School performance is one of the most stable and heritable psychological characteristics. Notwithstanding, monozygotic twins (MZ), who have identical genotypes, differ in school performance. These MZ differences result from non-shared environments that do not contribute to the similarity within twin pairs. Because to date few non-shared…

This paper reviews the rapidly developing field of epigenetics, providing an accessible explanation of the key ideas and some illustrative examples of work in the field. Although very much a biological discipline the implications of the developing knowledge in this area are very significant for educational psychologists and this paper aims to…

Early educational interventions aim to close gaps in achievement levels between children. However, early interventions do not eliminate individual differences in populations and the effects of early interventions often fade-out over time, despite changes of the mean of the population immediately following the intervention. Here, we discuss…

Biotechnology presence both in curricula and among researches regarding its teaching and learning processes is constantly increasing. The knowledge, attitudes and interests of 184 Spanish pre-university students on biotechnology in the fields of health, food, industry and environment have been analyzed in this work. The results showed that while…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was for many years considered to be one of five pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) as defined in the 4th edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2000). These disorders included Autism, Rett Syndrome, Childhood…

The flipped classroom is a teaching innovation in which instructional content is delivered out of the classroom, often via videos, and the class period is used for application of the course material. While the popularity of the flipped classroom is growing exponentially, its benefits have not been extensively studied. In this study we compared…

In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), functional behaviors such as checking that a door is locked become dysfunctional, maladaptive, and debilitating. However, it is currently unknown how aversive and appetitive motivations interact to produce functional and dysfunctional behavior in OCD. Here we show a double dissociation in the effects of…

This study examined the mediating role of emotional availability in the relation between parent positive personality and toddler problem behavior. The sample comprised 654 twins at 12 and 32 months. Primary caregivers (>95% mothers) completed six measures indexing parent positive personality assessed at 12 months, and emotional availability and…

Studies have identified concurrent, longitudinal, and bidirectional associations between language difficulties and internalizing problems. This is commonly explained by social exclusion or withdrawal from peers, but underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This study uses sibling data to investigate if the comorbidity between language…

Researchers are investigating new technologies to mitigate or prevent symptoms of Down syndrome (DS), including chromosome silencing and pharmacotherapy. We surveyed parents of individuals with DS to assess their opinions on two hypothetical scenarios describing prenatal chromosome silencing and pediatric pharmacological intervention to improve…

The etiological mechanisms of the genetic underpinnings of developmental language disorder (DLD) are unknown, in part due to the behavioral heterogeneity of the disorder's manifestations. In this study, we explored an association between the SETBP1 gene (18q21.1), revealed in a genome-wide association study of DLD in a geographically isolated…

Understanding the functioning of natural systems is not easy, although there is general agreement that understanding complex systems is an important goal for science education. Defining what makes a natural system complex will assist in identifying gaps in research on student reasoning about systems. The goal of this commentary is to propose a…

The goal of biological sciences is to understand the biomolecular mechanics of living organisms. Proteins serve as the foundation for organisms functional analysis and sequence analysis has shown to be invaluable in answering questions about individual organisms. The first step in any sequence analysis is alignment and it is common that even…

The factors influencing resiliency to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain to be elucidated. Clinical studies associate PTSD with polymorphisms of the FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5). However, it is unclear whether changes in FKBP5 expression alone could produce resiliency or susceptibility to PTSD-like symptoms. In this…

Background: Research on Internet safety for adolescents has identified several important issues including unwanted exposure to sexual material and sexual solicitation. Methods: Although individuals with intellectual disabilities often have poor insight and judgment, and may therefore be at risk for Internet dangers, there is surprisingly little…