Students with health and cognitive problems who are not eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (DEA) have protection under another federal law: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. However, according to a research conducted by a Pennsylvania middle school principal and a law professor, school…

Although it is well documented that language plays an important role in cognitive development, there are different views concerning the mechanisms underlying these effects. Some argue that even early in development, effects of words stem from top-down knowledge, whereas others argue that these effects stem from auditory input affecting attention…

When expectations and stereotypes are activated at retrieval, they spontaneously create distorted and illusory recollections that are consistent with these expectations. Participants studied doctor (physician)-related and lawyer-related statements that were presented by 2 different people. When informed, on a subsequent source memory test, (i.e.,…

Four experiments examined young children's knowledge about the visual characteristics of writing, specifically personal names. Children younger than 4 years of age, even those who could read no simple words, showed some knowledge about the horizontal orientation of English names, the Latin letters that make them up, and their left-to-right…

As society's interactions with web technology mature from novelty to familiarity and finally into transparence for users, it becomes important to reexamine what modern students are taking from their experiences with educational technology. Students in a physical chemistry laboratory course interacted with a hypermedia learning environment as part…

Late adolescents face a multitude of stressors in their daily lives and must find ways to weather this distress. The attitudes and beliefs late adolescents hold about seeking formal help when appropriate can influence their engagement in formal help seeking behaviors. Previous research suggests that adolescents' willingness to seek help for mental…

Leisure activity participation has been found to have a positive impact on our health and well-being (e.g., Rowe & Kahn, 1998), and interest in lifelong learning as a leisure time activity is rising. This study compared self-reported measures of demographics, life satisfaction, cognitive status, and mood states in adult populations (over 50…

Despite a steady supply of equipment and continuous training, teachers' use of computers for instruction seems to be limited. Whether the problem is due to teachers' ability or usage of computers for instruction is not well understood. In order to better understand the role of ability and usage in technology integration, teachers' proficiency of…

Recent concerns over global ecology have led to a renewed call for effective environmental education. Since traditional methods of teaching environmental education tend to focus on local issues and perspectives, educators are faced with the problem of providing a more global view of ecological issues. Little research exists exploring the…

Within a European project on Networked Interaction in Foreign Language Acquisition and Research (NIFLAR), "Second Life" was used as a 3D virtual world in which language students can communicate synchronously with native speakers in the target language, while undertaking action together. For this context, a set of design principles for…

This study compared Hispanics' awareness of services available to acquire assistive technology and whether they actually sought help to the findings from a national sample. The study assists the field by providing information on a group largely ignored in the literature. The authors sought to answer the following research questions: Are there…

Increasing awareness of child abuse and neglect (CAN) raises questions about how well teachers are prepared for their role in child protection. This paper assesses and differentiates training needs of first-year students (n = 216) in Northern Ireland. Multiple-choice tests were used to assess knowledge of CAN statistics; recognising and reporting;…

To evaluate whether performance differences between good and poor readers relate to reading-specific cognitive factors that result from engaging in reading activities and other experiential factors, the authors gave students in Grades 4 and 6 a perceptual identification test of words not only drawn from their personal lexicon but also varying in…

This article presents research conducted between 2002 and 2007 that examines user discourse, message flow, and exchange frequency in Web-only courses, blended courses, and then the same types of courses extended with a 3D online learning environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact that a 3D online learning environment has on…

Items studied as pictures are better remembered than items studied as words even when test items are presented as words. The present study examined the development of this picture superiority effect in recognition memory. Four groups ranging in age from 7 to 20 years participated. They studied words and pictures, with test stimuli always presented…