Attribute amnesia is a phenomenon in which information about a stimulus that was just recently used to perform a task is poorly remembered in a surprise test (Chen & Wyble, 2015a). In a recent article by Jiang, Shupe, Swallow, and Tan (2016), this effect was replicated but with an additional priming measure that revealed some carryover memory…

Chuderski and Jastrzêbski (2017) found a positive relationship between working memory capacity and insight problem solving, and concluded that "people with less effective cognition" are therefore "less creative" (p. 2003). This interpretation discounts substantial evidence that devoting less executive control facilitates…

In this interview, elementary school teacher and mindfulness coach Barbara Kurtzman discusses how she brought mindfulness in the class, starting in Cycle 1 and then with the whole elementary school. Her interest in mindfulness began as a personal journey which she wanted to share with her students. She explains that taking only a few minutes a day…

This paper comments on the theoretical formulations and usage of the construct of teacher noticing in a selection of the papers in this special issue of "ZDM Mathematics Education." The analysis of how the notion of teacher noticing is used in the papers suggests that it draws attention to several interdependencies involved that have not…

Smallwood (2013) made important contributions to the science of mind wandering by distinguishing between 2 aspects of the mind-wandering experience: (a) "how" the mind wanders, which entails the "process" of maintaining the continuity of a mind-wandering episode, and (b) "why" the mind wanders, which refers to those mechanisms that lead to the…

Understanding thoughts with no perceptual basis is a complex problem, and the commentary by Franklin, Mrazek, Broadway, and Schooler (2013) highlighted some of the difficulties that can occur when theorizing about this topic. They argued that the suppression of external input during internal thought arises from the selection of internal…

Educational literature has tended to focus, explicitly and implicitly, on two kinds of task orientation: the ability either to focus on a single task, or to multi-task. A third form of orientation characterises many highly successful people. This is the ability to combine several tasks into one: to "kill two (or more) birds with one…

Tests of working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (gF) are thought to capture variability in a crucial cognitive capacity that is broadly predictive of success, yet pinpointing the exact nature of this capacity is an area of ongoing controversy. We propose that mind-wandering is associated with performance on tests of WMC and gF,…

There is a growing theoretical, empirical, and methodological debate in the SLA field as to whether unawareness plays a role during attention to or processing of new incoming second language (L2) data. Indeed, studies that have methodologically addressed the construct of unawareness in their research designs offer both empirical support (e.g.,…

The next several pages are intended as a "Commentary" on the six target articles bundled together as a Special Issue of the "Journal of Cognition and Development"--literature reviews and research reports all intended to "build bridges" between the study of cognitive development in typical and atypical populations.

Recent results from Vo and Wolfe (2012b) suggest that the application of memory to visual search may be task specific: Previous experience searching for an object facilitated later search for that object, but object information acquired during a different task did not appear to transfer to search. The latter inference depended on evidence that a…

John M. Keller is one of the most recognized and respected scholars in the field of educational technology and instructional design. He has worked at the junction of psychology, education, and technology. Along with many other contributions, he has developed an instructional design theory that can be used successfully both with traditional and…

E. Dhooge and R. J. Hartsuiker (2010) reported experiments showing that picture naming takes longer with low- than high-frequency distractor words, replicating M. Miozzo and A. Caramazza (2003). In addition, they showed that this distractor-frequency effect disappears when distractors are masked or preexposed. These findings were taken to refute…

Reading scholar Maryanne Wolf believes that every child needs an array of digital skills in their learning repertoire. Her research focuses on how best to introduce technology in terms of reading acquisition so children can develop deep reading skills over time. Educators must focus on a carefully considered trajectory in order to develop a truly…

Augustine and Hemenover (2013) were right to state that meta-analyses should be accurate and generalizable. However, we disagree that our meta-analysis of emotion regulation strategies (Webb, Miles, & Sheeran, 2012) fell short in these respects. Augustine and Hemenover's concerns appear to have accrued from misunderstandings of our inclusion…