Background: Spatial ability (SA) was shown to be important for success in different fields, including STEM. Recent research suggested that SA is a unitary construct, rather than a set of related skills. However, it is not clear how individual differences in different facets of SA emerge, and how they relate to variance in general cognitive…

Educational testing has been criticized for its disconnect from modern cognitive science and its limited role in improving instruction and student learning. Reform efforts emphasize the need for testing to provide specific diagnostic insights into students' skills and knowledge. Cognitive diagnosis (CD), an emerging paradigm in educational…

Talent development addresses important components and stages of domain trajectories from childhood through adulthood, with the goal of providing opportunities for achieving creative productivity for those with abilities and aspirations to pursue that goal. The talent development megamodel (TDMM) identifies the interaction of domain specific…

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a significant public health concern arising from prenatal alcohol exposure. This study examines the clinical utility of Wechsler intelligence tests in assessing cognition in 108 children with confirmed prenatal alcohol exposure. Data were analysed using multidimensional scaling and Guttman's Structural…

Most existing diagnostic models are developed to detect whether students have mastered a set of skills of interest, but few have focused on identifying what scientific misconceptions students possess. This article developed a general dual-purpose model for simultaneously estimating students' overall ability and the presence and absence of…

We propose a novel model, Wide & Deep Item Response Theory (Wide & Deep IRT), to predict the correctness of students' responses to questions using historical clickstream data. This model combines the strengths of conventional Item Response Theory (IRT) models and Wide & Deep Learning for Recommender Systems. By leveraging clickstream…

Throughout a programming course, students develop various source code tasks. Using these tasks to track students' progress can provide clues to the strengths and weaknesses found in each learning topic. This practice allows the teacher to intervene in learning in the first few weeks of class and maximize student gains. However, the biggest…

This Perspective article expands on a working memory-dependent dual-process model, originally proposed by Zheng et al., to elucidate individual differences in the testing effect. This model posits that the testing effect comprises two processes: retrieval-attempt and post-retrieval re-encoding. We substantiate this model with empirical evidence…

Large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced smart education in the artificial general intelligence era. A promising application lies in the automatic generalization of instructional design for curriculum and learning activities, focusing on two key aspects: 1) customized generation: generating niche-targeted teaching content based on…

Definitions of modeling competence in science education do not yet include noncognitive factors. However, noncognitive factors are central to competence and might thus substantially improve our understanding of modeling competence. In this article, we analyze volition during preservice science teachers' engagement with a black-box modeling task…

Economic efficiency demands accurate assessment of individual ability for selection purposes. This study investigates Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) for estimating true ability and ranking individuals. Two Monte Carlo simulations and real data analyses were conducted. Results suggest a slight advantage for IRT, but…

We demonstrate how developmental theories may be instantiated as statistical models, using hierarchical continuous-time dynamic systems. This approach offers a flexible specification and an often more direct link between theory and model parameters than common modeling frameworks. We address developmental theories of the relation between the…

A key goal in cognitive training research is understanding whether cognitive training enhances general cognitive capacity or provides only task-specific improvements. Here, we developed a quantitative model for describing the temporal dynamics of these two processes. We analyzed data from 1300 children enrolled in an 8 week working memory training…

The concept of meritocracy stands as a fundamental ethos within the governance and educational paradigms in Singapore. This principle, notwithstanding its intrinsic paradoxes -- most notably, the juxtaposition of egalitarian ideals against elitist practices -- remains steadfastly upheld, with no indications of waning in the foreseeable future. A…

Geometry and spatial reasoning form the foundations of learning in mathematics. However, geometry is a subject often ignored by curriculum writers and teachers until high school, leading to students lacking in critical skills in geometric reasoning. As the United States moves into a new curriculum epoch, heralding the commencement of the national…