There is mixed evidence as to whether concrete manipulatives (e.g., toy animals) are better than abstract manipulatives (e.g., counters) for teaching mathematical concepts to children. Concreteness is defined as the amount of extraneous information a manipulative provides, and in this study we aimed to unpick which dimensions of concreteness…

This paper reviews three studies investigating the relationship between brain regions involved in executive control and those involved in reading comprehension in typically-developing teens. In the first study, three regions of posterior left lateral prefrontal cortex (i.e., precentral gyrus, inferior frontal junction, inferior frontal gyrus) were…

Because deficits in executive functions (EFs) characterize most neurodevelopmental disorders, it is appropriate to question the value of EFs for understanding learning disabilities. Two types of studies--those testing whether EFs moderate treatment effects and those testing the direction of effects between EFs and academic skills--are presented to…

To better understand the implications of comorbidity between reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample of 225 participants with RD but without ADHD, 139 participants with both RD and ADHD, and 1,502 children without reading or attentional difficulties was recruited through five large public school…

An assessment-related stress is an object of interest of both educational and neurobiological research. In educational literature, "feeling stressed" is measured by self-reports and mostly in the situation of high-stakes examinations before and after an exam. In neurophysiological research, "acute stress" is laboratory observed…

Schooling may shape children's abilities to control their attention, but it is unclear if this impact extends from control over visual objects to encompass multisensory objects, which are more typical of everyday environments. We compared children across three primary school grades (Swiss first, third, and fifth grades) on their performance on a…

Executive function (EF) contributes significantly to reading comprehension across the lifespan. Emerging research indicates domain-specific assessments of EF are better suited for assessment and intervention in academic contexts. For example, "graphophonological-semantic cognitive flexibility" (GSF), the ability to flexibly switch…

Teachers often face situations that require them to apply knowledge about the mind and brain to education. Past studies have indicated that even if teachers show interest in cognitive neuroscience, they show high rates of adhesion to neuromyths. In the most commonly used questionnaire, however, respondents do not compare neuromyths and correct…

To design a social and emotional learning (SEL) skills training program for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Quantitative electroencephalography was analyzed, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses in the brain mapping performance (BMP) of children. A total of 305 participants with and without ADHD were recruited.…

People associate numbers and horizontal space. This association has been demonstrated by the so-called SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes)-effect, with Western participants responding faster to larger numbers with their right hand and vice versa for smaller numbers. SNARC-like effects have also been reported for preschoolers.…

We investigated whether finger pointing toward picture locations can be used as an external cognitive control tool to guide attention and compensate for the immature cognitive control functions in children compared with young adults. Item and source memory performance was compared for picture-location pairs that were either semantically congruent…

Progress in applied neuroscience and neuropsychology in the educational context has revealed efficient methodologies for preventing academic failure and developing the potential of students. The aim of this work is to adopt a neuropsychological perspective to study learning-related differences between students with learning difficulties (LD),…

The present research aimed to determine the circumstances under which comprehension between paper and e-readers is comparable and what role working memory plays in successful comprehension of text presented in these formats. Narrative and expository texts were presented in electronic and paper formats to determine whether readers glean different…

Cognitive skills are associated with academic performance, but little is known about how to improve these skills in the classroom. Here, we present the results of a pilot study in which teachers were trained to engage students in cognitive skill practice through playing games. Fifth-grade students at an experimental charter school were randomly…

The first years of life represent a unique window of opportunity for foreign language learning. However, key questions are: How much and what kind of foreign language exposure is needed to ignite learning? We conducted a foreign language (English) intervention in four public Infant Education Centers in Madrid, Spain. Intervention children (N =…