The present study investigated the influence of mood state (positive vs. negative) on the cognitive control process of conflict adaptation. A task-switching paradigm was applied, allowing to assess conflict adaptation both within tasks and across tasks. A success-failure manipulation was applied for mood induction. Within-task conflict adaptation…

We have developed a False-Belief (FB) understanding task for use on a computer tablet, trying to assess FB understanding in a less social way. It is based on classical FB protocols, and additionally includes a manipulation of language in an attempt to explore the facilitating effect of linguistic support during FB processing. Specifically, the FB…

The majority of words in most languages consist of derived poly-morphemic words but a cross-linguistic review of the literature (Amenta and Crepaldi in Front Psychol 3:232-243, 2012) shows a contradictory picture with respect to how such words are represented and processed. The current study examined the effects of linearity and structural…

Event-based prospective memory (PM) tasks require participants to substitute an atypical PM response for an ongoing task response when presented with PM targets. Responses to ongoing tasks are often slower with the addition of PM demands ("PM costs"). Prominent PM theories attribute costs to capacity-sharing between the ongoing and PM…

A commonly accepted claim in mathematics education is that there is a relationship between the cognitive demand of mathematical task enactments and students' subsequent learning. One study often cited to support this claim is Stein and Lane (1996), and in 44% of those citations, Stein and Lane (1996) is the sole reference provided. Citation…

In this article we compare two frameworks for analysing young children's responses to the task of copying and extending a 6-dot triangle pattern. We used Mulligan & Mitchelmore's Awareness of Mathematical Pattern and Structure (AMPS) and then Biggs & Collis' SOLO taxonomy, both of which provide criteria for assigning levels. In comparison…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of gradual self-control of task difficulty and feedback on accuracy and movement pattern of the golf putting sport skill. Method: Sixty students were quasi-randomly assigned to four groups under a varying combination of the two factors of task difficulty control (self-controlled or yoked) and…

Research suggests that a central difficulty in dyslexia may be impaired rapid temporal processing. Good temporal processing is also needed for musical perception, which relies on the ability to detect rapid changes. Our study is the first to measure the perception of adults with and without dyslexia on all three dimensions of music (rhythm, pitch,…

Purpose: It is generally accepted that adults use visual cues to improve speech intelligibility in noisy environments, but findings regarding visual speech benefit in children are mixed. We explored factors that contribute to audiovisual (AV) gain in young children's speech understanding. We examined whether there is an AV benefit to…

Stocks and flows (SF) are building blocks of dynamic systems: Stocks change through inflows and outflows, such as our bank balance changing with withdrawals and deposits, or atmospheric CO[subscript 2] with absorptions and emissions. However, people make systematic errors when trying to infer the behavior of dynamic systems, termed SF failure,…

Readers' memory for belief-consistent texts is often stronger than for belief-inconsistent texts (text-belief consistency effect). However, presenting belief-consistent and belief-inconsistent texts alternatingly reduces the discrepancy between the memory strengths of belief-consistent and belief-inconsistent texts. The present study used eye…

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is widely used to study decision-making within healthy and psychiatric populations. However, the complexity of the IGT makes it difficult to attribute variation in performance to specific cognitive processes. Several cognitive models have been proposed for the IGT in an effort to address this problem, but currently no…

Three-experiments examined the number of qualitatively different processing dimensions needed to account for inductive and deductive reasoning. In each study, participants were presented with arguments that varied in logical validity and consistency with background knowledge (believability), and evaluated them according to deductive criteria…

There are mixed results regarding the differentiation of neurofunctional correlates of spatial abilities. Previous studies employed complex environments or alternate memory tasks which could potentially add to inconsistencies across studies of navigation. To help elucidate the existing mixed findings, we conducted a study in a simplistic…

When responding to a writing task, writers spend a significant amount of their time not writing. These periods of physical inactivity, or pauses, during writing provide observable and measurable cues as to when, where, and how long writers halt to plan and/or revise their texts. Consequently, examining writers' pausing patterns can provide…