Emily Farran

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Richard Kahn

Antioch University

Roger Tavares

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Dominic Arsenault

Université de Montréal

Derrick de Kerckhove

University of Toronto

Lennart E Nacke

University of Waterloo

Michael Shanks

Stanford University

Dulce Márcia Cruz

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina)

Daniela Ramos

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina)

Ana Jorge

Universidade Lusófona

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Papers by Emily Farran

Cross-syndrome comparison of real-world executive functioning and problem solving using a new problem-solving questionnaire

Research in developmental disabilities, Jan 10, 2016

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders like Williams syndrome and Down syndrome exhibit ex... more Individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders like Williams syndrome and Down syndrome exhibit executive function impairments on experimental tasks (Lanfranchi, Jerman, Dal Pont, Alberti, & Vianello, 2010; Menghini, Addona, Costanzo, & Vicari, 2010), but the way that they use executive functioning for problem solving in everyday life has not hitherto been explored. The study aim is to understand cross-syndrome characteristics of everyday executive functioning and problem solving. Parents/carers of individuals with Williams syndrome (n=47) or Down syndrome (n=31) of a similar chronological age (m=17 years 4 months and 18 years respectively) as well as those of a group of younger typically developing children (n=34; m=8years 3 months) completed two questionnaires: the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000) and a novel Problem-Solving Questionnaire. The rated likelihood of reaching a solution in a problem solving situation was lo...

Children's ability to bind and maintain colour–location conjunctions: the effect of spatial language cues

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2015

Navigation: How do people with learning difficulties find their way? [IOE Research Briefing N°95]

The development of spatial category representations from 4 to 7 years

The British journal of developmental psychology, Jan 14, 2016

Representation of spatial categories was assessed in 4- to 7-year-olds. Across nine spatial categ... more Representation of spatial categories was assessed in 4- to 7-year-olds. Across nine spatial categories (In, On, Under, In Front, Behind, Above, Below, Left, and Right), children were asked to pick the odd-one-out from four images, three of which displayed the same spatial relationship between two objects, and one which showed a different spatial relationship. Results support our proposed model of spatial category representation. Children progressed through three levels of understanding: from rigid (level 1), to abstract (level 2) to broad (including non-prototypical category exemplars) (level 3) understanding of spatial category membership. This developmental pattern was common to all spatial categories, and the ages at which children reached each level varied across categories, in line with the order in which category representations emerge in infancy.

The effect of pictorial depth information on projected size judgments

Attention Perception Psychophysics, 2009

When full depth cues are available, size judgements are dominated by physical size. However, with... more When full depth cues are available, size judgements are dominated by physical size. However, with reduced depth cues, size judgements are less influenced by physical size and more influenced by projected size. This study reduces depth cues further than previous size judgement studies, by manipulating monocularly presented pictorial depth cues only. Participants were monocularly presented with two shapes against a background of zero (control), one, two or three pictorial depth cues. Each cue was added progressively in the following order: height in the visual field, linear perspective, and texture gradient. Participants made a "same-different" judgement regarding the projected size of the two shapes, i.e. ignoring any depth cues. As expected, accuracy increased and response times decreased as the ratio between the projected size of the two shapes increased (range of projected size ratios, 1:1 to 1:5).

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Graphic strategies in Williams Syndrome and typically developing children

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan: A Neuroconstructivist Approach

Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai d'approvisionnement : 7 jours). ... Introduction - Wil... more

Williams Syndrome: The extent of agreement between parent and self report of psychological difficulties

The European Journal of Psychiatry, Jul 1, 2010

"ABSTRACT – Background and Objectives: People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been reported... more "ABSTRACT – Background and Objectives: People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been reported by their carers to have problems with attention, anxiety and social relationships. People with WS have been shown to report their anxieties. This study extends our knowledge of how people with WS see themselves in terms of behaviour and social relationships. Methods: A survey using self and parent report forms of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results: Both parents and individuals with WS (N = 31) reported difficulties in emotional disorder and hyperactivity symptoms and strengths in prosocial behaviours such as altruism and empathy. They disagreed about peer problems. Conclusions: People with WS understand some but not all of their difficulties. In particular they fail to recognize their social difficulties which may lead them to be vulnerable to exploitation."

9. Executive Function and Motor Planning

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan a Neuroconstructivist Approach 2012 Isbn 978 0 19 959481 8 Pags 165 186, 2012

Neurodevelopmental disorders: definitions and issues

How does perceptual grouping ability affect distance judgements in Williams Syndrome? Evidence from perception, drawing and construction tasks

Colour discrimination and categorisation in Williams syndrome

Research in Developmental Disabilities, Jul 30, 2013

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Looking around houses: Attention to a model when drawing complex shapes in Williams syndrome and typical development

Research in Developmental Disabilities, Jul 1, 2013

1. Poor drawing in Williams syndrome (WS) may be due to inefficient looking behaviour.

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Route knowledge and configural knowledge in typical and atypical development: a comparison of sparse and rich environments

by Pascal Sockeel, Yannick Courbois, Emily Farran, and Mark Blades

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2015

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have poor navigat... more Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) and individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have poor navigation skills, which impact their potential to become independent. Two aspects of navigation were investigated in these groups, using virtual environments (VE): route knowledge (the ability to learn the way from A to B by following a fixed sequence of turns) and configural knowledge (knowledge of the spatial relationships between places within an environment). Typically developing (TD) children aged 5 to 11 years (N = 93), individuals with DS (N = 29) and individuals with WS (N = 20) were presented with a sparse and a rich VE grid maze. Within each maze, participants were asked to learn a route from A to B and a route from A to C before being asked to find a novel shortcut from B to C. Performance was broadly similar across sparse and rich mazes. The majority of participants were able to learn novel routes, with poorest performance in the DS group, but the ability to find a shortcut, our measure of configural knowledge, was limited for all three groups. That is, 59 % TD participants successfully found a shortcut, compared to 10 % participants with DS and 35 % participants with WS. Differences in the underlying mechanisms associated with route knowledge and configural knowledge and in the developmental trajectories of performance across groups were observed. Only the TD participants walked a shorter distance in the last shortcut trial compared to the first, indicative of increased configural knowledge across trials. The DS group often used an alternative strategy to get from B to C, summing the two taught routes together. Our findings demonstrate impaired configural knowledge in DS and in WS, with the strongest deficit in DS. This suggests that these groups rely on a rigid route knowledge based method for navigating and as a result are likely to get lost easily. Route knowledge was also impaired in both DS and WS groups and was related to different underlying processes across all three groups. These are discussed with reference to limitations in attention and/or visuo-spatial processing in the atypical groups.

Visuospatial Cognition in Williams Syndrome: Reviewing and Accounting for the Strengths and Weaknesses in Performance

Developmental Neuropsychology, Jun 22, 2011

Individuals with Williams syndrome typically show relatively poor visuo-spatial abilities in comp... more Individuals with Williams syndrome typically show relatively poor visuo-spatial abilities in comparison to stronger verbal skills. However, individuals" level of performance is not consistent across all visuo-spatial tasks. The studies assessing visuo-spatial functioning in Williams syndrome are critically reviewed, in order to provide a clear pattern of the relative difficulty of these tasks. This prompts a possible explanation of the variability in performance seen which focuses on the processing demands of some of these tasks. Individuals with Williams syndrome show an atypical processing style on tests of construction, which does not affect tests of perception.

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The development of perceptual grouping in infants with Williams syndrome

by Emily Farran and Janice Brown

A longitudinal study of perceptual grouping by proximity, luminance and shape in infants at two, four, six months

by Emily Farran and Janice Brown

Grouping by luminance and shape similarity has previously been demonstrated in neonates and at 4 ... more Grouping by luminance and shape similarity has previously been demonstrated in neonates and at 4 months, respectively. By contrast, grouping by proximity has hitherto not been investigated in infancy. Th is is also the fi rst study to chart the developmental emergence of perceptual grouping longitudinally. Sixty-one infants were presented with a matrix of local stimuli grouped horizontally or vertically by luminance, shape or proximity at 2, 4, and 6 months. Infants were exposed to each set of stimuli for three presentation durations. Grouping was demonstrated for luminance similarity at the earliest testing age, 2 months, by shape similarity at 4 months, but was not observed for grouping by proximity. Grouping by shape similarity showed a distinctive pattern of grouping ability across exposure durations, which refl ected familiarity preferences followed by novelty preferences. Th is remained stable across age. No link was found between the emergence of perceptual grouping ability and the exposure duration required to elicit grouping. We conclude by stressing the importance of longitudinal studies of infant development in furthering our understanding of human cognition, rather than relying on assumptions from the adult endstate.

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Capturing developmental shifts in facial identity and expression processing strategies

Journal of Vision, 2015

Children are widely accepted to process faces differently from adults, with aspects of adult-like... more Children are widely accepted to process faces differently from adults, with aspects of adult-like processing and neural specialization continuing to develop into early adulthood. Critically, however, little is known about the specific information processing strategies employed as children mature. Here, we investigate the development of face processing strategies in children aged 7-12 years using a reverse correlation approach to determine the visual features driving categorizations of face identity and expression. Specifically, 106 participants (90 children, 16 adults) were trained to identify three unfamiliar faces by name and 200 participants (180 children, 20 adults) were asked to categorize expressions of four basic emotions (fear, sadness, happiness, anger). Across experimental trials we created subsampled versions of these faces by randomly sampling visual information from the images (across different locations and spatial frequency bands) using circularly symmetric apertures (&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;bubbles&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;). Participants had to make their categorization decisions based upon only the information directly behind these apertures; the rest was hidden from view. Results revealed that children make less use of the eyes than adults during both tasks. When reading face identity, adults rely on information from the eyes and mouth, particularly in high spatial frequency bands. In contrast, young children make less use of information from the eyes and focus their attention more on the mouth region, with this bias attenuating with age. During expression categorizations we found that relative to adults, children showed a much greater reliance on information from the mouth region when judging fear, sadness and anger, the three emotions that they found most challenging to identify. For happiness, however, which they recognized with near adult-like accuracy, children used information in a more equivalent manner to adults. Across both tasks, these results signal a clear developmental shift in participants&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; strategic information use when making judgments about key facial characteristics. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Route learning and landmark use in typical development, Down syndrome and Williams syndrome, in virtual environments

by Pascal Sockeel, Yannick Courbois, Emily Farran, and Mark Blades

Cognitive Processing

Conclusion. Future Theoretical and Empirical Directions within a Neuroconstructivist Framework

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan a Neuroconstructivist Approach 2012 Isbn 978 0 19 959481 8 Pags 363 372, 2012

Cross-syndrome comparison of real-world executive functioning and problem solving using a new problem-solving questionnaire

Research in developmental disabilities, Jan 10, 2016

Children's ability to bind and maintain colour–location conjunctions: the effect of spatial language cues

Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 2015

Navigation: How do people with learning difficulties find their way? [IOE Research Briefing N°95]

The development of spatial category representations from 4 to 7 years

The British journal of developmental psychology, Jan 14, 2016

The effect of pictorial depth information on projected size judgments

Attention Perception Psychophysics, 2009

Download

Graphic strategies in Williams Syndrome and typically developing children

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan: A Neuroconstructivist Approach

Disponible chez l'éditeur (délai d'approvisionnement : 7 jours). ... Introduction - Wil... more

Williams Syndrome: The extent of agreement between parent and self report of psychological difficulties

The European Journal of Psychiatry, Jul 1, 2010

9. Executive Function and Motor Planning

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan a Neuroconstructivist Approach 2012 Isbn 978 0 19 959481 8 Pags 165 186, 2012

Neurodevelopmental disorders: definitions and issues

How does perceptual grouping ability affect distance judgements in Williams Syndrome? Evidence from perception, drawing and construction tasks

Colour discrimination and categorisation in Williams syndrome

Research in Developmental Disabilities, Jul 30, 2013

Download

Looking around houses: Attention to a model when drawing complex shapes in Williams syndrome and typical development

Research in Developmental Disabilities, Jul 1, 2013

1. Poor drawing in Williams syndrome (WS) may be due to inefficient looking behaviour.

Download

Route knowledge and configural knowledge in typical and atypical development: a comparison of sparse and rich environments

by Pascal Sockeel, Yannick Courbois, Emily Farran, and Mark Blades

Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2015

Visuospatial Cognition in Williams Syndrome: Reviewing and Accounting for the Strengths and Weaknesses in Performance

Developmental Neuropsychology, Jun 22, 2011

Download

The development of perceptual grouping in infants with Williams syndrome

by Emily Farran and Janice Brown

A longitudinal study of perceptual grouping by proximity, luminance and shape in infants at two, four, six months

by Emily Farran and Janice Brown

Download

Capturing developmental shifts in facial identity and expression processing strategies

Journal of Vision, 2015

Route learning and landmark use in typical development, Down syndrome and Williams syndrome, in virtual environments

by Pascal Sockeel, Yannick Courbois, Emily Farran, and Mark Blades

Cognitive Processing

Conclusion. Future Theoretical and Empirical Directions within a Neuroconstructivist Framework

Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan a Neuroconstructivist Approach 2012 Isbn 978 0 19 959481 8 Pags 363 372, 2012

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