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This study investigates whether (a) Cantonese and (b) English listeners integrally or independently perceive Thai tone and segmental information. Listeners completed a modified AX discrimination task that contained a control block (without segmental variation) and an orthogonal block (with segmental variation). Relative to their own performance in the control block, the Cantonese listeners showed increased response time, decreased proportion of accuracy, and decreased sensitivity index in the orthogonal block. By contrast, the English listeners showed similar response time, proportion of accuracy, and sensitivity index across the two blocks. These reflect integral processing among the Cantonese but not the English listeners. This finding motivates the dimensional transfer hypothesis. The hypothesis posits that L1 perceptual experience shapes the perceptual integrality (or nonintegrality) of foreign suprasegmental and segmental information.

This article discusses the effect of using a commercial off-the-shelf immersive virtual reality game on engineering students' reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and spatial skills. Fifteen (15) college engineering students in Northern Taiwan were conveniently recruited in a single group. Participants were tasked to play the game for 30 min during the intervention in one day. After the intervention, they were interviewed to explore more about their experiences. The approach showed significant improvement in hand-eye coordination with a large effect size. However, reaction time and spatial skills showed some mean differences, but they were not significant. The findings suggest that the adversary effect of cybersickness can be categorized as none to slight. Qualitative interviews were also conducted to gain better insights and explain the quantitative results. Most participants felt that the activities were fun and engaging. Therefore, it is suggested that the benefits of immersive virtual reality exceed their adverse effects.

The purpose of this meta-analytic review is to investigate the relation between statistical learning (SL) and language-related outcomes, and between SL and reading-related outcomes. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed published research resulted in 42 articles with 53 independent samples and 201 reported effect sizes (Pearson's r). Results of our robust variance estimation correlated effects model revealed a significant, moderate relation between SL and language-related outcomes, r = 0.236, p < 0.001, and a significant, moderate relation between SL and reading-related outcomes, r = 0.239, p < 0.001. Moreover, age, the writing system of the language, and SL paradigm moderate the strength of the association between SL and reading. Age is the only significant moderator on the strength of the association between SL and language. The findings from this meta-analysis shed light on the contribution of multiple factors that impact how SL relates to language and reading outcomes, with important implications for developing effective instructional practices that emphasize statistical regularities of oral and written materials in the classroom. Theoretical implications of these findings for language and reading development are discussed.

A number of studies have found evidence for the so-called "ambiguity advantage," that is, faster processing of ambiguous sentences compared with unambiguous counterparts. While a number of proposals regarding the mechanism underlying this phenomenon have been made, the empirical evidence so far is far from unequivocal. It is compatible with several theories, including "strategic underspecification" (Swets et al., 2008), "race models" (Logacev & Vasishth, 2016; Van Gompel et al., 2000), and a more recent "coactivation-based account" (Dillon et al., 2019). While all three classes of theories make matching predictions for the "average time" to complete relative clause (RC) attachment in ambiguous compared with unambiguous sentences, their predictions diverge with regard to the "minimum completion times." The speed-accuracy tradeoff procedure was used to test the predictions of all three classes of theories. According to a hierarchical Bayesian model, the speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (SATFs) for ambiguous RC attachment conditions show an earlier departure from chance performance than in either high or low attachment conditions. The results further indicate increased asymptotic accuracy in the ambiguous condition but no increase in processing rate. Taken together, this pattern of results is compatible with the strategic underspecification model and coactivation-based accounts, but not with race models.

The retro-cue effect (RCE) describes the finding that participants' working memory performance is enhanced when their attention is directed to the to-be-tested position by a spatial cue during the retention interval. Here, we explore the relationship between RCE and working memory consolidation. A sequential display retro-cue paradigm is used for the present study. In Experiments 1A and 1B, longer consolidation time (CT) completely erased the standard RCE. In Experiment 2, longer CT diminished the RCE in a standard simultaneous display retro-cue paradigm. In Experiment 3, the post-cue time was used by participants to further consolidate memory traces. In Experiment 4, longer CT protected memory representations from invalid cue costs. Our results support a consolidation account of the RCE: the retro-cue is effective when and only when the working memory consolidation is inadequate.

In this research, we use a process data analysis approach to gather additional evidence about students' argumentation skills beyond their performance scores in a computer-based assessment. This game-enhanced scenario-based assessment (named Seaball) included five activities that require students to demonstrate their argumentation skills within a scenario about whether junk food should be sold to students. Our research sample included 104 middle school students. Process data analyses focused on an "Interview" activity in which students explored different locations and interviewed various characters to identify their opinions on the junk food issue and categorize each opinion as pro or con. Students could take various paths to complete the activity. Results indicated that the number of trials students made in the Interview activity predicted their performance on the Interview activity as well as the total Seaball scores. It was also found that most students improved their answers in the Interview activity after receiving automated feedback and making corresponding changes. Besides the connections between student activities and performance, results from analyzing the process data helped us to identify difficult items in the task. We conclude with implications for conducting process data analysis to better assess students' argumentation skills and to inform task design.

Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) has been widely recognized as a reliable predictor of reading proficiency. Although RAN represents the speed of cognitive processing, there are few studies that have addressed RAN as a cognitive process in its own right Furthermore, RAN performance of ELL (English Language Learners) has been less frequently investigated. We have two parts to this study. First, we examine the factor structure of an enlarged composite measure of speed measure by adding four additional tests comprising color naming, and two number naming tasks to the traditional RAN of digit and letter naming. In the second part, we determine the association of Speed with broad cognitive processes comprising Executive Functions, and Information processing. Participants were students in English medium schools in India. They were divided into two age groups (8-14 and 15-20) for statistical analyses of six Speed measures Results show a strong unitary speed factor in the 8 to 14 age group. In contrast, in the 15 to 20 group RAN tests comprising digits and letters showed a very small loading on the same factor. Addressing the second objective, which is the impact of speed on various cognitive tasks, the results show that response speed has a minimal influence on Nonverbal Configurations (simultaneous) tasks, and tasks of executive functions comprising Working Memory, and Visual-Spatial Processing. These tests will enable us to isolate specific cognitive deficiencies from response speed. In a re-examination of the relation between Reading & RAN-type tests, we could suggest that serial articulation is the common and essential feature that binds rapid naming tasks and reading fluency.

Embodied cognition holds that one's body, actions, perceptions, and situations are integrated into the cognitive process and emphasizes the fact that sensorimotor systems play a role in language comprehension. Previous studies verified the embodied effect in literal language processing but few of them paid attention to metaphors in embodied cognition. The present study aims to explore the embodied effect in the comprehension of Chinese action-verb metaphor. Participants watched a video containing icons and corresponding actions to learn the relationship between them and how to perform these actions in the learning phase and in the test phase, a series of action-describing metaphor phrases were presented to participants with either the icons as primes or no prime at all. The results confirmed the embodied effect as the reaction times (RTs) were significantly shorter when action prime matched the action-verb in the following action-verb metaphor than that of no-prime condition, which are consistent with the facilitation observed in previous relevant studies in embodied cognition. In conclusion, this study verified the embodied effect in the comprehension of Chinese action-verb metaphor, offering further support to embodied cognition and providing a new interpretation for the metaphoric meaning construction of Chinese action-verbs.

The worst performance rule (WPR) describes the phenomenon that individuals' slowest responses in a task are often more predictive of their intelligence than their fastest or average responses. To explain this phenomenon, it was previously suggested that occasional lapses of attention during task completion might be associated with particularly slow reaction times. Because less intelligent individuals should experience lapses of attention more frequently, reaction time distribution should be more heavily skewed for them than for more intelligent people. Consequently, the correlation between intelligence and reaction times should increase from the lowest to the highest quantile of the response time distribution. This attentional lapses account has some intuitive appeal, but has not yet been tested empirically. Using a hierarchical modeling approach, we investigated whether the WPR pattern would disappear when including different behavioral, self-report, and neural measurements of attentional lapses as predictors. In a sample of N = 85, we found that attentional lapses accounted for the WPR, but effect sizes of single covariates were mostly small to very small. We replicated these results in a reanalysis of a much larger previously published data set. Our findings render empirical support to the attentional lapses account of the WPR.

Processing speed is divided into general (including perceptual speed and decision speed) and specific processing speed (including reading fluency and arithmetic fluency). Despite several study findings reporting the association between processing speed and children's mathematical achievement, it is still unclear whether general or specific processing speed differentially predicts mathematical achievement. The current study aimed to examine the role of general and specific processing speed in predicting mathematical achievements of junior high school students. Cognitive testing was performed in 212 junior school students at the beginning of the 7th grade year, along with assessment of general and specific processing speed. Relevant academic achievement scores were also recorded at the end of the 7th and 9th grade years. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that specific processing speed made a significant unique contribution in mathematical achievement by the end of the 7th grade and could significantly predict mathematical achievements in the high school entrance examinations by end of the 9th grade after controlling for age, gender, and general cognitive abilities. However, general processing speed could not predict mathematical achievements. Moreover, specific processing speed could significantly predict all academic achievements for both the 7th and 9th grade. These results demonstrated that specific processing speed, rather than general processing speed, was able to predict mathematical achievement and made a generalised contribution to all academic achievements in junior school. These findings suggest that specific processing speed could be a reflection of academic fluency and is therefore critical for long-term academic development.

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 investigated the strategies people choose when solving these problems, and whether some people are more flexible in their choices than others. U.S. undergraduates (n = 59) solved missing-operand problems and made speeded verifications of arithmetic sentences corresponding to the direct- and inverse-matched facts. To 'decode' their strategy as direct or inverse, each participant's response times (RTs) for missing-operand problems were regressed on their RTs for the corresponding direct and inverse facts. Our findings replicated the problem size effect for the arithmetic verification task and extended this effect to missing-operand (i.e., one-step) algebra problems, suggesting that the two tasks draw on common representations and processes in the addition (but not subtraction) context. We found individual differences in strategy choice and flexibility such that participants varied both in terms of fluency for retrieving the direct fact and sensitivity to the potential benefit of switching to the inverse fact, which was validated by self-report. We did not find a predicted relation between strategy flexibility and standardized mathematical achievement. These findings inform our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in strategy flexibility in algebra and establish an RT-decoding paradigm for future examination of individual differences in students' learning of early algebra concepts.

In three experiments, we used a masked prime in a verification task to investigate the processing stages occurring during multiplication fact retrieval. We aimed to investigate the retrieval process by overlapping its execution with the processing of a masked prime consisting of a number. Participants evaluated the correctness of multiplication equations, where the result was preceded by a masked prime (presented for 30 ms, with different stimulus onset asynchrony between the operands and the prime). Decade consistency and relatedness of the prime were manipulated. For example, given the equation 4 x 7 = 28, the prime could be: a neighbor either decade consistent (24) or inconsistent (32), or an unrelated number either decade consistent (23) or inconsistent (31). We expected that the feature of the prime (relatedness or decade consistency) that generates interference depends on the processing stage reached when the prime is processed. Although Experiment 1 showed promising results, Experiments 2 and 3 suggest that the pattern found in Experiment 1 was a false positive. Overall, the paradigm used in this study (i.e., masked prime with a verification ask) does not seem to produce a stable interference during the retrieval process.

Neuropsychological case-studies suggested that dates and encyclopedic numbers may be processed differently than unknown numbers. However, this issue was seldom investigated in healthy participants. Therefore, it is unclear whether known dates are read like words (as lexical items), or like numbers (each position strictly defines digits' values in a base-10 system). Here, we compared dates to unknown numbers in an experiment using a paradigm from the word recognition literature. We assessed the wordsuperiority effect by testing experts (students/ teachers in History) with dates. A 4-characters stimulus (xxxx; letters or numbers, half known/unknown) was presented centrally, masked, and followed by 2 characters above and below the mask, at position 2 (xXxx) or 3 (xxXx) in an alternative-forced-choice recognition task. Both accuracy and reaction times were better for dates than unknown numbers, similarly to the results obtained with words by comparison to non-words. However, this effect was modulated by position in the string. These results show a "date-superiority effect" revealing that dates are processed differently than unknown numbers, and suggest that similar orthographical mechanisms might be used to process dates and words.

What is the foundational knowledge that children rely on to provide meaning as they construct an exact symbolic number system? People and animals can quickly and accurately distinguish small exact quantities (i.e., 1 to 3). One possibility is that children's ability to map small quantities to spoken number words supports their developing exact number system. To test this hypothesis, it is important to have valid and reliable measures of the efficiency of quantity-number word mapping. In the present study, we explored the reliability and validity of a measure for assessing the efficiency of mapping between small quantities and number words--speeded naming of quantity. Study 1 (N = 128) with 5- and 6-year-old children and Study 2 (N = 182) with 3- and 4-year-old children show that the speeded naming of quantities is a simple and reliable measure that is correlated with individual differences in children's developing numeracy knowledge. This measure could provide a useful tool for testing comprehensive theories of how children develop their symbolic number representations.

Here, we assess whether quantity representations are influenced by the perceptual biases hypothesized to manifest in depressive individuals. In contrast to this clinical model, several prominent models of numerical cognition assume that quantity representations are abstract, and therefore are independent of the items that are being quantified. If this is the case, then the depression induced perceptual biases should not manifest with respect to the perception of quantity. We tested these predictions in two experiments in which we presented participants with a number-line with a tick mark that indicated the time until a positive, neutral, or negative event. The participant's task was to estimate the quantity of time indicated by the tick mark. In both experiments, we assessed participants' BDI-II score. To assess the role of controlled, strategic processing on the manifestation of these biases, we manipulated the amount of time that participants were able to study the number-line prior to responding. In Experiment 1, we attempted to motivate participants to respond quickly voluntarily. The results revealed no influence of time pressure on participants' RTs, nor any relation between quantity bias and depression. In Experiment 2, we restricted the amount of time participants could spend viewing the number-line. The results revealed estimation biases consistent with the perceptual biases predicted by Beck's cognitive theory of depression for the short presentation times. These findings (1) confirm that level of depression is linked to the predicted perceptual biases of quantity and (2) implicate controlled processing in the masking of perceptual bias.

The goal of the present study was to extend earlier work on the estimation of person theta using maximum likelihood estimation in R by accounting for rapid guessing. This paper provides a modified R function that accommodates person thetas using the Rasch or 2PL models and implements corrections for the presence of rapid guessing or informed guessing behaviors. Initially, a sample of 200 participants was generated using Mplus in order to demonstrate the use of the function with the full sample and a single participant in particular. Subsequently, the function was applied to data from the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and the measurement of cognitive ability. Using a sample of 8500 participants, the present R function was demonstrated. An illustrative example of a single participant, assumed to be either a rapid responder or a successful guesser, is provided using MLE and BME. It was concluded that the present function can contribute to a more valid estimation of person ability.

Many studies have used fraction magnitude comparison tasks to assess people's abilities to quickly assess fraction magnitudes. However, since there are multiple ways to compare fractions, it is not clear whether people actually reason about the holistic magnitudes of the fractions in this task and whether they use multiple strategies in a flexible and adaptive way. We asked 72 adults to solve challenging fraction comparisons (e.g., 31/71 vs. 13/23) on a computer. In some of these comparisons, using benchmarks (i.e., reference numbers such as 1/2) was potentially beneficial. After each trial, participants provided verbal reports of their strategies. We found that participants used a large variety of strategies. The majority of strategies were holistic and relied on fraction magnitudes, and most of these strategies were based on benchmarks. Participants sometimes used gap comparison (i.e., comparing the differences between each fraction's numerator and denominator), a heuristic that is not always valid and that does not rely on fraction magnitudes. Participants used strategies flexibly: they used many different strategies, they used highly efficient strategies most often, and they adapted their strategy use to features of the items. However, participants sometimes used gap comparison on items for which it did not yield the correct response, and this lack of adaptivity partly explained the "natural number bias" observed in this study.

We study the automatic identification of educational items worthy of content authors' attention. Based on the results of such analysis, content authors can revise and improve the content of learning environments. We provide an overview of item properties relevant to this task, including difficulty and complexity measures, item discrimination, and various forms of content representation. We analyze the potential usefulness of these properties using both simulation and analysis of real data from a large-scale learning environment. We also describe two case studies where we practically apply the identification of attention-worthy items. Based on the analysis and case studies, we provide recommendations for practice and impulses for further research.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate contribution of a professional development program committed to providing quality training to support dialogic talk to student active participation. Indicators of active participation, in the context of this study, were the speaking duration of the teacher compared to student, the number of different ideas of the students emerging in the classroom milieu, the number of students answering per question asked by the teacher, and the rate of students' personal answers for the questions asked by the teacher. Design/Methodology/Approach: In recruiting teachers, gathering, and analyzing data, the educational design-based research (DBR) method was adopted. A total of seventeen teachers volunteered and participated in a four-week course program. The program involved theoretical and practical information about authoritative and dialogic talk. After the program had been completed, the teachers worked in pairs, designed lesson plans, and implemented the plans in their classrooms. Teachers' pre- and post-intervention practices were videotaped and then transcribed. Findings: A total of four teachers being able to successfully implement the dialogical discourse in their classrooms were selected for analysis and the findings are reported in the present study. The descriptive analysis showed that dialogical discourse generally contributed a significant increase in student talk ratio, number of student responses, new ideas, and students' personal responses. Highlights: Dialogical discourse-based education has reduced the speaking time of teachers. It contributed to the emergence of different ideas in the classroom. It increased students' active participation in the lesson and their individual response rates.

Challenges to measuring students' attitudes toward statistics remain despite decades of focused research. Measuring the expectancy-value theory (EVT) Cost construct has been especially challenging owing in part to the historical lack of research about it. To measure the EVT Cost construct better, this study asked university students to respond to items using both a Likert-type response and an Evaluative Space Grid (ESG)-type response. ESG items enable bivariate responses in a single item and permit distinguishing among two different types of neutral attitudes: indifferent and ambivalent. This pilot study evaluates the appropriateness of ESG-type items for measuring the EVT Cost construct by analyzing student response patterns to ESG-type items and comparing them with Likert-type items. Validity evidence is documented using descriptive statistics and graphs, correlations among items, and a trinomial hypothesis test. Internal consistency reliability indices are also reported. Friedman's Test is used to compare the average response times for items of different types. Results indicate that students can meaningfully respond to ESG-type items in ways that are similar to their Likert-type responses, that students respond to ESG-type items quicker with more practice, and that distinguishing among indifferent and ambivalent attitudes seems appropriate for the EVT Cost construct. These findings suggest that ESG-type items may provide new insights not possible with Likert-type items but also that more research should be conducted to better understand their advantages and disadvantages within statistics education.

The extent to which a test's time limit alters a test taker's performance is known as speededness. The manifestation of speededness, or speeded behavior on a test, can be in the form of random guessing, leaving a substantial proportion of test items unanswered, or rushed test-taking behavior in general. Speeded responses do not depend solely on a test taker's ability and are therefore not appropriate for traditional item response theory. The literature on measuring the extent of speededness on a test is extensive and dates back over a halfcentury. Yet, simple rules of thumb for measuring speededness, dating back until at least Swineford in 1949, are still in operation--for example, 80% of the candidates reach the last item. The purpose of this research report is to provide a chronology and classification of methods for measuring speededness and to discuss ensuing research and development in measuring speededness.

In this report, we demonstrate use of differential response time (DRT) methodology, an extension of differential item functioning methodology, for examining differences in how students from different backgrounds engage with assessment tasks. We analyze response time data from a digitally delivered mathematics assessment to examine timing differences between English language learner (ELL) and non-ELL student groups. When matched on the total sum scores of the studied item form, results showed that ELLs spent a significantly longer time on most items compared to the non-ELLs who performed similarly on the test form. When matched on the total response time, results showed that ELL students spent a significantly longer time on items in the first half of the form but a shorter time on items in the second half. This research demonstrates the usefulness of DRT methodology in gaining insights about the differential engagement of students with assessment tasks.

This study aimed at investigating the influence of L1 (Turkish) on the acquisition of L2 (English) collocations by comparing the scores of two Turkish ELT student groups with a phrase-judgment test. The test included both congruent and incongruent collocations as well as unrelated word combinations. The participants whose vocabulary levels were defined as 3000-word level (low level) and 5000-word level (high level) according to Vocabulary Level Test (VLT), which was developed by Schmitt et al. (2001) were asked to judge whether the expressions were acceptable in English. The scores of the low-level and high-level students were compared in terms of their error rates and reaction times to the collocations. The overall results indicated that participants in both groups made more errors with incongruent collocations than congruent collocations. Their reaction times were also longer with incongruent collocations than with congruent collocations. However, the data yielded nonsignificant results in terms of the vocabulary levels of the participants for both error rates and reaction times.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Greek traditional dance programme on sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) and reaction time on primary school children (6.41 ± 0.41 yr.). We randomly assigned 61 children to either the dance group (31 children, 15 boys, 16 girls, 6.42 ± 0.40 yr.), who took part in a dance programme of 12 lessons (3 times/week), or the control group (30 children, 16 boys, 14 girls, 6.40 ± 0.42 yr.). Before and after the intervention, we assessed both groups for SMS (walking in synchrony to 80 and 120 beats/min) and reaction time. Two-way ANOVA repeated measures show that the dance group performed significantly better on SMS compared to the control group at 80 beats/min (BPM), but not at 120 BPM. We discuss the results in relation to spontaneous motor tempo and the information-processing theory. In relation to reaction time, no significant difference was observed between the two groups at the end of the intervention. However, the dance group showed a significant improvement between pre- and post-tests. It may be concluded that a dance programme of 12 lessons constitutes an effective and enjoyable activity for the improvement of young children's sensorimotor synchronization at 80 BPM and perhaps reaction time.

The increased Simon effect with increasing the ratio of congruent trials may be interpreted by both attention modulation and irrelevant stimulus-response (S-R) associations learning accounts, although the reversed Simon effect with increasing the ratio of incongruent trials provides evidence supporting the latter account. To investigate if learning irrelevant S-R associations is a common mechanism underlying the proportion congruency (PC) effect of the Simon task, we employed a variant of diffusion model, diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC), to test which theory can simultaneously account for the mean reaction time (RT) and RT distribution patterns of the Simon effect in different PC conditions. Simulation results showed that the DMC modulating starting point according to learned irrelevant S-R associations rather than drift criterion or attention-related parameters (i.e., drift rate of controlled process, peak amplitude and time-to-peak of automatic activation) can simultaneously simulate the increase and reversal of the Simon effect and the different shapes of delta functions in different PC conditions. Moreover, when fitting to empirical data, the DMC adjusting starting point provided a good fit to the mean RT and RT distribution patterns of the Simon effect in different PC conditions. These results suggest learning irrelevant S-R associations (biasing starting point) may be a common mechanism underlying the PC effect of the Simon task.

Examinees with item preknowledge tend to obtain inflated test scores that undermine test score validity. With the availability of process data collected in computer-based assessments, the research on detecting item preknowledge has progressed on using both item scores and response times. Item revisit patterns of examinees can also be utilized as an additional source of information. This study proposes a new statistic for detecting item preknowledge when compromised items are known by utilizing the hierarchical speed--accuracy revisits model. By simultaneously evaluating abnormal changes in the latent abilities, speeds, and revisit propensities of examinees, the procedure was found to provide greater statistical power and stronger substantive evidence that an examinee had indeed benefited from item preknowledge.

Change-point analysis (CPA) is a method for detecting abrupt changes in parameter(s) underlying a sequence of random variables. It has been applied to detect examinees' aberrant test-taking behavior by identifying abrupt test performance change. Previous studies utilized maximum likelihood estimations of ability parameters, focusing on detecting one change point for each examinee. This article proposes a Bayesian CPA procedure using response times (RTs) to detect abrupt changes in examinee speed, which may be related to aberrant responding behaviors. The lognormal RT model is used to derive a procedure for detecting aberrant RT patterns. The method takes the numbers and locations of the change points as parameters in the model to detect multiple change points or multiple aberrant behaviors. Given the change points, the corresponding speed of each segment in the test can be estimated, which enables more accurate inferences about aberrant behaviors. Simulation study results indicate that the proposed procedure can effectively detect simulated aberrant behaviors and estimate change points accurately. The method is applied to data from a high-stakes computerized adaptive test, where its applicability is demonstrated.

Cognitive control theories describe the active maintenance of goal representations over temporal delays as central for adaptive behavior. Dynamic adaptations of goal representations are often measured as the congruency sequence effect (CSE), which describes a reduced congruency effect in trials following incongruent trials compared to congruent trials. Previous studies questioned active maintenance of CSEs and instead found that CSEs decrease rapidly over time (Duthoo et al., 2014; Egner et al., 2010). However, in these studies, CSEs can be attributed to both, control adaptations following conflict and binding effects due to repetition of stimulus (S) and response (R) features. In four experiments, we demonstrate that CSEs originating solely from control adaptions were not affected by temporal delays. Additional within-subject conditions partially replicated previous research showing a decrease in CSEs in task designs allowing for S-R binding effects and controlled for task complexity as a potential moderator. Together, results support theories which predict an active maintenance or retrieval of cognitive control.

The Dual Process Theory of Autism proposes that autistic individuals demonstrate greater deliberative (slower) processing alongside reduced (faster) intuitive processing. This study manipulated the reasoning time available to investigate the extent to which deliberative and intuitive processing are sensitive to time context in autism. A total of 74 young autistic people and 132 control participants completed the Cognitive Reflection Test to measure intuition and deliberation, with responses being either speeded (fast condition) or delayed (slow condition). The autistic group produced more deliberative and less intuitive responses than controls overall. Both groups showed more intuitive responses in the fast condition and more deliberative responses in the slow condition, demonstrating the reasoning style in autism is sensitive to context.

This study followed up ADHD/autistic symptoms and attentional performance in children/adolescents with ASD and typically developing ones (TD) over 5-7 years. The participants were stratified by age at baseline into child (< 12 years) and adolescent (12-19 years) groups. ADHD symptoms, especially hyperactivity, and attentional functions significantly improved during follow-up, more in children than in adolescents, in both ASD and TD. Significantly more omission errors and perseverations were noted in ASD than TD through the follow-up. Children with ASD had more improvement in reaction time while adolescents with ASD had less improvement in commission errors and detectability than TD. No correlation of attentional functions and ADHD symptoms in ASD implied different neural mechanisms of ADHD symptoms between ASD and ADHD.

We assessed different aspects of tactile perception in young children (3-6 years) with autism. Autistic and neurotypical children completed vibrotactile tasks assessing reaction time, amplitude discrimination (sequential and simultaneous) and temporal discrimination (temporal order judgment and duration discrimination). Autistic children had elevated and more variable reaction times, suggesting slower perceptual-motor processing speed and/or greater distractibility. Children with autism also showed higher amplitude discrimination and temporal order judgement thresholds compared to neurotypical children. Tactile perceptual metrics did not associate with social or tactile sensitivities measured by parent-reports. Altered tactile behavioral responses appear in early childhood, can be quantified but appear dissociated from sensitivity. This implies these measures are complementary, but not necessarily related, phenomena of atypical tactile perception in autism.

Some words have more than one translation across languages. Such translation-ambiguous words are harder to learn, recognize, and produce for individuals across the language learning spectrum. Past research demonstrates that learning both translations of translation-ambiguous words on consecutive trials confers an accuracy advantage relative to learning them on separate sessions. We tested the proposal that presenting the two translations of translation-ambiguous words simultaneously on the screen could facilitate the formation of a more integrated mapping, because this would enable learners to make direct comparisons between them, whether implicitly or explicitly. We predicted that this facilitation would especially hold for translation-ambiguous words with related translations. Fifty native English speakers learned 48 German words with one or two translations that varied in the meaning similarity of their translations. Paired associate training took place on a Monday, and a first language (L1) to second language (L2) translation production test took place on Wednesday and Friday. Generally, higher translation similarity facilitated translation speed. In accuracy, training condition interacted with the similarity of the translations; translation accuracy was more affected by translation similarity in the simultaneous condition and went up as similarity increased. Overall, the consecutive condition demonstrated higher accuracy and faster reaction times than the simultaneous training condition, suggesting that learners may have been unable to successfully divide their study time between multiple words on the screen without explicit instruction.

In a typical probabilistic cuing experiment, participants are asked to find a visual target among a series of distractors. Although participants are not informed about this, the target appears more frequently in one region of the display, resulting in faster search times for targets located in this region. This bias is thought to depend on a habit-like attentional control mechanism, unconstrained by the availability of working memory (WM) resources. However, the only study that has explored this feature in the past suffers from methodological shortcomings that leave the results open to alternative explanations. In three experiments, we aimed to confirm whether probabilistic cuing is unaffected by visual, spatial, and spatiotemporal WM load. For each experiment, one group of participants performed the visual search task during the retention interval of a WM task (high-load group), whereas another group of participants (no-load group) carried out the visual search task after the WM task. We hypothesized that the probabilistic cuing effect would be larger for the no-load group compared to the high-load group. This hypothesis was confirmed in one experiment, but exploratory analyses suggest that the results can be highly dependent on the analytic approach, casting doubts on its robustness. Overall, our results provide partial support for the hypothesis that probabilistic cuing is not affected by a secondary task. However, given that some analyses reveal an effect of WM load, we conclude that it might be premature to rule out the possibility that the expression of this attentional bias requires WM resources.

The ability to extract patterns from sensory input across time and space is thought to underlie the development and acquisition of language and literacy skills, particularly the subdomains marked by the learning of probabilistic knowledge. Thus, impairments in procedural learning are hypothesized to underlie neurodevelopmental disorders, such as dyslexia and developmental language disorder. In the present meta-analysis, comprising 2396 participants from 39 independent studies, the continuous relationship between language, literacy, and procedural learning on the Serial Reaction Time task (SRTT) was assessed across children and adults with typical development (TD), dyslexia, and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Despite a significant, but very small, relationship between procedural learning and overall language and literacy measures, this pattern was not observed at the group-level when examining TD, dyslexic, and DLD groups separately. Based on the procedural/declarative model, a positive relationship was expected between procedural learning and language and literacy measures for the typically developing group; however, no such relationship was observed. This was also the case for the disordered groups (ps > 0.05). Also counter to expectations, the magnitude of the relationship between procedural learning and grammar and phonology did not differ between TD and DLD (ps > 0.05), nor between the TD and dyslexic group on reading, spelling, and phonology (ps > 0.05). While lending little support to the procedural/declarative model, we consider that these results may be the consequence of poor psychometric properties of the SRTT as a measure of procedural learning.

It is well established in educational research that metacognitive monitoring of performance assessed by self-reports, for instance, asking students to report their confidence in provided answers, is based on heuristic cues rather than on actual success in the task. Subjective self-reports are also used in educational research on cognitive load, where they refer to the perceived amount of mental effort invested in or difficulty of each task item. In the present study, we examined the potential underlying bases and the predictive value of mental effort and difficulty appraisals compared to confidence appraisals by applying metacognitive concepts and paradigms. In three experiments, participants faced verbal logic problems or one of two non-verbal reasoning tasks. In a between-participants design, each task item was followed by either mental effort, difficulty, or confidence appraisals. We examined the associations between the various appraisals, response time, and success rates. Consistently across all experiments, we found that mental effort and difficulty appraisals were associated more strongly than confidence with response time. Further, while all appraisals were highly predictive of solving success, the strength of this association was stronger for difficulty and confidence appraisals (which were similar) than for mental effort appraisals. We conclude that mental effort and difficulty appraisals are prone to misleading cues like other metacognitive judgments and are based on unique underlying processes. These findings challenge the accepted notion that mental effort appraisals can serve as reliable reflections of cognitive load.

Background: Item response times in computerized assessments are frequently used to identify rapid guessing behaviour as a manifestation of response disengagement. However, non-rapid responses (i.e., with longer response times) are not necessarily engaged, which means that response-time-based procedures could overlook disengaged responses. Therefore, the identification of disengaged responses could be improved by considering additional indicators of disengagement. We investigated the extent to which decreases in individuals' item solution probabilities over the course of a test reflect disengaged response behaviour. Objectives: To disentangle different types of possibly disengaged responses and better understand non-effortful test-taking behaviour, we augmented responses-time-based procedures for identifying rapid guessing with strategies for detecting disengaged responses on the basis of performance declines in non-rapid responses. Methods: We combined item response theory (IRT) models for rapid guessing and test-taking persistence to examine the capability of response times and item positions to capture response disengagement. We used a computerized assessment in which science items were randomly distributed across positions for each student. This allowed us to estimate individual differences in test-taking persistence (i.e., the duration for which the initial level of performance is maintained) while accounting for rapid responses. Results and Conclusions: Response times did not fully explain disengagement; item responses reflected test-taking persistence even when rapid responses were accounted for. This interpretation was supported by a strong correlation of test-taking persistence with decreases in self-reported test-taking effort. Furthermore, our results suggest that IRT models for test-taking persistence can effectively account for the undesirable impact of low test-taking effort even when response times are unavailable.

A test of item compromise is presented which combines the test takers' responses and response times (RTs) into a statistic defined as the number of correct responses on the item for test takers with RTs flagged as suspicious. The test has null and alternative distributions belonging to the well-known family of compound binomial distributions, is simple to calculate, and has results that are easy to interpret. It also demonstrated nearly perfect power for the detection of compromise with no more than 10 test takers with preknowledge of the more difficult and discriminating items in a set of empirical examples. For the easier and less discriminating items, the presence of some 20 test takers with preknowledge still sufficed. A test based on the reverse statistic of the total time by test takers with responses flagged as suspicious may seem a natural alternative but misses the property of a monotone likelihood ratio necessary to decide between a test that should be left or right sided.

As researchers in the social sciences, we are often interested in studying not directly observable constructs through assessments and questionnaires. But even in a well-designed and well-implemented study, rapid-guessing behavior may occur. Under rapid-guessing behavior, a task is skimmed shortly but not read and engaged with in-depth. Hence, a response given under rapid-guessing behavior does bias constructs and relations of interest. Bias also appears reasonable for latent speed estimates obtained under rapid-guessing behavior, as well as the identified relation between speed and ability. This bias seems especially problematic considering that the relation between speed and ability has been shown to be able to improve precision in ability estimation. For this reason, we investigate if and how responses and response times obtained under rapid-guessing behavior affect the identified speed-ability relation and the precision of ability estimates in a joint model of speed and ability. Therefore, the study presents an empirical application that highlights a specific methodological problem resulting from rapid-guessing behavior. Here, we could show that different (non-)treatments of rapid guessing can lead to different conclusions about the underlying speed-ability relation. Furthermore, different rapid-guessing treatments led to wildly different conclusions about gains in precision through joint modeling. The results show the importance of taking rapid guessing into account when the psychometric use of response times is of interest.

Perspective-taking plays an important role in daily life, allowing consideration of other people's perspectives and viewpoints. This study used a large sample of 265 community-based participants (aged 20-86 years) to examine changes in perspective-taking abilities--a component of "Theory of Mind"--across adulthood, and how these changes may relate to individual differences in executive functions at different ages. Participants completed a referential-communication task (the "Director" task) while behavioral responses and eye movements were recorded, along with four measures of executive functions (inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning). Results revealed a quadratic fit of age in egocentric errors; performance on the task plateaued between 20 to [approximately]37 years old but showed a substantial decline from [approximately]38 years onward (i.e., increased egocentric errors). A similar pattern was established in eye-movement measures, demonstrating that advancing age led to a decrease in efficient attention orientation to a target. In other words, older adults were more distracted by a hidden competitor object (egocentric interference) and were therefore delayed in orienting their attention to the correct target object. Mediation analyses revealed that executive functions partially mediated the effect of age on perspective-taking abilities. Importantly, however, the relationship between age and egocentric bias in task performance remained significant when controlling for changes in executive functions, indicating a decline in social cognition abilities with advancing age that was independent of age-related declines in more domain-general abilities, such as executive functions.

"Attribute-framing bias" reflects people's tendency to evaluate objects framed positively more favorably than the same objects framed negatively. Although biased by the framing valence, evaluations are nevertheless calibrated to the magnitude of the target attribute. In three experiments that manipulated magnitudes in different ways, we examined to what extent encouraging speeded or accurate responses affected the bias of evaluations and their calibration. Results revealed a dissociation between the biasing effect of framing valence and the calibrated effect of magnitude. The bias was increased in the speeded conditions relative to the accurate conditions. However, the calibration was affected by the speed-accuracy manipulation only in negative and not in positive framing conditions. We discuss the advantage of "fuzzy-trace theory" in explaining these results, suggesting that gist representations elicit the bias, whereas verbatim representations allow calibration. However, the relative contributions of these representations to evaluation vary with task demands such as speed-accuracy requirements.

When producing creative ideas (i.e., ideas that are original and useful) two main processes occur: ideation, where people brainstorm ideas, and evaluation, where they decide if the ideas are creative or not. While much is known about the ideation phase, the cognitive processes involved in creativity evaluation are less clear. In this article, we present a novel modeling approach for the evaluation phase of creativity. We apply the drift diffusion model (DDM) to the Creative-or-Not task (CON-task) to study the cognitive basis of evaluation and to examine individual differences in the extent to which people take originality and utility into account when evaluating creative ideas. The CON-task is a timed decision-making task where participants indicate whether they find uses for certain objects creative or not (e.g., using a book as a buoy). The different uses vary on the two creativity dimensions "originality" and "utility." In two studies (n = 293, 17,806 trials; n = 152, 9,291 trials), we found that stimulus originality was strongly related to participants' drift rates but found only weak evidence for an association between stimulus utility and the drift rate. However, participants differed substantially in the effects of originality and utility. Furthermore, the implicit weights assigned to originality and utility on the CON-task were associated with self-reported importance ratings of originality and utility and with divergent thinking performance in the Alternative Uses task (AUT). This research provides a cognitive modeling approach to creativity evaluation and underlines the importance of communicating rating criteria in divergent thinking tasks to ensure a fair assessment of creative ability. [This research was presented at the virtual MathPsych/ICCM conference in 2020.]

Working memory allows us to hold specific pieces of information in an active and easily retrieved state, but what happens to that information during an unexpected interruption between study and test? To answer this question, we used a surprise trial paradigm in which an unexpected event precedes a probe of the observer's memory for a search target. In the first set of experiments, participants were tasked to report the identity of the target letter before unexpectedly being asked to read a task-irrelevant passage. We observed that the introduction of this passage interfered with the observer's memory of the target letter, but this interference only occurred after participants had experience completing the task without interruption. However, a remember cue placed just prior to the reading prompt reduced this cost, suggesting that participants can rapidly reinforce information about the target in working memory to resist the interference. We then used this same cuing manipulation to test whether information in an attribute amnesia paradigm, which unexpectedly probes an attribute relevant to target selection but irrelevant to participant's response expectations, could also be protected against unexpected interference. Using this paradigm, we observed that a remember cue did not improve performance following the surprising event, which supports theories that attribute amnesia is not caused solely by interference. These results reveal both the vulnerability and flexibility of working memory and demonstrate the importance of understanding how task experience establishes expectations that impact the underlying cognitive representations formed by the observer.

Morpheme-based literacy training programs are widely used in German primary schools. This study investigated whether (1) morphological training is effective early in development (Grade 2) and (2) literacy gains can be attributed to advanced morphological processing. Fifty-two German-speaking second-graders participated in an eight-week morpheme-based training program, while an age-matched control group (n = 41) attended regular language classes. All children completed spelling, reading and morphological awareness tasks and participated in a masked primed lexical decision experiment, once before training, and then again following training. We observed training effects for spelling and reading morphologically complex words, with bigger increases in the intervention than the control group. In addition, the masked priming results revealed that lexical decision times decreased more strongly in the intervention than the control group, but there was no clear training impact on the pattern of morphological priming. However, the performance on standardized reading tests and a morphological awareness task did not differ across participant groups. Thus, while written language processing improved, it is unclear whether these effects can be attributed to morphological processing or rather general gains in orthographic knowledge.

According to previous research, speakers of European languages parse regularly-inflected, morphologically-complex words into stems and grammatical affixes during word recognition. In contrast, some studies suggest that late second language (L2) learners do not. We ask how these types of words are processed in Arabic, a language whose primary morphological process is infixation, which exists alongside prefix- and suffixation. Specifically, we ask how natives, heritage, and late L2 learners process regular gender and number agreement morphology on adjectives. Results of a masked priming experiment suggest that all three groups parse adjectives into stems and affixes depending on agreement type, suggesting that learners store and process morphologically-complex words like native speakers, even when the first and second language have very different morphological systems.

This research is a large study over an extended period of time involving hundreds of general chemistry students and multiple instructors at the US Naval Academy. The purpose was to investigate whether a combination of clicker content and confidence questions would improve the performance and metacognition of students of different achievement groups (top, middle, bottom). Results showed no statistical difference in exam achievement between students who used clickers and those who did not when other active teaching methods were employed in both groups. Within the clicker participants, statistical differences in confidence on clicker questions were found by student achievement group, question type (algorithmic and conceptual), and question difficulty for both semesters of general chemistry. Students in the top achievement group were the most confident. All students were more confident on algorithmic and easy questions, though a significant interaction was found between question type and difficulty in the second semester. Metacognition was measured by calibration (confidence when the answer is corrector lack of confidence when incorrect). Overall, students of all achievement groups were well calibrated with students in the top group being confident in correct answers and students in the bottom group nonconfident within correct answers. Students in the middle group displayed calibration between those of the top and bottom groups. Evidence of calibration for middle and bottom students may indicate the beginning of metacognitive awareness. A positive trend was found in student perceived value of confidence questions over the two semesters of general chemistry.

Researchers have become increasingly interested in response times to survey items as a measure of cognitive effort. We used machine learning to develop a prediction model of response times based on 41 attributes of survey items (e.g., question length, response format, linguistic features) collected in a large, general population sample. The developed algorithm can be used to derive reference values for expected response times for most commonly used survey items.

In the standard Proportion-Congruent (PC) paradigm, performance is compared between a list containing mostly congruent (MC) stimuli (e.g., the word RED in the color red in the Stroop task; Stroop, 1935) and a list containing mostly incongruent (MI) stimuli (e.g., the word BLUE in red). The PC effect, the finding that the congruency effect (i.e., the latency difference between incongruent and congruent stimuli) is typically larger in an MC list, has been interpreted by the popular conflict-monitoring account (Botvinick et al., 2001) as reflecting a proactive process whereby attention to task-relevant information is adapted based on how frequently conflict from task-irrelevant information arises. Recently, however, alternative accounts of the PC effect have emerged that assume either that the PC effect reflects processes other than proactive conflict adaptation (e.g., stimulus-response contingency learning) or that proactive conflict adaptation is only engaged as a last resort (e.g., when contingency learning cannot be used to minimize interference). We examined these ideas in three experiments in which proactive conflict adaptation could be evaluated independently from processes that are normally confounded with it in the PC paradigm, while still allowing those processes, particularly contingency learning, to be used to minimize interference. Consistent with the conflict-monitoring account of the PC effect, but inconsistent with all the alternative accounts of the PC effect, evidence for proactive conflict adaptation emerged in all experiments. Although multiple processes may be engaged in the PC paradigm, this paradigm remains a valid tool for examining proactive conflict adaptation, its typical use.