Frith's original notion of 'weak central coherence' suggested that increased local processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) resulted from reduced global processing. More recent accounts have emphasised superior local perception and suggested intact global integration. However, tasks often place local and global processing in direct trade-off,…

As a result of the upcoming Federal reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), practitioners and researchers have begun vigorously debating what constitutes evidence-based assessment for the identification of specific learning disability (SLD). This debate has resulted in strong support for a method that…

The current study tested a multiple-cognitive predictor model of word reading, math ability, and attention in a community-based sample of twins ages 8 to 16 years (N = 636). The objective was to identify cognitive predictors unique to each skill domain as well as cognitive predictors shared among skills that could help explain their overlap and…

Sensitivity to spacing information within faces improves with age and reaches maturity only at adolescence. In this study, we tested 6-16-year-old children's sensitivity to vertical spacing when the eyes or the mouth is the facial feature selectively manipulated. Despite the similar discriminability of these manipulations when they are embedded in…

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a well-described inherited cause of intellectual disability and the most common known genetic cause of autism. Social deficits in girls with FXS are not well understood. To better understand barriers to social functioning that may contribute to mental health outcomes, we administered a theoretically based social…

This study aims to investigate the association between the mental state talk of mothers and their preadolescent children, with the hypothesis that an intergenerational transmission of mentalizing abilities may extend beyond early childhood. The participants were 41 mother-preadolescent child nonclinical dyads. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)…

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) is purported to be less culturally biased than other, traditional measures of intellectual ability. The present study was designed to investigate three specific research questions: (1) Are there overall performance differences between Native American and non-Native American children on the WISC-R…

Analysis of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised protocols for identified gifted, high IQ, and average children (total N=599 and ages 5-16) identified a four-factor solution for the gifted sample (Perceptual Organization, Verbal Comprehension, Acquisition of Knowledge, and Spatial Memory). Results suggested gifted children process…

Cognitive differences between 987 LD children and 178 EH children in public schools on a psychoeducational assessment battery were studied, and differences in factor structure were investigated. Caution is suggested in interpreting the results of multivariate statistical analyses, which indicated heterogeneity in the matrices of LD and EH…

Compared principal component anlaysis with hierarchical cluster analysis of a psychodiagnostic test battery for children. Results are discussed within a multidimensional framework of cognitive abilities. The structure of the battery of tests included general intelligence, auditory and visual learning, academic achievement, and auditory…

Determined if Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised subtest patterns would differentiate the performance of emotionally disturbed and learning-disabled children. Subtests differentiated significantly between diagnostic categories. Learning-disabled children performed predictively poorer on block design, picture arrangement, and object…

The relationship between children's cognitive developmental level, as assessed by Piagetian tasks, and their performance on measures of intellectual and neuropsychological functioning was studied. Eight female and 22 male children--ages 8 to 12 years (mean=10.3)--with negative electroencephalographs and neurologic screening and no history of brain…

Test accommodations such as extended time are presumed to reduce the impact of a disability, while not affecting test scores of the general population. This study examined the effects of an extended time (time and one-half) accommodation on the mathematics performance of fifth- to seventh-grade students with and without attention deficit…

Reviews developmental literature on cognitive gender differences; and compares past and present trends in gender differences, by age, from standardizations of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales and the California Achievement Tests. Decreases are found in gender differences for adolescents but not for adults. Implications are discussed. (SLD)

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Wechsler Intelligence for Children-Revised (WISC-R) were compared with respect to the magnitudes of the average White-Black differences in standardized scaled scores and in raw scores. Subjects were 172 fourth- and fifth-grade children matched in Black-White pairs. (Author/LMO)