Context information can guide cognitive control, but both the extent and the underlying processes are poorly understood. Previous studies often found that the congruency sequence effect (CSE) is larger when perceptual context features (e.g., modality and format) of task-related distractors and targets repeat compared to change. However, it is…

Non-word repetition tasks are widely used to assess phonological short-term memory (PSTM). Results of previous research on the performance of monolingual and bilingual children in PSTM tasks are inconclusive. Although in some studies bilinguals did outperform monolinguals in the repetition of non-words, most studies reported comparatively weak…

If a target stimulus is presented together with a response-irrelevant distractor stimulus, both stimuli can be encoded together with the response in an event file (see Hommel, 2004). The repetition of any feature of such an event-file can then retrieve the previously encoded response. This kind of feature-based retrieval is an important mechanism…

When a cognitive ability is assessed repeatedly, test scores and ability estimates are often observed to increase across test sessions. This phenomenon is known as the retest (or practice) effect. One explanation for retest effects is that situational test anxiety interferes with a testee's performance during earlier test sessions, thereby…

Studies have demonstrated that listeners can retain detailed voice-specific acoustic information about spoken words in memory. A central question is when such information influences lexical processing. According to episodic models of the mental lexicon, voice-specific details influence word recognition immediately during online speech perception.…

Students' usage of lecture recordings can be characterised by usage frequency, repetitiveness and selectivity in watching, lecture attendance, and social context and location in which students watch the lecture recordings. At the University of Münster (Germany), the lecture recording service was evaluated over three semesters. The data were…

The teacher echo refers to teachers' almost verbatim repetition of student responses and can be used to provide implicit feedback about students' achievement or understanding. Echoing student answers is a controversial strategy of classroom discourse, as some critics see it as a bad habit and consequently deny its use in the classroom. The aim of…

Restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are a core feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and further occur in intellectual disability (ID), mental disorders (MD), and in typically developed people (TD). There is a need of a valid and reliable measure to record RRBs as transdiagnostic symptom, which captures RRBs heterogeneity and evaluates…

The relation between nonword repetition and vocabulary has been the focus of a theoretical controversy for several decades. The point of contention is whether the ability underlying nonword repetition drives vocabulary growth or vice versa. The present study examines longitudinal interrelations between nonword repetition and vocabulary from age 3…

A body of research indicates the importance of interventions for promoting the development and progress of children with visual impairments. However, the research available on suitable interventions for this population is relatively sparse. The purpose of this review is to identify, collate and appraise the available research evidence on…

Despite the fact that grade retention is now seen as controversial in many quarters, it remains common practice in numerous countries. Previous research on the effects of grade retention on student development has, however, generated ambiguous results, particularly in terms of motivational outcomes. This ambiguity has been attributed in part to a…

Background: Early intervention for children identified as late talkers (LTs) at the age of 24 months is still a controversial issue in research and clinical routine. Previous studies have shown inconsistent results regarding predictors of early lexical deficits on school-age outcomes of late-talking toddlers. Methods: In a five-wave follow-up…

Studies showed that individual differences in encoding speed as well as looking behaviour during the encoding of facial stimuli can relate to differences in subsequent face discrimination. Nevertheless, a direct linkage between encoding speed and looking behaviour during the encoding of facial stimuli and the role of these encoding characteristics…

In several countries, students are tracked into secondary school types. This paper studies whether parents or teachers assess students' potential performance more adequately. We evaluate a reform in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2006. The reform replaced parents' choice about their children's school type by a binding teacher…

In this pilot study, we ask whether repeated storybook reading is also beneficial for word learning in children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). We compared 3-year-old German learning children diagnosed with SLI to typically developing children matched on age and socioeconomic status (SES). One week later, children with SLI…