The authors investigated whether intensive musical experience leads to enhancements in executive processing, as has been shown for bilingualism. Young adults who were bilinguals, musical performers (instrumentalists or vocalists), or neither completed 3 cognitive measures and 2 executive function tasks based on conflict. Both executive function tasks included control conditions that assessed performance in the absence of conflict. All participants performed equivalently for the cognitive measures and the control conditions of the executive function tasks, but performance diverged in the conflict conditions. In a version of the Simon task involving spatial conflict between a target cue and its position, bilinguals and musicians outperformed monolinguals, replicating earlier research with bilinguals. In a version of the Stroop task involving auditory and linguistic conflict between a word and its pitch, the musicians performed better than the other participants. Instrumentalists and vocalists did not differ on any measure. Results demonstrate that extended musical experience enhances executive control on a nonverbal spatial task, as previously shown for bilingualism, but also enhances control in a more specialized auditory task, although the effect of bilingualism did not extend to that domain.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder involving abnormal communication, repetitive and restrictive interests, and impaired social functioning. ASD can have a profound impact on family life, including the roles and responsibilities that parents assume. In this metasynthesis, we explore the experiences of parents who care for a child with ASD. We undertook a thematic synthesis to integrate qualitative evidence, searching 10 electronic databases and reviewing 4,148 abstracts. We selected 31 articles for inclusion (involving 160 fathers and 425 mothers) and examined the articles using a constant comparative approach. We identified six themes: prediagnosis, diagnosis, family life adjustment, navigating the system, parental empowerment, and moving forward. Our findings can inform the development of programs and services for families, provide insight for health care workers who advocate on behalf of parents, and provide valuable information to parents, particularly those of children newly diagnosed with ASD.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder including abnormalities in perceptual processing. We measure perception in a battery of tests across speech (filtering, phoneme categorization, multisensory integration) and music (pitch memory, meter categorization, harmonic priming). We found that compared to controls, the ASD group showed poorer filtering, less audio-visual integration, less specialization for native phonemic and metrical categories, and a higher instance of absolute pitch. No group differences were found in harmonic priming. Our results are discussed in a developmental framework where culture-specific knowledge acquired early compared to late in development is most impaired, perhaps because of early-accelerated brain growth in ASD. These results suggest that early auditory remediation is needed for good communication and social functioning.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes deficits in social communication and repetitive behavior. Secondhand accounts from parents suggest that ASD affects many aspects of life. However, little is known about this disorder from first-person perspective. This meta-synthesis examines children, adolescents, and adults with ASD to understand their experiences across multiple areas of life and how these experiences vary according to their developmental stage. A thematic synthesis integrating qualitative evidence was undertaken where 10 electronic databases were searched. Thirty-three articles met the inclusion criteria (n = 318 individuals) and were examined by two reviewers using a constant comparative approach. Four themes emerged: perception of self, interactions with others, experiences at school, and factors related to employment. Our findings can inform client-centered policies and practices involving individuals with ASD. Our findings can also help to identify gaps in research with first-person narratives from children and adolescents with ASD under-represented in the current literature.

The purpose of this study was to examine self-talk, year of university study, and gender as predictors of emotional intelligence in a diverse sample of 126 undergraduate participants (42 male, 84 female). Self-talk has been discussed in the literature as a means of enhancing selfawareness and self-regulation, both of which are considered important in the construct of emotional intelligence. Participants completed self-report questionnaires on selftalk and emotional intelligence. The results indicated that year of study and self-talk were significant predictors of emotional intelligence and were associated with emotional intelligence in a positive direction. Contrary to expectation, gender was not a significant predictor. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of potential future research directions for the study of self-talk and emotional intelligence. ResumeCette 6tude avait pour but d'examiner le monologue interieur, l'ann^e d'etude et le sexe en tant que variables explicatives du quotient Emotionnel, aupr^s d'un Echantillon de 126 etudiants universitaires de premier cycle (42 hommes, 84 femmes). La litterature scientifique consid&re que le monologue interieur a pour fonction d'amEliorer la conscience de soi et la maitrise de soi, qui sont tous deux consideres comme des facteurs importants dans le construit du quotient emotionnel, Les participants ont rempli des questionnaires auto-rapportEs sur le monologue interieur et le quotient emotionnel, Les rEsultats indiquent que I'annee d'etude et le monologue intErieur constituent des variables prEdictives significatives du quotient emotionnel et qu'elles sont associEes positivement au quotient emotionnel, Contrairement aux attentes, le sexe des participants ne s'est pas revele comme prEdicteur significatif, Ces rEsultats sont discutes en termes de potentialites pour la recherche future sur l'Etude du monologue interieur et du quotient emotionnel.