Category-specific disorders are frequently explained by suggesting that living and non-living things are processed in separate subsystems (e.g. Caramazza & Shelton, 1998). If subsystems exist, there should be benefits for normal processing, beyond the influence of structural similarity. However, no previous study has separated the relative…

One hundred eighteen middle school students from three different settings listened individually to a music excerpt and a prose excerpt that were each 3.5 minutes long. As they listened, they clicked a computer touchpad whenever they were distracted either by thoughts or external events, then refocused on the holistic listening task. After…

Previous investigations comparing auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to words whose meanings infants did or did not comprehend, found bilateral differences in brain activity to known versus unknown words in 13-month-old infants, in contrast with unilateral, left hemisphere, differences in activity in 20-month-old infants. We explore two…

The effects of familiarity on selective attention for the identity and expression of faces were tested using Garner's speeded-classification task. In 2 experiments, participants classified expression (or identity) of familiar and unfamiliar faces while the irrelevant dimension of identity (or expression) was either held constant (baseline…

Undergraduate use, their confidence toward and expectations concerning learning from computers was surveyed over five consecutive years. Significant effects over time were found, with students from 2003 demonstrating more years of computer use and greater confidence, but no difference in hours of use. This suggests long term familiarity counts…

This article argues the need for, and provides, a dichotomous single access key for the identification of common British wild flower families. A minimum of technical vocabulary is used while at the same time retaining most of the recent botanical names of families. The key provides a user-friendly opportunity for school pupils to become familiar…

When people perform a recognition memory task, they may avail themselves of different forms of information. For example, they may recall specific learning episodes, or rely on general feelings of familiarity. Although subjective familiarity is often valid, it can make people vulnerable to memory illusions. Research using verbal materials has shown…

We devised criterial recollection tests to investigate why testing memory for pictures elicits lower false recognition than testing memory for words. Subjects studied unrelated black words paired either with the same word in red font, a corresponding picture, or both. They then took three memory tests, always using black words: a recognition test…

In response to the need for cross-nationally comparable evidence on student performance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 1997. PISA represents a commitment by governments to monitor the outcomes of education systems through measuring…

There is a heavy emphasis on summative, standardized assessments of academic achievement in public schools in the United States (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Stiggins, 2002). Assessment should be integrated with instruction, which implies the meaning of items or assessment tasks will depend on the environment (Brookhart, 2008, p. 452). However,…

This study examined the perspectives of a sample of Appalachian middle and high school social studies teachers regarding the teaching of controversial current events. Specifically, the survey ascertained the teachers' familiarity with school district administrative policies regarding the teaching of controversial current events, their perceptions…

An Indonesian fable is the theme of this three-part lesson for young learners. Students practice with the past-tense verbs used in the fable. By listening, reading and ordering the sentences, and copying a paragraph of the story, students become very familiar with the fable. The lessons finish with homework to write a play based on the fable.…

A major focus of research on language acquisition in infancy involves experimental studies of the infant's ability to discriminate various kinds of speech or speech-like stimuli. This research has demonstrated that infants are sensitive to many fine-grained differences in the acoustic properties of speech utterance. Furthermore, these empirical…

We examined the effects of joint attention for object learning in 5- and 7-month-old infants. Infants interacted with an adult social partner who taught them about a novel toy in two conditions. In the "Joint Attention" condition, the adult spoke about the toy while alternating gaze between the infant and the toy, while in the…

The growing Hispanic population has come into increasing contact with the larger population of non-Hispanic Whites. It is important to understand the effects of this contact on prejudice. The effects of six kinds of contact were examined for their effects on prejudice between Hispanics (n = 156) and non-Hispanic Whites (n = 1,479) who were…