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Error-related electroencephalographic (EEG) signals have been widely studied in relation to the human cognitive capability of differentiating between erroneous and correct actions. Midfrontal error-related negativity (ERN) and theta band oscillations have been found to underlie post-action error monitoring. However, it remains elusive how early monitoring activity is trackable, and which pre-response brain mechanisms relate to performance monitoring. Moreover, it is still not clear how task-specific parameters, such as cognitive demand or motor control, influence these processes. Here, we aimed to test pre- and post-error EEG patterns for different types of motor responses and to investigate the neuronal mechanisms leading to erroneous actions. We implemented a go/no-go paradigm based on keypress and saccadic responses. Participants received an initial instruction about the direction of the response to be given based on a facial cue and a subsequent one about the type of action to be performed based on an object cue. The paradigm was tested in 20 healthy volunteers combining EEG and eye tracking. We found significant differences in reaction time, number, and type of errors between the two actions. Saccadic responses reflected a higher number of premature responses and errors compared to the keypress ones. Nevertheless, both types of erroneous actions led to similar EEG patterns, supporting previous evidence for increased ERN amplitude and midfrontal theta power during error commission. Moreover, we found pre-error decreased theta activity independent of the type of action. Source analysis suggested different origin for such pre- and post-error neuronal patterns, matching the anterior insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex, respectively. This opposite pattern supports previous evidence of midfrontal theta not only as a neuronal marker of error commission but also as a predictor of action performance. Midfrontal theta, mostly associated with alert mechanisms triggering behavioral adjustments, also seems to reflect pre-response attentional mechanisms independently of the action to be performed. Our findings also add to the discussion regarding how salience network nodes interact during performance monitoring by suggesting pre- and post-error patterns have different neuronal sources within this network.

Multiple-choice testing is considered one of the most effective and enduring forms of educational assessment that remains in practice today. This study presents a comprehensive review of the literature on multiple-choice testing in education focused, specifically, on the development, analysis, and use of the incorrect options, which are also called the distractors. Despite a vast body of literature on multiple-choice testing, the task of creating distractors has received much less attention. In this study, we provide an overview of what is known about developing distractors for multiple-choice items and evaluating their quality. Next, we synthesize the existing guidelines on how to use distractors and summarize earlier research on the optimal number of distractors and the optimal ordering of distractors. Finally, we use this comprehensive review to provide the most up-to-date recommendations regarding distractor development, analysis, and use, and in the process, we highlight important areas where further research is needed.

Massive pretrained language models have garnered attention and controversy due to their ability to generate humanlike responses: Attention due to their frequent indistinguishability from human-generated phraseology and narratives and controversy due to the fact that their convincingly presented arguments and facts are frequently simply false. Just how humanlike are these responses when it comes to dialogues about physics, in particular about the standard content of introductory physics courses? This case study explores that question by having ChatGPT, the preeminent language model in 2023, work through representative assessment content of an actual calculus-based physics course and grading the responses in the same way human responses would be graded. As it turns out, ChatGPT would narrowly pass this course while exhibiting many of the preconceptions and errors of a beginning learner. A discussion of possible consequences for teaching, testing, and physics education research is provided as a possible starter for more detailed studies and curricular efforts in the future.

Transfer of learning is a fundamental goal of education but is challenging to achieve, especially where far transfer to remote contexts is at stake. How can we improve learners’ flexible application of knowledge to distant domains? In a counterintuitive phenomenon termed the derring effect, deliberately committing and correcting errors in low-stakes contexts enhances learning more than avoiding errors. Whereas this benefit has been demonstrated with tests in domains similar to those in the initial learning task, the present set of three experiments (N = 120) investigated whether deliberate erring boosts far transfer of conceptual knowledge to dissimilar domains. Undergraduates studied scientific expository texts either by generating conceptually correct responses or by deliberately generating conceptually erroneous responses then correcting them. Deliberate erring improved not only retention (Experiment 1), but also far transfer on inferential test questions that required applying the learned concepts to remote knowledge domains (e.g., from biology/vaccines to geography/forest management techniques; Experiment 2). This advantage held even over a control that further involved spotting and correcting the same errors that one’s peers had deliberately made (Experiment 3). Yet, learners failed to predict or recognize the benefits of deliberate erring even after the test. Altogether, these results suggest that the derring effect is specific to generating incorrect, but not correct, elaborations. Neither does mere exposure to others’ errors nor juxtaposing these errors with the correct responses suffice. Rather, guiding learners to personally commit and correct deliberate errors is vital for enhancing generalization and far transfer of learning to distant knowledge domains.

Purpose: We continuously monitor our speech output to detect potential errors in our productions. When we encounter errors, we rapidly change our speech output to compensate for the errors. However, it remains unclear whether we adjust the magnitude of our compensatory responses based on the characteristics of errors. Method: Participants (N = 30 adults) produced monosyllabic words containing /[epsilon]/ (/h[epsilon] p/, /h[epsilon] d/, /h[epsilon] k/) while receiving perturbed or unperturbed auditory feedback. In the perturbed trials, we applied two different types of formant perturbations: (a) the F1 shift, in which the first formant of /[epsilon]/ was increased, and (b) the F1-F2 shift, in which the first formant was increased and the second formant was decreased to make a participant's /[epsilon]/ sound like his or her /ae/. In each perturbation condition, we applied three participant-specific perturbation magnitudes (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 [epsilon]-ae distance). Results: Compensatory responses to perturbations with the magnitude of 1.5 [epsilon]-ae were proportionally smaller than responses to perturbation magnitudes of 0.5 [epsilon]-ae. Responses to the F1-F2 shift were larger than responses to the F1 shift regardless of the perturbation magnitude. Additionally, compensatory responses for /h[epsilon] d/ were smaller than responses for /h[epsilon] p/ and /h[epsilon] k/. Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest that the brain uses its error evaluation to determine the extent of compensatory responses. The brain may also consider categorical errors and phonemic environments (e.g., articulatory configurations of the following phoneme) to determine the magnitude of its compensatory responses to auditory errors.

Purpose: The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system provides automated measures facilitating clinical and nonclinical research and interventions on language development, but there are only a few, scattered independent reports of these measures' validity. The objectives of the current systematic review were to (a) discover studies comparing LENA output with manual annotation, namely, accuracy of talker labels, as well as involving adult word counts (AWCs), conversational turn counts (CTCs), and child vocalization counts (CVCs); (b) describe them qualitatively; (c) quantitatively integrate them to assess central tendencies; and (d) quantitatively integrate them to assess potential moderators. Method: Searches on Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycInfo were combined with expert knowledge, and interarticle citations resulting in 238 records screened and 73 records whose full text was inspected. To be included, studies must target children under the age of 18 years and report on accuracy of LENA labels (e.g., precision and/or recall) and/or AWC, CTC, or CVC (correlations and/or error metrics). Results: A total of 33 studies, in 28 articles, were discovered. A qualitative review revealed most validation studies had not been peer reviewed as such and failed to report key methodology and results. Quantitative integration of the results was possible for a broad definition of recall and precision (M = 59% and 68%, respectively; N = 12-13), for AWC (mean r = 0.79, N = 13), CVC (mean r = 0.77, N = 5), and CTC (mean r = 0.36, N = 6). Publication bias and moderators could not be assessed meta-analytically. Conclusion: Further research and improved reporting are needed in studies evaluating LENA segmentation and quantification accuracy, with work investigating CTC being particularly urgent.

Objective: The aim of the study was to conduct a meta-analysis of research examining the early speech and language functioning of young children, birth to age 8;11 (years;months), with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate (NSCL/P) compared to their peers without NSCL/P. Method: We conducted a random-effects metaregression using 241 effect sizes from 31 studies comparing 955 young children with NSCL/P to 938 typically developing peers on measures of speech and language functioning. Moderators were sample characteristics (i.e., age, cleft type, publication year, and study location) and measurement characteristics (i.e., speech sample material, language modality and domain, and assessment type). Results: Young children with NSCL/P scored significantly lower on measures of speech and language compared to children without NSCL/P. Children with NSCL/P had smaller consonant inventories (standardized mean difference effect size [ES[subscript g]] = -1.24), less accurate articulation (ES[subscript g] = -1.13), and more speech errors (ES[subscript g] = 0.93) than their peers. Additionally, children with NSCL/P had poorer expressive (ES[subscript g] = 0.57) and receptive (ES[subscript g] = -0.59) language skills than their peers. Age and assessment type moderated effect sizes for expressive language. As children with NSCL/P aged, their expressive language performance became more similar to their peers. Expressive language effect sizes from parent reports and observational language measures (estimated effect size = -0.74) were significantly lower than those from standardized norm-referenced tests (estimated effect size = -0.45). Conclusions: These findings suggest that young children with NSCL/P experience delays relative to their peers across multiple speech and language constructs. Differences between children with NSCL/P and their typically developing peers appear to decrease with age.

There is a contemporary emphasis on researching the effects of phonological awareness on reading skills though morphological awareness correlates more highly with reading. The purpose of the study was to investigate the patterns of reading errors from a morphological perspective (level of morphological complexity) and lexical category. One hundred and eighty-three Emirati regular education first graders, (54 male and 129 female) were presented with 96 randomly chosen words from the curriculum. Those were classified into lexical categories representing: nouns (43 words, 44.79%), verbs (32 words, 33.33%), adjectives and adverbs (11 words, 11.46%), and function words (i.e. preposition and conjunctions) (10 words, 10.42%). Words were classified into three levels of linguistic difficulty (easy, difficult, and very difficult) according to their morphological complexity. One male teacher participated in data collection to ensure procedural consistency. Nine reading error patterns were identified. Significant differences between male and female students in reading the target words were found. Results also indicated that reading difficulties may stem from a distinct, though interrelated, threefold paradigm: difficulty level of the read words (i.e. morphological complexity), lexical category (nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions), and pattern of reading error (e.g. omission of a letter or a syllable and reading the geminated letter as ingeminated). This study mapped the threefold paradigm (difficulty level, lexical category, and patterns of reading error) in individual students may be helpful in predicting reading errors and delineating the focus and strategies of instructional programs.

Background The perceived language barrier in English is said to hinder, and in certain instances, impede the global dissemination of knowledge, including medical information, to non-native English speakers within medical institutions. As English for medical purposes instructors, we contend that the issue persists in medical universities across various EFL contexts. Medical students face the challenge of presenting their research findings in English for international journals and conferences. Given this, the present research study aimed to compile a comprehensive catalog of high-frequency errors and examine them in recurring linguistic patterns commonly found in the writing of Iranian medical students. Methods In conducting the present study, we developed a learner corpus of 1,040 essays (339,040 words and 18,235 sentences in total). Through using the results obtained from Wordsmith Tools 8 and sifting the leaner corpus, we identified 11 high-frequency errors and five commonly used linguistic patterns. Results Only five out of 11 high-frequency errors account for 61% of the total number of errors. Results also showed that a majority of errors were of grammatical nature. In this regard, cohesion and cohesive devices (16%) were the most prevalent errors followed by omission/misusing of articles/determiners (14%). Additionally, results showed that discourse markers were extensively used in the corpus (22.07%), followed by hedges (11.42%). Conclusions The outcomes of this study are expected to assist English for medical purposes instructors in designing focused lesson plans and classroom activities. Ultimately, these efforts might contribute to enhancing medical education in non-English speaking universities.

The neurocognitive impairments associated with restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not yet clear. Prior studies indicate that individuals with ASD show reduced cognitive flexibility, which could reflect difficulty shifting from a previously learned response pattern or a failure to maintain a new response set. We examined different error types on a test of set-shifting completed by 60 individuals with ASD and 55 age- and nonverbal IQ-matched controls. Individuals with ASD were able to initially shift sets, but they exhibited difficulty maintaining new response sets. Difficulty with set maintenance was related to increased severity of RRBs. General difficulty maintaining new response sets and a heightened tendency to revert to old preferences may contribute to RRBs.