Multimodal composing is part of the Common Core vision of the twenty-first-century student. Two descriptive studies were conducted of fifth-grade students' digital folktale retellings. Study 1 analyzed 83 retellings in relation to the types and frequencies of modal use, such as image, sound, movement, and written text, as well as their retelling…

Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are being included more frequently in the general educational setting, and are therefore increasingly expected to access and master core curricular content, including mathematics. However, mathematics often presents challenges to students with ASD. Interventions to improve the mathematics skills of…

Participation in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs reduces aggressive and antisocial behavior (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Theoretically, SEL programs foster social and emotionally intelligent youth through improving children's social and emotional skills, defined in the present study as the ability to…

It is well known that viewing graspable tools (but not other objects) activates motor-related brain regions, but the time course of affordance processing has remained relatively unexplored. In this study, EEG was continuously recorded from 128 scalp sites in 15 right-handed university students while they received stimuli in the form of 150…

We test theories about the functional organization of the human cortex by correlating brain activity with demands on perception versus action selection. Subjects covertly searched for a target among an array of 4, 8, or 12 items (perceptual manipulation) and then, depending on the color of the array, made a saccade toward, away from, or at a right…

In two experiments, we investigated the development of representational flexibility in visual recognition memory during infancy using the Visual Paired Comparison (VPC) task. In Experiment 1, 6- and 9-month-old infants exhibited recognition when familiarization and test occurred in the same room, but showed no evidence of recognition when…

Observers respond faster when the task-relevant perceptual dimension (e.g., color) repeats across consecutive trials relative to when it changes. Such dimension repetition benefits (DRBs) occur in different tasks, from singleton feature search to feature discrimination of a stimulus presented on its own. Here, we argue that the DRBs observed in…

Deletion of the GluA1 AMPA receptor subunit selectively impairs short-term memory for spatial locations. We further investigated this deficit by examining memory for discrete nonspatial visual stimuli in an operant chamber. Unconditioned suppression of magazine responding to visual stimuli was measured in wild-type and GluA1 knockout mice.…

With the advent of touch-screen interfaces on the tablet computer, multisensory elements in reading instruction have taken on a new dimension. This computer assisted language learning research aimed to determine whether specific technology features of a tablet computer can add to the functionality of multisensory instruction in early reading…

The ability to maintain focus and avoid distraction by goal-irrelevant stimuli is critical for performing many tasks and may be a key deficit in attention-related problems. Recent studies have demonstrated that irrelevant stimuli that are consciously perceived may be filtered out on a neural level and not cause the distraction triggered by…

This study examines the attitudes and the behavioural intentions of typically developing (TD) adolescents towards a hypothetical peer with Asperger syndrome (AS). Participants (N = 179, M age = 13.7 years) viewed two PowerPoint presentations one of a TD male target and one of a male target with AS. The target with AS was introduced either with…

Gesture is an important precursor of children's early language development, for example, in the transition to multiword speech and as a predictor of later language abilities. However, it is unclear whether gestural input can influence children's comprehension of complex grammatical constructions. In Study 1, 3- (M = 3 years 5 months) and…

Kindergarten teachers use a variety of strategies that focus on vocabulary development. A common and effective practice to introduce new vocabulary to kindergarteners is reading storybooks to children, what is commonly known as "read-alouds" (Bus, van Ijzendoorn, & Pelligrini, 1995; Christ & Wang, 2010; Newton, Padak &…

The direct, transfer and retention effects of a repeated reading intervention study of single CVC (consonant in the onset and a vowel and consonant in the rime) words in kindergartners with partial letter knowledge were examined. A total of 26 second-year kindergartners participated in this study. Participants were divided over two feedback…

Working memory is typically defined as a system devoted to the simultaneous maintenance and processing of information. However, the interplay between these 2 functions is still a matter of debate in the literature, with views ranging from complete independence to complete dependence. The time-based resource-sharing model assumes that a central…