Widening achievement gaps between homeless and highly mobile (HHM) youth and their peers highlight the need for research to understand effects of risk and adversity on development to promote resilience and positive adaptation. Youth living under the poverty line experience more risk and adversity, leading to difficulty in multiple domains…

Books designed for beginning readers typically intermix text with illustrations in close proximity. Prior research suggests this standard layout may reduce literacy skills due to increased attentional competition between text and illustrations. The current study extends this work by examining whether manipulations to the book layout can enhance…

To address the needs of the high population of students with learning disabilities at their school, the author and a colleague created an inclusion science class that focuses on active, hands-on science. The course prepares students of various learning abilities for the state-mandated end-of-course biology assessment. Many of their students have…

A simple "expression" account of the relation between executive function (EF) and children's developing theory of mind (ToM) has difficulty accounting for the generality of the changes occurring in children's mental-state understanding during the preschool years. The current study of preschool children (N = 43) showed that EF--especially…

Background: Executive functioning (EF) is important for adequate behavioural functioning and crucial for explaining symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in individuals with normal intelligence, but is scarcely studied in individuals with ASD and intellectual disabilities (ID). We therefore study EF in an ID population by comparing…

It is frequently assumed that deaf individuals have superior visual-spatial abilities relative to hearing peers and thus, in educational settings, they are often considered visual learners. There is some empirical evidence to support the former assumption, although it is inconsistent, and apparently none to support the latter. Three experiments…

Detailed logs of students' computer use, during independent study sessions, were captured in an open-access computer laboratory. Each log consisted of a chronological sequence of tasks representing either the application or the Internet domain displayed in the workstation's active window. Each task was classified using a three-tier schema…

Background: This study was aimed at investigating the impact of a single exercise intervention on executive function in young adults with Down syndrome (DS). Methods: Considering the relations among executive function, physical and mental health and early onset of Alzheimer's disease in this population, we tested three components of executive…

There is increasing interest in the application of cognitive neuroscience in educational thinking and practice, and here we review findings from neuroscience that demonstrate its potential relevance to technology-enhanced learning (TEL). First, we identify some of the issues in integrating neuroscientific concepts into TEL research. We caution…

Patterning, or the ability to understand patterns, is a skill commonly taught to young children as part of school mathematics curricula. While a number of studies have demonstrated that patterning is beneficial for young children acquiring mathematical skills, little research exists that examines the cognitive components of the skill. It seems…

Prospective memory (remembering to carry out an action in the future) has been studied relatively little in ASD. We explored time-based (carry out an action at a pre-specified time) and event-based (carry out an action upon the occurrence of a pre-specified event) prospective memory, as well as possible cognitive correlates, among 21…

Studies on the effects of acute bouts of cardiovascular exercise on cognitive performances show contradictory findings due to methodological differences (e.g., exercise intensity, cognitive function assessed, participants' aerobic fitness level, etc.). The present study assessed the acute effect of exercise intensity on cognition while controlling…

Using a novel autobiographical think/no-think procedure (ATNT; a modified version of the think/no-think task), 2 studies explored the extent to which we possess executive control over autobiographical memory. In Study 1, 30 never-depressed participants generated 12 positive and 12 negative autobiographical memories. Memories associated with…

The executive dysfunction theory attempts to explain not only the repetitive behaviours but also the socio-communicative difficulties in autism. While it is clear that some individuals with autism perform poorly on certain executive function tasks, it remains unclear what underlies these impairments. The most consistent and striking difficulties…

It is argued that self-regulation skill is necessary both for displaying constructive behaviour and for controlling negative social behaviour, and self-regulation might affect social behaviours by increasing the ability to understand others' minds. In this research, in order to examine different aspects of self-regulation and their similarities…