We assessed the eye-movements of 4-month-old infants (N = 38) as they visually inspected pairs of images of cats or dogs. In general, infants who had previous experience with pets exhibited more sophisticated inspection than did infants without pet experience, both directing more visual attention to the informative head regions of the animals,…

The memory system that supports implicit perceptual-motor sequence learning relies on brain regions that operate separately from the explicit, medial temporal lobe memory system. The implicit learning system therefore likely has distinct operating characteristics and information processing constraints. To attempt to identify the limits of the…

A research study conducted in an urban district middle school setting applies cognitive science principles to science vocabulary. Within the context of a personal story told by the lead investigator, the results of the study are shared and suggest that more active, engaging strategies with complex core curriculum may improve retention and…

Adolescent cannabis use is associated with working memory impairment. The present randomized controlled trial assigned adolescents ages 14 to 21 enrolled in cannabis use treatment to receive either working memory training (experimental group) or a control training (control group) as an adjunctive treatment. Cognitive function, drug use, and other…

This study examines the effects of spatial ability, gender differences, and pictorial training on fourth grade students' ability to recall landmark locations from memory. Ninety-six students used Google Earth over a 3-week period to locate landmarks (3-D) and mark their location on a 2-D topographical map. Analysis of covariance on posttest scores…

Recent studies reported that training of working memory may improve performance in the trained function and beyond. Other executive functions, however, have been rarely or not yet systematically examined. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of inhibitory control (IC) training to produce true training-related function improvements…

Cognitive strategies are important tools for children with math difficulties (MD) in learning to solve word problems. The effectiveness of strategy training, however, depends on working memory capacity (WMC). Thus, children with MD but with relatively higher WMC are more likely to benefit from strategy training, whereas children with lower WMC may…

Research studies repeatedly emphasize the importance of vocabulary capabilities to a large variety of academic activities. This study compared a learning strategy that exclusively involved the visual review of vocabulary word-definition pairs to a strategy that, in addition, prompted participants to attempt free-recall retrieval of words to match…

Research Findings: The present study evaluated the impact of a working memory (WM) stimulation program on the development of WM and early literacy skills (ELS) in preschoolers from socioeconomically deprived rural and urban schools in Chile. The sample consisted of 268 children, 144 in the intervention group and 124 in the comparison group. The…

This study investigated the role of strategy instruction on solution accuracy in children with and without serious math difficulties (MD) in problem solving. Children's posttest solution accuracy was compared on standardized and experimental measures as a function of strategy conditions. Strategy conditions included curriculum materials that…

Although ubiquitous learning enhances students' access to learning materials, it is crucial to find out which media delivery modes produce the best results for English listening comprehension. The present study examined the effect of media delivery mode (sound and text vs. sound) on English listening comprehension and cognitive load. Participants…

Executive functions, including working memory and inhibition, are of central importance to much of human behavior. Interventions intended to improve executive functions might therefore serve an important purpose. Previous studies show that working memory can be improved by training, but it is unknown if this also holds for inhibition, and whether…

Six older adults with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) were trained to recall a name-face association using the spaced retrieval technique. In this study, we retested these persons in a 6-month follow-up program. For half of the participants, three booster sessions were administered at 6, 12, and 18 weeks after original training to promote…

This study is based on three distinct elementary cognitive tasks using chronometric techniques: (1) the S. Sternberg memory scan task, (2) a visual scan task; and (3) the Hick paradigm. Certain parameters of the tasks are compared experimentally and correlationally. Subjects were 48 university students, tested and retested on the tasks in a…

This study investigated effects of rehearsal strategies and immediate test formats on delayed retention and effectiveness of visualization on material acquisition and retrieval. Findings indicate different rehearsal methods have different effects in facilitating delayed retention. Information acquisition is facilitated by visualization, although…