The basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex play critical roles in category learning. Both regions evidence age-related structural and functional declines. The current study examined rule-based and information-integration category learning in a group of older and younger adults. Rule-based learning is thought to involve explicit, frontally mediated…

Algebra is a gateway to expanded opportunities, but it often poses difficulty for students with learning disabilities. Consequently, it is essential to identify evidence-based instructional strategies for these students. The authors begin by identifying three areas of algebra difficulty experienced by students with disabilities: cognitive…

The efficacy of a cognitive-based remediation program was investigated with 14 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) poor readers in Grade 4 who had significant difficulty in comprehension and 14 normal ESL readers in Grade 4 who received no remediation. Both groups were selected from 2 English-medium schools in India. We examined pretest-to-posttest…

Purpose: This paper reviews 10 principles of experience-dependent neural plasticity and considerations in applying them to the damaged brain. Method: Neuroscience research using a variety of models of learning, neurological disease, and trauma are reviewed from the perspective of basic neuroscientists but in a manner intended to be useful for the…

Universities and colleges are very interested in understanding the factors that influence their students' academic performance. This paper describes a study that was conducted at a mid-sized public university in the mid-south, USA, to examine this issue. In this study, the 10-scale, Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) (Weinstein et…

This study assessed the effectiveness of a three-step cognitive strategy (TIP) for calculating tip and total bill for young adults with intellectual disability. In the context of pre- and post-test nonequivalent-groups design, 10 students from a postsecondary education program for individuals with disabilities participated in the study. A teacher…

Research on human and animal behavior has long emphasized its hierarchical structure--the divisibility of ongoing behavior into discrete tasks, which are comprised of subtask sequences, which in turn are built of simple actions. The hierarchical structure of behavior has also been of enduring interest within neuroscience, where it has been widely…

This article explores the opportunities to apply cognitive load theory and four-component instructional design to self-directed learning. Learning tasks are defined as containing three elements: learners must (a) "perform" the tasks, (b) "assess" their task performance, and (c) "select" future tasks for improving their performance. Principles to…

The aim of this study was to discover possible relationships between self-regulated learning dimensions and students' success in a distance-learning programme. The sample consisted of 319 students: 83 males and 236 females. They completed the "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire" (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia & McKeachie,…

The ability of underprepared college students to read and learn from their reading is essential to their academic success and to their ability to persist towards completing their degree. The purposes of this study were to (a) assess the relationship between the cognitive processes of reading-based decision making and meaningful learning and (b)…

Think-aloud and self-report data from 99 undergraduates were used to consider whether extensive use of self-regulated learning (SRL) with hypermedia results in diminishing benefits. Participants individually used a commercially-based hypermedia environment for 30 minutes to learn about a challenging science-related topic. Think-aloud data were…

The game of Matching Pennies (MP), a simplified version of the more popular Rock, Papers, Scissors, schematically represents competitions between organisms with incentives to predict each other's behavior. Optimal performance in iterated MP competitions involves the production of random choice patterns and the detection of nonrandomness in the…

Through interviews with twenty-nine students who completed an educational psychology class that required self-study, the author investigates the relation between the amount of dissonance students experienced between their schemas for learning and the type of learning required by the course, as well as the type of knowledge the students…

To improve vocabulary learning and teaching in ELT settings, two questionnaires are designed and directed to more than 100 students and teachers in one of China's key universities. The findings suggest that an enhanced awareness of cultural difference, metaphorical competence, and learners' autonomy in vocabulary acquisition will effectively…

Self-regulated learners are expected to plan their own learning. Because planning is a complex task, it is not self-evident that all learners can perform this task successfully. In this study, we examined the effects of two planning support tools on the quality of created plans, planning behavior, task load, and acquired knowledge. Sixty-five…