Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comprises a deficit in behavioral inhibition. A theoretical model is constructed that links inhibition to 4 executive neuropsychological functions that appear to depend on it for their effective execution: (a) working memory, (b) self-regulation of affect-motivation-arousal, (c) internalization of speech, and (d) reconstitution (behavioral analysis and synthesis). Extended to ADHD, the model predicts that ADHD should be associated with secondary impairments in these 4 executive abilities and the motor control they afford. The author reviews evidence for each of these domains of functioning and finds it to be strongest for deficits in behavioral inhibition, working memory, regulation of motivation, and motor control in those with ADHD. Although the model is promising as a potential theory of self-control and ADHD, far more research is required to evaluate its merits and the many predictions it makes about ADHD.

/pdf/behavioral-inhibition-sustained-attention-and-executive-3s4ta68l66.pdf

Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD.

1. Introduction 2. The emergence of learning activity as a historical form of human learning 3. The zone of proximal development as the basic category of expansive research 4. The instruments of expansion 5. Toward an expansive methodology 6. Epilogue.

Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research

creased by 0.47 SDs under active learning (n = 158 studies), and that the odds ratio for failing was 1.95 under traditional lecturing (n = 67 studies). These results indicate that average examination scores improved by about 6% in active learning sections, and that students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5 times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that both results hold across the STEM disciplines, that active learning increases scores on concept inventories more than on course examinations, and that active learning appears effective across all class sizes—although the greatest effects are in small (n ≤ 50) classes. Trim and fill analyses and fail-safe n calculations suggest that the results are not due to publication bias. The results also appear robust to variation in the methodological rigor of the included studies, based on the quality of controls over student quality and instructor identity. This is the largest and most comprehensive metaanalysis of undergraduate STEM education published to date. The results raise questions about the continued use of traditional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teaching practice in regular classrooms.

/pdf/active-learning-increases-student-performance-in-science-3j0c6wu4k5.pdf

Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics

Prior to the twentieth century, theories of knowledge were inherently perceptual. Since then, developments in logic, statis- tics, and programming languages have inspired amodal theories that rest on principles fundamentally different from those underlying perception. In addition, perceptual approaches have become widely viewed as untenable because they are assumed to implement record- ing systems, not conceptual systems. A perceptual theory of knowledge is developed here in the context of current cognitive science and neuroscience. During perceptual experience, association areas in the brain capture bottom-up patterns of activation in sensory-motor areas. Later, in a top-down manner, association areas partially reactivate sensory-motor areas to implement perceptual symbols. The stor- age and reactivation of perceptual symbols operates at the level of perceptual components - not at the level of holistic perceptual expe- riences. Through the use of selective attention, schematic representations of perceptual components are extracted from experience and stored in memory (e.g., individual memories of green, purr, hot). As memories of the same component become organized around a com- mon frame, they implement a simulator that produces limitless simulations of the component (e.g., simulations of purr). Not only do such simulators develop for aspects of sensory experience, they also develop for aspects of proprioception (e.g., lift, run) and introspec- tion (e.g., compare, memory, happy, hungry). Once established, these simulators implement a basic conceptual system that represents types, supports categorization, and produces categorical inferences. These simulators further support productivity, propositions, and ab- stract concepts, thereby implementing a fully functional conceptual system. Productivity results from integrating simulators combinato- rially and recursively to produce complex simulations. Propositions result from binding simulators to perceived individuals to represent type-token relations. Abstract concepts are grounded in complex simulations of combined physical and introspective events. Thus, a per- ceptual theory of knowledge can implement a fully functional conceptual system while avoiding problems associated with amodal sym- bol systems. Implications for cognition, neuroscience, evolution, development, and artificial intelligence are explored.

/pdf/perceptual-symbol-systems-4spsk97r61.pdf

Perceptual symbol systems.

Two instructional studies directed at the comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities of seventh grade poor comprehenders are reported. The four study activities were summarizing (self-review), questioning, clarifying, and predicting. The training method was that of reciprocal teaching, where the tutor and students took turns leading a dialogue centered on pertinent features of the text. In Study 1, a comparison between the reciprocal teaching method and a second intervention modeled on typical classroom practice resulted in greater gains and maintenance over time for the reciprocal procedure. Reciprocal teaching, with an adult model guiding the student to interact with the text in more sophisticated ways, led to a significant improvement in the quality of the summaries and questions. It also led to sizable gains on criterion tests of comprehension, reliable maintenance over time, generalization to classroom comprehension tests, transfer to novel tasks that tapped the trained skills of...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3233567.pdf

Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension-Monitoring Activities

Any handicap, that is, any physical deficiency, confronts the organism with the task of overcoming this handicap, making up for the deficiency, and compensating for the harm it causes. Therefore, the impact of the handicap is always twofold and contradictory: on the one hand, it weakens the organism, undermines its activity, and is a drawback; on the other, precisely because it hampers and disrupts the organism’s activity, it serves as a stimulus for greater development of other functions of the organism, prodding and impelling the organism to more intensive activity, which can compensate for the deficiency and overcome the difficulties. This is a general rule that is equally applicable to the organism’s biology and psychology: the minus of the handicap turns into the plus of the compensation, that is, the deficiency proves to be a stimulus for intensified development and activity. Two principal types of compensation are defined: direct, or organic, and indirect, or psychological. The former occurs mostly when one of the paired organs is damaged or removed. For example, when a kidney, a lung or the like is removed, the other, remaining paired organ compensatorily develops and assumes the functions of the diseased organ. Where direct compensation is impossible, the task is taken on by the central nervous system and the person’s psychic apparatus, creating over the diseased or deficient organ a protective superstructure of the higher functions that support the apparatus’s operation. In the view of A. Adler, sensing the deficiency of organs serves as a constant stimulus for the individual to develop his psychology. The education of a child with a physical handicap usually relies on indirect, psychological compensation, since direct, organic compensation of blindness, deafness, and similar deficiencies is not feasible.

The Principles of Working with Mentally Retarded and Physically Handicapped Children

In psychological systems that give primacy to the concept of an integrated personality, the idea of overcompensation plays a dominant role. “Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger” is the way W. Stern formulates this idea, pointing out that strength is born from weakness, and abilities from deficiencies (W. Stern 1923, p. 145). The school of the Austrian psychiatrist Adler, which is widely popular and very influential in Europe and America and calls itself individual psychology, that is, personality psychology, developed this idea into an entire system, into a complete theory of the psyche. Overcompensation is not some rare or exceptional phenomenon in the life of an organism. An infinite multitude of examples of it can be cited. This is more an extremely common and very widespread feature of organic processes related to the basic laws of living matter. Granted, to this day we do not have any kind of exhaustive and all-inclusive biological theory of overcompensation, but in a number of specific fields of organic life these phenomena have been studied so thoroughly, and their practical use is so substantial, that we can quite rightly talk about overcompensation as a scientifically established, fundamental fact of an organism’s life. We vaccinate healthy children with smallpox toxin. The children experience a mild illness and upon recovering become protected against smallpox for many years. Their organism has acquired immunity, that is, it has not only overcome the mild illness that we caused with the inoculation but has come out of the illness healthier than before. The organism has succeeded in developing an antitoxin in much larger quantities than was required by the dose of the toxin that was injected in it. If we now compare our children with others who have not been vaccinated, we will see that they are exceedingly healthy with respect to this horrible disease: they are not merely not ill now, similar to other healthy children, but they also cannot get sick, they will remain healthy even when the toxin gets into their bloodstream.

L. S. Vygotsky

Papers

The Principles of Working with Mentally Retarded and Physically Handicapped Children

Handicaps and Overcompensation