Awareness-making (AM) describes a process by which visitors bring with them past experiences and knowledge, all of which help them make sense of museum exhibits. Meaning-making (MM) is when museum visitors' memories transform their museum experience into new knowledge and meaning. This article explores how AM elicits MM in museum visitors. We…

Although broad associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and child executive functions (EFs) are well established, contextual factors that may matter for effects of SES on EF are not fully understood. This study used a bioecological approach to examine factors that may moderate SES-EF relations. A socioeconomically diverse sample of children…

The spatial split-attention principle suggests that presenting related words and pictures spatially close to one another will improve learning compared with a spatially distant design, and two meta-analyses have shown support for the principle. However, it is not clear why the principle occurs. It has been theorized that integrated graphic designs…

In the present study, we used latent variable structural equation modeling to investigate relations between oral language, decoding, and two components of executive function (cognitive flexibility and working memory) and reading comprehension in a sample of 271 native English-speaking 9.00- to 14.83-year-olds. Results of the mediation analyses…

Cognitive load theory has challenged contemporary approaches to teaching by arguing that they are ineffective because of a neglect of the psychology underpinning learning and, specifically, the high demand placed on working memory. This paper challenges the presuppositions involved not only in arguments for guided instruction by those supporting…

Sleep disturbances (SD) are prevalent in individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Less is known about the effects of SD on cognition and learning in adolescents with high-functioning ASD (HF-ASD). Adolescents with HF-ASD (N = 96) were evaluated for the relationships of SD to working memory and learning problems. Results found SD…

This article provides a commentary within the special issue, Integration: The Keystone of Comprehension. According to most contemporary frameworks, a driving force in comprehension is the reader's ability to generate the links among the words and sentences (ideas) in the texts and between the ideas in the text and what the readers already know. As…

Semantic knowledge accumulates through explicit means and productive processes (e.g., analogy). These means work in concert when information explicitly acquired in separate episodes is integrated, and the integrated representation is used to self-derive new knowledge. We tested whether (a) self-derivation through memory integration extends beyond…

Although there is a rich literature on children's strategies for remembering, little attention has been paid to characterizing developmental change within individual children and to examining mediators that may bring about such change. To address these issues, we assess children's memory skills over time while simultaneously examining…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by difficulties with social communication, interaction, and repetitive and stereotypical patterns of behaviour. Recent studies suggest that abnormalities in the corpus callosum (CC) can produce autistic symptoms, so this cerebral structure is a target for autism research. It is the largest area of…

Sharpening working memory skills, inhibition, and mental flexibility of children in many studies have proven school readiness and long-term academic success. The aim of this research is to determine the impact of dancing and listening to music on children's executive functions using the interpretive paradigm with a qualitative case study method.…

Younger children have more difficulty in sharing attention between two concurrent tasks than do older participants, but in addition to this developmental change, we documented changes in the nature of attention sharing. We studied children 6-8 and 10-14 years old and college students (in all, 104 women and 76 men; 3% Hispanic, 3% Black or African…

This article examines the discourses of writing evident in teacher candidates' memories of writing and considers implications for teacher preparation. Data sources were written memories from 120 teacher candidates from six institutions across the United States. Grounded in a discourses of writing framework, data were investigated using thematic…

The study of word-to-text integration (WTI) provides a window on incremental processes that link the meaning of a word to the preceding text. We review a research program using event-related potential indicators of WTI at sentence beginnings, thus localizing sources of integration to prior text meaning independently of the current sentence. The…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether long-term musical training enhances the ability to perceive and learn new auditory information. Listeners with extensive musical experience were expected to detect, learn, and retain novel words more effectively than participants without musical training. Advantages of musical training…