The worst performance rule (WPR) describes the phenomenon that individuals' slowest responses in a task are often more predictive of their intelligence than their fastest or average responses. To explain this phenomenon, it was previously suggested that occasional lapses of attention during task completion might be associated with particularly…

Online search involves multitasking and may demand better working-memory capacities (WMC) and additional cognitive aids. Given the constraints of human cognition, we tested the effectiveness of note-taking strategies on university students' online search performance. Also examined were the profile configurations of WMC tests in silence and in…

Although collaborative learning is becoming a widely popular instructional method, little research has been undertaken considering human cognitive structures and their influence on the design of collaborative learning tasks. Using cognitive load theory as a theoretical framework in this study, forty-five undergraduate students were assigned to…

The aim of the present study was to investigate sustained attention and working memory in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as this issue has not been widely investigated in this population. Children with ASD were age-matched with children diagnosed with dyslexia based on standardised reading assessments. All children were administered…

Research has shown that adults can engage in cognitive offloading, whereby internal processes are offloaded onto the environment to help task performance. Here, we investigate an application of this approach with children, in particular children with poor working memory. Participants were required to remember and recall sequences of colors by…

Many researchers have proposed a causal link between low domain knowledge and disorientation in hypertext. Our objective was to challenge this hypothesis, examining other variables that might have an influence, such as design, reading instructions, or working memory capacity. We analysed navigation patterns and comprehension scores in a sample of…

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…

Working memory is critical for learning but has a limited capacity for processing new information in real time. Cognitive load theory is an evidence-based approach to education that seeks to minimize the extraneous (unnecessary) load on working memory to avoid overloading it. The "seductive details effect" postulates that extraneous load…

Reading comprehension tests vary in format and characteristics, which may influence the extent to which component skills are involved in test performance. With students in Grades 6 to 8 with reading difficulties, dominance analyses examined the differential importance of component reading and language skills (word- and text-reading fluency,…

Purpose: This study examined whether monolingual German-speaking preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD) were facilitated by the presence of case-marking cues in their interpretation of German subject and object "welcher" ("which")-questions, as reported for their typically developing peers. We also…

Previous work regarding a counterintuitive benefit of increasing distractors on episodic long-term memory (LTM) has suggested that retrieval of memoranda in working memory (WM) after attention has been distracted may confer benefits to episodic LTM. The current study investigated 2 conceptions of how this may occur: either as an attentional…

Open-ended problem-solving skills have been identified as employable skills, which undergraduate students will need to have in order to cope with real-life problems in their workplaces after graduation. However, the development and assessment of these skills have been inconsistent across courses offered in universities. This research examined…

Test-taker characteristics (TTCs), or individual difference variables, are known to be a systematic source of variance in language test performance. Although previous research has documented the impact of a range of TTCs on second language (L2) learners' test performance, few of these studies have involved young learners. Given that young L2…

General cognitive and specific number abilities that underlay arithmetic performance have been heavily investigated among typically developing students; however, the inquiry has rarely been applied to students with mild intellectual disability (MID). We examined whether domain-general cognitive abilities (i.e. working memory, processing speed, and…

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by a complex maturation process of various cognitive abilities. Cognitive control, which includes response inhibition and working memory, is one of them. A typical study on response inhibition to visual stimuli presents distractors and targets on the same display (e.g., the computer screen).…