Testing and metacognition: retrieval practise effects on metacognitive monitoring in learning from text.

Previous research on the testing effect has primarily focussed on the benefits of testing at the cognitive performance level but rather disregarded the potential effects of testing at the metacognitive performance level. In the present study, we examined the potential of retrieval practise during learning to improve the accuracy of confidence judgments in future retrieval. In a learning-from-text experiment with 98 secondary school students, we implemented an initial test as retrieval practise and a final test one week later.

Acute physical exercise improves shifting in adolescents at school: evidence for a dopaminergic contribution.

The executive function of shifting between mental sets demands cognitive flexibility. Based on evidence that physical exercise fostered cognition, we tested whether acute physical exercise can improve shifting in an unselected sample of adolescents. Genetic polymorphisms were analyzed to gain more insight into possibly contributing neurophysiological processes.

Acute physical exercise affected processing efficiency in an auditory attention task more than processing effectiveness.

Research on effects of acute physical exercise on performance in a concurrent cognitive task has generated equivocal evidence. Processing efficiency theory predicts that concurrent physical exercise can increase resource requirements for sustaining cognitive performance even when the level of performance is unaffected. This hypothesis was tested in a dual-task experiment.