Although object-based attention enhances perceptual processing of information appearing within the boundaries of a selected object, little is known about the consequences for information in the object's surround. The authors show that distance from an attended object's center of mass determines reaction time (RT) to targets in the surround. Of 2…

Cognitive control theories attribute control to executive processes that adjust and control behavior online. Theories of automaticity attribute control to memory retrieval. In the present study, online adjustments and memory retrieval were examined, and their roles in controlling performance in the stop-signal paradigm were elucidated. There was…

Online homework is unable to provide the detailed feedback of paper and pencil assignments. However, immediate feedback is an advantage that online assessments provide. A research study was conducted that focused on the effects of immediate feedback; students in 5 sections of a Pre-calculus course were participants. Three sections were randomly…

Using principal component analysis, we examined whether structural properties in the time series of response time would identify different mental states during a continuous performance task. We examined whether it was possible to identify regular patterns which were present in blocks classified as lacking controlled processing, either…

The seeking of discontinuity in enumeration was recently renewed because Cowan [Cowan, N. (2001). "The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity." "Behavioral and Brain Sciences," 24, 87-185; Cowan, N. (2005). "Working memory capacity." Hove: Psychology Press] suggested that it allows evaluating the limit…

To coordinate our actions with those of others, it is crucial to not only choose an appropriate category of action but also to execute it at an appropriate timing. It is widely documented that people tend to unconsciously mimic others' behavior. The present study show that people also tend to modify their movement timing according to others'…

This study investigated first language (L1) influence on the acquisition of second language (L2) collocations using a framework based on Kroll and Stewart (1994) and Jiang (2000), by comparing the performance on a phrase-acceptability judgment task among native speakers of English, Japanese English as a second language (ESL) users, and Japanese…

In this study the reflection-in-action of experienced school principals was investigated. While reflection-on-action occurs after-the-fact, reflection-in-action is situated in the context of action. This qualitative study explores what principals think about as they are in the midst of dealing with an unexpected public confrontation. The purpose…

In order to encourage students to participate in online learning forums, prompt responses to their questions are essential. To answer students' online questions, teaching assistants are assigned to manage discussions and answer questions in online learning forums. To minimize the response time, many teaching assistants may be needed to interact…

Background: Delay-related motivational processes are impaired in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Here we explore the impact of ADHD on the performance of three putative indices of Delay Aversion (DAv): (i) the choice for immediate over delayed reward; (ii) slower reaction times following delay; and (iii) increased…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the distributed presentation of different versions of a question would produce better performance on a new version of the question than distributed presentation of the same version of the question. A total of 48 four question sets of five alternative multiple-choice questions were presented…

Multisensory peripersonal space develops in a maturational process that is thought to be influenced by early sensory experience. We investigated the role of vision in the effective development of audiotactile interactions in peripersonal space. Early blind (EB), late blind (LB) and sighted control (SC) participants were asked to lateralize…

Recent spatial cuing studies have shown that detection sensitivity can be increased by the allocation of attention. This increase has been attributed to one of two mechanisms: signal enhancement or uncertainty reduction. Signal enhancement is an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio at the cued location; uncertainty reduction is a reduction in the…

Left-right keypresses to numerals are faster for pairings of small numbers to left response and large numbers to right response than for the opposite pairings. This spatial numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect has been attributed to numbers being represented on a mental number line. We examined this issue in 3 experiments using a…

The association between cognitive function and mortality is of increasing interest. We followed 1870 men aged 55-69 years at cognitive assessment for 16 years to establish associations with all case and cause specific mortality. Cognitive assessment included AH4, 4 choice reaction time (used as estimates of mid-life cognition) and the National…