Studies of inhibitory control have focused on inhibition of motor responses. Individuals with ADHD consistently show reductions in inhibitory control and exhibit reduced activity of rLPFC activity compared to controls when performing such tasks. Recently these same brain regions have been implicated in the inhibition of memory retrieval. The…

"Highly iconic" structures in Sign Language enable a narrator to act, switch characters, describe objects, or report actions in four-dimensions. This group of linguistic structures has no real spoken-language equivalent. Topographical descriptions are also achieved in a sign-language specific manner via the use of signing-space and…

Purpose: To examine the ability to discriminate phonemic length and the association of this ability with reading accuracy, reading speed, and spelling accuracy in Finnish children throughout Grades 1-3. Method: Reading-disabled (RDFR, n = 35) and typically reading children (TRFR, n = 69) with family risk for dyslexia and typically reading control…

The current experiment examined the use of plausibility judgments by children to reject distractors presented on "yes/no" recognition memory tests. Participants studied two lists of word pairs that shared either a categorical or rhyme association, which constituted the global nature of the two study conditions. During the recognition memory tests,…

The authors adapted an experimental design to examine effects of instruction prior to entry into a children's museum exhibit on caregiver-child interactions and children's learning. One hundred twenty-one children (mean age = 6.6 years) and their caregivers were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 conditions that varied according to what, if any,…

Scholars from multiple disciplines have commented on the divided nature of childhood as a historical construction: a period of life to be valued in itself as well as a means to adulthood. In this essay, James Stillwaggon considers George Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys," an autobiographical account of his childhood education, as a site of…

Interest in meaning and meaning making in the context of stressful life events continues to grow, but research is hampered by conceptual and methodological limitations. Drawing on current theories, the author first presents an integrated model of meaning making. This model distinguishes between the constructs of global and situational meaning and…

Reviewing the Comparator Hypothesis is an article review that explores the historical concepts in research that led to exploring performance as a distinctive process of learning. British empiricist philosophers were interested in thoughts not behavior which led traditional learning theorist's main focus on acquisition processes. However, the…

Veridical and false pictorial recognition were assessed in individuals with mental retardation; groups were matched for MA and CA. Pictures were viewed in either a generative or static format at acquisition. The individuals with mental retardation and those in the MA-matched group had higher rates of false memories for critical items and lower hit…

Humans spend a considerable amount of time remembering other individuals' actions. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the visual system stores information about the identities of agents and their actions. To address this, I used a change detection method where observers were asked to remember agents and the actions they performed. Results show that…

The current study investigated contradictory findings from recent experimental and meta-analytic studies concerning working memory deficits in ADHD. Working memory refers to the cognitive ability to temporarily store and mentally manipulate limited amounts of information for use in guiding behavior. Phonological (verbal) and visuospatial…

The source monitoring framework (SMF; M. K. Johnson, S. Hashtroudi, & D. S. Lindsay, 1993) posits that source monitoring can be supported by varying degrees of recollection. Source judgments were made for words heard at study (male or female voice) followed by remember/know (RK) judgments in order to assess differences in degrees of recollection…

Prospective memory (PM) reflects the product of cognitive processes associated with the formation, retention, delayed initiation, and execution of intentions. It has been proposed that developmental changes in PM across the lifespan are heavily dependent upon the developmental trajectory of executive control functions. This study is the first to…

We examined whether individual differences in working memory influence the facility with which individuals learn new categories. Participants learned two different types of category structures: "rule-based" and "information-integration." Successful learning of the former category structure is thought to be based on explicit…

Objective: To study the effects of green tea extract administration on age-related cognition in young and old male Wistar rats. Methods: Young and old rats were orally administered 0.5% green tea extract for a period of eight weeks and were evaluated by passive avoidance, elevated maze plus paradigm and changes in acetylcholinesterase activity.…