The present study examined phoneme awareness, phonological short term memory, letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual-verbal paired associate learning (PAL) as longitudinal predictors of spelling skills in an early phase (Grade 2) and a later phase (Grade 5) of development in a sample of 140 children learning to spell in the…

Linking ideas, concepts, and disciplinary content is an underused yet effective educational strategy for fostering students' higher order thinking. A body of psychological research on analogical reasoning can inform the challenge of encouraging higher order thinking in schools. We focus in particular on the teaching of mathematics and highlight…

This paper presents a novel examination of the impact of students' feedback choices and performance on their feedback memory. An empirical study was designed to collect the choices to seek critical feedback from a hundred and six Grade 8 middle-school students via Posterlet, a digital assessment game in which students design posters. Upon…

We investigated component language and cognitive skills of oral language comprehension of narrative texts (i.e., listening comprehension). Using the construction-integration model of text comprehension as an overarching theoretical framework, we examined direct and mediated relations of foundational cognitive skills (working memory and attention),…

Although exploratory (inquiry-based, discovery, problem-based) learning environments have been effective for certain categories of learners and instructional situations, they could also be very cognitively demanding, especially for novice learners. Such forms of instruction may generate a heavy working memory load caused by intensive unguided…

Sentence imitation effectively discriminates between adults with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Little is known, however, about the factors that result in performance differences. This study evaluated the effects of working memory, processing speed, and argument status on sentence imitation. Working memory was measured by both a…

Educators confront a difficult challenge of quickly and efficiently identifying students with literacy skill deficits in academically diverse career and technical education classes. A statistical examination of oral reading fluency (ORF) of 296 at-risk students participating in Job Corps tests the hypothesis that a 2-minute, two-dimensional ORF…

Purpose: This study investigated the role of processing complexity of verbal working memory tasks in predicting spoken sentence comprehension in typically developing children. Of interest was whether simple and more complex working memory tasks have similar or different power in predicting sentence comprehension. Method: Sixty-five children (6- to…

The following paper represents review of the literature examining the current research related to cognitive load theory and more specifically the negative aspects of the redundant on-screen text. The authors describe working and long-term memory and how both factor into human learning through the facilitation of knowledge transfer. Limited working…

The objectives of the study were to introduce the technique called "Mnemonic Keyword Method" ("MKM") to low proficiency English learners, and to explore the effectiveness of the method in terms of short-term and long-term retention. The sample was purposefully drawn from one intact class consisting of 44 students. They were…

This study investigated whether task complexity may affect L2 speaking performance as predicted by the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), and whether the effect of task complexity may interact with individual differences in working memory capacity. A total of twenty Korean advanced-level EFL learners performed two separate picture description…

This study investigates the direct and/or indirect effects of some cognitive (working memory capacity) and affective (writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy) variables on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of second language (L2) learners' writings. To achieve this goal, 232 upper-intermediate English learners performed an automated…

In order to understand variability in second language (L2) acquisition, this study addressed how individual differences in cognitive abilities may contribute to development for learners in different contexts. Specifically, we report the results of two short-term longitudinal studies aimed at examining the role of cognitive abilities in accounting…

This study was designed to deepen insights on whether word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension (TC) and on the role of language in WPs. A sample of 325 second graders, representing high, average, and low reading and math performance, was assessed on (a) start-of-year TC, WP skill, language, nonlinguistic reasoning, working memory,…

The study aims at identifying characteristic phenotypes for children with SLI and children with sensorineural hearing impairment (HI) in language and in domains associated with language. We focus on verbal agreement inflection and phonological short-term memory, phenomena that have been repeatedly found to be impaired in both groups of children. A…