Science learning requires visuospatial thinking. Accordingly, spatial ability is regarded as the key to learning science well, but its effects are sometimes not as significant as expected. To this end, this research aims to conceptualize spatial abilities and to clarify their relation to science learning based on an analysis of empirical studies.…

Manipulative artefacts are considered useful scaffolds of arithmetic during early years education, but their use is considered less important as children get older. Yet adult arithmetic performance often recruits artefacts to improve accuracy and efficiency, and so the same benefits should accrue to children beyond early years. We propose that…

Executive functioning is thought to contribute to adaptive behavior skills development in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, supporting data are largely based on caregiver reports of executive functioning. The current study evaluated whether performance-based measures of executive functioning (working memory and inhibition)…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which children's executive function predicted their reading comprehension performance. Participants were approximately 18,000 kindergartners in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011. The results suggest that individual differences in reading comprehension were…

Previous studies have documented that individual differences in fine and gross motor skills are associated with executive function (EF) skills. This study used an experimental design to test whether participating in cognitively challenging motor skills activities was causally related to improvements in motor skills and two key indicators of school…

The proliferation of digital gadgets and increased media consumption among adolescents has raised interest and concern regarding possible effects on cognitive functioning. Research investigating this relationship has yielded mixed results. This study aims to replicate the research conducted by Baumgartner et al. concerning the relationship between…

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the relationship between speech recognition in noise, age, hearing ability, self-rated listening effort, inhibitory control (measured with the Swedish Hayling task), and working memory capacity (WMC; measured with the Reading Span test). Two different speech materials were used: the Hagerman test with low…

An improvement in cognitive performance through brain games play is implicit yet progressive. It is necessary to explore factors that potentially accelerate this improvement process. Like various other significant yet unexplored aspects, it is equally essential to establish a performative (fusion of accuracy and efficiency) insight about players'…

The present study analyzed the relationship between domain-general abilities and fraction knowledge in fifth grade, and investigated the mediating role of division competence in that relationship. Children (n = 175) were assessed in fourth grade on domain-general abilities (selective attention, working memory, fluid intelligence) and on division…

Skilled reading involves rapid and automatic word recognition. Through a self-teaching process, phonological decoding during reading is thought to establish the word-specific representations in memory that support efficient word reading. Much is known about orthographic learning during reading; less is understood about this process during…

Despite the importance of rehearsal to most models of verbal working memory, its role has been recently called into question. Much prior work in support of rehearsal models has centered on the experimental effects of word-length, phonological-similarity, and irrelevant sound on serial order recall performance and the interaction of all three with…

When confronted with an emotion prototype (e.g., loss), individuals may experience not only target emotions (e.g., sadness), but also nontarget emotions (emotions that are atypical or incongruent with an emotion prototype; e.g., gratitude in response to loss). What are the cognitive correlates of nontarget emotions? Drawing from models of emotion…

The relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and recall from long-term memory (LTM) was examined in the current study. Participants performed multiple measures of delayed free recall varying in presentation duration and self-reported their strategy usage after each task. Participants also performed multiple measures of WMC. The results…

Visual working memory (VWM) has a limited capacity of approximately 3-4 visual objects. Current theories of VWM propose that a limited pool of resources can be flexibly allocated to objects, allowing them to be represented at varying levels of precision. Factors that influence the allocation of these resources, such as the complexity and…

Purpose: The visual Text Reception Threshold (TRT) test (Zekveld et al., 2007) has been designed to assess modality-general factors relevant for speech perception in noise. In the last decade, the test has been adopted in audiology labs worldwide. The 1st aim of this study was to examine which factors best predict interindividual differences in…