Purpose: The current study aimed to investigate the behavioral and electrophysiological patterns of the sentence superiority effect (SSE) in sentence repetition in monolingual adults with typical language development. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish the foundation for future studies of SSE in sentence repetition in individuals with…

The goal of this research is to examine the differences of short-term memory capacity between intellectually gifted, general education, and students receiving special education services. Using foundations in memory and recall research by Atkinson and Shiffrin and Baddeley and Hitch, data was collected by replication of a previous serial position…

This dissertation explored the lived experiences of undergraduate and graduate students with learning disabilities and learning-affected disorders within the context of the college writing classroom. Utilizing a critical incident technique (CIT) framework, the dissertation inquired about the writing processes, learning styles, decisions regarding…

The assessment data in La Frontera School District suggests a need for improving instructional practices for middle school emergent bilingual migrant students' language and reading development. One possible solution to the language and literacy issues maybe introducing cognates. Cognates are words with identical or similar orthography and meaning…

Over the past decade, robust literature focused on teacher "talk moves" that promote student argumentation has emerged, especially in mathematics education. Teachers and students can use talk moves to construct conversations in which students share their thinking, actively consider the ideas of others, and engage in sustained reasoning.…

As the use of technology becomes increasingly widespread across the globe, the risks and rewards of obsessive use become uncertain. Specifically, the abundance of smart phones and the popularity of social media sites have led to multitasking and competing sources for students' attention. This study seeks to understand how personal media devices…

Understanding how short-term memory shapes sentence comprehension processes is a long-standing topic in psycholinguistics. This thesis pursues new insights on two facets of short-term memory's role in sentence comprehension: (a) The first four experiments search for, and obtain, concrete evidence that locality effects, or increased integration…

Research has suggested many children with learning disabilities (LD) have deficits in working memory (WM) that hinder their academic achievement. Cogmed RM, a computerized intervention, uses adaptive training over 25 sessions and has shown efficacy in improving WM in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a variety of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of specific cognitive abilities and reading comprehension across a variety of norm referenced tests that align with Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities and integrative models of reading. Data from existing studies was analyzed by comparing the relationships of four…

The purpose of this body of work was to gain a clearer understanding of the potential cognitive factors that may contribute to Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This study attempted to simulate a performance profile of SLI in typically developing children within a grammaticality judgment task, featuring structures historically difficult (third…

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have emerged as valuable systems to promote active learning. It is critical to build accurate student models to support the learning process. In order to provide efficient and effective personalized instructions for students, tracking a student's time-varying knowledge state is essential to an ITS. Prior…

Brain-based initiatives and school readiness mandates in education have prompted researchers to examine the biological mechanisms associated with learning in the hope that understanding empirical evidence can maximize learning potential. Current research has examined working memory skills in relationship to early learning. The function of working…

School counselors influence the referral process and delivery of educational recommendations. Their perceptions of students' cognitive abilities are likely to influence their referral decisions as well as their interpretation and use of the results of psychological testing. The Cattell-Horn-Carroll, (CHC), model of intelligence, is gaining…

Auditory processing of speech is influenced by internal (i.e., attention, working memory) and external factors (i.e., background noise, visual information). This study examined the interplay among these factors in individuals with and without ADHD. All participants completed a listening in noise task, two working memory capacity tasks, and two…

Research has suggested that in typical developing children a positive relationship exists between physical activity level and cognitive functioning. For some children, academic performance may increase when levels of physical activity are increased. Moreover, some studies have supported the idea that physical activity seems to improve attention.…