Diagrams are powerful opportunities for grappling with and learning abstract relationships, for example learning the relations between elements in an ecosystem rather than simply memorizing the objects within the system. Further, what is crucial from any diagrammatic learning opportunity is the ability to use this relational knowledge in a new…

To the best of our knowledge, the genetic foundations that guide human brain development have not changed fundamentally during the past 50,000 years. However, because of their cognitive potential, humans have changed the world tremendously in the past centuries. They have invented technical devices, institutions that regulate cooperation and…

This study examined how different components of working memory are involved in the acquisition of egocentric and allocentric survey knowledge by people with a good and poor sense of direction (SOD). We employed a dual-task method and asked participants to learn routes from videos with verbal, visual, and spatial interference tasks and without any…

Multiple cue probability learning (MCPL) involves learning to predict a criterion based on a set of novel cues when feedback is provided in response to each judgment made. But to what extent does MCPL require controlled attention and explicit hypothesis testing? The results of two experiments show that this depends on cue polarity. Learning about…

Several studies have applied the dichotomy of deep and surface approaches to learning in a range of disciplinary contexts. Existing questionnaires have largely assumed the existence of these constructs; however, in a recent study Case and Marshall (2004) described two additional context-specific approaches to learning in engineering. The current…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of several specific neurocognitive functions in developmental dyslexia (DD). The performances of 60 dyslexic children and 65 age-matched normally reading children were compared on tests of phonological abilities, visual processing, selective and sustained attention, implicit learning, and executive…

Intuitive predictions and judgments under conditions of uncertainty are often mediated by judgment heuristics that sometimes lead to biases. Using the classical conjunction bias example, the present study examines the relationship between receptivity to metacognitive executive training and emotion-based learning ability indexed by Iowa Gambling…

In a review of over 25 empirical investigations of effects of communicating behavioral objectives to students, several trends were apparent. Advance knowledge of behavioral objectives led to improved posttest performance in five of ten studies and to improved retention in two of three instances. Only two of seven studies found an interaction…

The possibility that the ability measure activation savings is related to practiced skill, not because of cognitive overlap, but because of the proximity of savings' measurement to measurement of practiced skill was assessed with 404 military trainees. Implications for individual difference research of test-proximity effects are discussed. (SLD)

The present study attempted to identify and describe individual differences in concept learning. It was hypothesized that if a significant portion of the reliable individual variation in a complex learning situation could be identified and described, it would be reasonable to expect that subsequent predictions could be made about the conditions…

The authors argue that our schools fail to respond to the uniqueness of the human brain, its differential characteristics and its serious under-utilization. (Editor)

To examine effects of input and learner characteristics on morphology acquisition, 60 adult English speakers learned to inflect masculine and feminine Russian nouns in nominative, dative, and genitive cases. By varying training vocabulary size (i.e., type variability), holding constant the number of learning trials, we tested whether learners…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive style and school learning among fifth-grade children. The findings indicated that cognitive styles are differentially related to school learning outcomes for both boys and girls after verbal and nonverbal intelligence have been taken into consideration. The results…

The results of this study support earlier contentions that standardized intellectual ability and school achievement tests are quite heterogeneous with respect to cognitive style requirements. The findings indicate, however, that additional variance was accounted for by cognitive style measures beyond that of verbal and nonverbal IQ relation to…