There has been considerable focus on investigating age-related memory changes in cognitively healthy older adults, in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders. Previous studies have reported age-related domain-specific changes in older adults, showing increased difficulty encoding and processing object information but minimal to no impairment in…

Existing approaches in the literature on cognitive control in conflict tasks almost exclusively target the outcome of control (by comparing mean congruency effects) and not the processes that shape control. These approaches are limited in addressing a current theoretical issue--what contribution does learning make to adjustments in cognitive…

Video tutorials substantially support demonstration-based training where the main goal is to enhance procedural knowledge by observing various understandable examples of performing a task. Although video tutorials are broadly popular nowadays, little attention is given to the design features of an instructional tutorial. The aim of this study is…

The More A-More B intuitive rule has become a research hotspot in the field of mathematical education in recent years. The intuitive rule of More A-More B is often reflected in students' responses to comparison tasks. In such tasks, students are asked to compare 2 objects that differ in a certain salient quantity A (where A[subscript 1] >…

Purpose: A fundamental feature of human speech is variation, including the manner of phonation, as exemplified in the case of whispered speech. In this study, we employed whispered speech to examine an unresolved issue about congenital amusia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of musical pitch processing, which also affects speech pitch processing…

Generalization is a critical component of mathematical reasoning, with researchers recommending that it be central to education at all grade levels. However, research on students' generalizing reveals pervasive difficulties in creating and expressing general statements, which underscores the need to better understand the processes that can support…

Algebraic thinking and strategy flexibility are essential to advanced mathematical thinking. Early algebra instruction uses 'missing-operand' problems (e.g., x - 7 = 2) solvable via two typical strategies: (1) direct retrieval of arithmetic facts (e.g., 9 - 7 = 2) and (2) performance of the inverse operation (e.g., 2 + 7 = 9). The current study…

Little is explored regarding the modality-specific differences in recall abilities of preschool children. Understanding modality-specific differences in the recall at an early age might give an insight into age-linked trends, which can lay a foundation for later development. The current study used a cross-sectional design to investigate the…

Past research suggested that, due to difficulties in mentalistic reasoning, individuals with autism tend to base their moral judgments on the outcome of agents' actions rather than on agents' intentions. In a novel task, aimed at reducing the processing demands required to represent intentions and generate a judgment, autistic children were…

We investigated the association between individual differences in metaphor understanding and Theory of Mind (ToM) in typically developing children. We distinguished between two types of metaphors and created a Physical and Mental Metaphors task, echoing a similar distinction for ToM. Nine-year-olds scored lower than older age-groups in ToM as well…

Recent research found no evidence that children aged 7-10 years are able to direct their attention to more valuable information in working memory. The current experiments examined whether children demonstrate this ability when the reward system used to motivate participants is engaging and age-appropriate. This was explored across different memory…

Little is known about how observers' scanning strategies affect performance when monitoring events in closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage. We examined the fixation behaviour of change detectors and non-detectors monitoring dynamic scenes. One hundred forty-seven participants observed mock CCTV videos featuring either a mock crime or no crime.…

Performance in elementary cognitive tasks is moderately correlated with fluid intelligence and working memory capacity. These correlations are higher for more complex tasks, presumably due to increased demands on working memory capacity. In accordance with the binding hypothesis, which states that working memory capacity reflects the limit of a…

Students in higher education have been shown to have difficulties in developing their critical thinking skills, such as analysis and problem solving, reasoning and argumentation. Open-ended tasks offer opportunities for students to develop their own interpretations of various sources, to critically analyse domain-specific knowledge and utilize…

This work applies a cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) framework to understand how the outcome of a high school laboratory task may be positively influenced without making changes to the hands-on practical task itself. Informed by cognitivism, novel practical instruction videos that were based on the same video but had different audio…