Children and adults were tested on six speeded perceptual-motor and cognitive tasks, including a (1) response time task; (2) button tapping task; (3) pegboard task; (4) coding task; (5) picture matching task; and (6) mental addition task. Age-related change in processing time on most of these tasks was described by a single exponential function.…

In this study, students' use of a new educational Web portal was evaluated with particular emphasis on searching and browsing strategies. The effects and implications of a federated search system are also discussed. Fifty-four students, ranging from 5th to 12th grade, were given five tasks to complete using the SchoolRooms interface. The tasks…

John B. Carroll's Model of School Learning is a paradigm which describes the degree of learning that takes place in school setting as a function of the time spent on a learning task divided by the time needed for its mastery. The components of opportunity and perseverance in Carroll's model have particular relevance to a form of school…

Results of tasks measuring speed with which mentally retarded (N=9) and nonretarded adults retrieved information from short-term memory and processed permanently stored semantic information revealed that the retarded adults were slower in both processing domains. The relative magnitude of "processing inefficiency" was quite similiar across domains…

Jensen has reported reaction-time (RT) studies indicating that various parameters correlate significantly with IQ. Two parameters of interest are slope of RT across set size and increasing correlations of RT with IQ as set size increases. After reviewing these studies, the author concludes that Jensen's claims are unwarranted. (Author/BW)

Nine children with Down's syndrome were compared to two groups of nonretarded children, one similar in CA, the other a chronologically younger group of similar MA. The event-related brain potential and reaction time results indicated that Downs syndrome Ss processed some types of auditory information more slowly than the other groups. (Author/CL)

Presents experiments which compare two theories of memory for routine events, one emphasizing temporal sequence of events, the other focusing on events' hierarchical structure or centrality. Findings suggest that sequence and centrality information may be computed as needed, rather than precompiled. (Author/BK)

Secondary task performance was used to evaluate the attentional demands of encoding the first letter in a sequential letter-match task. Unlike earlier studies, comparing secondary task performance between two primary task conditions indicated that letter encoding involves attention. Performance during the intertrial interval varied with subjects'…

Used headmounted eyetracking to examine the time course and nature of processing filler-gap relations in Wh-questions, and the role of verb argument frame information. Subjects listened to a short narrative while viewing pictures of entities mentioned in the story and answered an auditorily presented question; eye movements in response to the…

Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were used to determine the stage(s) of reaction time (RT) responsible for speed-accuracy trade-offs (SATs). Speeded decisions based on several types of information were examined in 3 experiments, involving, respectively, a line discrimination task, lexical decisions, and an Erikson flanker task. Three levels…

To better understand the prefrontal circuitry that putatively supports executive functions, such as those involved in switching tasks, we asked whether a current task set is open equally to receiving information from any sensory modality or if it is to some degree modality-specific. Subjects were presented with a sequence of digits to be…

What is reconciliation? A source of historical puzzlement and contemporary controversy over how to make history, this question asks after those words which constitute a beginning (again), that moment in which endless cycles of conflict give way to the hope for "unity in difference." Concerned with the dynamics of its operation, the present essay…

Recent data suggest recovery of language systems but persistent structural abnormalities in the prematurely born. We tested the hypothesis that subjects who were born prematurely develop alternative networks for processing language. Subjects who were born prematurely (n = 22; 600-1250 g birth weight), without neonatal brain injury on neonatal…

Children with mental retardation have pronounced difficulties in using cognitive strategies and comprehending abstract concepts--among them, the concept of sequential time (Van-Handel, Swaab, De-Vries, & Jongmans, 2007). The perception of sequential time is generally tested by using scenarios presenting a continuum of actions. The goal of this…

Patients with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) have calculation impairments. This study examined whether impaired number knowledge depends on verbal mediation. We focused particularly on knowledge of very small numbers, where there is a precise relationship between a cardinality and its number concept, but little hypothesized role for verbal…