This study investigated how best to study a matrix. Fifty-three participants studied a matrix topically (1 column at a time), categorically (1 row at a time), or in a unified way (all at once). Results revealed that categorical and unified study produced higher: (a) performance on relationship and fact tests, (b) study material satisfaction, and…

Eye movements were recorded while sixty-two 1-year-olds, 4-year-olds, and adults watched television. Of interest was the extent to which viewers looked at the same place at the same time as their peers because high similarity across viewers suggests systematic viewing driven by comprehension processes. Similarity of gaze location increased with…

Children (aged 6-10) and adults (total N = 136) completed a novel visual perspective-taking task that allowed quantitative comparisons across age groups. All age groups found it harder to judge the other person's perspective when it differed from their own. This egocentric interference did not decrease with age, even though, overall, performance…

We investigated whether the interpretation of auditory stimuli as speech or non-speech affects audiovisual (AV) speech integration at the neural level. Perceptually ambiguous sine-wave replicas (SWS) of natural speech were presented to listeners who were either in "speech mode" or "non-speech mode". At the behavioral level, incongruent lipread…

In a companion study, eye-movement analyses in the Tower of London task (TOL) revealed independent indicators of functionally separable cognitive processes during problem solving, with processes of building up an internal representation of the problem preceding actual planning processes. These results imply that processes of internalization and…

This essay considers the analysis Jacques Ellul carried out about the devaluation of language. This investigation also explores the consequences of that devaluation (or humiliation as Ellul called it) wrought by our orientation to technology. Our existence in technology transforms language and our use of it, shifting emphasis as well to the visual…

Behaving in a socially competent manner is a complex process that requires the coordination of a number of cognitive skills. The present study examined the unique contributions of executive functions (i.e., inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility), theory of mind, and verbal skills to socially competent behaviours during social interactions.…

While increasing evidence points to a critical role for the motor system in language processing, the focus of previous work has been on the linguistic category of verbs. Here we tested whether nouns are effective in modulating the motor system and further whether different kinds of nouns--those referring to artifacts or natural items, and items…

Objective: To evaluate whether the positive illusory bias explains the self-evaluations of driving and work behaviors in college students with ADHD. Method: A total of 103 students with ADHD were compared to a sample of 94 students without ADHD. Both groups completed self-reports of their specific driving and work behaviors and then rated their…

Neuroimaging studies of episodic memory in young adults demonstrate greater functional neural activity in ventrolateral pFC and hippocampus during retrieval of relational information as compared with item information. We tested the hypothesis that healthy older adults--individuals who exhibit behavioral declines in relational memory--would show…

The number reduction task (NRT) allows us to study the transition from implicit knowledge of hidden task regularities to explicit insight into these regularities. To identify sleep-associated neurophysiological indicators of this restructuring of knowledge representations, we measured frequency-specific power of EEG while participants slept during…

To understand the meanings of words and objects, we need to have knowledge about these items themselves plus executive mechanisms that compute and manipulate semantic information in a task-appropriate way. The neural basis for semantic control remains controversial. Neuroimaging studies have focused on the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus…

Purpose: Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, better known as CADASIL, is a rare, genetic form of early-onset vascular dementia. The purpose of this study was to use a modified version of Attention Process Training--II (APT-II; Sohlberg, Johnson, Paule, Raskin, & Mateer, 2001) with an…

Multiple studies have reported both functional and neuroanatomical differences between adults who stutter and their normally fluent peers. However, the reasons for these differences remain unclear although some developmental data suggest that structural brain differences may be present in school-age children who stutter. In the present study, the…

In four experiments, task-switching processes were investigated with variants of the alternating runs paradigm and the explicit cueing paradigm. The classical diffusion model for binary decisions (Ratcliff, 1978) was used to dissociate different components of task-switching costs. Findings can be reconciled with the view that task-switching…