This dissertation describes a program of research encompassing three studies that focused on examining the effects of enhanced expectancies and perceptions of success on motor learning. OPTIMAL theory (Wulf & Lewthwaite, 2016) proposes that practice manipulations that enhance a learner's expectations for future successful outcomes lead to…

Confusion may benefit learning when it is resolved or partially resolved. Metacognitive strategies (MS) may help learners to resolve confusion when it occurs during learning and problem solving. This study examined the relationship between confusion and MS that students evoked in Betty's Brain, a computer-based learning-by-modelling environment…

Social cognition is a set of complex processes that mediate much of human behavior. The development of these skills is related to and interdependent on other cognitive processes, particularly inhibitory control. Brain regions associated with inhibitory control and social cognition overlap functionally and structurally, especially with respect to…

Object representations from convolutional neural network (CNN) models of computer vision (LeCun, Bengio, & Hinton, 2015) were used to drive a cognitive model of decision making, the linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) model (Brown & Heathcote, 2008), to predict errors and response times (RTs) in a novel object recognition task in humans.…

This real-life story can be rationalised as an auto-ethnographic appreciation of the journey of Diane and I. The journey is new to us when it was once known and planned. The path has veered with new challenges realised since the "death sentence" was passed. This longitudinal research, is original and unique, drawing initially upon the…

Background: College students majoring in psychology often report low interest and engagement in statistics and research methods courses. Objective: The purpose of the current study was to examine potential benefits of integrating movement with learning activities in Introduction to Statistics and Research Methods courses at the college level.…

Research on stakeholders in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) management in the schools has shown that several school personnel (e.g., nurses, athletic trainers, principals, speech-language pathologists) all contribute unique knowledge to a school-based mTBI management team. Special educators (SPEs) may be another stakeholder group that could…

This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher education in 'Old Canada' before WWII was mostly a small collection of colleges that bore imprints of American and British institutions and provided personnel needed to develop a vast and sparsely populated territory. The 'Hey Day of Canadian Nationalism' from…

The present study aimed to explore the neural-related mechanism of the creative evaluation process in individual with different levels of creativity. The time course of evaluation process for creative objects was monitored by event-related potentials (EPRs). Forty-five participants were divided into the high-creativity performance (HCP) group and…

Purpose: Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a multifaceted disorder, and the specific diagnostic criteria developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which highlight symptoms of CPTSD (i.e., affect dysregulation, negative self-concept, disturbed relationships), that occur along with PTSD symptoms speak to this. Understanding…

For educators to help children exposed to adverse life experiences, it is necessary to understand how adversity impacts different mechanisms of learning, emotion, and planning as these capacities underpin success in schools and beyond. The goal of this paper is to review essential findings on how early life adversity transforms the brain which, in…

Instructional videos for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary often feature an instructor onscreen. The instructor in the video may involuntarily produce beat gestures with their hands, as occurs in real teaching settings. Beat gestures highlight key information in speech by conveying the rhythm of the language, but do not themselves convey…

There are similar, non-linear complex dynamical systems that underlie the epigenetic development of young children. This paper discusses the confluence of research on brain functions; a body or research that informs the characteristics of young children's play and imagination; and the ways in which young children acquire fresh perceptions and…

The goal of this review was to explore literature concerning the connection between college/university instructional physical activity programs (C/U IPAP) and academic success in college students. This was an exploratory review of the literature examining manuscripts about the connection between students taking physical activity courses from a C/U…

The human brain is plastic -- which means the brain changes its connectivity and even its structure in response to learning. This brief report highlights the following points: (1) A human's first learning experiences are foundational for later education, and experiences in the early years of life can greatly impact on later achievement; (2) Waves…