hit the spacebar when they saw a target picture of a bird appear on the screen. Neutral stimuli were also presented, so children were asked to discriminate between the target symbol and the neutral stimuli. After the task was completed, the researchers assessed social competence by means of behavioral observation during free play according to the Howes Peer Play Scale. This scale assessed overall peer competence, gregariousness, and aggression. They also observed and evaluated object competence by assessing the use of toys during play (correct or incorrect: banging a toy truck against the ground vs. moving it along the floor). Results indicated that the more correct detections the child made during the vigilance task, the more likely he or she was to engage in social or reciprocal play; those who made the more errors of commission displayed more aggressive behavior. The results also indicated that children who were better able to detect changes in stimuli were more gregarious. Overall, the results suggested that the constructs assessed by the Howes Peer Play Scale were correlated to better performance on the computerized vigilance task that tested sustained attention. This study has implications for my own study because it described and used an measure of sustained attention and it was successfully administered to preschool children. It also has implications for the real life application of my study, because I am trying to explore a means of increasing the sustained attention of preschool children, which this study suggests is correlated with social competence of children this age. If sessions of yoga can improve the sustained attention of preschool children, it could be suggested that children engage in yoga before free play because this could improve their social competence. The results of this study also suggest that children who made more errors of commission were more aggressive during social interactions, so perhaps if yoga is associated with a decrease in errors of commission on a vigilance task, children might be less likely to be aggressive during free play after a session of yoga. This study also extensively researched sustained attention, so it provided sources for me to explore in my own study about sustained attention of preschool children. This article can be accessed through the PsycINFO database. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/05/relationship_between_sustained.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/05/relationship_between_sustained.html Exploring the Field Sun, 03 May 2009 14:26:10 -0500 With the many ways that my senior comp research has been going I’ve been given the opportunity to look at many different research articles pertaining to literature on blogs, podcasts, and the many different subcategories that go into using them in the classroom. I have solidified the fact that I’d like to study CMC in the forms of blogs and podcasts to determine the effects that it has on student recall of information. The details of this have not yet been solidified but as I was looking further into the research and exploring the different methods I could use, I decided it might be pretty cool to make the design 2 x 2 mixed and include gender as a second variable. This is all still up in the air; however, with the background provided by Caspi, Chaujut, and Saporta it seems like it could be something interesting to look at. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/_with_the_many_ways.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/_with_the_many_ways.html Exploring the Field Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:51:15 -0500 Verbal Learning as a Function of Grammatical Structure by Sheela Singh, from way back in our bicentennial year of 1976. This study provided me with some strong connections between my research topic and my hopeful career field.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/vurbip_found_this_twogma_while.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/vurbip_found_this_twogma_while.html Exploring the Field grammar nonsense words recall written communication Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:17:43 -0500 The Dumbest Generation. Bauerlein throws so many quotes, other people’s opinions, and even just a ton of summaries all throughout his book. This has been a huge complication for me because I feel like it makes it difficult for me to understand exactly what he thinks when his claims are all through everyone else’s opinions that he just simply agrees with. Since this is the last chapter we’ll be discussing in class, I guess it’s fair to say that there have been many times that I get lost in all of the statistics, quotes, and summaries. It is hard for me many times to pick his claim out of everything he is trying to say. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/in_defense_of_twixters.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/in_defense_of_twixters.html From Class twixters Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:20:29 -0500 I must tangent on this chapter. The idea of coddling children/people for the sake of self-esteem is a personal peeve of mine. My tangent is going to agree with Baurlein. I'm not going to suggest that we never tell children/college students that they do a good job...when they actually do. But Stupnisky et al. (2007) suggests that self-esteem is one of the most researched topics in psychology. This vast storehouse of knowledge about it has yielded little in the academic impact of self-esteem on academic achievement. "'We need to stop endlessly repeating, "You're special," and having children repeat that back. Kids are self-centered enough already." (pg. 192) According to Piaget, children are supposed to grow out of egocentrism at the end of preschool (Gjerde, Block, & Block, 1986). We don't need to bring it back superficially later in life. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/special.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/special.html From Class Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:53:36 -0500 The Dumbest Generation, follows the same pattern, as far as my reactions to it and my feelings about it. He usually makes some pretty interesting points with some at least moderately convincing arguments. He also, though, always makes arguments that just rub me the wrong way, and backs them up with further arguments that are flawed or seem ludicrous to me. But I guess that's the nature of reading highly biased literature of any sort, whether you agree with the author's main premise or not. Chapter five was no exception.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/can_pop_teach_us_something_tha.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/can_pop_teach_us_something_tha.html From Class Mark Bauerlein pop culture The Dumbest Generation twixters Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:39:04 -0500 The Dumbest Generation has really gotten me thinking about my own reading habits and how they’ve changed from my high school years to my current college years. When I was in high school I was one of those 77% of students who spent three hours or less per week on “personal reading”. I also was most weeks probably not included in the 2% of students who exceeded 10 hours when it came to “Reading/studying for a class”. Looking back on high school, I took difficult classes; however, I figured out what I needed to do to get good grades and that’s all I did. I rarely read for pleasure, studied extra for the sake of learning, or pushed myself because at my high school I simply did not need to. The only pleasure reading I can recall was during those beautiful Easter vacations that I spent on the beach in Florida. Yes, I was a beach reader and since I grew up in a similar climate to Meadville, I guess it caused my pleasure reading to struggle. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/mark_bauerleins_chapter_the_ne.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/mark_bauerleins_chapter_the_ne.html Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:07:10 -0500 After reading the second chapter of The Dumbest Generation, I went in search of how much high school students read for class in a given year. I know that personally, I would LOVE to read for pleasure, but I am too busy reading text for class and trying to give my eyes a break once in a while to be able to devour a delicious piece of fiction. But one would think that any reading in general would add reading skill and knowledge, so are high school and college students even reading out of necessity? I came across a blog by high school literature teachers. One entry was particularly interesting: "I had a colleague who used to teach a novel a week in her AP Literature class - I asked her how the kids could possibly keep up with that pace. She told me that they were highly motivated. Then I asked her if she quizzed her students to see if they were really doing the reading. She then told me that the discussions and essays were enough to show that they were doing the reading. I finally convinced her to give a pop quiz. When she did - she discovered that not one student in her entire class had actually done the reading." -Joseph Scotese This struck a chord with me because I took an AP literature course my senior year of high school and was told by most of my peers that I was an over-achiever because I actually read the books we were assigned...spark notes was the "cool" and normal thing to do. Because I did not have time to read books of my choice, I instead squeezed every ounce of enjoyment I could out of Crime and Punishment and Paradise Lost (which I really did enjoy) that were assigned by the teacher. I am actually hearing the snickers even from my fellow Junior Seminar classmates to whom I am admitting this. I can also see how my teacher could have thought that we were all actually reading, because a select few of my classmates and I did most of the responding to his discussion questions. I really want to disagree with Bauerlein that we are the dumbest generation. But I am wondering how much I and my fellow college classmates are really reading the books and articles we are assigned for class, much less for pleasure. Camille and I were discussing this chapter before I started this blog and would like to propose an activity for the class. This is our challenge to you, classmates: Record how many pages you were assigned to read in the past week, due last Monday through tomorrow (Monday). Then also record how many of the pages of each assignment you read in entirety. Separately, how many pages you "skimmed" and also separately, how many pages you took notes on while reading. In class we would like to discuss how much you feel you learn from reading assignments versus having lectures or discussions in class about the topics. Do you feel you could do well on a pop quiz on the readings for our Junior Seminar class? ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/are_you_highly_motivated.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/are_you_highly_motivated.html From Class Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:17:58 -0500 I once saw a stand-up comedian on Comedy Central (I happened to be taking a break from reading Teen Vogue, listening to Britney, and playing Age of Empires II) who talked about arguing with his girlfriend. He relayed how, after an argument had been going on for a while, she would start just throwing any random insult and indignity at him to try to win, completely ignoring the topic being discussed. While arguing about why he never hadn't done the dishes in a week, for example, she would suddenly start attacking his sexual potency. Bauerlein kind of strikes me as a similar sort of cat. What, you don't agree with me that college freshman are less academically equipped now than they ever have been? Fine! I'll just start arguing about Harry Potter! Oh, you don't know who the King of Sweden was in 1658? Well, graphic novels aren't really books, anyway. http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/a_morningglory_at_my_window_sa.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/04/a_morningglory_at_my_window_sa.html From Class Bauerlein Internet reading television The Dumbest Generation Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:15:00 -0500 Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension. This paper has really helped me in a way figure out which direction I want to go with my project and has given me more hope--There are articles out there for me!! :-) ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/gettin_picky.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/gettin_picky.html Exploring the Field Blogging Ellison Student Perceptions of Blogging Wu Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:51:46 -0500 Exploring the Field entries have focused mostly on the study of grammar in written communication and the effects that grammaticality has on the impressions formed by the readers of the author. During my research, though, I came across several pieces of research that had little or nothing to do with grammar but were still quite relevant to the topic I'm currently pursuing for my senior comp. One such study was conducted by N. Epley and J. Kruger and was published in 2005, and was entitled When what you type isn't what they read: The perseverance of stereotypes and expectancies over e-mail. I thought I'd give an article that wasn't related to grammar mechanics a chance to shine on my blog.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/my_past_two_exploring_the.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/my_past_two_exploring_the.html Exploring the Field e-mail impression formation intelligence stereotypes telephone Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:15:46 -0500 Every chapter of David Crystal’s txtng the gr8 db8 is packed with tons of information presenting both sides of the “gr8 db8” over txtng. Personally, I enjoy the fact that Crystal seems to be in favor of texting. The first thing that stuck out to me in Chapter 7 was his introduction of how different languages are used in texting and the adaptations they must make. The languages that have been around for practically forever HAVE to adapt to technology. This point was super cool to me simply because I am so in favor of technology. He is setting the stage to show us that English is not the only language adapting on account of advances in technology and he follows this point the whole way through to the end of the book. The main focus, however, of Chapter 7 is the similarities (and differences) that occur in text messaging among different languages. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/mythbusted.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/mythbusted.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:56:57 -0500 Crystal had a number of really interesting thoughts in Chapters 7 and 8 of Txtng: the gr8 db8, one even relating to my interest in texting in other languages. However, I found that the relationship between texting and development of formal language skills in adolescence caught my attention. Crystal suggests, as we also discussed in class, that it takes a firm grasp on the formal conventions of a language to be able to play with it in text. He lends evidence to this idea by describing recent studies on the effects of texting on language skills of adolescents. Crystal quotes recent studies of reading and vocabulary ability of pre-teen students as finding, "that the younger the children when they received their first phone, the higher their scores." I found this quote particularly intriguing because my gut reaction to this statement was that it didn't seem right. I would have thought that it would have been more beneficial to have had a longer time to develop conventional formal language skills before being exposed to a medium with which to play with the language. However, Crystal is suggesting that the ability to play with the language suggests that these students are adept at language skills in the first place and this is evidenced by their texting behaviors. He also suggests that more research should be done with students of varying aptitude levels to see if these results are the same with other students. Was it the extra practice and the intellectually stimulating task of playing with language that enhanced these students' language skills, and if so, would this be beneficial to students of all aptitude levels? Should we be encouraging younger and younger students, or students struggling with language skills to text more? Crystal suggests that as long as teachers, parents, and researchers can teach children the difference between when it is appropriate to use texting language and when it is not, every opportunity to write and communicate is beneficial to the development of formal language skills, especially in the ability to summarize and be concise. However, he does describe a concern with the structure of messages in texts as being simple and short statements and that this method of communication impedes the ability to make detailed descriptions and explanations in formal writing. Which should be valued more in formal writing, conciseness or detail? Technically it depends on the style and field of writing, but in general, are we sacrificing the development of eloquence for effective summary by learning texting as a variety of language, and if so, is this a good thing? ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/txtng_practice_for_the_real_th.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/txtng_practice_for_the_real_th.html From Class Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:15:45 -0500 txtng: the gr8 db8, David Crystal gives the reader an array of examples of criticism of and support for (mostly criticism) text messaging from modern society. According to him, people from all over and from all different fields have pointed their prophetic finger at the mobile phone, blaming it and its texting functions for many of the world's linguistic woes. Even after one manages to get through Crystal's obviously and heavily biased arguments, though, the reader sees him more or less effectively refute all of these accusations with realitive ease and simplicity. There is one point that he brought up, however, that at first just piqued my interest, but then began to absorb more and more of my attention and thought.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/hav_u_herd_textese_iz_tha_lang.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/hav_u_herd_textese_iz_tha_lang.html From Class linguistics text messaging texting txtng the gr8 db8 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:55:05 -0500 The study I read for my March entry of Exploring the Field was by Silverstein and Allison (1994), "The comparative efficacy of antecedent exercise and methylphenidate: a single-case randomized trial." This was especially interesting to me because the participant was a preschool child and if I had the ability to administer medication or to select a sample of medicated children, I would be especially interested in furthering this exact study with a much larger sample of children in a typical rather than special education classroom. This study is dated by comparison to much of the other research I have come across on this subject and discourages my hypothesis that antecedent exercise will reduce disruptive behavior, but is very important because (as it admits) it is one of very few studies that explore this topic. It also provides a methodology that would be easy to replicate without medication, and suggests a measure of hyperactivity that I might consider for my own project. The participant was a 3-year-old African American boy who had been diagnosed with ADHD according to the DSM-III. The participant received all three conditions of 10mg of methylphenidate once a day plus attention placebo, antecedent exercise, which entailed 20 minutes of jogging, plus medication placebo, and the attention placebo plus medication placebo condition. Researchers describe the lasting effects of the medication as 4 hour after administration and the rigorous exercise as 24 hours, so the procedures for the conditions were alternated each day. The Conners' Abbreviated Symptom Questionnaire was used to measure hyperactive behavior. The results indicated that antecedent exercise was associated with the most hyperactivity, the placebo with less, and the medication with the least. Researchers suggest the implication of research of this topic will become even more important as children are diagnosed with ADHD at younger ages, specifically, during preschool. The perspective of this study seems to indicate that more treatments need to be developed because there are more preschool children that will be diagnosed and need this treatment, which is slightly counter to the idea of many of my other studies. Other studies suggest that behavior considered symptoms of ADHD in elementary school children are normal in preschool children because they have not yet physically developed the brain area that controls impulses so it is questionable to diagnose preschool children with a disorder. I acquired this article through the Illiad service, but its abstract may be found in the PsycINFO database.]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/antecedent_exercise_and_adhd.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/c/crosbya/weblog/2009/03/antecedent_exercise_and_adhd.html Exploring the Field Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:40:06 -0500