Cognitive control (also referred to as executive functions) corresponds to a set of cognitive processes that support the goal-directed regulation of thoughts and actions. It plays a major role in complex activities and predicts later academic achievement. Importantly, while growing up, children are progressively transitioning from engaging…

This study explores how motivational factors are associated with Taiwanese college students' cognitive, personal, and social development by incorporating both relatively global, static self-attributes, such as social-oriented achievement motivation and individual-oriented achievement motivation, which are considered to be culturally balanced…

There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition" was published and its…

Alumni self-ratings of their personal growth were linked to their intellectual development during college four to seven years earlier. Graduates that were satisfied with their personal growth in the arts, creative thinking, making logical inferences, learning independently, exercising initiative, and tolerating other points of view had higher…

Maintains that, although Leontiev's sociocultural orientation and its activity emphasis were inherited from Vygotsky's theory, the two men's theoretical motives and goals differed. Vygotsky's focus on symbolic mediation transforming psychological processes and Leontiev's on activities leading to internalization of action in mental processes were…

Contrasts work of Leontiev and Vygotsky. Suggests that Leontiev concentrated on social activity as a whole, whereas Vygotsky made semiotic mediation through culturally developed symbols a central aspect of his analysis. Maintains that they shared a philosophical base and that Leontiev used Vygotsky's ideas as a starting point to explore human…

Most instruments for student evaluation of college instruction focus on the course and the instructor without considering the student's perception of the impact of the course on him or her. The Course Comments Questionnaire (CCQ) and the Personalized Course Analysis (PCA) were developed at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay to overcome this…

Four studies examined preschoolers' use of the cue of action initiation to infer another's desired goal. Found that differences in action initiation play an increasingly important role in 3-year-olds' mentalistic explanations of action, and that this development may be related to other critical changes occurring in their developing theory of mind.…

A study examined the differential impacts on college persistence of preentry attributes, initial goal and institutional commitments, academic and social integration, and subsequent goal and institutional commitments for younger (17-24 years) and older (25+ years) students. Significant age-related differences were found on some factors. (Author/MSE)

The developmental increase in the ability to solve problems is a puzzle. Does it come from basic changes in mental skills, or is it a matter of practice? This book from the Developing Child series synthesizes recent research examining children's problem-solving skills development. Chapter 1 presents the major themes: (1) there is increasing…