Trying to remember something now typically improves your ability to remember it later. However, after watching a video of a simulated bank robbery, participants who verbally described the robber were 25% worse at identifying the robber in a lineup than were participants who instead listed U.S. states and capitals—this has been termed the “verbal overshadowing” effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). More recent studies suggested that this effect might be substantially smaller than first reported. Given uncertainty about the effect size, the influence of this finding in the memory literature, and its practical importance for police procedures, we conducted two collections of preregistered direct replications (RRR1 and RRR2) that differed only in the order of the description task and a filler task. In RRR1, when the description task immediately followed the robbery, participants who provided a description were 4% less likely to select the robber than were those in the control condition. In RRR2, when the description was delayed by 20 min, they were 16% less likely to select the robber. These findings reveal a robust verbal overshadowing effect that is strongly influenced by the relative timing of the tasks. The discussion considers further implications of these replications for our understanding of verbal overshadowing.

This study investigated the effects of online schooling and screen-based activities on Canadian children’s COVID-19-related trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms and how parents’ coping strategies influenced these associations. The participants were 121 Canadian children aged from 7 to 12. Parents were asked to report on their children’s school attendance, screen-based activities, and trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms, as well as their own coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online schooling was associated with less trauma and generalized anxiety symptoms in children than school non-attendance. Screen-based activities were not directly associated with children’s trauma and anxiety symptoms, but the way parents coped with pandemic stressors moderated these associations. Parents’ active and adaptive coping strategies mitigated the effects of school non-attendance and increased screen-based activity use on children’s COVID-19-related symptoms. The findings not only highlight the detrimental effects of complete school closures, but they also underscore the importance of better equipping parents to cope with pandemic stressors. The findings also suggest that virtual school attendance might have similar benefits to in-person attendance, as it appears to protect against adverse mental health outcomes.

Both personality and motivational characteristics can be considered to estimate individuals’ potential for adjustment and development. That said, these characteristics are rarely studied in conjunction. In this study, we examine how personality and motivational characteristics relate one to the other and influence how students approach learning. More precisely, we analyzed the additive and interactive effects of two intimately related traits (extraversion and emotional stability) from the Big Five model of personality on five motivational dimensions reflecting academic expectations (sense of competence) and values (interest, utility, and mastery and performance goal orientations). Data was collected from a sample of 303 students in tenth and eleventh grade (108 boys and 195 girls; Mage = 16.275 years, SD = 1.149) in a French-Canadian public high school in the greater Quebec City area. Primary analyses included both bivariate correlation and hierarchical regression analyses. Correlations indicated that emotionally stable students were more interested in learning. Hierarchical regression showed that emotionally stable students were more likely to exhibit a performance goal orientation, especially when they were extroverted. These analyses also revealed that emotionally stable students were more interested in learning, especially when they had a strong sense of competence. Results are discussed in light of the limited but relevant existing literature.

Body image concerns may contribute to school disengagement during late childhood, but this has not been well investigated. This study examined longitudinal associations between different dimensions of body image (body dissatisfaction and weight perception) and school engagement (affective, behavioural, and cognitive) in a sample of 9- to 12-year-old Canadian children ( N = 1,070) over 8 months. Results indicated that children’s body dissatisfaction predicted decreases in cognitive engagement only. Also, lower levels of all types of school engagement predicted increases in body dissatisfaction and/or weight perception—suggesting bidirectional influences. Gender analyses indicated that body dissatisfaction predicted lower cognitive engagement among girls only, whereas lower behavioural engagement predicted increased body dissatisfaction among boys only. These findings suggest that body image and school engagement influence one another in gender-specific ways, highlighting the potential value of tailoring early prevention and intervention efforts in these areas to the distinct developmental needs of boys and girls.