Measures of self-regulation may not capture adequate variability in children with low levels of self-regulation. This can limit a measure's ability to accurately demonstrate relations with other variables. The present study addressed this issue with a revised version of the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS-R), which includes a new downward…

Children's ability to discriminate nonsymbolic number (e.g. the number of items in a set) is a commonly studied predictor of later math skills. Number discrimination improves throughout development, but what drives this improvement is unclear. Competing theories suggest it may be due to a sharpening numerical representation or an improved ability…

The number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive and terminal kind of dementia, continues to rise with an estimated 14 million Americans affected by 2050. Prior to an AD diagnosis, many individuals are diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and have similar, but less severe, symptoms as those with AD. A common…

Learning how to organize information, prioritize tasks, adjust to changing demands and reflect on their learning requires students to use executive function (EF) skills. Research shows that EF processes are essential to learning and can impact academic performance. Students who are not given adequate practice with EF skills may struggle with…

The structural characteristics of self-concept refer to the way in which the elements of self-knowledge are organized and can be experienced by individuals in the form of self-concept clarity. It is intimately linked to autobiographical memory. Therefore, we sought to compare self-concept clarity and autobiographical memory between adults with ASD…

Ubiquitous mobile technology is part of contemporary life, bringing with it the potential for distraction and reduction in performance associated with multitasking. The predisposition toward dysfunctional multitasking may be shaped in part by beliefs that individuals hold about memory and attention. The issue is particularly pressing for college…

The association between physical fitness and age-related differences in cognition and brain structure has been studied fairly extensively during development and aging, yet comparatively less in young adulthood. The current study examined 1,195 young adults aged 22 to 36 (54% female; 67% Caucasian) to better understand associations between physical…

This study tested whether executive functioning (EF)/learning tasks from the CogState computerized test battery show a unitary latent structure. This information is important for the construction of composite measures on these tasks for applied research purposes. Based on earlier factor analytic research, we identified five CogState tasks that…

Despite widespread interest in the construct of executive functioning (EF), we currently lack definitive evidence regarding the best measurement model for representing the construct in substantive analyses. The most common practice is to represent EF ability as a reflective latent variable, with child performance on individual EF tasks as observed…

In communicative situations, preschoolers use shared knowledge, or "common ground," to guide their interpretation of a speaker's referential intent. Using eye-tracking measures, this study investigated the time course of 4-year-olds' (n = 95) use of two different speakers' perspectives and assessed how individual differences in this…

The widely and internationally replicated socioeconomic status (SES) gradient of executive function (EF) implies that intervention approaches may do well to extrapolate conditions and practices from contexts that generate better child outcomes (in this case, higher SES circumstances) and translate these to contexts with comparatively poorer…

Recent studies indicate that premature children are at risk for difficulties with cognitive development and have increased incidence of ADHD as well as other behavioral disorders. Although the exact mechanism accounting for these children's neuropsychological abnormalities is unknown, there is evidence to suggest that the cognitive and behavioral…

Though being behaviorally active in the classroom is associated with attractive outcomes, many college students are disengaged. This study examines potential correlates of classroom engagement. Across two waves of data collection, with the second wave providing an internal replication challenge, three variables were consistently related to active…

This study explored stigma experiences of mothers of children with ASD and forgiveness as their coping response. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 mothers of children with ASD. Results of this study found several noteworthy themes including, feelings of mother, family/societal reactions, forgiveness factors, and impact of…

This study investigated whether prompting children to generate predictions about an outcome facilitates activation of prior knowledge and improves belief revision. 51 children aged 9-12 were tested on two experimental tasks in which generating a prediction was compared to closely matched control conditions, as well as on a test of executive…