Equitable Assessment of Gifted Students Using the Naglieri General Ability Tests

Even though it is well documented that Black, Hispanic, Native American students have been denied access to gifted education for decades, injustice continues. The authors present research showing that traditional IQ tests with their verbal and quantitative questions contribute to under-representation because they yield large differences for students of color. Some (e.g., NNAT), but not all, nonverbal tests help but verbal and quantitative content is omitted. The authors suggest that students of color who are intellectually capable (gifted) but perhaps not talented (knowledgeable) could be more equitably evaluated if the verbal comprehension of instructions and verbal and quantitative knowledge were taken out of the tests used for identification. Research evidence is provided which shows that the Naglieri General Ability Tests: Verbal, Nonverbal, and Quantitative, which have nonverbal directions, do not demand knowledge acquired at school and do not require verbal response yield small differences by gender, race, ethnicity, and parental education.

Children’s Verbal, Visual and Spatial Processing and Storage Abilities: An Analysis of Verbal Comprehension, Reading, Counting and Mathematics

The importance of working memory (WM) in reading and mathematics performance has been widely studied, with recent research examining the components of WM (i.e., storage and processing) and their roles in these educational outcomes. However, the differing relationships between these abilities and the foundational skills involved in the development of reading and mathematics have received less attention. Additionally, the separation of verbal, visual and spatial storage and processing and subsequent links with foundational skills and downstream reading and mathematics has not been widely examined. The current study investigated the separate contributions of processing and storage from verbal, visual and spatial tasks to reading and mathematics, whilst considering influences on the underlying skills of verbal comprehension and counting, respectively. Ninety-two children aged 7- to 8-years were assessed. It was found that verbal comprehension (with some caveats) was predicted by verbal storage and reading was predicted by verbal and spatial storage. Counting was predicted by visual processing and storage, whilst mathematics was related to verbal and spatial storage. We argue that resources for tasks relying on external representations of stimuli related mainly to storage, and were largely verbal and spatial in nature. When a task required internal representation, there was a draw on visual processing and storage abilities. Findings suggest a possible meaningful separability of types of processing. Further investigation of this could lead to the development of an enhanced WM model, which might better inform interventions and reasonable adjustments for children who struggle with reading and mathematics due to WM deficits.

Disrupted Functional Connectivity Within and Between Resting-State Networks in the Subacute Stage of Post-stroke Aphasia

Background: Post-stroke aphasia (PSA) results from brain network disorders caused by focal stroke lesions. However, it still remains largely unclear whether the impairment is present in intra- and internetwork functional connectivity (FC) within each resting-state network (RSN) and between RSNs in the subacute stage of PSA.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the resting-state FC within and between RSNs in patients with PSA and observe the relationships between FC alterations and Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) measures.Methods: A total of 20 individuals with subacute PSA and 20 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited for functional MRI (fMRI) scanning, and only patients with PSA underwent WAB assessment. Independent component analysis was carried out to identify RSNs. Two-sample t-tests were used to calculate intra- and internetwork FC differences between patients with PSA and HCs. The results were corrected for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate (FDR correction, p < 0.05). Partial correlation analysis was performed to observe the relationship between FC and WAB scores with age, gender, mean framewise displacement, and lesion volume as covariates (p < 0.05).Results: Compared to HCs, patients with PSA showed a significant increase in intranetwork FC in the salience network (SN). For internetwork FC analysis, patients showed a significantly increased coupling between left frontoparietal network (lFPN) and SN and decreased coupling between lFPN and right frontoparietal network (rFPN) as well as between lFPN and posterior default mode network (pDMN) (FDR correction, p < 0.05). Finally, a significant positive correlation was found between the intergroup difference of FC (lFPN-rFPN) and auditory-verbal comprehension (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Altered FC was revealed within and between multiple RSNs in patients with PSA at the subacute stage. Reduced FC between lFPN and rFPN was the key element participating in language destruction. These findings proved that PSA is a brain network disorder caused by focal lesions; besides, it may improve our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of patients with PSA at the subacute stage.

Motor skills predict adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents

There is a well-documented difference between IQ and adaptive behavior scores in autism, with autistic children having lower adaptive behavior scores than would be predicted based on their IQ scores. Differences in motor skills may explain the variability in their adaptive behavior scores. The current study examined how motor skills might explain autistic individuals’ low adaptive behavior scores and which individual components of IQ (i.e., verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning) and motor skills (i.e., manual dexterity, aiming and catching, and balance) may drive this effect. We examined the relationships between IQ, motor skills, calibrated severity, and adaptive behavior scores in 45 autistic children and adolescents. We found a significant difference in the full-scale IQ and the adaptive behavior scores indicating that our participants’ adaptive behavior scores were lower than would be expected given their full-scale IQ. We investigated whether motor skills predicted adaptive behavior in autistic children and adolescents and found that motor skills scores were related to adaptive behavior scores. To further investigate these relationships, we examined how individual components of IQ and motor skills predicted adaptive behavior scores in autistic children and adolescents. Our results indicated that manual dexterity scores were related to adaptive behavior scores. These findings clearly illustrate the need for further understanding of autistic individuals’ difficulties with adaptive behavior and the potential role of motor skill difficulties that may underlie these difficulties.

Executive Functioning in Adults with Down Syndrome: Machine-Learning-Based Prediction of Inhibitory Capacity

The study of executive function decline in adults with Down syndrome (DS) is important, because it supports independent functioning in real-world settings. Inhibitory control is posited to be essential for self-regulation and adaptation to daily life activities. However, cognitive domains that most predict the capacity for inhibition in adults with DS have not been identified. The aim of this study was to identify cognitive domains that predict the capacity for inhibition, using novel data-driven techniques in a sample of adults with DS (n = 188; 49.47% men; 33.6 ± 8.8 years old), with low and moderate levels of intellectual disability. Neuropsychological tests, including assessment of memory, attention, language, executive functions, and praxis, were submitted to Random Forest, support vector machine, and logistic regression algorithms for the purpose of predicting inhibition capacity, assessed with the Cats-and-Dogs test. Convergent results from the three algorithms show that the best predictors for inhibition capacity were constructive praxis, verbal memory, immediate memory, planning, and written verbal comprehension. These results suggest the minimum set of neuropsychological assessments and potential intervention targets for individuals with DS and ID, which may optimize potential for independent living.

Understanding of Numerical Information during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Media news during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic often entail complex numerical concepts such as exponential increase or reproduction number. This study investigated whether people have difficulties in understanding such information and whether these difficulties are related to numerical competence, reflective thinking, and risk proneness. One hundred sixty-three participants provided answers to a numeracy scale focusing on complex numerical concepts relevant to COVID-19 (COV Numeracy Scale). They also provided responses to well-established objective and subjective scales, questions about affective states, and questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. Higher scores on the COV Numeracy Scale correlated with higher scores on the Health Numeracy Scale, in the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), and in self-assessments of verbal comprehension, mathematical intelligence, and subjective numeracy. Interestingly, scores on the COV Numeracy Scale also positively correlated with the number of consulted information sources about COVID-19. Accuracy in the CRT emerged as a significant predictor, explaining ca. 14% of variance on the COV Numeracy Scale. The results suggest that people with lower reflective thinking skills and lower subjective and objective numerical competence can be more at disadvantage when confronted with COVID-related numerical information in everyday life. These findings advise caution in the communication of relevant public health information that entails complex numerical concepts.

Cognitive Impairment in Adult Patients with 5q-Associated Spinal Muscular Atrophy

In previous studies, a below-average, average, or above-average intelligence quotient (IQ) in children with SMA was detected but, aside from a severe physical disability, the cognitive performance of adult SMA patients has not yet been evaluated. The intelligence test used in this study, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, fourth edition (WAIS-IV), was used to measure major intelligence components of adult SMA patients. The WAIS-IV determines four index scores representing verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Due to time-dependent demands on motor function, the processing speed index score was excluded. IQ index scores of 33 adult SMA patients did not differ from IQ index scores of the normal population. In SMA type-3 patients, the index scores for verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, and working memory did not differ from the normal population but showed a trend of IQ scores towards lower points. Patients with SMA type 2 had lower IQ index scores for working memory (90.33 ± 12.95; p = 0.012) and perceptual reasoning (90.73 ± 12.58; p = 0.013) than the normal population. This study provided further evidence that SMA is a multi-systemic disease and may refute the widespread hypothesis that SMA patients might improve their cognitive skills to compensate for their physical impairment.

A-35 Relationship between Suicidality and Discrepancies in Verbal and Nonverbal Intelligence in Adolescents

Objective Many have examined the relationship between intellectual functioning (IQ) and suicidality in children and adolescents. However, no study to date has investigated how discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal IQ may influence suicide risk in adolescents. This study used a sample of patients hospitalized on an adolescent psychiatric unit to compare number of lifetime suicide attempts (SA) among those with a ≥ 22-point difference between verbal and nonverbal abilities. Method Data were retroactively collected from a convenience sample. Patients were grouped based on discrepancies between Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) and Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) scores (VCI > PRI & VCI). Results The number of lifetime ACEs or size of IQ discrepancy did not significantly differ between groups; however, those in the VCI < PRI (μ = 1.13 ± 0.98) group had a significant higher number of SAs than those in the VCI > PRI group (μ = 0.50 ± 0.86) (t(32) = 2.01, p = 0.05). Hedges’ g revealed large effect for IQ discrepancy type and number of SAs. Linear regression modeling revealed a positive association between number of ACEs and number of SAs (ß = 0.10, t(33) = 2.71, p = 0.01). Size of IQ discrepancy was not significantly contributory to total SAs. Conclusion VCI being considerably lower than PRI may increase risk of SA in adolescents. This risk may be further exacerbated by lifetime number of ACEs.