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…

This letter points out flaws in van der Lely and Howard's argument that children with specific language impairments have no deficits in verbal short-term memory. The original methodology is faulted for providing uninterpretable assessment of verbal short-term functions and for failure to follow memory techniques from previous studies. Sample…

This paper, responding to Gathercole and Baddeley's commentary (EC 611 105), defends van der Lely and Howard's 1993 argument that deficits in verbal short-term memory (VSTM) do not cause children's specific language impairments (SLI). It is argued that while some children with SLI may have VSTM problems, the fact that many do not eliminates VSTM…

Prior studies have often confounded linguistic and perceptual performance when evaluating deaf subjects' skills, a confusion that may be responsible for results indicating lesser recall ability among the deaf. In this series of studies this linguistic/perceptual confound was investigated in both the iconic and short term memory of deaf…

Of three methods (free recall, verbally prompted recall, and visually prompted recall) for eliciting understanding of a folk tale by 35 adolescents with intellectual disability, none proved significantly better in eliciting story understanding. All measures correlated with short-term memory, suggesting that subjects' difficulty encoding stories…

The present study was designed to test how well the measures of the cognitive constructs of M-space, cognitive style, and short-term storage space (STSS) could predict the amount of practice needed to induce successful problem solving behaviors, the ability to transfer behaviors to different contexts, and the readiness to abandon unsuccessful…

Examines the relationship of the amount of available short-term memory with the complexity of tasks the subjects mastered. Presents some hints for a better design of instruction. (YP)

This study examines executive function and its relationship to attention dysfunction and working memory. It attempts to document the manifestations of executive function problems in school-related extended processing tasks, such as verbal problem-solving in math and reading of extended passages. Subjects (in grades 1-12) included 49 children with…

A study of 12- to 14-year-olds was conducted to investigate which components of spatial ability may be dependent on general cognitive functioning level and to compare possible differences in carrying out certain spatial operations in children of equal intelligence, but who are not specifically gifted for mathematics or visual arts. (MBR)

Secondary education of students with learning and behavioral disabilities is an issue of great importance. Unlike elementary schools, secondary schools require substantially more independent functioning, assume the effective use of student planning and study skills, and often lack the classes in basic skills needed by some learners. Further, new…