It is not known why people move their eyes when engaged in non-visual cognition. The current study tested the hypothesis that differences in saccadic eye movement rate (EMR) during non-visual cognitive tasks reflect different requirements for searching long-term memory. Participants performed non-visual tasks requiring relatively low or high…

Difficulties in social interaction are a central feature of Asperger syndrome. Effective social interaction involves the ability to solve interpersonal problems as and when they occur. Here we examined social problem-solving in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome and control group matched for age, gender and IQ. We also assessed…

The interaction of emotion and cognition has become a topic of major interest. However, the influence of gender on the interplay between the two processes, along with its neural correlates have not been fully analysed so far. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we induced negative emotion using negative olfactory stimulation…

Evidence that the abilities to repeat nonwords and to learn language are very closely related to one another has led to widespread interest in the cognitive processes underlying nonword repetition. One suggestion is that nonword repetition is a relatively pure measure of phonological short-term memory closely associated with other measures of…

We used a reference memory paradigm to examine whether 4- and 5-year-old children could be trained to use landmark features to relocate targets after disorientation. In Experiment 1, half of the children were pretrained in a small equilateral triangle-shaped room. Each of the three walls was a different color, and the target was always in the…

Objective: Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) is now recognized as being the main cause of severe traumatic brain injury in infancy. However, our understanding of the impact of this type of abuse on child development remains sketchy. The main objective of the current study was therefore to shed light on the cognitive dysfunctions that are particular to…

Very few studies have directly compared reading acquisition across different orthographies. The authors examined the concurrent and longitudinal predictors of word decoding and reading fluency in children learning to read in an orthographically inconsistent language (English) and in an orthographically consistent language (Greek). One hundred ten…

A study of 21 patients with Alzheimer's Disease and 25 with vascular dementia, the two most common forms of dementia, investigated language impairments in the dementia syndrome to see if analysis of language disturbances is helpful in differential diagnosis. Diagnostic assessment included a neurological examination, detailed medical history,…

Examines the performance on verbal, nonverbal, and memory tasks of 11 girls (ages 8 to 11 years) identified as having an extra X chromosome at birth. Results showed that the triple-X girls were markedly inferior in their performance on the tasks, indicating a rehearsal deficit, an inability to use list structures, and weaker language skills.…

Three studies investigated the role of 8- and 10-year-olds' and adults' metacognitive monitoring and control processes for unbiased event recall tasks and suggestibility. Findings suggested strong tendencies to overestimate confidence regardless of age and question format. Children did not lack principal metacognitive competencies when questions…

Reviews three response rate measures (in a baseline measurement, immediately after acquisition, and at a long-term retention test) of infant memory that are used in experiments involving infants' conditioned kicking. Compares these measures to a new measure, the fraction of kicking rate remaining after the retention interval. Explains the…

Explored effects of naturally-occurring peer interactions and repeated suggestive interviews on preschoolers' event memories. Found that suggestive interviews, combined with peer exposure, led to children's claims of witnessing target activities comparable to those of children who actually witnessed these activities. Assent rates for misleading…

The memory processes of 24 learning-disabled adolescents were compared to those of 13 nondisabled age-level and 13 nondisabled reading-level counterparts. Subjects performed similarly to reading-level peers on global recall measures, but actual processing was more similar to their age-level counterparts. (Author/JDD)

Investigated external memory strategies of typical 7-, 9-, 11-, and 17-year olds and 11- and 17-year olds with mild mental retardation using tasks allowing direct comparison of self-report and strategy observed. Found strong positive correlations between frequency of reported and observed strategy use. Self-reports were accurate but not always…