People often need to update representations of information upon discovering them to be incorrect, a process that can be interrupted by competing cognitive demands. Because anxiety and stress can impair cognitive performance, we tested whether looming threat can similarly interfere with the process of updating representations of a statement's…

Accurate event sequencing can add critical detail to a child's account. However, our knowledge of sequencing in childhood to date primarily centers on distinct events separated by time. Sequencing a single event's components is also important, perhaps particularly in a forensic context. In two experiments, we explored children's ability to recall…

Cognitive scientists have long used distributional semantic representations of categories. The predominant approach uses distributional representations of category-denoting nouns, such as "city" for the category city. We propose a novel scheme that represents categories as prototypes over representations of names of its members, such as…

Humans routinely make inferences about both the contents and the workings of other minds based on observed actions. People consider what others want or know, but also how intelligent, rational, or attentive they might be. Here, we introduce a new methodology for quantitatively studying the mechanisms people use to attribute intelligence to others…

A relatively new technology being used to deliver academic lessons is immersive virtual reality (IVR). This study examined whether IVR is a more effective instructional medium than other multimedia, such as a video on a computer monitor. Additionally, this study explored the underlying affective and cognitive mechanisms of learning in an immersive…

Complementary to existing "normative" models, in this paper we suggest a descriptive phase model of problem solving. Real, not ideal, problem-solving processes contain errors, detours, and cycles, and they do not follow a predetermined sequence, as is presumed in normative models. To represent and emphasize the non-linearity of empirical…

Recent studies demonstrate that eyes-closed rest benefits memory consolidation, perhaps due to reduced attention to environmental stimuli. Here, we asked whether focusing attention to "internal" thoughts and feelings after learning similarly blocks memory consolidation. Verbal memory was tested following an eyes-closed consolidation…

This innovative study examines the relations between principals' cognitive complexity (CC) levels and their leadership-style profiles. Participants were 341 principals and 3,209 teachers in Israel. Results indicated four leadership-style profiles: transformational; mixed - including transformational and transactional; transactional; and…

To explain successful subject matter learning with digital tools, the specification of mediating cognitive processes is crucial for any empirical investigation. We introduce a cognitive process framework for the mechanisms of learning with digital tools (CoDiL) that combines core ideas from the psychology of instruction…

Recall performance in working memory (WM) is strongly affected by the similarity between items. When asked to encode and recall list of items in their serial order, people confuse more often the position of similar compared to dissimilar items. Models of WM explain this deleterious effect of similarity through a problem of discriminability between…

Background: Understanding the cognitive processes of individuals with intellectual disabilities in financially abusive situations is critical to develop effective prevention strategies. Aims: This study investigated how persons with intellectual disabilities define and analyse financially abusive situations, and how they would feel and act in…

Although the utilization of mobile technologies has recently emerged in various educational settings, limited research has focused on cognitive load detection in the pen-based learning process. This research conducted two experimental studies to investigate what and how multimodal data can be used to measure and classify learners' real-time…

Embodied cognition theory underscores the importance of the interactions among the mind, body and environment, and instructors can make use of these connections to support learning through body-based learning activities. However, synchronous online learning presents challenges to this type of embodied pedagogy, as learning through physical actions…

The ability to recognize and correct errors in one's explanatory understanding is critically important for learning. However, little is known about the mechanisms that determine when and under what circumstances errors are detected and how they are corrected. The present study investigated thought experiments as a potential tool that can reveal…

This paper argues that traditional threshold-based approaches to the analysis of pauses in writing fail to capture the complexity of the cognitive processes involved in text production. It proposes that, to capture these processes, pause analysis should focus on the transition times between linearly produced units of text. Following a review of…