In this exploratory study, we designed and validated game-based performance tasks to assess the development of representational flexibility in autistic adolescents through virtual reality (VR)-based training. Representational flexibility, a critical cognitive ability, involves attention switching, generating representations, and recognizing…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have few employment opportunities and a lower job quality than individuals of typical development. Social deficits and lack of independence may contribute to underemployment and unemployment of individuals with ASD. The ability to solve problems might ameliorate some of these barriers. We…

Many students encounter difficulties in science and mathematics. Earlier research suggested that although intuitions are often needed to gain new ideas and concepts and to solve problems in science and mathematics, some of students' difficulties could stem from the interference of intuitive reasoning. The literature suggests that overcoming…

An understanding of geologic time is comprised of 2 facets. Events in Earth's history can be placed in relative and absolute temporal succession on a vast timescale. Rates of geologic processes vary widely, and some occur over time periods well outside human experience. Several factors likely contribute to an understanding of geologic time, one of…

Young adolescents who encounter difficulties with peers can consult with their parents to help solve these problems. In this context, this study examines the contribution of adolescents' disclosure, parental advice giving, and parental intrusiveness into adolescents' social and behavioral adjustment. Young adolescents (N = 93; 49% girls; mean age…

Fourteen children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and fourteen age-matched typically-developing (TD) controls were tested on an adapted version of the Twenty Questions Task (Mosher and Hornsby in Studies in cognitive growth. Wiley, New York, pp 86-102, "1966") to examine effects of content, executive and verbal IQ factors on category use in…

This study examines whether feeding infants formula supplemented with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) improves cognitive function of 9-month-olds. Participants included 229 infants from 3 randomized controlled trials. Children received either formula supplemented with docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid, or a control formula…

This study examined the relations of parent-youth agreement and disagreement during a joint problem-solving task and multi-methodological indices of socioemotional outcomes in adolescents (mean age = 13). One hundred and sixty-seven parents and their adolescent children participated. Each parent-youth pair played the interactive game "Jenga", and…

The National Instititute of Education sponsored a conference on the future of research in adolescent reasoning. This report reflects this conference discussion, which focused on: (1) the theoretical basis for research programs in the area of adolescent reasoning; (2) research programs likely to be effective in gathering information relevant to…