Purpose: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders historically exhibit lower and more variable nonverbal intelligence (NVIQ) scores compared to their typically developing peers. We hypothesize that the intrinsic characteristics of the tests themselves, particularly the cognitive constructs they assess, may account for both the lower scores and…

Utilising data from semi-structured interviews (n = 20), this paper explores the educational function of internationally popular, blockbuster videogames, including the ways in which players identify and operationalise these learning experiences. It proposes a framework through which different learning experiences in mainstream, culturally…

In order to explore the cognitive mechanisms and processing involved in incidental vocabulary acquisition, this study examines whether two crucial cognitive factors, attention and working memory, influence incidental vocabulary acquisition during second language reading. Employing a combined online-offline approach, attention, working memory, and…

Memories acquired incidentally from exposure to food information in the environment may often become active to later affect food preferences. Because conscious use of these memories is not requested or required, these incidental learning effects constitute a form of indirect memory. In an experiment using a novel food preference paradigm (n =…

Attention allocation determines the information that is encoded into memory. Can participants learn to optimally allocate attention based on what types of information are most likely to change? The current study examined whether participants could incidentally learn that changes to either high spatial frequency (HSF) or low spatial frequency (LSF)…

The present study explores the initial stages of incidental acquisition of two grammatical properties of verbs (subcategorization and [ir]regularity) during reading in first language (L1) and second language (L2) German using an adjusted self-paced reading paradigm. The results indicate that L1 speakers are superior to L2 speakers in the…

For skill learning processes to be effective, they must encode associations that are inherent to the current task and avoid those that are spurious or particular to training conditions so that learning can transfer to novel situations. Some everyday contexts even require grouped responding to simultaneously presented stimuli. Here we test whether…

There is a growing theoretical, empirical, and methodological debate in the SLA field as to whether unawareness plays a role during attention to or processing of new incoming second language (L2) data. Indeed, studies that have methodologically addressed the construct of unawareness in their research designs offer both empirical support (e.g.,…

Visual attention prioritizes information presented at particular spatial locations. These locations can be defined in reference frames centered on the environment or on the viewer. This study investigates whether incidentally learned attention uses a viewer-centered or environment-centered reference frame. Participants conducted visual search on a…

Substantial research has focused on the allocation of spatial attention based on goals or perceptual salience. In everyday life, however, people also direct attention using their previous experience. Here we investigate the pace at which people incidentally learn to prioritize specific locations. Participants searched for a T among Ls in a visual…

There is converging evidence that the feeling of conscious recollection is usually accompanied by the bound retrieval of context features of the encoding episode (e.g., Meiser, Sattler, & Weiber, 2008). Recently, however, important limiting conditions have been identified for the binding between context features in memory. For example, focusing on…

Eye gaze is a powerful directional cue that automatically evokes joint attention states. Even when faces are ignored, there is incidental learning of the reliability of the gaze cueing of another person, such that people who look away from targets are judged less trustworthy. In a series of experiments, we demonstrated further properties of the…

This eye-tracking study tests the hypothesis that more attention leads to more learning, following claims that attention to new language elements in the input results in their initial representation in long-term memory (i.e., intake; Robinson, 2003; Schmidt, 1990, 2001). Twenty-eight advanced learners of English read English texts that contained…

Late and early preschoolers' attention and spatial strategies were examined in response to instructions to recall relevant objects [Blumberg, F. C. & Torenberg, M. (2003). The impact of spatial cues on preschoolers' selective attention. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 164, 42-53] and irrelevant objects [Blumberg, F. C. & Torenberg, M. (in press).…

A central-incidental learning paradigm was used to measure the selective attention of 176 children at ages 9 and 12 years. (MP)