The validity of Baddeley's working memory model within the typically developing population, was tested. However, it is not clear if this model also holds in children and adolescents with mild to, borderline intellectual disabilities (ID; IQ score 55-85). The main purpose of this study was therefore, to explore the model's validity in this…

The main challenge for theories of multitasking is to predict when and how tasks interfere. Here, we focus on interference related to the problem state, a directly accessible intermediate representation of the current state of a task. On the basis of Salvucci and Taatgen's (2008) threaded cognition theory, we predict interference if 2 or more…

This study aims to investigate two expert ecology teachers' ability to attend to essential details in a complex environment during a field excursion, as well as how they teach this ability to their students. In applying a cognitive dual-memory system model for learning, we also suggest a rationale for their behaviour. The model implies two…

In the last decades, researchers have proposed a large number of theoretical models of timing. These models make different assumptions concerning how animals learn to time events and how such learning is represented in memory. However, few studies have examined these different assumptions either empirically or conceptually. For knowledge to…

We investigated children's ability to generate associations and how automaticity of associative activation unfolds developmentally. Children generated associative responses using a single associate paradigm (Experiment 1) or a Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM)-like multiple associates paradigm (Experiment 2). The results indicated that children's…

Despite a decline in popularity within US society, posters continue to hold a prominent place within middle and high school science classrooms. Teachers' demand is satisfied by governmental and non-profit science organizations that produce and disseminate posters as tangible products resulting from their research, and instruments to communicate…

The present study investigated whether (a) growth patterns related to cognitive processing (working memory, updating, inhibition) differed in subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) and (b) growth in working memory (executive processing) predicted growth in other cognitive areas, such as reading and math. Seventy-three children (ages…

During reading, the model of the situation described by the text is continuously accommodated to new text input. The hypothesis was tested that readers are particularly sensitive to diagnostic text information that can be used to constrain their existing situation model. In 3 experiments, adult participants read narratives about social situations…

Forty 4-year-olds and 39 6-year-olds participated in a modified misinformation-effects paradigm. At time 1 they reviewed a story and some of the children were asked questions about it in either recall or recognition format. Three weeks later they were given misinformation about some of the story events. The following week they were asked the…

Working memory is believed to play a central role in almost all domains of higher cognition, yet the specific mechanisms involved in working memory are still fiercely debated. We describe a neuroimaging experiment with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a companion behavioral experiment, and in both we seek to adjudicate between…

This article presents a model of long term forgetting based on 3 ideas: (a) Memory for a stimulus can be described by a population of accessible traces; (b) probability of retrieval after a delay is predicted by the proportion of traces in this population that will be defined as correct if sampled; and (c) this population is diluted over time by…

The worst performance rule for cognitive tasks [Coyle, T.R. (2003). IQ, the worst performance rule, and Spearman's law: A reanalysis and extension. "Intelligence," 31, 567-587] in which reaction time is measured is the result that IQ scores correlate better with longer (i.e., 0.7 and 0.9 quantile) reaction times than shorter (i.e., 0.1 and 0.3…

Forgetting is frustrating, usually because it is unintended. Other times, one may purposely attempt to forget an event. A global theory of recognition and free recall that explains both types of forgetting and remembering from multiple list experiments is presented. The critical assumption of the model is that both intentional and unintentional…

Research in science education has referred to limitations in information processing resulting from both mental capacity and working memory capacity. Mental capacity is often conceptualised within the framework of the theory of constructive operators. However, the cognitive resources underlying working memory are not well specified within the…

Traditionally, dual-task interference has been attributed to the consequences of task load exceeding capacity limitations. However, the current study demonstrates that in addition to task load, the mutual compatibility of the concurrent processes modulates whether 2 tasks can be performed in parallel. In 2 psychological refractory period…