Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) demonstrate impaired visuo-spatial abilities in comparison to their level of verbal ability. In particular, visuo-spatial construction is an area of relative weakness. It has been hypothesised that poor or atypical location coding abilities contribute strongly to the impaired abilities observed on…

Working memory is one of several putative core neurocognitive processes in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present work seeks to determine whether visual-spatial working memory is sensitive to motivational incentives, a laboratory analogue of behavioral treatment. Participants were 21 children (ages 7-10) with a diagnosis of…

It is well established that glucocorticoid hormones strengthen the consolidation of hippocampus-dependent spatial and contextual memory. The present experiments investigated glucocorticoid effects on the long-term formation of conditioned taste aversion (CTA), an associative learning task that does not depend critically on hippocampal function.…

Invented by English mathematician and pedagogist, Caleb Gattegno (1911-1988), the geoboard was designed as a manipulative tool for teaching primary geometry in schools (Williams, 1999). Traditionally made out of plywood and nails, geoboards today are usually made out of plastic and come in a variety of different sizes and colours. Rubber bands are…

Theories of attentional control are divided over whether the capture of spatial attention depends primarily on stimulus salience or is contingent on attentional control settings induced by task demands. The authors addressed this issue using the N2-posterior-contralateral (N2pc) effect, a component of the event-related brain potential thought to…

We conducted three experiments to investigate how opportunities to view objects together in time influence memory for location. Children and adults learned the locations of 20 objects marked by dots on the floor of an open, square box. During learning, participants viewed the objects either simultaneously or in isolation. At test, participants…

This article describes how children use an expressive microworld to articulate ideas about how to make a game seem fair with the use of randomness. Our aim in this study is to disentangle different flavours of fairness and to find out how children used each flavour to make sense of potentially complex behaviour. In order to achieve this, a spatial…

Background: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has revealed microstructural aspects of adolescent brain development, the cognitive correlates of which remain relatively uncharacterized. Methods: DTI was used to assess white matter microstructure in 18 typically developing adolescents (ages 16-18). Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusion (MD)…

Human recognition memory shows a decline during normal ageing, which is thought to be related to age-associated dysfunctions of mediotemporal lobe structures. Whether the hippocampus is critical for human general relational memory or for spatial relational memory only is still disputed. The human perirhinal cortex is thought to be critically…

Protein synthesis is required for the expression of enduring memories and long-lasting synaptic plasticity. During cellular proliferation and growth, S6 kinases (S6Ks) are activated and coordinate the synthesis of de novo proteins. We hypothesized that protein synthesis mediated by S6Ks is critical for the manifestation of learning, memory, and…

The attention network test (ANT) is a brief computerized battery measuring three independent behavioral components of attention: Conflict resolution (ability to overcome distracting stimuli), spatial Orienting (the benefit of valid spatial pre-cues), and Alerting (the benefit of temporal pre-cues). Imaging, clinical, and behavioral evidence…

This study investigated quantitative and qualitative changes in mental rotation performance and solution strategies with a focus on sex differences. German children (N = 519) completed the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) in the 5th and 6th grades (interval: one year; age range at time 1: 10-11 years). Boys on average outperformed girls on both…

Managing the space in which learning takes place is subject to ongoing debate. Spatial management and movement can impact upon the construction of meaning within education and upon the dynamic of learning. It is suggested that there are now different learning goals and expectations and consequently a need for different learning environments. We…

In two experiments we investigated the effects of temporal and spatial contiguity on learning from a computer-based geographic map and associated text. In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to conditions that presented text either contiguous to (temporal or spatiotemporal) or noncontiguous to corresponding map features. The results…

Five variables (strategy use, fluency, accuracy, spatial ability and confidence) that have been linked to gender differences in mathematics were compared as predictors of mathematics competency. Two hundred and forty-one second grade students from seven schools in Northeast Georgia participated in the study. In fall of the second grade, children…