Background: In recent research, verbal working memory has been proposed as a primary area of deficit for children with language impairment (LI), and therefore a source of more sensitive assessment measures. In addition, research on non-linguistic tasks has suggested that children with LI may have deficits that extend beyond the linguistic domain.…

This study examined time-based prospective memory performance in relation to individual and developmental differences in executive functioning. School-age children and young adults completed six experimental tasks that tapped three basic components of executive functioning: inhibition, updating, and mental shifting. Monitoring performance was…

Previous research has clarified that infants from 10-11 months segment dynamic human action into units coinciding with actor's goals and intentions (Baldwin, Baird, Saylor, & Clark, 2001). In this study, we explored the scope and robustness of early action segmentation skills by exposing infants to a variety of relatively novel events in the…

The aims of this study were to investigate whether the executive functions, inhibition, shifting, and updating, are distinguishable as latent variables (common factors) in children aged 9 to 12, and to examine the relations between these executive functions and reading, arithmetic, and (non)verbal reasoning. Confirmatory factor analysis was used…

Background: Exposure to harsh parenting and children's skills in "Theory of Mind" (ToM) show independent and interacting associations with problem behaviors at age 2 (Hughes & Ensor, 2006). This study examined whether these age-2 measures also predict age-4 problem behaviors. Method: In a socially diverse sample (N = 120), multi-informant,…

Several visuo-motor tasks can be used to demonstrate biases towards left hemispace in schizophrenic patients, suggesting a minor right hemineglect. Recent studies in neglect patients used a new number bisection task to highlight a lateralized defect in their visuo-spatial representation of numbers. To test a possible lateralized representational…

Hammond's Cognitive Continuum theory posits that certain task features induce distinct processing modes (e.g., intuitive or analytic) and thus result in qualitatively different decision performance. Although the theory suggests the relation between task features and performance characteristics a priori, the validity of these predictions requires…

Paper discusses in some detail the design of a problem-solving monitor and includes an annotated student protocol and the corresponding problem-solving graph. (Author)

Argues that too much emphasis is currently being placed on vertical analyses of course content, aggravated by the fragmentation of content into numerous objectives stated as learning outcomes. The approach proposed is to focus upon the relationships between major coordinate course elements, and the use of task-based objectives to enable students…

Reports on a study of human problem-solving behavior in which a technique called First-Order Cognitive Analysis was employed to analyze the tasks involved in certain accounting processes such as bookkeeping. A reference list, an appendix outlining the problem employed in the study, and an appendix on the task analysis are attached. (JL)

Describes two exploratory studies of undergraduate and postgraduate students concerning the difficulties of learning to perform HTA (hierarchical task analysis) and how those difficulties might be overcome through proper training. Errors occurred with respect to all HTA criteria, suggesting that carrying out HTR itself is a complex cognitive task.…

Four experiments were carried out to examine phonological priming effects on bisyllabic target words. In the first two, monosyllabic word and pseudoword primes facilitated lexical decisions to auditorily presented bisyllabic words. The second replicated the initial-overlap effect for monosyllabic word primes using a crossmodal method. In the…

Children more frequently specified possibilities correctly when uncertainty resided in the physical world (physical uncertainty) than in their own perspective of ignorance (epistemic uncertainty). In Experiment 1 (N=61), 4- to 6-year-olds marked both doors from which a block might emerge when the outcome was undetermined, but a single door when…

Pigeons were trained in a matching task with either color (group color-first) or line (group line-first) samples. After asymmetrical training in which each group was initially trained with the same sample on all trials, marked retention asymmetries were obtained. In both groups, accuracy dropped precipitously on trials involving the initially…

Observers performed a preview search task in which, on some trials, they had to indicate the presence of a briefly presented probe-dot. Probes could be presented on locations corresponding to old or new elements and prior to or after the presentation of the new elements. After the presentation of the new elements, probes were generally detected…