Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive functioning, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive outcomes. Yet, the exact mechanisms underlying infant habituation and dishabituation are still unclear. To investigate them, we tested 106 8-month-old infants on a classic habituation task and…

Prior research suggests that visual features of the classroom environment (e.g., charts and posters) are potential sources of distraction hindering children's ability to maintain attention to instructional activities and reducing learning gains in a laboratory classroom. However, prior research only examined short-term exposure to elements of…

Empirical evidence suggests a phonological loop deficit associated with Down syndrome. A trisomy 21 may be associated with a narrowing of visual attention to fewer than four objects at a time too. In a study with computer tachistoscopy, the hypothesis was confirmed in all 194 persons with trisomy 21. The subitising limit of persons with trisomy 21…

Purpose: This study investigated attentional shifting in preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to their typically developing peers. Children's attentional shifting capacity was assessed by varying attentional demands. Method: Twenty-five preschool children with SLI and 25 age-matched, typically developing controls…

Preschool-aged learners process information differently from older individuals, making it critical to design digital educational games that are tailored to capitalize on young children's learning capabilities. This in-depth literature synthesis connects features of digital educational game design--including visuals, feedback, scaffolding…

A controversy has recently developed regarding the hypothesis that developmental dyslexia may be caused, in some cases, by a reduced visual attention span (VAS). To examine this hypothesis, independent of phonological abilities, researchers tested the ability of dyslexic participants to recognize arrays of unfamiliar visual characters. Employing…

Visual attention span (VAS) predicts reading performance over and above phonological skills. Given the growing number of studies that include VAS, it is surprising that indications of the stability of VAS performance and its relation with reading over time have not yet been reported. The current study addressed these important issues. Participants…

Selective sustained attention is vital for higher order cognition. Although endogenous and exogenous factors influence selective sustained attention, assessment of the degree to which these factors influence performance and learning is often challenging. We report findings from the Track-It task, a paradigm that aims to assess the contribution of…

The goal of the study was to examine the association between visual-attentional span and lexical decision in skilled adult readers. In the span tasks, an array of letters was presented briefly and recognition or production of a single cued letter (partial span) or production of all letters (whole span) was required. Independently of letter…

The current longitudinal study examined the association of temperamental inhibition (assessed by behavioral observation and parental reports) at three years old with reward and punishment bias (measured by a spatial cueing task) and mothers' and teachers' reports of internalizing behaviors and social competence at five years old in 153 Chinese…

Eye and head movements evoked in response to obvious visual attention shifts. However, there has been little progress on the causes of absent-mindedness so far. The paper proposes an attention awareness system that captures the conditions regarding the interaction of eye gaze and head pose under various attentional switching in computer classroom.…

The present study describes experiences associated with parenting children diagnosed with learning disabilities. Parents whose children were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, dyslexia/language problems, and Asperger syndrome, related to poor performance at school, took part in the study. A qualitative study design was…

Cognitive processes underlying a behavioural outcome (like reading ability) and the impact of familial risk (e.g., for dyslexia) have been studied in isolation. We present a novel design, linking the two avenues. How do familial influences impact on children's cognitive skills, which subsequently underlie reading development? Participants from the…

To what degree does our representation of the immediate world depend solely on its relevance to what we are currently doing? We examined whether relevance per se can cause "blindness," even when there is no resource limitation. In a novel paradigm, people looked at a colored circle surrounded by a differently colored ring--the task…

Adolescent cannabis use is associated with working memory impairment. The present randomized controlled trial assigned adolescents ages 14 to 21 enrolled in cannabis use treatment to receive either working memory training (experimental group) or a control training (control group) as an adjunctive treatment. Cognitive function, drug use, and other…