Research examining the joint relationships between test anxiety, metacognition, and mathematics achievement revealing the mediational role of metacognition in the relationship between test anxiety and mathematics achievement is sparse. A mediation study was designed to redress this imbalance. The Children's Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS), Junior…

Direct and moderated connections among symptoms of inattention, High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability (HF-HRV), and reading comprehension scores were examined. Children age 7 to 12 were rated by both parents and teachers on symptoms of inattention with the Behavior Assessment System for Children. Reading was assessed with the Peabody…

We investigated the relations among theory of mind (ToM), mental state talk, and discourse comprehension. Specifically, we examined the frequency of mental state talk in children's oral recall of narrative texts and informational texts as well as relations among ToM, mental state talk (inclusion of mental state words in the recall of narrative and…

Early literacy is largely acquired through child-led learning, yet current ways to support and enhance it may present problems of coercion and adult control. The "Following in our Footsteps II" intervention sought to circumvent such problems by teaching parent and educator pairs of 46 preschoolers how to make everyday literacy and…

In the present study we investigated which role manipulated (i.e., experimentally induced) and perceived (i.e., self-reported) self-control depletion plays in students' (N = 176 seventh graders) achievement-related experiences and behaviour during a test of English as a foreign language, while controlling for trait self-control. Our successful…

Previous studies measured flow states using students' self-reported experiences, resulting in issues regarding nonobjective and nonreal-time data. Thus, this study used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure the EEG-detected real-time flow states (EEG-Fs) of 30 students from the 4th and 5th grades. Their EEG measurements, self-reported…

Mathematical giftedness (MG) is an intriguing phenomenon, the nature of which has yet to be sufficiently explored. This study goes a step further in understanding how MG is related to expertise in mathematics (EM) and general giftedness (G). Cognitive testing was conducted among 197 high school students with different levels of G and of EM. Based…

High-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders often find writing challenging. These writing difficulties may be specific to autism spectrum disorder or to a more general clinical effect of attention disturbance, as these children are often comorbid for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology (and children with…

The purpose of the present article was to illustrate, using an example from a national assessment, the value from analyzing the behavior of distractors in measures that engage the multiple-choice format. A secondary purpose of the present article was to illustrate four remedial actions that can potentially improve the measurement of the…

This article systematically reviews what is known empirically about the association between executive function and student achievement in both reading and math and critically assesses the evidence for a causal association between the two. Using meta-analytic techniques, the review finds that there is a moderate unconditional association between…

Executive function (EF) is considered a set of interrelated cognitive processes, including inhibitory control, working memory, and attentional shifting, that are connected to the development of the prefrontal cortex and contribute to children's problem solving skills and self regulatory behavior (Best & Miller, 2010; Garon, Bryson, &…

The same working memory and reading and writing achievement phenotypes (behavioral markers of genetic variants) validated in prior research with younger children and older adults in a multi-generational family genetics study of dyslexia were used to study 81 adolescent and young adults (ages 16 to 25) from that study. Dyslexia is impaired word…

The psychometric properties of the Student Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory (SMALSI) were examined using a sample of 404 Grade 6 students from an urban Canadian school system. Students completed the SMALSI and school factors included final school grades, attendance records, and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies…

Research findings: This study investigated how mean classroom-level shyness scores moderated the impacts of "INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament" on instructional support and students' math and reading skills in kindergarten and first grade classrooms. "INSIGHTS" is a temperament-based social- emotional learning intervention…

Relationships between attention/executive functions and language learning were investigated in students in Grades 4 to 9 (N = 88) with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in multiword syntax in oral and written language (OWL LD), word reading and spelling (dyslexia), and subword letter writing (dysgraphia). Prior…