The current study investigates whether preschoolers are able to successfully identify the most effective among given questions, adapting their reliance on different types of questions ("constraint-seeking" vs. "hypothesis-scanning") based on the quantitative measure of "expected information gain." Children were…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the aging effect on the categorical perception of Mandarin Chinese tones with varied fundamental frequency (F0) contours and signal duration. Method: Both younger and older native Chinese listeners with normal hearing were recruited in 2 experiments--tone identification and tone discrimination…

Converging results have shown that adults benefit from congruent multisensory stimulation in the identification of complex stimuli, whereas the developmental trajectory of the ability to integrate multisensory inputs in children is less well understood. In this study we explored the effects of audiovisual semantic congruency on identification of…

This study investigates preschoolers' ability to understand and produce novel metonyms. We gave forty-seven children (aged 2;9-5;9) and twenty-seven adults one comprehension task and two elicitation tasks. The first elicitation task investigated their ability to use metonyms as referential shorthands, and the second their willingness to name…

The article examines the role of infant-directed vocabulary (IDV) in infants language acquisition, specifically addressing the question of whether IDV forms that are not prominent in adult language may nonetheless be useful to the process of acquisition. Japanese IDV offers a good test case, as IDV characteristically takes a bisyllabic…

A prolonged working life is crucial for sustaining social welfare and fiscal stability for countries facing ageing populations. The group of older adults is not homogeneous; however, differences within the group may affect the propensity to continue working and to participate in continuing education. The aim of this paper is to explore how…

Although social-communication difficulties and repetitive behaviors are hallmark features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and persist across the lifespan, very few studies have compared age-related differences in these behaviors between youth with ASD and same-age typically developing (TD) peers. We examined this issue using SRS-2 (Social…

Do properties of a word's features influence the order of its acquisition in early word learning? Combining the principles of mutual exclusivity and shape bias, the present work takes a network analysis approach to understanding how feature distinctiveness predicts the order of early word learning. Distance networks were built from nouns with edge…

Infants become increasingly helpful during the second year. We investigated experimentally whether adults' explicit scaffolding influences this development. Infants (N = 69, 13-18 months old) participated in a series of simple helping tasks. Half of infants received explicit scaffolding (encouragement and praise), whereas the other half did not.…

Individuals with disorders of the corpus callosum (DCC) may have subtle cognitive differences. Historically, confabulation has been associated with DCC. Therapies to mitigate confabulation is a newly emerging field. This study explores the possible educational implications that those with DCC may experience with confabulation. The community of…

Previous studies used chronological age to examine the relationship between aging and volunteerism. In the current study, we examined the influence of subjective life expectancy (SLE) on volunteering based on the socioemotional selectivity theory emphasizing that older adults focus on very close relationships. Data of 11,203 older adults, 55 to 74…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between education and competencies from a comparative view, while controlling for background characteristics (e.g. parental education), home features (e.g. income) and country fixed effect. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises an international data sets of 12 Belt and…

We examined the joint role of parental word reading skills and conventional home literacy environment measures among 320 Filipino low- to middle-income families in Cebu City, Philippines with children aged 5-8 years old. A ranking of parent-reported ratings of their frequency of engaging in home literacy activities and adult literacy practices…

Automation and advanced technologies have increased the need for a better understanding of the skills necessary to have a globally competitive workforce. This study used data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to compare problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments among adults in South Korea,…

The aim of the study is to analyse attitude, motivation and anxiety levels of students at a state university studying at a faculty of tourism towards vocational English course. In the study, quantitative research and survey method were used. 325 students participated in the study voluntarily. Attitude Scale towards Vocational English Course,…