We investigated the association between yes/no sentence comprehension and dysfunction in anterior and posterior left-hemisphere cortical regions in acute stroke patients. More specifically, we manipulated whether questions were Nonreversible (e.g., Are limes sour?) or Reversible (e.g., Is a horse larger than a dog?) to investigate the regions…

In this study the relationship between domain-specific skills and peer assessment skills as a function of task complexity is investigated. We hypothesised that peer assessment skills were superposed on domain-specific skills and will therefore suffer more when higher cognitive load is induced by increased task complexity. In a mixed factorial…

The present study investigated the role of cognitive and linguistic precursors to early numeracy skills to examine the interrelations between the development of linguistic and numeracy skills. General intelligence, working memory, phonological awareness, grammatical ability, and early numeracy skills were assessed in 75 first (mean age 6.1) and 55…

Background: This study is a part of a larger research project where the effect of instructional guidance in terms of role definition and role switching was investigated on students' learning of Basic Life Support (BLS) during a 20-minute reciprocal learning episode with task cards. BLS is a lifesaving skill consisting of nine sub skills to be…

This study examined whether the spelling abilities of adults with low literacy skills could be predicted by their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness. Sixty Adult Basic Education (ABE) students completed several literacy tasks. It was predicted that scores on phonological and orthographic tasks would explain variance in…

The assessment of verbal aggression in adolescent and young adult dating relationships has largely relied on self-report methodology. We investigated whether information on verbal aggression derived from an observational assessment would enhance the prediction of romantic relationship satisfaction and dissolution in a sample of young adult dating…

This research investigates how visuo-spatial abilities (such as mental rotation--MR--and visuo-spatial working memory--VSWM--) work together to influence the recall of environmental descriptions. We tested a mediation model in which VSWM was assumed to mediate the relationship between MR and spatial text recall. First, 120 participants were…

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the mediating role of mind wandering in the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and reading comprehension as predicted by the executive-attention theory of WMC (e.g., Kane & Engle, 2003). I used a latent-variable, structural-equation-model approach with three WMC span tasks, seven…

This study investigated the cognitive abilities needed to succeed at incidental word learning, specifically by examining the role of phonological memory and phonological sensitivity in novel word learning by 4-year-olds who were typically developing. Forty 4-year-olds were administered a test of nonword repetition (to investigate phonological…

College students' epistemological belief in their academic performance of mathematics has been documented and is receiving increased attention. However, to what extent and in what ways problem solvers' beliefs about the nature of mathematical knowledge and thinking impact their performances and behavior is not clear and deserves further…

Objective: Changes in reward-related behavior are an important component of normal adolescent affective development. Understanding the neural underpinnings of these normative changes creates a foundation for investigating adolescence as a period of vulnerability to affective disorders, substance use disorders, and health problems. Studies of…

Internal state language is a unique indicator of children's social understanding. In the current study, the role of context and type of internal state language was investigated. Mother-child internal state discourse in 32 middle-class Canadian families (child M age = 46.4 months) was examined across four contexts: (1) a reflective picture task,…

The "Mozart effect" refers to an increase in spatial reasoning performance following exposure to music composed by Mozart. Empirical tests of the effect have resulted in an inconsistent pattern of findings with some studies producing the effect and others failing to do so. The majority of the investigations have relied on paper-and-pencil tests.…