Previous meta-analyses highlight the role of executive functions (EF), encompassing working memory updating, task-switching, and inhibitory control, in reading comprehension, but have not established their role in decoding. Decoding is defined as the use of orthographic patterns to access oral pronunciations. According to the dual route model,…

Prompted by the advent of new standards for increased text complexity in elementary classrooms in the USA, the current integrative review investigates the relationships between the level of text difficulty and elementary students' reading fluency and reading comprehension. After application of content and methodological criteria, a total of 26…

The Cognition Hypothesis postulates that more cognitively complex tasks can trigger more accurate and complex language production, thereby advancing second language (L2) development. However, few studies have directly examined the relationship between task manipulations and L2 development. To address this gap, this article reviews, via an analytic…

The relevancy of linear algebra (LA) in different areas and also the difficulties faced by undergraduate engineering students studying this content are well known. Grounded on this premise, we aimed at articulating papers related to the teaching and learning of LA in engineering undergraduate programs through a mapping of the main investigations…

The purpose of this review of literature was to identify research findings for designing assessments in singing accuracy. The aim was to specify the test construction variables that directly affect test performance to guide future design in singing accuracy assessment for research and classroom uses. Three pitch-matching tasks--single pitch,…

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the relation between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance among school-aged students, and to identify potential moderators and underlying mechanisms of such relation, including grade level, temporal relations, difficulty of mathematical tasks, dimensions of MA measures, effects on…

Science curriculum standards were mapped onto various texts (literacy readers, trade books, online articles). Statistical analyses highlighted the inconsistencies among readability formulae for Grades 2-6 levels of the standards. There was a lack of correlation among the readability measures, and also when comparing different text sources. Online…

A plethora of research spanning several decades has attempted to understand predictors of retention and graduation in undergraduate bachelor's degree programs. The topic is no less important today, as larger and larger swaths of the American population attend college each year. Studies have demonstrated that key demographic variables, indicators…

In this article, we review research on poverty, both poverty rates and the effects of poverty on academic achievement more generally and on the identification and services for low-income gifted children specifically. This review sets the stage for further discussion of the research findings on identification practices including the efficacy of…

Updating and extending the work of O'Leary-Kelly, Martocchio, and Frink (1994), with this meta-analysis on goal setting and group performance we show that specific difficult goals yield considerably higher group performance compared with nonspecific goals (d = 0.80 plus or minus 0.35, k = 23 effect sizes). Moderately difficult and easy goals were…

Responding to a survey requires cognitive abilities similar to those for any other linguistic task. We argue that, when faced with a cognitively challenging task, individuals respond by simplifying the task, declining it, or performing it poorly. Using the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2003) data sets, we document that…

Measurements of various parameters derived from different reaction time (RT) paradigms are found to be correlated with psychometric measurements of general mental ability. Such RT-derived measurements, when combined in a multiple regression equation, predict some 50 percent or more of the variance in intelligence. This relationship of intelligence…

Proposes that the study of basilectal and acrolectal Singapore English can contribute to a better understanding of second language acquisition and use, emphasizing the operation of the monitor and specifications of the hierarchy of difficulty in the acquisition of syntactic structures. (Author/CB)

The purpose of this essay is to explore both what is known and what needs to be learned about the information value of performance items "when they are used in large scale assessments." Within the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), there is substantial motivation for answering these questions. Over the…