An important issue for the cognitive sciences is whether grammar is to any nontrivial extent an autonomous cognitive system. Current cognitive hypotheses of language acquisition would argue against an autonomous linguistic system and would support the notion that language emerges from more general cognitive knowledge and is throughout its development fundamentally tied to a nonlinguistic cognit...

The influence of students' sociocultural background on academic achievement is a well established fact. Research also points out that sociocultural background is related to students' cognitive abilities and these have an effect on their academic achievement. However, the mediator role of cognitive abilities on the relationship between sociocultural background and academic achievement is less we...

In modern cognitive science, rationality and intelligence are measured using different tasks and operations. Furthermore, in several contemporary dual process theories of cognition, rationality is a more encompassing construct than intelligence. Researchers need to continue to develop measures of rational thought without regard to empirical correlations with intelligence. The measurement of ind...

Twin research has supported the concept of intelligence (general cognitive ability, g) by showing that genetic correlations between diverse tests of verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities are greater than 0.50. That is, most of the genes that affect cognitive abilities are highly pleiotropic in the sense that genes that affect one cognitive ability affect all cognitive abilities. The impact o...

Flexible or innovative behavior is advantageous, especially when animals are exposed to frequent and unpredictable environmental perturbations. Improved cognitive abilities can help animals to respond quickly and adequately to environmental dynamics, and therefore changing environments may select for higher cognitive abilities. Increased cognitive abilities can be attained, for instance, if env...

In this review we explore the emerging field of cognitive training via distinct types of interactive digital media: those designed primarily for entertainment (‘video games’) and those created for the purpose of cognitive enhancement (‘cognitive exercises’). Here we consider how specific design factors associated with each tool (e.g., fun, motivation, adaptive mechanics) and the study itself (e...

The cognitive abilities involved in the Connections (Salthouse, et al., 2000) version of the trail making test were investigated by administering the test, along with a battery of cognitive tests and tests of complex span and updating conceptualizations of working memory, to a sample of over 3,600 adults. The results indicate that this variant of the trail making test largely reflects individua...

With advancing age, subtle declines in various cognitive abilities occur. One ability that is particularly important as people age is speed of processing. Speed of processing is suggested to impact other cognitive abilities; in fact, some studies suggest that other cognitive abilities depend on speed of processing as a foundational cognitive resource. Studies also indicate that declines in spee...

A defining characteristic of age-related cognitive decline is a deficit in general cognitive performance. Here we use a testing and analysis regimen that allows us to characterize the general learning abilities of young (3-5 mo old) and aged (19-21 mo old) male and female Balb/C mice. Animals' performance was assessed on a battery of seven diverse learning tasks. Aged animals exhibited deficits...