Aim: Subcortical band heterotopia (SBH) or "double cortex" is a malformation of cortical development resulting from impaired neuronal migration. So far, research has focused on the neurological, neuroimaging, and genetic correlates of SBH. More recently, clinical reports and small sample studies have documented neuropsychological dysfunction in…

This 3-year longitudinal study determined whether (a) subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) (children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) and skilled readers varied in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) growth and (b) whether growth in an executive system and/or a…

In this study we examined the effects of skill training, in particular mental abacus and music training, on working memory. Two groups of participants--children who had received mental abacus training and their controls--participated in Experiment 1. All participants performed the following span tasks: forward digit span, backward digit span,…

The interaction of emotion and cognition has become a topic of major interest. However, the influence of gender on the interplay between the two processes, along with its neural correlates have not been fully analysed so far. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we induced negative emotion using negative olfactory stimulation…

Objective: Previous cross-sectional studies in adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS; onset of psychotic symptoms by 18 years of age) have reported patterns of generalized neurocognitive deficits as compared to healthy comparison subjects (HCSs). Here, the authors examined the longitudinal stability of neuropsychological deficits in…

Evidence that the abilities to repeat nonwords and to learn language are very closely related to one another has led to widespread interest in the cognitive processes underlying nonword repetition. One suggestion is that nonword repetition is a relatively pure measure of phonological short-term memory closely associated with other measures of…

In this study we present a self-organizing connectionist model of early lexical development. We call this model DevLex-II, based on the earlier DevLex model. DevLex-II can simulate a variety of empirical patterns in children's acquisition of words. These include a clear vocabulary spurt, effects of word frequency and length on age of acquisition,…

This study investigated the effects of perceived controllability on information processing within Weiner's (1985, 1986) attributional model of learning. Attributional style was used to identify trait patterns of controllability for 37 university students. Task-relevant feedback on an information-processing task was then manipulated to test for…

The study attempted to determine whether the failure of Down Syndrome (DS) individuals to show the modality effect (the tendency to show better short-term memory for brief sequences of auditory rather than visual information) is due to the verbal-expressive demands of oral responding in memory tasks. DS, nonretarded (NR) and MR (non-DS mentally…

A series of studies was conducted to determine whether children's reasoning is capacity-limited and whether any such capacity, if it exists, is based on the working memory system. An N-term series (transitive inference) was used as the primary task in an interference paradigm. A concurrent short-term memory load was employed as the secondary task.…

To explore the effects of depression and learned helplessness on cognitive task deficits, 66 community-residing elderly adults were categorized as depressed or nondepressed based on Beck Depression Inventory scores. After a pre-test battery measuring short-term memory and components of crystallized/fluid intelligence, the subjects responded to a…

The usefulness of the Learning Efficency Test (LET), an approach to assessing the learning efficiency and short-term memory recall capacity in children, is described via a case study demonstrating the test's use to develop instructional strategies. (CL)

Examines the effects of word duration on memory span in subjects of different ages. Concludes that developmental increases in short-term memory span can be explained in terms of increases in speech rate. Suggests that increases in speech rate with age reflect increases in the speed of articulation of individual words. (Author/AS)

The possibility of an age-related increase in the capacity of the short-term store was examined in two experiments, and an "M-operator" model was proposed to account for the data. Together, the two experiments show that an important part of short-term memory development can be explained as growth in short-term store capacity. (Author/MP)

Ten autistic children (10 to 16 years old) exhibited significantly inferior recall of recent events compared to 10 normal and 10 mentally retarded controls. Memory correlated with a language measure in the autistic Ss and a nonverbal measure in the retarded Ss. (CL)