Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and n-back tasks we investigated whether, in 11-13-year-old children, spatial (location) and nonspatial (color) information is differentially processed during visual attention (0-back) and working memory (WM) (2-back) tasks and whether such cognitive task performance, compared to a resting state,…

In the present visual-world experiment, participants were presented with visual displays that included a target item that was a semantic associate of an abstract or a concrete word. This manipulation allowed us to test a basic prediction derived from the qualitatively different representational framework that supports the view of different…

In the current socio-political climate pedagogies consistent with rationalism are in the ascendancy. One way to challenge the purchase of rationalism within educational discourse and practice is through the body, or by re-thinking the nature of mind-body relations. While the orientation of this paper is ultimately phenomenological, it takes as its…

In a population-based sample of 112 nine-year old twin pairs, we investigated the association among total brain volume, gray matter and white matter volume, intelligence as assessed by the Raven IQ test, verbal comprehension, perceptual organization and perceptual speed as assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. Phenotypic…

Recent neuroimaging research has shown sex-related differences in the relationship between brain structure and cognitive function. Anatomical studies have shown a greater reliance for cognitive function on white matter structure in adult females, and a greater reliance on gray matter structure in adult males. Functional neuroimaging studies have…

This article explores the opportunities to apply cognitive load theory and four-component instructional design to self-directed learning. Learning tasks are defined as containing three elements: learners must (a) "perform" the tasks, (b) "assess" their task performance, and (c) "select" future tasks for improving their performance. Principles to…

Social life rests in large part on the capacity to understand the intentions behind the behavior of others. What are the origins of this capacity? How is one to construe its development in ontogenesis? By assuming that action understanding can be explained only in terms of the ability to read the minds of others--that is, to represent mental…

Two experiments investigated whether the spatial reference directions that are used to specify objects' locations in memory can be solely determined by layout geometry. Participants studied a layout of objects from a single viewpoint while their eye movements were recorded. Subsequently, participants used memory to make judgments of relative…

The effects of a 3 mg/kg body weight (BW) dose of caffeine were assessed on behavioral indices of response inhibition. To meet these aims, we selected a modified AX version of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), the stop task, and the flanker task. In three double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects experiments, these tasks were…

Based on a coding of 39 videotaped three-lesson units on the introduction to the Pythagorean Theorem, three teaching patterns were identified: lecturing, developing based on a problem, and discovery based on a problem. The analysis showed no effect of the teaching patterns on student achievement, whereas effects were discovered on students'…

Different lines of research have suggested that context is important in acting and learning in the clinical workplace. It is not clear how contextual information influences residents' constructions of the situations in which they participate. The category accessibility paradigm from social psychology appears to offer an interesting perspective for…

To pursue goal directed behavior, the cognitive system must be shielded against interference from irrelevant information. Aside from the online adjustment of cognitive control widely discussed in the literature, an additional mechanism of preventive goal shielding is suggested that circumvents irrelevant information from being processed in the…

This study examined children's tendency to confuse events that varied in source similarity, which was manipulated using different media of event presentation. In Experiment 1, children in two age groups (3- and 4-year-olds and 5- and 6-year-olds) experienced a live presentation of an event, and another event was either heard from a story (low…

The simplest attentional task, detecting a cued stimulus in an otherwise empty visual field, produces complex patterns of performance. Attentional cues interact with backward masks and with spatial uncertainty, and there is a dissociation in the effects of these variables on accuracy and on response time. A computational theory of performance in…

The present article analyzed, how need for cognition (NFC) influences the formation of performance expectancies. When processing information, individuals with lower NFC often rely on salient information and shortcuts compared to individuals higher in NFC. We assume that these preferences of processing will also make individuals low in NFC more…