Naturalistic goal-directed behaviours require the engagement and maintenance of appropriate levels of cognitive control over relatively extended intervals of time. In two experiments, we examined preschool children's abilities to maintain top-down control throughout the course of a sequential task. Both 3- and 5-year-olds demonstrated good…

The role of imitation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is controversial. Researchers have argued that deficient control of self- and other-related motor representations (self-other distinction) might explain imitation difficulties. In a recent EEG study, we showed that control of imitation relies on high-level as well as on low-level cognitive…

The natural numbers may be our simplest, most useful, and best-studied abstract concepts, but their origins are debated. I consider this debate in the context of the proposal, by Gallistel and Gelman, that natural number system is a product of cognitive evolution and the proposal, by Carey, that it is a product of human cultural history. I offer a…

Interdisciplinary understanding requires integration of insights from different perspectives, yet it appears questionable whether disciplinary experts are well prepared for this. Indeed, psychological and cognitive scientific studies suggest that expertise can be disadvantageous because experts are often more biased than non-experts, for example,…

Mind Mapping is a learning technique which uses a non-linear approach that encourages the learner to think and explore concepts using visual-spatial relationships flowing from a central theme to peripheral branches which can be inter-related. The new millennium is being called the Millennium of the Mind, and Mind Mapping is becoming widely…

The privacy paradox is a phenomenon whereby individuals continue to disclose their personal information, contrary to their claim of concerns for the privacy of their personal information. This study investigated the privacy paradox to better understand individuals' decisions to disclose or withhold their personal information. The study argued that…

Cognitive load theory (CLT) distinguishes three types of cognitive loads: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane, of which the latter is generally imposed in learning activities. To examine the nature of germane cognitive load, the participants engaged in 8-by-8 Reversi games against computerized opponents. The experimental results indicated that…

Curriculum and cognitive level alignment among the intended, the enacted, and the assessed curricula were explored and measured. In particular, the focus of the study was on two domains: content/operations and cognitive levels/processes. Results indicated that cognitive level alignment among the intended, enacted and assessed curricula was 0.07.…

This study was designed to examine how three different organizational structures (time, topic, and tool) of a course in an LMS affected learners. The signal available relevant accessible (SARA) theory provided a framework to clearly describe the signals (headers) used to differentiate the three organizational structures. Cognitive load theory…

We reflect upon a paper we wrote that was published in 1995 (20 years ago). We outline the motivation for the work and situate it in the state of the art at that time. We suggest that a key contribution was to highlight the need to provide support for learners who reason with external representations. The support must be flexible enough to…

Older adults exhibit disproportionate impairments in memory for item-associations. These impairments may stem from an inability to self-initiate deep encoding strategies. The present study investigates this using the "treasure-hunt task"; a what-where-when style episodic memory test that requires individuals to "hide" items…

Cognitive Processing weakness (CPW) is a psychological problem that impedes students' ability to learn effectively in a normal school setting. Such weakness may include; auditory, visual, conceptual, sequential, speed and attention processing. This paper therefore examines the basic assessment or diagnostic approaches such as Diagnosis by…

This issue of "ZDM" collects research works sharing a common reference to the theoretical framework of Mathematical Working Spaces (MWS), a construction which emerged about one decade ago, and has progressively found its way in the mathematics education community, thanks to the collaborative work of an international group of researchers.…

Maternal behavior is dynamic and highly sensitive to experiential and contextual factors. In this review, this plasticity will be explored, with a focus on how experiences of females occurring from the time of fetal development through to adulthood impact maternal behavior and the maternal brain. Variation in postpartum maternal behavior is…

Researchers have identified a component of the EEG that discriminates visual experts from novices. The marker indexes a comprehensive model of visual processing, and if it is apparent in physicians, it could be used to investigate the development and training of their visual expertise. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a neural…