Computer assisted psychomotor training is recognized as an appropriate tool in motor skill acquisition in adults with and without physical limitations. In specialized populations of individuals with physical deficits such as Parkinson's disease, previous researchers have examined the application of computer assisted training during upper extremity…

Various studies analyzing pronominal subject expression in Spanish have found that switch-reference, the relationship between two consecutive subjects, is the factor that most commonly constrains speakers' choice of a null or explicit subject personal pronoun (SPP) (Cameron, 1995; Flores-Ferran, 2002). When the second subject in a sequence differs…

Students' interpretations of their academic writing tasks has been a central concern in the cognitive-based writing research due to the prominent role such decision-making plays in determining students' subsequent thinking and composing strategies and ultimately in shaping their textual quality. Without a comprehensive understanding of how L2…

The curricula of teacher education need periodic revisions to respond to the evolution of educational objectives. Teachers' beliefs, as well as their characteristics, teaching attitudes and competency in their subject matter play a decisive role in the success of any reform. In this study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted across years 1-5 of…

The relationship between social and communicative interventions and transition-related outcomes for secondary-aged youth with disabilities is explored in this systematic review. In all, 30 studies intervening with 316 youth with a broad range of disability labels (both high- and low-incidence disabilities) were reviewed. Subgroup analyses were…

Objective: To examine the relative contributions of maternal characteristics and behaviors in predicting infant weight gain over the first year of postpartum life. Design: Longitudinal study of maternal feeding style throughout infancy. Setting: A Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children center. Participants:…

Small deviations from bilateral symmetry (fluctuating asymmetries) are cues to fitness differences in some animals. Therefore, researchers have considered whether animals use these small asymmetries as visual cues to determine appropriate behavioral responses (e.g., mate preferences). However, there have been few systematic studies of animals'…

This study investigated the role of Voice Onset Time (VOT) as perceptual cue to the aspiration contrast of Cantonese initial stops produced by adolescent profoundly hearing impaired speakers. Speakers with normal hearing signalled the aspiration contrast through VOT differences. Hearing impaired speakers produced initial stops with no significant…

This preliminary study integrated previous findings of the distribution of autobiographical memories in the later age according to their age of occurrence, with the overgeneral memory bias predictive of depression. Twenty-five non-demented, Israeli participants between 65-89 years of age provided autobiographical memories to 4 groups of word cues…

How aware are people of food-related decisions they make and how the environment influences these decisions? Study 1 shows that 139 people underestimated the number of food-related decisions they made--by an average of more than 221 decisions. Study 2 examined 192 people who overserved and overate 31% more food as a result of having been given an…

Songs convey emotion by means of expressive performance cues (e.g. pitch level, tempo, vocal tone) and lyrics. Although children can interpret both types of cues, it is unclear whether they would focus on performance cues or salient verbal cues when judging the feelings of a singer. To investigate this question, we had 5- to 10-year-old children…

The reconsolidation hypothesis states that a consolidated memory could again become unstable and susceptible to facilitation or impairment for a discrete period of time after a reminder presentation. The phenomenon has been demonstrated in very diverse species and types of memory, including the human procedural memory of a motor skill task but not…

Three computer-based experiments which tested human participants in a non-immersive virtual watermaze task sought to determine factors which dictate whether the presence of a visual platform disrupts locale learning and taxon learning. In Experiment 1, the visible platform disrupted locale but not taxon learning based on viewpoint-independent and…

The goal-directed theory of imitation (GOADI) states that copying of action outcomes (e.g., turning a light switch) takes priority over imitation of the means by which those outcomes are achieved (e.g., choice of effector or grip). The object [fewer than] effector [fewer than] grip error pattern in the pen-and-cups task provides strong support for…

Two eye-tracking studies assessed effects of grammatical and conceptual gender cues in generic role name processing in German. Participants read passages about a social or occupational group introduced by way of a generic role name(e.g., "Soldaten"/soldiers, "Kunstler"/artists). Later in the passage the gender of this group was specified by the…