Some theories have proposed that autistic individuals have difficulty learning predictive relationships. We tested this hypothesis using a serial reaction time task in which participants learned to predict the locations of a repeating sequence of target locations. We conducted a large-sample online study with 61 autistic and 71 neurotypical…

This study examined the associations between excessive alcohol intake during adolescence and neurocognitive functioning in young adulthood and whether these relations varied by sex. Participants were working-class Chilean adolescents (N = 692; M[subscript age] 16.0 years; 54.5% female) who provided frequency of past 30-day bingeing and past-year…

Across three separate investigations, this dissertation documents work examining the role of higher-order processes and cognitive effort during the top-down compensatory repair of degraded speech, specifically perceptual restoration. Perceptual restoration is a phenomenon where a listener can perceptually restore or repair speech…

This research suggests a methodology to examine the effectiveness Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the cognitive abilities of college students so that future researchers can utilize this experimental project to focus on how AI-powered Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) affect learning outcomes. As AI continues to revolutionize all walks of life,…

Why is instructional gesture ineffective in some contexts? And what is it about learners that predicts whether they will learn from gestures? This between-subjects linear measurement training study compares gesture instruction to two controls--operant action and transient action--in a diverse sample of first-grade students (N = 174, M[subscript…

The present study investigates bilinguals' capacity to rapidly establish memory traces for novel word forms in a second language (L2), as a function of L2 linguistic proficiency. A group of Chinese-English bilinguals with various English proficiency levels were presented with a reading-aloud task, consisting of 16 pseudowords and 16 English words…

We tested whether second language (L2) learners rely more on explicit memory during structural priming at lower than at higher proficiency levels (Hartsuiker & Bernolet, 2017). We compared within-L2 priming with lexical overlap in 100 low and 100 high proficiency French L2 speakers under low versus high working memory load conditions induced…

In this paper, we investigated the contribution of both cognitive and affective factors to mathematical skills. In particular, we looked at the protective role of self-concept for mathematical learning and performance. In a field study, we tested the relation of math self-concept and short-term visuo-spatial working memory to the mathematical…

Responses are slower in two-choice tasks when either a previous stimulus feature or the previous response repeats than when all features repeat or all features change. Current views of action control posit that such partial repetition costs (PRCs) index the time to update a prior "binding" between a stimulus feature and the response or…

Past work has shown that eye movements are affected by long-term memory across different tasks and instructional manipulations. In the current study, we tested whether these memory-based eye movements persist when memory retrieval is under intentional control. Participants encoded multiple scenes with six objects (three faces; three tools). Next,…

Executive functions (EF) and task persistence are key factors in academic development. However, EF and persistence have rarely been examined together, and it remains unclear whether these two constructs are independently related to intellectual development. The present study addressed this gap by examining whether EF and persistence in…

With many distractions competing for students' attention, student engagement and knowledge retention are more important than ever. "Where Learning Happens" explores the types of attention--sustained, selective, divided, and effective--in depth and provides research-suggested strategies to maximize student attention and engagement. By…

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation is defined by the Mayo Clinic as a lifesaving technique that is useful in many emergencies, such as a heart attack, stroke, choking, or drowning, in which someone's breathing and heartbeat have stopped. Under the guidelines put forth by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and the Emergency…

This longitudinal study examined age- and gender-related differences in autobiographical memory about the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and whether the content of these memories predicted psychological adjustment over time. A sample of 247 students (M[subscript age] = 11.94, range 8-16 years, 51.4% female, 85.4% White) was recruited from public and…

Recent studies in psychology emphasize the pivotal roles of adopting a growth mindset to enhance students' motivation and employing effective memory strategies to improve memory performance. This study evaluated the impact of a metacognitive intervention that combined the promotion of a growth mindset with the teaching of efficient learning…