Investigated whether children's ability to recognize themselves in delayed video feedback indicates change in self awareness. Parallel results in both conditions studied, and the likelihood of false positives and false negatives indicate that the video test in its present form may not be a valid measure of differences in self-awareness. (Author)

Summarizes research findings that challenge long-standing theories of infant cognition and motor development and proposes alternative theoretical models to describe skill acquisition during the first several years of life. Findings are discussed with respect to research in the area of infant speech physiology and production. (Author/CR)

Examined the effects of phonological memory and native-language (NL) literacy acquisition on learning English as a foreign language. Subjects were Finnish first graders, who were age 7 at the beginning of the study. Results suggest NL literacy is highly significant for foreign-language learning and that one way to promote foreign-language learning…

A study involving 11 boys (ages 6-12) with high-functioning autism and 11 boys with moderate-functioning autism examined memory strategy use on a serial recall task and a recall readiness task. Significant spontaneous strategy use was found on both tasks, particularly among the high-functioning group, although still lower than typical controls.…

A study involving 16 Japanese young men (half with deafness) and 16 Irish young men (half with deafness) found that the Japanese men who were deaf outscored their English-language counterparts in memory for abstract design, due to prolonged use of a highly visual writing system. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Provides a series of simple mnemonic exercises for memorizing terminology related to the central nervous system. The exercise chooses a keyword for a set of specific functions ("medal" for "medulla") and then constructs an imaginary situation, expressed in one or two sentences, illustrating some of those functions. (MJP)

Describes the Novice-Expert (Novex) Analysis, a nine-step approach to instructional design aimed at effecting the shift from novice to expert by creating a series of learning activities to enable novices to construct an expert knowledge base. The "Dimensions of Processing Model" diagram illustrates how learning processes influence…

A new regression-based logic strategy is presented for comparing cognitive profiles of children developing reading skills at different rates. Results with 907 children support the phonological-core variable-difference model of reading disability, with the degree of aptitude-achievement discrepancy unrelated to unique cognitive trade-offs of…

This study investigated the validity of 3 curriculum-based measures for predicting the performance of 184 secondary students (including 13 with mild disabilities) on content-area tasks. Reliable correlations were found between oral reading, maze, and vocabulary measures; and students' performance on comprehension, acquisition, and retention of…

A 3-factor solution of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised (WAIS-R) in 260 adults with suspected head injury suggested relatively good construct validity for the factors, based on correlations with neuropsychological tests. Findings are discussed in terms of the multidimensional nature of neuropsychological tests and WAIS-R factors.…

Used cross-sectional life span data from normative sample for Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery to examine independence of age-related cognitive changes in childhood and adulthood. Found that majority of age-related differences were shared across different cognitive variables and were well predicted by individual differences in…

Collected data on twins' performance on 13 cognitive variables measured three times at three-year intervals. Twins were monozygotic or dizygotic pairs reared together or apart and were in six cohorts ranging in age from 41 through 84 years. Found stable mean cognitive performance across time on eight measures for the younger cohorts, and…

Compared performance of first and second graders with normal intelligence but with learning disabilities (LD) in mathematics, reading, or both and children with variable achievement test performance to that of academically normal peers on experimental and psychometric tasks. Found that LD groups showed specific cognitive deficit patterns; children…

A study compared 84 readers with learning disabilities, chronologically age-matched and reading level-matched, for the children's working memory performance for phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information under initial, gain, and maintenance conditions. The working memory deficits of readers with learning disabilities were hard to…

Reflects upon the position of comparative education during this Presidential Address for the British Comparative and International Education Society (BCIES). Identifies different memories and models in the realm of comparative education, discusses the geopolitical changes and their implications for education, and undergoes the process of…