Research suggests that integrating human movement into a cognitive learning task can be effective for learning due to its cognitive and physiological effects. In this study, the learning effects of enacting words through whole-body movements (i.e., physical exercise) and part-body movements (i.e., gestures) were investigated in a foreign language…

Background: Sleep affects children's cognitive development, preparedness for school and future academic outcomes. People with Down syndrome (DS) are particularly at risk for sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). To our knowledge, the association between SDB and cognition in preschoolers with DS is unknown. Methods: We assessed sleep by using…

Emotional and cognitive factors were examined in 18 children with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD), compared with 18 normally achieving children, matched for chronological age, school level, gender and verbal IQ. Working memory, short-term memory, inhibitory processes, speed of processing and level of anxiety in mathematics were assessed…

Ability tests play an important role in the assessment programs of many schools. However, the inferences about ability made from such tests presume that students understand the tasks they are attempting. Task familiarity can vary by student as well as by format. By design, nonverbal reasoning tests use formats that are intended to be novel. The…

There is much disagreement among instructional communication scholars concerning the appropriate means to measure cognitive learning. Significant differences have emerged between studies that rely on perceptual versus performance measures of learning and the issue has been the subject of much recent debate in research on teacher immediacy. The…

The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the application of Dutch versus US test procedures and norms of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-2nd edition (BSID-II) leads to different developmental outcomes. The BSID-II was administered to 376 preterm infants (191 males, 185 females; mean gestational age 30wks [SD 2.7], mean…

This paper presents a strategy for measuring cognitive gains in reading during the early school years. It is argued that accurate estimates of gain scores and their appropriate interpretation requires the use of adaptive tests with multiple criterion referenced points that mark learning milestones. It is further argued that two different measures…

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…

We hypothesized that women with Turner syndrome (45,X) with a single X-chromosome inherited from their mother may show mentalizing deficits compared to women of normal karyotype with two X-chromosomes (46,X). Simple geometrical animation events (two triangles moving with apparent intention in relation to each other) which usually elicit…

Economic development in Latin America has trailed most other world regions over the past four decades despite its relatively high initial development and school attainment levels. This puzzle can be resolved by considering the actual learning as expressed in tests of cognitive skills, on which Latin American countries consistently perform at the…

Piaget's conception of cognitive development as the development of a set of skills resulting from interaction with the environment has had a great effect on contemporary educational theory and spurred the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to develop a set of written exercises based on this concept. Piaget's emphasis, however, was on concrete…

Two studies of the effects of "Sesame Street" are presented. In the first case, the study tested two hypotheses: (1) "Sesame Street" can prepare poverty children for first grade; and (2) "Sesame Street" can narrow the achievement gap between the poor and the middle-class child. Twenty-four pairs of poverty children…

In a study to determine procedural effects of volume conservation tasks performed by adolescent females, the results revealed that the LaVatelli water displacement test was significantly more difficult than the Elkind test or Piaget's test. (Author/RL)

This study compared scores of 131 deaf and 131 hearing adolescents on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. (SB)