Complex sequences are ubiquitous in human mental life, structuring representations within many different cognitive domains--natural language, music, mathematics, and logic, to name a few. However, the representational and computational machinery used to learn abstract grammars and process complex sequences is unknown. Here, we used an artificial…

Gestures--hand movements that accompany speech and express ideas--can help children learn how to solve problems, flexibly generalize learning to novel problem-solving contexts, and retain what they have learned. But does it matter who is doing the gesturing? We know that producing gesture leads to better comprehension of a message than watching…

Children achieve better long-term language outcomes than adults. However, it remains unclear whether children actually learn language "more quickly" than adults during real-time exposure to input--indicative of true superior language learning abilities--or whether this advantage stems from other factors. To examine this issue, we…

Although there is a consensus regarding the positive effects of self-monitoring interventions on improving on-task behaviors of students with disabilities, the findings for maintenance and generalization have not been shown to be consistent across studies (i.e., Cook & Sayeski, 2020; Wood et al., 2002). The current study aimed to assess the…

Exercise is necessary for healthy living, yet individuals with intellectual disability (ID) remain strikingly inactive compared with nondisabled peers. To improve this outcome, individuals with ID can exercise independently by self-instructing. Self-instruction is considered a pivotal skill once it generalizes to untrained stimuli. This study used…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching with graduated guidance on teaching the playing backgammon skill, which is one of the leisure skills, to children with "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)". Three children with ASD participated in this research. A multiple probe design across the participants was used in…

The "recycling hypothesis" posits that the word recognition system is built upon minimal modifications to the neural architecture used in object recognition. In two masked priming lexical decision studies, we examined whether "mirror generalization," a phenomenon in object recognition, occurs in word recognition. In Study 1, we…

Purpose: Previous studies have demonstrated that speakers can learn novel speech sequences, although the content and specificity of the learned speech motor representations remain incompletely understood. We investigated these representations by examining transfer of learning in the context of nonnative consonant clusters. Specifically, we…

The present study evaluates the updating of long-term memory for duration. After learning a temporal discrimination associating one lever with a standard duration (4 sec) and another lever with both a shorter (1-sec) and a longer (16-sec) duration, rats underwent a single session for learning a new standard duration. The temporal generalization…

A multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of progressive time delay (PTD) during small group instruction to teach social problem-solving to preschoolers and to assess generalization to novel contexts. PTD was used to teach children to both name and use a variety of problem-solving solutions. Target…

Prompt cues for recording in self-monitoring interventions can be delivered through a number of different modalities. The current study evaluated a self-monitoring intervention using a discreet auditory prompt (via a single wireless in-ear headphone) plus reinforcement for recording accuracy on increasing on-task behaviors in individuals with…

The ability to read promotes academic success and serves as an essential prerequisite skill for many postsecondary opportunities. However, developing proficient reading skills is particularly difficult for many individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Reading is an important life skill for all individuals,…

Self-monitoring of attention (SMA) promotes increased learning opportunities and greater independence for students but has been sparsely researched with high-school students. This study evaluated the effects of a self-monitoring strategy that included the use of a smartphone with a vibrating app to signal high-school students with high-incidence…

Slow reading has long been viewed as a teaching technique that engages students more deeply with course readings. Little systematic research, however, has been done to understand how this pedagogical strategy works in college classrooms. This study investigated how slow reading techniques promoted deep learning among undergraduate college students…

Research suggests peer imitation can be taught using systematic procedures and can be embedded into ongoing play contexts with preschool-age children. However, additional research is needed to test procedures that may increase levels of peer imitation with toddlers with disabilities and in generalized contexts. We used a multiple probe across…