Background: Verbal fluency tests (VFT) are highly sensitive to cognitive deficits. Usually, the score on VFT is based on the number of correct words produced, yet it alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. The implementation of different strategies (cluster and switching) to perform efficiently during the tasks…

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the divergent thinking abilities of first-year architecture students who are currently enrolled in a course focused on thinking in architecture. The statistical analysis of student's studio works with Wallach Kogan's divergent thinking pre/post-tests results demonstrated that the post-test score…

Purpose: Pronouns are referentially ambiguous: For example, "she" could refer to any female. Nonetheless, errors in pronoun interpretation rarely occur for adults with typical development (TD) due to several strategies implicitly shared between the talker and listener. The purpose of this study was to test the impacts of syntactic,…

This study investigates the role of diglossic and orthographic features in reading comprehension in Arabic. Specifically, it probes the independent contribution of language, metalinguistic, and decoding skills in the spoken language and in Standard Arabic to reading comprehension in the "abjad" writing system of Arabic. A sample of 112…

Competing viewpoints on the independency or interdependency of Skinner's verbal operants have been discussed in the literature and with empirical support for both positions generated using single-case research methods. Our study provides support for the interdependency of the verbal operants using items contained in the Verbal Behavior Milestones…

Children in out-of-home care persistently show poorer educational and developmental outcomes than their peers. This study investigates the effect of the comprehensive educational intervention, "LUKoP," in a randomized controlled trial, compared to treatment-as-usual (TAU). Outcome measures included reading and math abilities, IQ and…

Music has been shown to improve social interaction and attention to verbal stimuli in autism. We report a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an online intervention using music-assisted programmes, compared with best-practice treatment (Social Communication Intervention for Pre-schoolers-Intensive) for language learning in preschool…

Early research that relied on standardized assessments of intelligence reported negative effects of bilingualism for children, but a study by Peal and Lambert (1962) reported better performance by bilingual than monolingual children on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. This outcome led to the view that bilingualism was a positive…

This study evaluates the psychometric properties of a verbal fluency task for potential use as an outcome measure in future clinical trials involving children with Down syndrome. Eighty-five participants attempted a modified version of the Neuropsychological Assessment of Children, Second Edition Word Generation Task at two time points. In the…

Background: Spatial ability (SA) was shown to be important for success in different fields, including STEM. Recent research suggested that SA is a unitary construct, rather than a set of related skills. However, it is not clear how individual differences in different facets of SA emerge, and how they relate to variance in general cognitive…

Reading comprehension is a fundamental skill to be developed from the early stages of reading acquisition and it is essential for both formative and personal learning. This study examines eye-tracking as a useful and complementary tool in the assessment and improvement of implicit reading comprehension. The aim is to understand the role of…

This study was conducted to examine the relationships between general intelligence test scores and race, ethnicity, gender, and parental education using the Naglieri General Ability Tests: Verbal, Nonverbal and Quantitative (Naglieri & Brulles, & Lansdowne, 2021) for three samples that closely match the U.S. population. Few differences…

Background: Within cohorts of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) there is considerable variation in terms of language ability. In the past, it was believed that children with ASD either had delayed articulation and phonology skills or excelled in those areas compared to other language domains. Very little is known about speech sound…

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the Predict-Explain-Observe-Discuss-Explain (PEODE)-based laboratory on enhancing the verbal and figural creativity of gifted students. The quasi-experimental research design utilised a pre- and post-test approach with a non-equivalent control group, consisting of 60 sixth-grade gifted students.…

Income-based childcare programs provide children access to developmentally appropriate and vocabulary-rich literacy experiences. For this study, participating U.S. Head Start Centers requested families complete a weekly home literacy log to encourage vocabulary-rich shared book reading activities in the home. Using participant characteristics,…