Practice examinations developed at the ACS Examinations Institute ask students to self-report mental effort when answering items. This self-reported mental effort together with performance can be represented in the form of a cognitive efficiency graph for each student giving information on the utilization of cognitive resources and content…

We report three item-method directed forgetting (DF) studies to evaluate whether DF impairs primarily item memory, or whether it also impairs associative memory. The current studies used a modified associative recognition paradigm that allowed disentangling item impairment from associative impairment in DF. Participants studied scene-object…

Little is known about the mental representation of large multidigit numbers that are usually beyond our personal experience. The present study explored the processing mechanisms of these numbers in a series of experiments, using the numerical comparison task. Experiment 1 included within and between-scale comparisons of multidigit numbers varying…

The medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus (HC), perirhinal cortex (PRC), and parahippocampal cortex (PHC), is central to memory formation. Reward enhances memory through interplay between the HC and substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SNVTA). While the SNVTA also innervates the MTL cortex and amygdala (AMY), their role in…

It is often assumed that children with learning disabilities (LD) exhibit unique profiles of ability scores that reflect idiosyncratic cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Interpretation of cognitive ability profiles initially focused on visual inspection of subtest scores followed by statistical comparisons to identify significant cognitive…

The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) is a primary mechanism through which proteins are degraded in cells. UPS activity in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) is necessary for multiple types of memory, including object memory, in male rodents. However, sex differences in DH UPS activation after fear conditioning suggest that other forms of learning may…

While design is associated with novelty and creativity, few studies have explored the cognitive processes employed during team interactions. Design practice is collaborative where designers work in multidisciplinary teams. Along with the cognitive skills involved in designing, designers also need skills to work in teams, share information, and…

In addition to deficits in pragmatics, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have weaknesses in complex syntax and working memory (WM). These two deficits may be closely related. Previous work investigated the effects of WM training in developmental language disorders and showed significant improvement in both WM and syntax. The current…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of mental representation processes during the planning, reaching, and use phases of actions with tools commonly used toward the body (TB, e.g., toothbrush) or away from the body (AB, e.g., pencil). In the first session, healthy participants were asked to perform TB (i.e., making circular…

Creative thinking is needed to thrive in our fast-changing world. It has been shown that creative thinking skills can be enhanced through training. Whereas previous research has mainly focused on examining the overall effectiveness of comprehensive creativity training programs, this study examined the effectiveness of four cognitive-based training…

This paper attempts to deepen our understanding of teachers' selection and modification of mathematical tasks for their classroom instruction. In this paper, we focus on teachers' orientations and resources that subtly influence teachers' choices during their routine undertaking of task selection and modification. Interviews using stimulus…

Health professions schools in the United States and internationally have engaged in curricular changes to better prepare students for the future of health care. However, designing or selecting evidence-based teaching activities can be a challenge. Research suggests the Cognitive Apprenticeship theory is an effective framework for the health…

The present study aimed to examine the specific relations between five motivational regulation strategies (i.e., interest enhancement, environmental control, self-consequating, performance self-talk, mastery self-talk), academic self-concept, and three cognitive learning strategies (i.e., organization, elaboration, rehearsal) of 415 university…

This article is a narrative account of my search for knowledge about the nature of consciousness, and the implications of my findings for research and education. For over three decades, I accepted the dominant script presented to me through my education, both formal and informal, which assumes that the brain creates consciousness. Further, when…

There are three unique cognitive mechanisms during note taking: generative processing, summarization, and sustained attention. Generative processing is active construction of associations between novel information and prior knowledge and experiences. Summarization forces identification of the most pertinent information to create a coherent…