Using a secondary device while viewing a primary device (i.e. TV), or media multitasking, is now common. Numerous researchers and practitioners have attempted to introduce secondary devices into education as a new learning environment providing additional information to the user. However, the learning-related effects of using a second screen…

The purpose of this article is to offer insights into current understanding of digital learning environments (DLEs) from a neuroscientific perspective. Cognitive neuroscience methods are increasingly applied in educational research to examine the neural underpinnings of learning. As such, neuroscientific evidence can play an important role in…

Although high-quality early educational environments are thought to be related to the growth of children's skills in mathematics, relatively little is known about specific aspects of classroom instruction that may promote these abilities. Data from a longitudinal investigation were used to investigate associations between teachers' language while…

Recent studies of semantic memory have investigated two theories of optimal search adopted from the animal foraging literature: Lévy flights and marginal value theorem. Each theory makes different simplifying assumptions and addresses different findings in search behaviors. In this study, an experiment is conducted to test whether clustering in…

Glucocorticoid hormones, via activation of their receptors, promote memory consolidation, but the exact underlying mechanisms remain elusive. We examined how corticosterone regulates AMPA receptors (AMPARs), which are crucial for synaptic plasticity and memory formation. Combining a live imaging fluorescent recovery after photobleaching approach…

During systems consolidation, memories are spontaneously replayed favoring information transfer from hippocampus to neocortex. However, at present no empirically supported mechanism to accomplish a transfer of memory from hippocampal to extra-hippocampal sites has been offered. We used cultured neuronal networks on multielectrode arrays and…

Previous work suggests that visual long-term memory (VLTM) is highly detailed and has a massive capacity. However, memory performance is subject to the effects of the type of testing procedure used. The current study examines detail memory performance by probing the same memories within the same subjects, but using divergent probing methods. The…

Knowledge of mechanisms is critical for causal reasoning. We contrasted two possible organizations of causal knowledge--an interconnected causal "network," where events are causally connected without any boundaries delineating discrete mechanisms; or a set of disparate mechanisms--causal "islands"--such that events in different…

Previous research has shown that explicit cues specific to the encoding process (endogenous) or characteristic of the stimuli themselves (exogenous) can be used to direct a reader's attentional resources towards either relational or item-specific information. By directing attention to relational information (and therefore away from item-specific…

Of the many elements that comprise an episode, are any disproportionately bound to the others? We tested whether active short-term retrieval selectively increases binding. Individual objects from multiobject displays were retrieved after brief delays. Memory was later tested for the other objects. Cueing with actively retrieved objects facilitated…

In this article, we offer an explanation of steampunk and theorize the genre and its functions within Scott Westerfeld's YA series Leviathan. In order to do so, we examine the "cogs" of the genre machine and its use of nostalgic longing for a revised past/future to rebel against present day cultural norms. Critics note that steampunk…

Although retrieval often enhances subsequent memory (the testing effect), a negative testing effect has recently been documented in which prior retrieval harms later recall compared with restudying. The negative testing effect was predicated on the negative generation effect and the item-specific-relational framework. The present experiments…

Purpose: The objectives of the current study were to examine the effect of noise (-5 dB SNR) on auditory comprehension and to examine its relationship with working memory. It was hypothesized that noise has a negative impact on information processing, auditory working memory, and comprehension. Method: Children with normal hearing between the ages…

In three experiments, the nature of the interaction between multiple memory systems in rats solving a variation of a spatial task in the water maze was investigated. Throughout training rats were able to find a submerged platform at a fixed distance and direction from an intramaze landmark by learning a landmark-goal vector. Extramaze cues were…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive flexibility for semantic and perceptual information in preschool children who stutter (CWS) and who do not stutter (CWNS). Method: Participants were 44 CWS and 44 CWNS between the ages of 3;0 and 5;11 (years;months). Cognitive flexibility was measured using semantic and perceptual…