Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive functioning, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive outcomes. Yet, the exact mechanisms underlying infant habituation and dishabituation are still unclear. To investigate them, we tested 106 8-month-old infants on a classic habituation task and…

Physical activity is not only beneficial to physical health but also to cognitive functions. In particular, executive functions that are closely related to learning achievement can be improved by acute and recurring physical activity. We examined the effects of a single 30-min physical education program in contrast to a 5-min movement break on…

Background: Down syndrome (DS) has been the focus of much cognitive and developmental research; however, there is a gap in knowledge regarding sustained attention, particularly across different sensory domains. This research examined the hypothesis that children with DS would demonstrate superior visual rather than auditory performance on a…

The study investigated the efficacy of a package of cognitive self-control procedures for ameliorating the attentional deficits of 12-year-old learning disabled children. Performance on measures of reading, attention, an inhibitory control was improved as a function of the cognitive self-instructional training. The improvement continued to sustain…

Examined effects of a reduced-scale play environment on the temporal aspects of complex play behavior. Children playing with playdough in a 7 x 5 x 5-foot structure began complex play more quickly, played in longer segments, and spent slightly more time in complex play than when in full-size conditions, suggesting that scale-reduced environments…

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) negatively affects the cognitive and psychomotoric spheres of the pupil's social behavior and social adaptation. The review of many studies states that pupils with AD/HD achieve worse learning results because of insufficiently functioning cognitive processes, such as attention, (work) memory,…

Studies of the infant's distribution of attention to stimuli of varying complexity, and of his differential attention to familiar versus novel stimuli (discrepancy), have attempted to shed light on the development of cognitive structures in the non-verbal infant. The subjects have typically been normal infants ages 4 to 6 months. For testing, the…

Examines the relationship between visual attentiveness, search behavior, and duration of independent mobility for 56 eight-to ten-month-old infants when presented with three versions of the Piagetian Stage IV object permanence task. (HOD)

Attempts the theoretical rapprochement of two theoretical constructs on working memory, neo-Piagetian models and Baddeley's model. Summarizes both types of models, then discusses their similarities and differences. Presents the results of a longitudinal study that supported the idea that these models might be complementary rather than…

This study examined the planning performance of children with attention deficits, and also investigated the possible interactions between inattention and anxiety in the performance of executive function tasks. A group of 98 children (grades 4 and 6), derived from an initial group of 550, were assigned to an attention difficulties group (AD) and a…

The influence of story schema development on children's attention to television and memory of program content was examined in a study that involved two separate testing sessions. The expectation was that maximum effort would be given to program elements most central to comprehension of a television story and that this allocation strategy would be…

This article discusses the interaction of infant social and cognitive development, and presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal study of infants with and without Down syndrome. Evidence suggests that the development of triadic (person-person-world) social interactions may be affected by limited information processing capacities in infants…

This article presents the oration that received the Poona Psychiatric Association Oration Award of the Indian Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health for its significant contributions to child and adolescent mental health. Malhotra focuses on the features of autism and the neuropsychological theories of this disorder. She concludes that,…

Examined perception of object unity in partial occlusion in 72 infants. Recorded how long subjects looked at a display of complete and incomplete rods. In test and control conditions, infants looked longer at broken rods than at complete rods, suggesting that infants' cognitive, visual, or attentional skills may be insufficient to support…