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Working memory functions as an underlying force for school readiness, yet many autistic children have difficulties with it. Similarly, autistic children tend to start kindergarten with less school readiness compared with their peers. In addition, children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds face additional barriers in working memory and school readiness. Preschool-age children with autism in the United States are entitled to pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education, yet it is unknown whether pre-K education produces long-lasting benefits in working memory. This study used a nationally representative data set to examine whether pre-K education has immediate and long-term benefits on the working memory development of children in the general sample, and whether it is particularly beneficial for autistic children's working memory development, when controlling for SES. A series of multiple regression and interaction analyses indicated that, for the general sample, having attended pre-K predicted advanced working memory during the first 2 years of elementary school (K to first grade). Particularly for autistic children, the onset of such benefits started later, in Spring of first grade, but lasted longer, until Spring of third grade (3 years). Practical implications and future directions pertaining to capitalizing on autistic children's cognitive potential and this protracted window of growth are discussed. Working memory is an important skill for school success, and it involves holding information in our memory while using it to solve complex problems. However, autistic children often have difficulties with working memory tasks. Also, kindergarteners on the autism spectrum tend to be less school-ready compared with their peers. In addition, children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to struggle more with working memory and school readiness skills. All preschool-age children on the autism spectrum in the United States are entitled to pre-kindergarten (pre-K) education. However, it is unclear whether attending pre-K helps with children's working memory development in the long run. This study tested whether attending pre-K benefits children's working memory development in the long run. It also tested whether pre-K is especially helpful for autistic children's working memory development. It was found that children who attended pre-K outperformed their peers who did not attend pre-K during the first 2 years of elementary school. However, after first grade, such benefits diminished. Importantly, autistic children who attended pre-K did not demonstrate advanced working memory immediately in kindergarten, but they started to outperform their autistic peers who did not attend pre-K during first grade to third grade. This finding highlights the importance of pre-K education for autistic children in particular. It is also important for educators and parents to understand autistic children's unique learning paths that may be different from non-autistic children. This article discusses specific ways for educators to take full advantage of the long-lasting benefits of pre-K education in autistic children's working memory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults' ability to accurately evaluate children's statements can have far-reaching consequences within the legal system. This study examined the evaluations of police officers ("experts") and laypersons ("nonexperts") when presented with videotaped interviews of children aged 3 and 5 years who provided either true or false reports or denials. Participants were drawn from several counties in the eastern United States. Children's interview statements fell within four statement types: accurate reports, false reports, accurate denials, and false denials. Both groups of participants displayed overbelief in false denials. Several control variables predicted accuracy, including children's age and children's race. A significant interaction emerged: Experts (vs. nonexperts) had greater odds of being accurate when judging false reports (vs. false denials). These findings highlight the challenges adults face when distinguishing between various types of children's statements. The results have important implications for legal contexts, emphasizing that fact finders need to be mindful of the risks associated with both overaccepting false denials and accepting false reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic interviewers ask children broad input-free recall questions about individual episodes in order to elicit complete narratives, often asking about "the first time," "the last time," and "one time." An overlooked problem is that the word "time" is potentially ambiguous, referring both to a particular episode and to conventional temporal information. We examined 191 6-9-year-old maltreated children's responses to questions about recent events varying the wording of the invitations, either asking children to "tell me about" or "tell me what happened" one time/the first time/the last time the child experienced recent recurrent events. Additionally, half of the children were asked a series of "when" questions about recurrent events before the invitations. Children were several times more likely to provide exclusively conventional temporal information to "tell me about" invitations compared to "tell me what happened" invitations, and asking "when" questions before the invitations increased children's tendency to give exclusively conventional temporal information. Children who answered a higher proportion of "when" questions with conventional temporal information were also more likely to do so in response to the invitations. The results suggest that children may often fail to provide narrative information because they misinterpret invitations using the word "time." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how the relation between childhood and nature contributes to the formation of identities though childhood memories written for archival purposes. Archival research lets us consider how written childhood memories of nature are formed, producing social identities through practices of archiving. The archived memories of 50 people in Sweden are analyzed, concentrating on how they described their childhood memories of nature. Understanding memories as performances of identity can give important answers as to how the idealized relationship between nature and childhood is constructed in the specific context of archivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally there is high morbidity due to mental illnesses, necessitating research on positive mental health and new models of mental health promotion. This study investigates the mediating role of spirituality to known pathways between childhood social exposures and adult mental health outcomes—hope, meaning in life and depression among young Kenyan men. Using the "religion as attachment" framework, we investigate whether childhood attachment conditions predict lower scores of daily spiritual experiences, and whether this pathway mediates associations between childhood attachment conditions and current depression, meaning in life, and hope. Spirituality significantly mediated associations between childhood attachments and adult mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atypical learning and memory in early life can promote atypical behaviors in later life. Less relational learning and inflexible retrieval in childhood may enhance restricted and repeated behaviors in patients with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms of atypical memory in children with autism spectrum disorder. We conducted picture–name pair learning and delayed-recognition tests with two groups: one group with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder children (aged 7–16, n = 41) and one group with typically developing children (n = 82) that matched the first group's age, sex, and IQ. We assessed correlations between successful recognition scores and seed-to-whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity. Although both learning and retrieval performances were comparable between the two groups, we observed slightly lower category learning and significantly fewer memory gains in the autism spectrum disorder group than in the typically developing group. The right canonical anterior hippocampal network was involved in successful memory in youths with typically developing, while other memory systems may be involved in successful memory in youths with autism spectrum disorder. Context-independent and less relational memory processing may be associated with fewer memory gains in autism spectrum disorder. These atypical memory characteristics in autism spectrum disorder may accentuate their inflexible behaviors in some situations. Atypical learning and memory in early life can promote atypical behaviors in later life. Specifically, less relational learning and inflexible retrieval in childhood may enhance restricted and repeated behaviors in patients with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the mechanisms of atypical memory in children with autism spectrum disorder. We conducted picture–name pair learning and delayed-recognition tests with two groups of youths: one group with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder children (aged 7–16, n = 41) and one group with typically developing children (n = 82) that matched the first group's age, sex, and full-scale IQ. We examined correlations between successful recognition scores and neural connectivity during resting in the magnetic resonance imaging scanner without thinking about anything. Although both learning and retrieval performances were comparable between the two groups, we observed significantly fewer memory gains in the autism spectrum disorder group than in the typically developing group. The memory network was involved in successful memory retrieval in youths with typically developing, while the other memory systems that do not depend to a great degree on networks may be involved in successful memory in youths with autism spectrum disorder. Context-independent and less relational memory processing may be associated with fewer memory gains in autism spectrum disorder. In other words, autism spectrum disorder youths might benefit from non-relational memory. These atypical memory characteristics in autism spectrum disorder may exaggerate their inflexible behaviors in some situations, or—vice versa—their atypical behaviors may result in rigid and less connected memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that neurotypical individuals generally show better memory for actions they have performed than actions they have observed others perform or merely read about, a so-called ‘enactment effect’. Strikingly, research has also shown that neurotypical individuals demonstrate superior memory for actions they intend to perform in the future (but have not yet performed), an effect commonly known as the ‘intention superiority effect’. Although the enactment effect has been studied among people with autism spectrum disorder, this study is the first to investigate the intention superiority effect in this disorder. This is surprising given the potential importance this issue has for general theory development, as well as for clinical practice. As such, this study aimed to assess the intention superiority and enactment effects in 22 children with autism spectrum disorder, and 20 intelligence quotient/age-matched neurotypical children. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated not only undiminished enactment effects in recognition and source memory, but also (surprisingly for some theories) typical intention superiority effects. The implications of these results for theory, as well as clinical practice, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial evidence has established that individual differences in executive function (EF) in early childhood are uniquely predictive of children's academic readiness at school entry. The current study tested whether growth trajectories of EF across the early childhood period could be used to identify a subset of children who were at pronounced risk for academic impairment in kindergarten. Using data that were collected at the age 3, 4, and 5 home assessments in the Family Life Project (N = 1,120), growth mixture models were used to identify 9% of children who exhibited impaired EF performance (i.e., persistently low levels of EF that did not show expected improvements across time). Compared to children who exhibited typical trajectories of EF, the delayed group exhibited substantial impairments in multiple indicators of academic readiness in kindergarten (Cohen's ds = 0.9-2.7; odds ratios = 9.8-23.8). Although reduced in magnitude following control for a range of socioeconomic and cognitive (general intelligence screener, receptive vocabulary) covariates, moderate-sized group differences remained (Cohen's ds = 0.2-2.4; odds ratios = 3.9-5.4). Results are discussed with respect to the use of repeated measures of EF as a method of early identification, as well as the resulting translational implications of doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing "higher-level" or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study tested a multiple-cognitive predictor model of word reading, math ability, and attention in a community-based sample of twins ages 8 to 16 years (N = 636). The objective was to identify cognitive predictors unique to each skill domain as well as cognitive predictors shared among skills that could help explain their overlap and thus help illuminate the basis for comorbidity of related disorders (reading disability, math disability, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Results indicated that processing speed contributes to the overlap between reading and attention as well as math and attention, whereas verbal comprehension contributes to the overlap between reading and math. There was no evidence that executive functioning skills help account for covariation among these skill domains. Instead, specific executive functions differentially related to certain outcomes (i.e., working memory to math and inhibition to attention). We explored whether the model varied in younger versus older children and found only minor differences. Results are interpreted within the context of the multiple deficit framework for neurodevelopmental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cohort-sequential study explored the components of working memory (WM) that underlie second language (L2) reading growth in 450 children at risk and not at risk for reading disabilities (RD) whose first language is Spanish. English language learners designated as balanced and nonbalanced bilinguals with and without risk for RD in Grades 1, 2, and 3 at Wave 1 were administered a battery of cognitive (short-term memory, WM, naming speed, and inhibition), vocabulary, and reading measures in Spanish and English. These same measures were administered 1 and 2 years later. Two important findings occurred: First, growth in the WM executive component was significantly related to growth in English word identification and passage comprehension when competing measures (phonological processing, naming speed, inhibition, and fluid intelligence) were entered into the multilevel growth model. Second, children defined as at risk for RD in Wave 1 had lower intercepts than children not at risk at Wave 3 across several measures of cognition, language, and achievement. However, except on measures of the executive component of WM, no significant group differences in linear growth emerged. These findings suggest that growth in L2 reading was tied to growth in the executive system of WM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This theoretical review attempts to carry out an overview of the concept of Executive Functions, exposing various facets emerging from the latest scientific developments, so that novice readers can begin to learn about the subject and those who are already familiar with it can update their knowledge. The review begins by explaining what is meant by Executive Functions and why they are important. Following that, we review both the components and the concepts commonly used in the literature that are directly related to Executive Functions. Finally, we review their precursors and those environmental factors that influence their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the political socialization of young children who live under conditions of intractable conflict. We present four premises: First, we argue that, within the context of intractable conflict, political socialization begins earlier and faster than previously suspected, and is evident among young children. Second, we propose that the agents of political socialization impart narratives of the ethos of conflict and of collective memory in young children that support continuation of the conflict. Third, we maintain that the great majority of the young children form systematic and coherent systems of beliefs, attitudes, and emotions that support the conflict as a result of political socialization and direct exposure to conflict. Finally, we suggest that the conflict-related contents absorbed by children have lasting effects on the solidification of children’s later socio-psychological repertoire. Our arguments highlight the serious consequences of political socialization processes on very young children in societies involved in intractable conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children without formal education in addition and subtraction are able to perform multi-step operations over an approximate number of objects. Further, their performance improves when solving approximate (but not exact) addition and subtraction problems that allow for inversion as a shortcut (e.g.,a + b − b = a). The current study examines children's ability to perform multi-step operations, and the potential for an inversion benefit, for the operations of approximate, non-symbolic multiplication and division. Children were trained to compute a multiplication and division scaling factor (*2 or /2, *4 or /4), and were then tested on problems that combined two of these factors in a way that either allowed for an inversion shortcut (e.g., 8*4/4) or did not (e.g., 8*4/2). Children's performance was significantly better than chance for all scaling factors during training, and they successfully computed the outcomes of the multi-step testing problems. They did not exhibit a performance benefit for problems with the a*b/bstructure, suggesting that they did not draw upon inversion reasoning as a logical shortcut to help them solve the multi-step test problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents two studies investigating the role of executive functioning in written text comprehension in children and adolescents. In a first study, the involvement of executive functions in reading comprehension performance was examined in normally developing children in fifth grade. Two aspects of text comprehension were differentiated: literal and inferential processes. The results demonstrated that while three aspects of executive functioning (working memory, planning, and inhibition processes) were significantly predictive of the performance on the inferential questions of the comprehension test, these factors did not predict the scores on the literal tasks of the test. In a second experiment, the linguistic and cognitive profiles of children in third/fifth and seventh/ninth grades with a specific reading comprehension deficit were examined. This analysis revealed that the deficits experienced by the less skilled comprehenders in both the linguistic and the executive domains could evolve over time. As a result, linguistic factors do not make it possible to distinguish between good and poor comprehenders among the group of older children, whereas the difficulties relating to executive processing remain stable over development. These findings are discussed in the context of the need to take account of the executive difficulties that characterize less skilled comprehenders of any age, especially for remediation purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deliberate practice is essential for skill acquisition and expertise and may be a direct consequence of episodic foresight. However, little is known about how deliberate practice develops in children. We present two experiments testing children's ability to selectively practise a behaviour that was going to be useful in future and to reason about the role of practice in skill formation. Five-year-olds demonstrated an explicit understanding of deliberate practice both in selectively choosing to practise a future-relevant skill and in predicting skill change in others based on their practice. Four-year-olds showed some capacities, but failed to demonstrate consistent understanding of the relationship between practice and skill improvement. Children's understanding of this relationship was significantly related to their understanding of how information leads to knowledge, suggesting that both may draw on similar cognitive developmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In transparent orthographies like German, isolated learning disabilities in either reading or spelling are common and occur as often as a combined reading and spelling disability. However, most issues surrounding the cognitive causes of these isolated or combined literacy difficulties are yet unresolved. Recently, working memory dysfunctions have been demonstrated to be promising in explaining the emergence of literacy difficulties. Thus, we applied a 2 (reading disability: yes vs. no) × 2 (spelling disability: yes vs. no) factorial design to examine distinct and overlapping working memory profiles associated with learning disabilities in reading versus spelling. Working memory was assessed in 204 third graders, and multivariate analyses of variance were conducted for each working memory component. Children with spelling disability suffered from more pronounced phonological loop impairments than those with reading disability. In contrast, domain-general central-executive dysfunctions were solely associated with reading disability, but not with spelling disability. Concerning the visuospatial sketchpad, no impairments were found. In sum, children with reading disability and those with spelling disability seem to be characterized by different working memory profiles. Thus, it is important to take both reading and spelling into account when investigating cognitive factors of literacy difficulties in transparent orthographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that children with learning disabilities (LD) encounter severe problems in working memory (WM) tasks, especially when they need to update information stored in their WM. It is not clear, however, to what extent this is due to a generally poor updating ability or to a difficulty specific to the domain to be processed. To examine this issue, two groups of children with arithmetic or reading comprehension LD and a group of typically developing children (9 to 10 years old) were assessed using two updating tasks requiring to select the smallest numbers or objects presented. The results showed that children with an arithmetic disability failed in a number updating task, but not in the object updating task. The opposite was true for the group with poor reading comprehension, whose performance was worse in the object than in the number updating task. It may be concluded that the problem of WM updating in children with LD is also due to a poor representation of the material to be updated. In addition, our findings suggest that the mental representation of the size of objects relates to the semantic representation of the objects’ properties and differs from the quantitative representation of numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To assess the neuropsychological deficits in children with Hyperkinetic Disorder (HKD). Methods: Group matched (age and gender) healthy children (N = 20) and children with Hyperkinetic Disorder (N = 20) aged 6 - 14 years, were recruited from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Neuropsychological tools included Trail Making Test (TMT), PGI Memory Scale for Children, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Malin's Intelligence Scale for Indian Children (MISIC) and Letter Cancellation Test. Results: Neuropsychological evaluation on executive functioning (set shifting and mental flexibility) revealed that HKD group performed poorly compared to control group on some parameters of WCST, including perseverative responses, perseverative errors, percent of conceptual level responses and number of categories completed and mean time taken and mean errors committed on TMT (Part B). On assessment of attention, visual scanning and psychomotor speed, control group performed significantly better than HKD children on mean time taken and mean errors committed on TMT (Part A) and total number of correct cancellations and wrong cancellations in the Letter Cancellation Test. On memory functions, our study sample achieved low scores on most sub tests of PGI Memory Scale but had significant deficit only on attention-concentration compared to age appropriate norms for PGIMS test for children. The mean Intelligence (IQ) scores of HKD children on MISIC was 102.27 (± 10.72), Verbal Intelligence quotient (VIQ) was 101.25 (± 10.86) and Performance Intelligence quotient (PIQ) was 103.90 (± 11.20). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that HKD is a pattern of neuropsychological impairments on executive functions of set shifting and cognitive flexibility, deficits in attention and memory functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attachment’s role in children’s memories of wellbeing and distress was evaluated through the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task in 30 Italian children, aged 6 years (15 secure and 15 insecure). Their mothers’ coherence of discourse was determined using the Adult Attachment Interview. A mediation model examining whether children’s attachment mediated the relation between mothers’ ability to talk coherently about their past and children’s memories was tested. Children’s attachment was associated with their ability to describe memories of wellbeing and distress and mediated the influence of maternal coherence on the same ability. A regression model was estimated to further evaluate the association between children’s attachment and ability to describe memories. Results suggest that attachment influences how children understand and recollect emotional experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the role of generative strategies and working memory capacity on word problem solving accuracy in children with math difficulties (MD). Within classrooms, children in Grade 3 with MD (n = 69) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: paraphrase question propositions (Restate), paraphrase relevant propositions (Relevant), and paraphrase all propositions (Complete), or to an untreated control. An additional control group included children without MD (n = 22). Mixed regression modeling showed that generative strategies significantly improved posttest scores for children with MD compared with the control condition, but outcomes were related to the type of dependent measures. The Relevant and Complete treatment conditions improved problem-solving accuracy, the Complete condition improved problem component identification, and the Restate and Relevant conditions improved operation span performance when compared with the control conditions. Only the Relevant and Complete generative learning treatments allowed children with MD to catch up to children without MD, but the results were moderated by working memory capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explored long-term memories for childhood exposure to disturbing televised news reports in order to uncover possible mechanisms through which children experience the emotion of fear. In an online survey, 328 undergraduates at a Midwestern university were questioned about their long-term memories for a disturbing news report seen during childhood. Results revealed that 50% of participants could remember a specific news event that frightened them during childhood, a majority of which were seen accidentally. Participants were most likely to remember news stories about terrorist attacks, murders, and kidnappings. They were more frightened when news events were rated as personally relevant, when they continued to think about the news event after it had ended, and when the news events elicited feelings of shock and surprise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study investigated whether (a) growth patterns related to cognitive processing (working memory, updating, inhibition) differed in subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) and (b) growth in working memory (executive processing) predicted growth in other cognitive areas, such as reading and math. Seventy-three children (ages 7–17) categorized as poor decoders, poor comprehenders, or average readers were administered a battery of achievement and cognitive measures for three consecutive years. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that growth in executive processing (inhibition) in children with RD constrained growth in reading and math. The results support the notion that development in the executive system underlies performance on reading and math measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Este artículo analiza la organización de las habilidades cognitivas en la infancia, considerando los procesos cognitivos y los contenidos de las tareas utilizadas en su evaluación. Una muestra de 539 escolares portugueses, entre los 4 y los 10 años, realizó la Escala de Competencias Cognitivas – ECCOs 4/10, para niños de los 4 a los 10 años de edad – ECCOs 4/10 (Brito, 2009; Brito y Almeida, 2009). Se trata de una batería formada por 11 pruebas, con contenido verbal y no-verbal, que evalúa diversas funciones cognitivas (percepción, memoria, comprensión, razonamiento, resolución de problemas y pensamiento divergente). Los análisis factoriales confirmatorios (AFC) llevados a cabo permiten aceptar un modelo proponiendo la existencia de un factor general y de un segundo modelo, con mejores índices de ajuste, formado por dos factores asociados al contenido verbal y noverbal de las pruebas. Además, los análisis indican inexistencia de invarianza factorial del modelo más ajustado (el modelo de dos factores verbal y no-verbal correlacionados) en los tres grupos de edad considerados (4/5, 6-8 y 9/10). Estos resultados sugieren que las diferencias significativas en la evolución normal de las aptitudes cognitivas, relacionadas con el aprendizaje escolar, provocan cambios a nivel de la estructura factorial de las aptitudes estudiadas con la ECCOs 4/10.The paper analyses the organisation of cognitive skills in childhood, taking into consideration cognitive processes and the contents of tasks used in their assessment. A sample of 539 Portuguese children aged 4 to 10 years completed the Cognitive Competencies Scale or ECCOs 4/10 (Brito, 2009; Brito & Almeida, 2009). This test battery includes 11 subtests, with verbal and non-verbal content, that evaluate various cognitive functions (perception, memory, comprehension, reasoning, problem-solving, and divergent thinking). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) carried out produced a structural model with a general factor to explain the score variance in 11 subtests, as well as a second model with better fit indexes formed by two factors related to verbal and non-verbal task content. Furthermore, analyses showed lack of factor invariance of the better fitting model (the correlated verbal non-verbal two-factor model) in the three study age-groups (4/5, 6-8, and 9/10 years of age). These results suggest that the normal evolution of verbal and non-verbal skills related to school learning causes changes in the factor structure of the cognitive skills assessed by ECCOs 4/10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is extremely important when interviewing children about alleged abuse to determine whether the abuse was a single or a repeated occurrence, we have little information about how children judge the frequency of events. The aim of the current study was to examine children's accuracy in providing estimates of event frequency that were numerical (that is, 1, 2, 3, ...) and qualitative (that is, once, a few times, or many times). Younger (4- to 5-year-old) and older (6-to 8-year-old) children took part in a single event or an event that was repeated 6 or 11 times. They were interviewed after a short or long delay; some were interviewed a second time. Overall, children were very accurate at judging the frequency of a single event, but much less so for repeated events. Based on our findings, we make two recommendations for professionals trying to establish the frequency of events when interviewing young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a procedure which has proven useful in facilitating narratives about experience of everyday family situations in order to provide insights into the inner world of children around five-seven years. The Windows to Attachment in Young Children (WAYC) consists of the procedure itself and scoring frameworks through which the narrative is analysed. Reports from three studies demonstrate its success in generating rich narrative accounts from Australian children. A system for coding attachment representations shows promise. A system for coding quality of recall of episodic experience has enabled research into the relationship between children's memory and parent--child communication [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate rapid automatized naming skills (RAN) and immediate memory processes in 243 Chinese Mandarin-speaking elementary readers (ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 5). For RAN subtests, the mean naming time decreased monotonically with grade level in good and average readers, and a similar trajectory was found in poor readers, even though they were generally slower in rapid naming. Regardless of grouping methods (counting all participants or counting good readers only), RAN Character emerged as a significant predictor of various Chinese reading measures. Different from classical findings in English readers indicating that RAN Number was a better correlate of reading than RAN Object, RAN Object outperformed RAN Number and became a significant predictor of Chinese reading speed and spelling, suggesting that the differences in predictive power of RAN tasks may be language specific. Comparison of memory profiles for good, average, and poor readers revealed that the patterns varied depending on mode of stimulus presentation or response. Poor readers performed poorly on subtests involving a visual component and did relatively better on subtests involving verbal cues only, whereas a reversed pattern was shown in the group of good readers. The findings were interpreted to suggest that good and poor Chinese readers may be essentially different in applying visual strategies and verbal mediation during visual-verbal intra- and intermodal processing, and visual skills appear to be particularly important in reading of Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments investigated the effects of strategy knowledge and strategy training on the working memory (WM) performance in children (ages 10-11) with and without reading disabilities (RD). Experiment I examined the relationship between strategy knowledge (stability of strategy choices) and WM performance as a function of initial, gain (cued), and maintenance conditions. WM performance was significantly improved for both groups under cued conditions; however, the performances of children with RD were inferior to those of children without RD across all memory conditions. Measures of WM capacity rather than strategy stability or processing efficiency best predicted reading comprehension performance. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of strategy training on WM performance by randomly assigning children to strategy instruction or control conditions. Significant improvements in WM performance occurred as a function of training conditions, but the residual WM differences between the reading groups remained. Although the results showed that stable strategy choices, cued performance, and strategy instruction significantly bolstered WM performance in children with RD, their overall WM performance, however, was constrained by capacity limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined what effect different forms of question repetition had on children's accuracy and consistency in interviews. One hundred and sixty children aged 4–5, 6–7 and 8–9 were interviewed about an event they had witnessed a week earlier. Each child was asked an initial 16 questions; subsequently each question was repeated twice in a different format. Half of the questions asked were answerable from the information presented in the event and half were unanswerable. Four different forms of repetition were used: verbatim, gist, repetition of a specific question as a closed one and repetition of a closed question as a specific one. Response accuracy and consistency improved with age, but both accuracy and consistency declined with repetition. Overall, one-third of responses to repetitions changed, and accurate responses became inaccurate more often than inaccurate responses became accurate. Verbatim and gist repetitions had the least detrimental effect on the number of accurate responses, and verbatim repetition resulted in the most consistent responses. Repeating questions in any form had detrimental effects on the accuracy and overall consistency of children's testimony, but we suggest that, when it is necessary to ask a question more than once, either gist or verbatim repetition should be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have demonstrated that discriminative learning is facilitated when a particular outcome is associated with each relation to be learned. When this training procedure is applied (the differential outcomes procedure; DOP), learning is faster and better than when the typical common outcomes procedure or nondifferential outcomes (NDO) is used. Our primary purpose in the two experiments reported here was to assess the potential advantage of DOP in 5-year-old children using three different strategies of reinforcement in which (a) children received a reinforcer following a correct choice (“ + ”), (b) children lost a reinforcer following an incorrect choice (“ - ”), or (c) children received a reinforcer following a correct choice and lost one following an incorrect choice (“ + / - ”). In Experiment 1, we evaluated the effects of the presence of DOP and different types of reinforcement on learning and memory of a symbolic delayed matching-to-sample task using secondary and primary reinforcers. Experiment 2 was similar to the previous one except that only primary reinforcers were used. The results from these experiments indicated that, in general, children learned the task faster and showed higher performance and persistence of learning whenever differential outcomes were arranged independent of whether it was differential gain, loss, or combinations. A novel finding was that they performed the task better when they lost a reinforcer following an incorrect choice (type of training “ - ”) in both experiments. A further novel finding was that the advantage of the DOP over the nondifferential outcomes training increased in a retention test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object permanence is considered the earliest method for assessing working memory. Factors affecting object permanence performance in a sample of two hundred and thirty-three 18- to 22-month olds born with extremely low birth weight were examined. It was hypothesized that object permanence would be directly related to emotional and attention regulation, that children with lower birth weight and higher illness severity would have more difficulty on the object permanence task, and that no ethnic/racial differences would be found, as this is considered a culturally unbiased task. Attainment of object permanence had a significant positive association with emotional and attention regulation, even after controlling the medical severity and socioeconomic factors. More girls than boys passed the object permanence items. There was no ethnic/racial difference on object permanence. Our findings indicate that object permanence may be a culturally fair way of assessing development, and emotional and attention regulation are potential avenues of intervention for such skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storytelling is a ubiquitous human activity that occurs across the lifespan as part of everyday life. Studies from three disparate literatures suggest that older adults (as compared to younger adults) are (a) less likely to recall story details, (b) more likely to go off-target when sharing stories, and, in contrast, (c) more likely to receive higher global story quality ratings. No previous research has investigated these three related constructs in a single study. In addition, previous work has not examined the type of story most commonly told in everyday life: episodic autobiographical memories. Thus, to investigate story characteristics using ecologically valid materials, the current study examined autobiographical memory stories and fictional stories (as a comparison) recalled by younger and older adults. These were content-coded for level of detail and off-target responding, and also evaluated for global quality by layperson raters. Results show age and also gender differences in level of detail, amount of off-target responding, and global story quality across story types. Additional analyses show that level of detail, and personal significance of the memory (not person characteristics such as age and gender), are the best predictors of global story quality in autobiographical memory stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial issue in the study of eyewitness memory concerns effects of repeated interviews on children's memory accuracy. There is growing belief that exposure to repeated interviews causes increased errors. In some situations, it may. Yet, several studies reveal increased accuracy with repeated interviewing, even when the interviews include misleading questions. We review repeated-interview research in relation to event veracity, interviewer bias, and delay. We conclude that when and how children are interviewed is at least as important for their accuracy as is how many times they are interviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the performance of persons with reading disabilities (PRD) on a variety of sequential visualcomparison tasks that have different working-memory requirements. In addition, mediating relationships between the sequential comparison process and attention and memory skills were looked for. Our findings suggest that PRD perform worse than normally achieving readers (NAR) when the task requires more than a minimal amount of working memory, unrelated to presentation rate. We also demonstrate high correlations between performance on the task with the most working-memory demands and reading-related skills, suggesting that poor working-memory abilities may be one of the underlying mechanisms of dyslexia. The mediating model analysis indicates that order judgment tasks are mediating to verbal working memory, suggesting that visual sequence memory precedes auditory sequence memory. We further suggest that visual tasks involving sequential comparisons could probe for poor working memory in PRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-nine grade-matched 4th–8th-grade males, 12 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (age M= 12.2 years, SD= 1.48), and 17 without (age M= 11.5, SD= 1.59), completed two working memory tasks (digit span and the Simon game) and three long-term episodic memory tasks (a personal event memory task, story memory task, and picture recognition task). In line with clinical observations, children with ADHD performed worse than peers on all working memory tasks, but performed as well as or better than peers on long-term episodic tasks, demonstrating particularly detailed memory for personally experienced past events. Participants' parents also completed questionnaires about their children's memories in daily life. Parents rated children with ADHD lower than children without ADHD on working and semantic memory (e.g., remembering names, spelling, and math), but rated them as high or higher on memory for events. Implications for theory and educational practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors describe their method of supplementing memory ability in all students by using American Sign Language in addition to spoken language in the classroom. They note that sign language has been shown to promote language development, improve reading skills, maintain behavior control. foster self-esteem, increase enthusiasm, cause children to be more actively involved in play, and increase ease of classroom management, but that research on its use for memory improvement in children of normal development. Their research set out to prove that use of American Sign Language with hearing children increases the effectiveness of teaching preschool children, as measured by improved short-term memory. The article includes their study procedures and results.

This article examines situations where the reliability of an evidence could not be judged during the prosecution. It describes evidence from witnesses, false confessions, childhood memories and victims who had undergone hypnotheraphy. It also focuses on the psychological and social factors that influence innocent suspects to give self-incriminating false statements during police interrogation.

In this study, we explored the relationship between beginning readers' phonological awareness and other aspects of phonological processing, specifically as manifested in short-term memory and comprehension tasks. The theoretical questions underlying the study were (a) what roles phonological processes play in children's beginning reading, from word identification through sentence comprehension, and (b) whether those roles are sufficiently related that potential difficulties at one level directly affect processing at other levels. Phonologically induced effects were observed for word-list memory and for sentence judgments for both novice readers (at the end of kindergarten) and relatively more experienced readers (end of Grades 1 and 2). For both age groups, correlational analyses revealed relationships among phonological awareness, phonological processing in list memory, and word reading. However, phonological processing in sentence comprehension was not related to other types of phonological processing. These results indicate that although phonology plays a role during comprehension, phonological processing may not be as limiting a factor in comprehension as in word reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of inhibition in children's (5-, 7-, and 11-year-olds') false memory illusions in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm was examined using a list-wise directed-forgetting procedure. Children studied either a single DRM list (control) or two DRM lists in succession with a directed-remembering instruction or a directed-forgetting instruction between list presentations. The findings indicated that, like adults, children effectively suppressed the output of true memories when given a directed-forgetting instruction. Unlike adults, whose false memories are not attenuated in directed-forgetting conditions, children suppressed false memories at recall in the directed-forgetting condition. Because recognition data indicated that the children did generate false memories regardless of instruction, it appears that although adults' false memories are generated automatically and do not become part of their conscious experience, children's false memories are produced with greater effort and conscious processing, and as a result are easier to suppress at output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine different types of short-term memory deficits (visual versus verbal) of children with cleft and to determine what type of memory deficits were associated with reading disorders. Design: The study examined memory and reading in 48 consecutive cases of children with cleft, aged 7 to 9 years. A memory test designed to assess memory modalities (verbal-visual) was administered, along with tests of reading ability. Results: Visual and verbal memory were examined with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The memory pattern indicated greatest deficit in visual memory. Two subgroups were formed, according to whether or not there was evidence of visual memory impairment. A hit rate predicting reading disability based on group membership was calculated to be 65%. Visual memory was significantly correlated with reading ability (r = .48). Conclusion: A brief visual memory test was almost as good as Full Scale IQ in predicting reading disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare visual and verbal memory in children with nonverbal learning disability (NLD) using the Children's Memory Scale and to identify the profile of strengths and weaknesses in visual memory abilities. Performance was significantly lower on measures of visual than verbal memory, indicating that children with NLD have deficits in visual memory despite adequate verbal memory. A unique pattern of performance emerged for the visual but not the verbal subtests. Performance on the Faces Immediate subtest was well below average, although other measures of visual memory were within the average range. Hence, it appears that children with NLD have a specific deficit on immediate memory for faces. This facial memory deficit may be linked to a deficit in right hemisphere functioning, which has already been implicated in facial processing and may also be linked with other disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorder) in which similar facial processing deficits have been documented. More research is needed to further understand the visual memory profile of children with NLD and to inform instruction and remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memory illusions in children of three age groups (5-, 8-, and 11-year-olds) were investigated using a modified version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure. Children from each age group falsely recalled nonpresented items related to the study lists. However, the nature of the intrusions varied across the different groups. The 5-year-olds were more likely to falsely recall words that rhymed with the studied items than to recall unrelated items, whereas the 11-year-olds were more likely to falsely recall words that were semantically related to the list theme than to produce either rhyming or unrelated intrusions. Intrusions made by the 8-year-olds were equally likely to be semantic, rhyming, or unrelated to study items. The results are consistent with the notion of a developmental shift from phonological to semantic associations, leading to qualitatively different memory distortions in children of different ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies examined the conditions under which 6-year-old children succeeded in discovering prototypical information within ill-defined categories for fictitious animals that had salient individuating properties. Following either incidental or intentional learning of a single category, children attended to both prototypical and instance-specific features when judging the category membership of new examples (Experiment 1). When the same category was contrasted with a similar category in a sorting-with-feedback procedure, children relied on prototypical features in categorisation despite the fact that instance-specific features dominated their recognition-memory judgements (Experiment 2). The results show young children to be capable of shifting their attention to different kinds of category attributes according to the conditions of category formation and the nature of the assessment task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the evidence of adverse impacts of ambient noise exposure on reading acquisition in children is rather strong, a less consistent picture results from attention and memory studies in children chronically exposed to ambient noise levels. This study incorporated three cognitive measures in 4th-grade schoolchildren (N = 123). The sample was carefully selected from a representative sample by stratification on residential noise and parental educational level. The two sociodemographically homogeneous samples differed only in their noise exposure range (M = 46.1 Ldn vs. M = 62 Ldn). Individual testing took place in a mobile, sound-attenuated laboratory after prescreening for hearing loss. Chronic noise exposure was significantly related to both intentional and incidental memory. Recognition memory was also worse for the chronically noise-exposed children. No effects of chronic noise exposure were seen on visual search performance. These noise effects occur at lower, more typical noise levels as found in residential areas in Europe and North America in contrast to prior noise and cognition effects around airports and other loud noise sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the memory performance of children with reading disabilities (RD) using methodology representative of three theoretical perspectives on RD subtypes: the phonological deficit, dual route, and phonological-core variable-difference models. Analyses compared the serial memory, verbal learning, and abstract visual-spatial memory performance of 45 children with RD to that of chronological-age (CA)- and reading-level (RL)-matched controls, using subtype identification methods from each of the theoretical models to classify children with RD. Phonological deficit and dual route comparisons indicated that children with RD, regardless of subtype, performed more poorly than CA-and better than RL-matched participants on all memory tasks. Phonological-core variable-difference methodology yielded three RD subtypes, two of which exhibited distinctive memory deficits relative to both CA and RL control groups. The phonological-core variable-difference model accounted for more variance in memory performance than either of the other two models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper addresses issues surrounding the role of rehearsal and developmental increases in rehearsal speed regarding the phonological similarity effect (PSE) on immediate serial recall performance. In two experiments, school-aged children had to recall serially phonological similar and dissimilar words with or without concurrent articulation. Speech rate of the word material was also assessed. The size of the PSE was found to be independent of both age and speech rate. Furthermore, the size of the PSE was lower under articulatory suppression as compared to a standard condition without suppression. These results are consistent with the view that the PSE emerges because confusion during redintegration of degrading short-term codes is more likely for phonological similar items than for phonological distinct items. The occurrence of the PSE seems to be independent of rehearsal although articulatory suppression can moderate the size of the PSE. The parts of the redintegration mechanism that are responsible for the PSE seem to be age-invariant between 7 and 13 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the extent to which the type of task influences children's prospective memory performance. 80 subjects, aged 7 to 11 yr. participated in an experiment in which the type of task (time-based vs event-based) and the retention interval (5 min. vs 10 min.) varied. The prospective memory task was embedded in a principal task lasting about 15 min. and required subjects perform an action at a given time or in response to a specific cue. Analysis indicated that the delay was associated with prospective memory performance only on a time-based task in which the intention has to be performed after 10 min. but not age. Analysis indicated also that time monitoring was associated with shorter latency between the target time and the execution of the intention on the time based task. Implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the opening of the new Munich International Airport and the termination of the old airport, children near both sites were recruited into aircraft–noise groups (aircraft noise at present or pending) and control groups with no aircraft noise (closely matched for socioeconomic status). A total of 326 children (mean age 5 10.4 years) took part in three data–collection waves, one before and two after the switch–over of the airports. After the switch, long–term memory and reading were impaired in the noise group at the new airport. and improved in the formerly noise–exposed group at the old airport. Short–term memory also improved in the latter group after the old airport was closed. At the new airport, speech perception was impaired in the newly noise–exposed group. Mediational analyses suggest that poorer reading was not mediated by speech perception, and that impaired recall was in part mediated by reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's ability to recall text stories coherently and the ways in which this skill unfolds in the context of parent-child interaction have been receiving increasing research attention over the last several years. However, mothers' ability to turn a purely visual story into a verbal one and the implications for their children's independent story recall have not been studied. The present experiment investigated how mothers constructed a verbal story from a wordless storybook with their preschool children. A significant aim was to examine whether the narrative structure of mothers' story productions may be affected by previewing. We also analysed the effects of this betweensubjects manipulation on the narrative structure of children's independent story recall. Results indicated that previewing helped mothers to tell more coherent stories and helped them to invite their children to collaborate in the story construction. Children of mothers who previewed the story also had superior cued story recall. Implications and constraints of the data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]