The present study evaluated if lexical expertise, defined as the quality and quantity of a reader's word representations, influenced college students' ability to learn novel homophones while reading. In two experiments novel homophones (e.g. 'brale') and novel nonhomophones (e.g. 'gloobs') were embedded in sentences. In Experiment 1, novel…

This article presents two studies that tested the predictive validity of intergroup contact theory and secondary transfer effects related to pre-service teacher attitudes toward sexual minority youth in classrooms. Multiple regression of feeling thermometer scores in Study 1 (N = 989) suggested that more favorable attitudes are present among…

The feelings of difficulty and familiarity (FOD and FOF) are two types of metacognitive experiences. Both may influence student engagement and the application of metacognitive strategies, but these relationships are not well understood, in part because many studies have relied on self-report measures of behaviors that may not accurately reflect…

We segment what we read into meaningful events, each separated by a discrete boundary. How does event segmentation during encoding relate to the structure of story information in long-term memory? To evaluate this question, participants read stories of fictional historical events and then engaged in a postreading verb arrangement task. In this…

Understanding the types of intervention practices familiar to transdisciplinary autism spectrum disorder providers may be critical to characterize and optimize "usual care" for common clinical concerns (e.g. internalizing, externalizing, and social challenges) among school- and transition-age autistic youth. We assessed if there is an…

The present study examined the attitudes and behavioral intentions of 336 children aged 7-11 toward a hypothetical peer with symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to determine whether they were influenced by labeling, social devaluation, or familiarity. Children read one of five vignettes describing the behavior of a…

Rapid advances in science and engineering, and pervasive adoption of resulting technological products, are influencing every aspect of human living and fueling a growing demand for a workforce that is adequately prepared for the emerging occupations in STEM fields. Educating students for success in the modern technology-rich workplace requires…

Digital software has been proliferating in the classroom, frequently replacing students' hands on experiences. This article reports on a study that tested how hands on experiences with physical emerging technology, namely personal robots, drones, cameras, and echo dots, may improve or impair student learning and enhance or diminish the classroom…

Recent research shows that deaf signers show increased behavioral and neural sensitivity to certain types of movement, such as biological motion, human actions, and signing avatars. However, other work suggests that in deaf signers exposed to signed language before age five, the mirror mechanism has minimal involvement during the perception of…

We tested whether changes in attribution processes could account for the developmental differences observed in how children's use fluency to guide their memory decisions. Children ranging in age from 4 to 9 years studied a list of familiar or unfamiliar cartoon characters. In Experiment 1 (n = 84), participants completed a recognition test during…

This paper discusses advantages and disadvantages of being a researcher in a familiar setting. This study was conducted in a nursery in Turkey. In ethnographic research, conducting research in a familiar setting plays an important role in collecting and analysing data. Familiarisation with participants and settings is associated with 'insiderness'…

Through a series of studies, we investigate how people direct gaze toward familiar and unfamiliar objects. When an observer tries to encode objects, gaze is first directed preferentially to the familiar object followed by a later prioritization of the unfamiliar ones. We demonstrate that the initial preference reflects prioritization of personally…

Presenting pictures of faces side by side is a common paradigm to assess infants' attentional biases according to social categories, such as gender, race, and language. However, seeing static faces does not represent infants' typical experience of the social world, which involves people in motion and performing actions. Here, we assessed infants'…

This controlled experimental study investigated the interaction of variables associated with rating the pronunciation component of high-stakes English-language-speaking tests such as IELTS and TOEFL iBT. One hundred experienced raters who were all either familiar or unfamiliar with Brazilian-accented English or Papua New Guinean Tok Pisin-accented…

Online learning is a growing trend in education during the corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the difficulties that online majors in non-English languages have when attempting to acquire English. The subject of this study involved using the questionnaire method for as many as 412 students and…