This quantitative study examined the effects of stored color knowledge on learning achievement and cognitive load using a randomized pretest-posttest control group design. Social media was used to recruit 60 adult participants, randomized into control and experimental groups. A multimedia lesson was presented where the control group viewed images…

Spatial ability is a powerful systematic source of individual differences in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and technology (STEM). Abundant research has evidenced that psychometrically assessed spatial ability is a strong predictor of STEM achievement. However, its underlying cognitive process and relevant role in STEM education…

Children experience good and bad days in their performance. Although this phenomenon is well-known to teachers, parents, and students it has not been investigated empirically. We examined whether children's working memory performance varies systematically from day to day and to which extent fluctuations at faster timescales (i.e., occasions,…

The current study examined individual differences in children's phonological and visuospatial short-term memory as potential mediators of the relationship among attention problems and near- and long-term scholastic achievement. Nested structural equation models revealed that teacher-reported attention problems were associated negatively with…

Working memory plays a key role in supporting children's learning over the school years, and beyond this into adulthood. It is proposed here that working memory is crucially required to store information while other material is being mentally manipulated during the classroom learning activities that form the foundations for the acquisition of…