This study aimed to investigate how visual–spatial ability predicted academic achievement through arithmetic and reading abilities. Four hundred and ninety-nine Chinese children aged from 10.1 to 11.2 years were recruited and measured visual–spatial, arithmetic, and reading abilities. Their mathematical and Chinese language academic achievements were collected for two consecutive school years, respectively, during the same year as cognitive tests and 1 year after the cognitive tests. Correlation analysis indicated that visual–spatial, arithmetic, and reading abilities and academic achievements were significantly correlated (...) with each other. The structural equation modelling analyses showed that there were two paths from visual–spatial ability to academic achievement: a major path mediated by arithmetic ability and a minor serial mediation path from visual–spatial ability to arithmetic ability to reading ability, then to academic achievement. Results shed light on the importance of visual–spatial ability in education. (shrink)

The poor denoising effect for noisy grayscale images with traditional processing methods would be obtained under strong noise condition, and some image details would be lost. In this paper, a parallel array model of Fitzhugh–Nagumo neurons was proposed, which can restore noisy grayscale images well with low peak signal-to-noise ratio conditions and the image details are better preserved. Firstly, the row-column scanning method was used to convert the 2D grayscale image into a 1D signal, and then the 1D signal was (...) converted into a binary pulse amplitude modulation signal by signal modulation. The modulated signal was input to an FHN parallel array for stochastic resonance. Finally, the array output signal was restored to a 2D gray image, and the image restoration effect was analyzed based on the PSNR and Structural SIMilarity index. It is shown that the SR effect can be exhibited in an array of FHN neuron nonlinearities by increasing the array size, and the image restoration effect is significantly better than the traditional image restoration method, and larger PSNR and SSIM can be obtained. It provides a new idea for grayscale image restoration in a low PSNR environment. (shrink)

Previous studies have found the effect of cognitive skills on reading ability, but the role of different reading-related skills in acquisition of Chinese as a second/foreign language remains unexplored. Prior meta-analyses on the relationship between cognitive skills and reading have been conducted primarily in native English-speaking or Mandarin-speaking children. The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to examine the relationship between Chinese reading-related skills and Chinese word reading of CSL/CFL learners. A search of English and Chinese databases yielded 42 effect (...) sizes, comprising 1103 subjects met the criteria for meta-analysis and were included in the final meta-analysis. Results revealed a moderate relationship between phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, rapid automatized naming and Chinese word reading in CSL/CFL learners. In addition, a moderating effect of length of study on the relationship between phonological awareness and Chinese word reading : phonological awareness and Chinese word reading correlated more strongly for beginning learners than for advanced learners. These results suggest importance of cognitive factors in the acquisition of Chinese word reading as a second language. Results also shed light on the impact of length of study on the influence from phonological awareness to the sensitive period of phonological learning for CSL/CFL learners. (shrink)

Metrics and their weaker forms are used to measure the difference between two data. There are many metrics that are available but not desired by a practitioner. This paper recommends in a plausible reasoning manner an easy-to-understand method to construct desired distance-like measures: to fuse easy-to-obtain pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics by making full use of well-known t-norms, t-conorms, aggregation operators, and similar operators. The simple reason to do this is that data for a real world problem are sometimes from multiagents. (...) A distance-like notion, called weak interval-valued pseudo-metrics, is defined by using known notions of pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, and metrics; this notion is topologically good and shows precision, flexibility, and compatibility than single pseudo-semi-metrics, pseudo-metrics, or metrics. Propositions and detailed examples are given to illustrate how to fabricate an expected or demanded WIVP-metric in practical problems, and WIVP-metric and its special cases are characterized by using axioms. Moreover, some WIVP-metrics pertinent to quantitative logic theory or interval-valued fuzzy graphs are constructed, and fixed point theorems and common fixed point theorems in weak interval-valued metric spaces are also presented. Topics and strategies for further study are also put forward concretely and clearly. (shrink)

There is a growing consensus that math anxiety highly correlates with trait anxiety and that the emotional component elicited by math anxiety affects math performance. Yet few studies have examined the impact of “specific math anxiety” on math performance and the underlying physiological and affective mechanism. The present study examines the mediation effect of heart rate variability—an affective measurement indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia —in the relationship between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. A total of 386 junior high school (...) students completed a self-reported questionnaire to measure their anxiety level. Among this sample, 29 individuals with specific math anxiety, 29 with specific reading anxiety, 24 with specific trait anxiety, and 22 controls were selected to participate in an arithmetic task and a reading task while RSA was recorded when they performed the tasks. Results revealed that individuals with specific math anxiety showed lower RSA and longer reaction time than the other three groups in the arithmetic task. Regression and mediation analyses further revealed that RSA mediated the relation between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. The present study provides the first account of evidence for the affective hypothesis of specific math anxiety and suggests that affective responses may be an important mechanism underlying the detrimental effect of specific math anxiety on math performance. (shrink)