The effects of spacing and massing on children’s orthographic learning

Despite substantial evidence that distributing study opportunities over time improves the retention of learned verbal material compared to study trials that occur consecutively, the influence of temporal spacing on children’s learning of written words has not been investigated. This experiment examined whether temporal spacing influenced Grade 3 and 4 children’s (N=37; mean age 8 years, 7 months) learning of novel written words during independent reading, compared to massing. Children read sixteen sentences containing a novel word under either spaced (sentences appeared once in each of four blocks) or massed (four consecutive trials) conditions. After a delay, orthographic learning was assessed using recognition (orthographic choice) and recall (spelling to dictation) measures. Words experienced in the distributed condition were better recognised than those in the massed condition, but there was no effect on recall. These findings suggest that temporal spacing influences the acquisition of new written word forms, extending the potential utility of the spacing principle to reading acquisition.

Influence of sex-specific concurrent changes in age, maturity status, and morphological covariates on the development of peak ventilatory variables in 10–17-year-olds

Purposes (i) To investigate the influence of concurrent changes in age, maturity status, stature, body mass, and skinfold thicknesses on the development of peak ventilatory variables in 10–17-year-olds; and, (ii) to evaluate the interpretation of paediatric norm tables of peak ventilatory variables. Methods Multiplicative multilevel modelling which allows both the number of observations per individual and the temporal spacing of the observations to vary was used to analyze the expired ventilation (peak $${\dot{\mathrm{V}}}_{\mathrm{E}}$$ V ˙ E ) and tidal volume (peak VT) at peak oxygen uptake of 420 (217 boys) 10–17-year-olds. Models were founded on 1053 (550 from boys) determinations of peak ventilatory variables supported by anthropometric measures and maturity status. Results In sex-specific, multiplicative allometric models, concurrent changes in body mass and skinfold thicknesses (as a surrogate of FFM) and age were significant (p < 0.05) explanatory variables of the development of peak $${\dot{\mathrm{V}}}_{\mathrm{E}}$$ V ˙ E , once these covariates had been controlled for stature had no additional, significant (p > 0.05) effect on peak $${\dot{\mathrm{V}}}_{\mathrm{E}}$$ V ˙ E . Concurrent changes in age, stature, body mass, and skinfold thicknesses were significant (p < 0.05) explanatory variables of the development of peak VT. Maturity status had no additional, significant (p > 0.05) effect on either peak $${\dot{\mathrm{V}}}_{\mathrm{E}}$$ V ˙ E or peak VT once age and morphological covariates had been controlled for. Conclusions Elucidation of the sex-specific development of peak $${\dot{\mathrm{V}}}_{\mathrm{E}}$$ V ˙ E requires studies which address concurrent changes in body mass, skinfold thicknesses, and age. Stature is an additional explanatory variable in the development of peak VT, in both sexes. Paediatric norms based solely on age or stature or body mass are untenable.