This study assessed the outcomes of adapting the culturally-grounded, middle school, substance-use prevention intervention, "keepin' it REAL" ("kiR"), to target elementary school students and to address acculturation. At the beginning of 5th grade, 29 schools were randomly assigned to conditions obtained by crossing grade of implementation (5th,…

Evaluation studies are often considered exemplary because of the quality of their designs, but it is well known that a common--and often necessary--aspect of outstanding studies is stakeholder involvement. Furthermore, the implementation of designs and the nature of stakeholder involvement depend in large part on political and ideological…

Objective: Previous studies have shown smaller brain volume and less gray matter in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Relatively few morphological studies have examined structures thought to subserve inhibitory control, one of the diagnostic features of ADHD. We examined one such region, the pars opercularis,…

This study aimed to determine if a joint attention intervention would result in greater joint engagement between caregivers and toddlers with autism. The intervention consisted of 24 caregiver-mediated sessions with follow-up 1 year later. Compared to caregivers and toddlers randomized to the waitlist control group the immediate treatment (IT)…

Two experiments were conducted to determine if multi-frequency (2:1 and 3:2) coordination between the limbs is enhanced when integrated feedback is provided in the form of Lissajous plots, attention demands are reduced, and attempts to consciously coordinate the limbs are not encouraged. To determine the influence of vision of the limbs, covered…

Instant-messaging software was used as a method to promote development of argumentation skills in middle schoolers. Transfer of skills across content domains was the major question investigated. Forty sixth graders engaged in electronic dialogues with peers on a controversial topic--for half a science topic (dinosaur extinction) and for half a…

We gathered individual participant data from 16 group design studies on behavioral intervention for children with autism. In these studies, 309 children received behavioral intervention, 39 received comparison interventions, and 105 were in a control group. More children who underwent behavioral intervention achieved reliable change in IQ (29.8%)…

Human observers use prior constraints to disambiguate a scene; in particular, light is preferentially seen as coming from above but also slightly from the left. One explanation of this lateral bias could be a cerebral hemispheric difference. The aim of the present study was to determine the preferred light source position for neglect patients. For…

Purpose: The authors examined initial acquisition of mental graphemic representations (MGRs) for a set of pseudowords in children with language impairment (LI). They also determined whether the linguistic properties of the words (i.e., phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities) influenced MGR learning and whether the ability to acquire initial…

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of "Project ACTS: About Choices in Transplantation and Sharing," which was developed to increase readiness for organ and tissue donation among African American adults. Nine churches (N = 425 participants) were randomly assigned to receive donation education materials currently available to consumers…

To examine whether children with a learning disorder (LD) are able to use prospective motor control, 30 children with LD (mean age 8 years and 11 months) and an age- and gender-matched control group were asked to smoothly track an accelerating dot presented on a monitor by moving an electronic pen on a digitizer. Children with LD performed worse…

Partly claimed to explain social difficulties observed in people with Asperger syndrome, face identification and visual search strategies become important. Previous research findings are, however, disparate. In order to explore face identification abilities and visual search strategies, with special focus on the importance of the eye area, 24…

In a recent study we found that testing as a final activity in a skills course increases the learning outcome compared to spending an equal amount of time practicing. Whether this testing effect measured as skills performance can be demonstrated on long-term basis is not known. The research question was: does testing as a final activity in a…

The authors tested susceptibility to contagious yawning in 120 children, 1-6 years, to identify the time course of its emergence during development. Results indicated a substantial increase in the frequency of contagious yawning at 4 years. In a second study, the authors examined contagious yawning in 28 children with autism spectrum disorders…

Patients with anorexia nervosa frequently believe they are larger than they really are. The precise nature of this bias is not known: is it a false belief related to the patient's aesthetic and emotional attitudes towards her body? Or could it also reflect abnormal processing of the representation of the body in action? We tested this latter…