Compared toys and real items as props for facilitating children's reporting of an event. Indicates that the effects of props depend on the nature of the items and the age of the children with whom they are used. Suggests that real items may provide one means of supporting recall, to enable children to provide their most complete and accurate…

Four studies, involving 8 learning-disabled (LD) children with extreme memory difficulties, 8 LD children with average short-term memory skills, and 8 average children (ages 9-11), found that LD children have difficulties recalling both item and order information. These difficulties appear to be related to inefficiencies in phonological coding…

This article synthesizes the experimental literature that compares the academic, cognitive, and behavioral performance of adults with reading disabilities to those of average-achieving adult readers. The central question posed by this review is to what extent and in what manner do adults with reading disabilities differ from adults without reading…

The study of memories that pop into one's mind without any conscious attempt to retrieve them began only recently. While there are some studies on involuntary autobiographical memories (e.g., Berntsen, 1996, 1998) research on involuntary semantic memories or mind-popping is virtually non-existent. The latter is defined as an involuntary conscious…

The four sections of this paper provide an analysis of the structure of human memory. The first section, intended to provide a clear example of personal memory, examines a hypothetical episode in the life of an undergraduate student, and shows how one episode can give rise to three different forms of memory: personal, semantic, and rote…

This sixth in a series of edited transcripts based on a conference at Utah State University discusses ideas from cognitive psychology that have implications for instructional design. Highlights include information processing phases; pattern recognition; short-term and long-term memory; purposes of instruction; cognitive structures; and cognitive…

Examined three-year olds' difficulty in recalling a false belief immediately after they discover the true state of affairs. Challenges the argument that children are genuinely amnesic and their false belief is deleted and no longer available for retrieval. Suggests that three-year-olds have been much underestimated in their capacity to undertake…

Examined the degree to which young children can use anatomically detailed dolls to show what they remembered of their experience in a case of suspected sexual abuse. Very young children had difficulty appreciating and exploiting a representational relation between themselves and a doll. Consequently, they provided more information verbally and…

There are a large number of studies demonstrating that visuospatial working memory (VSWM) involves different subcomponents, but there is no agreement on the identity of these dimensions. The present study attempts to combine different theoretical accounts by measuring VSWM. A battery composed of 13 tests was used to assess working memory and, in…

Age-related differences in cognitive processes were used to understand age-related declines in creativity. According to the Geneplore model (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992), there are two phases of creativity--generating an idea and exploring the implications of the idea--each with different underlying cognitive processes. These two phases are…

Very preterm (VPT) birth can account for thinning of the corpus callosum and poorer cognitive performance. Research findings about preterm and VPT adolescents usually describe a small posterior corpus callosum, although our research group has also found reductions of the anterior part, specifically the genu. The aim of the present study was to…

Previous research suggests that by 4 months of age infants use the eye gaze of adults to guide their attention and facilitate processing of environmental information. Here we address the question of how infants process the relation between another person and an external object. We applied an ERP paradigm to investigate the neural processes…

While prior research indicates that relationships exist between anxiety-stability and working memory, and cognitive style and anxiety-stability, they have not been considered together. The aim of this study was to consider how anxiety-stability is related to working memory, gender and style in interaction. The sample consisted of 179…

Although many tasks have been developed recently to study executive control in the preschool years, the constructs that underlie performance on these tasks are poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear whether executive control is composed of multiple, separable cognitive abilities (e.g., inhibition and working memory) or whether it is…

In this commentary, assumptions about the nature and development of children's false memories as described in a recent article by C. J. Brainerd, V. F. Reyna, and S. J. Ceci (2008) are reviewed. Specifically, questions are raised about what drives the development of false memories in fuzzy-trace theory (FTT). Recent studies that challenge a core…