Recent investigations have emphasized the involvement of fronto-subcortical networks to proverb comprehension. Although the prefrontal cortex is thought to be affected by normal aging, relatively little work has been carried out to investigate potential effects of aging on proverb comprehension. In the present investigation participants in three…

This study set out to establish the relationship between changes in episodic memory retrieval in normal aging on the one hand and gray matter volume and [superscript 18]FDG uptake on the other. Structural MRI, resting-state [superscript 18]FDG-PET, and an episodic memory task manipulating the depth of encoding and the retention interval were…

A number of authors have proposed models of cognitive development that explain improvements in intelligence over the course of childhood via changes in the efficiency of inhibitory processes (Anderson, 2001; Bjorklund & Harnishfeger, 1990; Dempster, 1991, 1992; Dempster & Corkill, 1999a; Harnishfeger, 1995; Harnishfeger & Bjorklund, 1993). A…

We conducted three experiments to study the role of instrumental (e.g. "knife-bread") and categorical (e.g. "cake-bread") relations in the development of conceptual organization with a priming paradigm, by varying the nature of the task (naming--Experiment 1--or categorical decision--Experiments 2 and 3). The participants were 5-, 7- and…

Researchers studied components of a two-year school-wide Striving Readers intervention aimed at bolstering middle school teachers' use of literacy strategies to raise students' reading achievement. Although students of intervention teachers had significantly higher Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) scores than students of non-participating…

Parents of 592 children between the age of 0 ; 8 and 1 ; 4 completed the Estonian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (ECDI Infant Form). The relationships between comprehension and production of different categories of words and gestures were examined. According to the results of regression modelling the…

Researchers have been able to link working memory to many important cognitive abilities throughout the life span. Two of the unanswered questions about working memory are what cognitive processes function during working memory task performance and how do these processes directly relate to intelligence? A recent model (Unsworth & Engle, 2006)…

Objective: Adolescence is a developmental period that entails substantial changes in risk-taking behavior and experimentation with alcohol and drugs. Understanding how the brain is changing during this period relative to childhood and adulthood and how these changes vary across individuals are key in predicting risk for later substance abuse and…

The development of theory of mind use was investigated by giving a computerized task to 177 female participants divided into five age groups: Child I (7.3-9.7 years); Child II (9.8-11.4); Adolescent I (11.5-13.9); Adolescent II (14.0-17.7); Adults (19.1-27.5). Participants viewed a set of shelves containing objects, which they were instructed to…

The ability to detect and focus on faces is a fundamental prerequisite for developing social skills. But how well can infants detect faces? Here, we address this question by studying the minimum duration at which faces must appear to trigger a behavioral response in infants. We used a preferential looking method in conjunction with masking and…

Aim: Individuals with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) are reported to have mental retardation but to our knowledge no detailed study on the subject has ever been published. The present study assessed and documented cognitive and adaptive behaviour among Arab Bedouin children with CIPA. Methods: Twenty-three Arab Bedouin…

Superlative quantifiers ("at least 3", "at most 3") and comparative quantifiers ("more than 2", "fewer than 4") are traditionally taken to be interdefinable: the received view is that "at least n" and "at most n" are equivalent to "more than n-1" and "fewer than n+1",…

Investigations of people's understanding of the evolution of species have focused mainly on secondary school and university students. Very few investigations have taken into consideration younger students, and none have related children's ideas about the origin of species to formal instruction on this topic. To help fill this gap, the present…

Aim: Plasticity in the developing brain is a controversial issue. Although language and motor function often recover remarkably well following early brain injury, recent evidence suggests that damage to the developing brain results in significant long-term neuropsychological impairment. Our aim was to investigate the relationship among age at…

Research on aging has indicated that whereas deliberative cognitive processes decline with age, emotional processes are relatively spared. To examine the implications of these divergent trajectories in the context of health care choices, we investigated whether instructional manipulations emphasizing a focus on feelings or details would have…