Executive function (EF) skills are the attention-regulation skills that make it possible to sustain attention, keep goals and information in mind, refrain from responding immediately, resist distraction, tolerate frustration, consider the consequences of different behaviors, reflect on past experiences, and plan for the future. As EF research…

Perceptual load is a key determinant of distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli (e.g., Lavie, N. (2005). "Distracted and confused?: Selective attention under load." "Trends in Cognitive Sciences," 9, 75-82). Here we establish the role of perceptual load in determining an internal form of distraction by task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs or…

The current study investigated attentional control through active inhibition of the identity of the distractor. Adapting a Stroop paradigm, the distractor word was presented in advance and made to disappear, followed by the presentation of a Stroop stimulus. Participants were instructed to inhibit the distractor in order to reduce its…

Background: Low levels of dispositional anger and a good attention span are critical to healthy social emotional development, with attention control reflecting effective cognitive self-regulation of negative emotions such as anger. Using a longitudinal design, we examined attention span as a moderator of reciprocal links between changes in anger…

Objectives: Impaired attentional control and behavioral control are implicated in adult suicidal behavior. Little is known about the functional integrity of neural circuitry supporting these processes in suicidal behavior in adolescence. Method: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used in 15 adolescent suicide attempters with a history of…

This experimental study investigates event construal by early Dutch-German bilinguals, as reflected in their oral depiction of everyday events shown in video clips. The starting point is the finding that the expression of an aspectual perspective (progressive aspect), and its consequences for event construal, is dependent on the extent to which…

Does extensive practice reduce or eliminate central interference in dual-task processing? We explored the reorganization of task architecture with practice by combining interference analysis (delays in dual-task experiment) and random-walk models of decision making (measuring the decision and non-decision contributions to RT). The main delay…

The role of attentional control in lexical ambiguity resolution was examined in two patients with damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and one control patient with non-LIFG damage. Experiment 1 confirmed that the LIFG patients had attentional control deficits compared to normal controls while the non-LIFG patient was relatively…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children who stutter (CWS) and typically developing children (TDC) differ from each other on composite temperament factors or on individual temperament scales. Methods: Participants consisted of 116 age and gender-matched CWS and TDC (3.04-8.11). Temperament was assessed with a Dutch…

We review and relate two literatures on the development of attention in children: one concerning flexible attention switching and the other concerning selective attention. The first is a growing literature on preschool children's performances in an attention-switching task indicating that children become more flexible in their attentional control…

The task-switching paradigm offers enormous possibilities to study cognitive control as well as task interference. The current review provides an overview of recent research on both topics. First, we review different experimental approaches to task switching, such as comparing mixed-task blocks with single-task blocks, predictable task-switching…

For more than a decade, researchers in accounting and business education have focused on the concept of mindfulness as a source of ideas that contribute to transforming the classroom experience and the quality of student learning. This research is founded on the work of social scientists studying the general application of mindfulness to teaching…

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of play through the eyes of talented and gifted (TAG) fifth- and sixth-grade students. Three focus groups consisting of fifth- and sixth-grade TAG students were conducted in one urban, one suburban, and one rural school district in the Midwest. Students were asked to describe the value of play…

This study focuses on three aspects of parenting that have been linked theoretically and empirically with the development of child emotion regulation and attention control skills in early childhood: 1) parental stress and distress, 2) the degree of warmth and sensitivity evident in the parent-child relationship, and 3) parental support for the…

Fluent reading requires the effective integration of orthographic and phonological information in addition to intact processing of either type. The current study used a rhyme decision task to examine phono-orthographic interaction in children with reading disabilities (RD) as compared to typically achieving (TA) children. Word pairs were presented…