This paper surveys some major trends from research on visual and spatial thinking coming from cognitive science, developmental psychology, science literacy, and science studies. It explores the role of visualisation in creativity, in building mental models, and in the communication of scientific ideas, in order to place these findings in the…

This study examines the nature of the involvement load (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) in second language (L2) lexical input processing through reading by considering the effects of the reader-based factors of L2 reading proficiency and background knowledge. The lexical input processing aspects investigated were lexical inferencing (search), attentional…

The time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004) assumes that during complex working memory span tasks, attention is frequently and surreptitiously switched from processing to reactivate decaying memory traces before their complete loss. Three experiments involving children from 5 to 14 years of age…

Background: Chronic prenatal alcohol exposure causes a spectrum of deleterious effects in offspring, collectively termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and deficits in executive function are prevalent in FASD. The goal of this research was to test the hypothesis that children with FASD exhibit performance deficits in tasks that assess…

This study investigated the effects of multimedia presentations on the efficiency of learning scientific information (i.e. information on basic anatomy of human brains and their functions, the definition of cognitive psychology, and the structure of human memory). Experiment 1 investigated whether the modality effect could be observed when the…

One of the most colorful examples of the reflection of identities in heritage sites involves the historical U.S.-Native relationship. In exploring the topic of U.S.-Native memories, this article focuses on the cultural identities represented at the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (HBNMP), a heritage site that commemorates the Creek War of…

Recollection of early childhood experiences was investigated in 225 European Canadian and 133 Chinese children (ages 8, 11, and 14) by a memory fluency task that measured accessibility of multiple early memories and elicited the earliest memory. Younger children provided memories of events that occurred at earlier ages than older children.…

Projects that soon a complete mechanistic understanding of simple forms of learning will be available. Describes some of the recent advances in neuroscience and psychology in understanding the changes in neural circuits that occur during certain behavioral situations. Suggests that learning involves the activation of second messenger systems. (TW)

Fleeting electrochemical connections made between brain cells help people remember the thoughts, skills, experiences, and knowledge that make them unique. Presents the dissection of the brain of a sheep, an animal in which brain structure and function are similar to that in humans, to demonstrate where these processes take place. (PVD)

The Ss were required to retain a short list of items for an entire experiment while processing successive different short lists of items in the Sternberg paradigm. (Editor)

Investigates children's immediate and final recall memory as a function of grade level and presentation modality. Results obtained from 54 third, sixth, and ninth graders suggest that no conclusions can be drawn concerning levels of processing as a source of age differences. (Author/MP)

The time course of kindergarten children's memory for left-right orientation during the first 2 l/2 seconds after receptor stimulation was investigated by means of a successive matching-to-sample task with tachistoscopically presented abstract figures. (Author/DB)

Used path analysis in two experiments to examine possibility that age difference in infants' long-term retention were artifacts of correlated differences in learning rates or learning opportunities. Found that developmental declines in forgetting rates between 12 and 18 months were independent of developmental differences in learning. Age…

This study obtained multiple measures of three factors (capacity, strategies, and metamemory) hypothesized to cause memory improvement with age among younger (ages 5 to 8) to older (ages 8 to 11) children. Results suggested that fit of the 3-factor model was statistically significantly better than a 1-factor, general memory model for both age…

Four experiments with children aged 5 through 12 tested the relationship between short-term memory (STM) and processing capacity. The results suggest that effects obtained with STM span do not provide clear indications of overall working memory development, because STM span and the processing space component of working memory entail distinct…