According to attention restoration theory, directed attention can become fatigued and then be restored by spending time in a restorative environment. This study examined the restorative effects of nature on children’s executive functioning. Seven- to 8-year-olds (school aged, n = 34) and 4- to 5-year-olds (preschool, n = 33) participated in two sessions in which they completed an activity to fatigue attention, then walked along urban streets (urban walk) in one session and in a park-like area (nature walk) in another session, and finally completed assessments of working memory, inhibitory control, and attention. Children responded faster on the attention task after a nature walk than an urban walk. School-aged children performed significantly better on the attention task than preschoolers following the nature walk, but not urban walk. Walk type did not affect inhibitory control or verbal working memory. However, preschoolers’ spatial working memory remained more stable following the nature walk than the urban walk.

The present study investigated the effects of Primarily Math, an inservice elementary mathematics specialist program. Primarily Math sought to augment the mathematical knowledge for teaching of kindergarten through third-grade teachers using a longitudinal multiple cohort design. Two sets of analyses were conducted. The first examined impact on teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, attitudes toward learning mathematics, and beliefs about teaching and learning relative to a matched comparison group. Primarily Math teachers demonstrated greater knowledge for teaching Numbers and Operations and more positive attitudes toward learning mathematics, and more often endorsed student-centered beliefs about teaching and learning. The second set of analyses examined the extent to which students of three cohorts of Primarily Math teachers demonstrated more fall–spring growth in a measure of mathematics achievement relative to students of comparison-group teachers. There was a small but positive effect of participation in Primarily Math on student mathematics achievement.

This study examined whether attention to a location plays a role in the maintenance of locations in spatial working memory in young children as it does in adults. This study was the first to investigate whether distractors presented during the delay of a spatial working memory task influenced young children’s memory responses. Across two experiments, 3- and 6-year-olds completed a spatial working memory task featuring a static target location and distractor location. Results indicated a change between 3 and 6 years of age in how distractors influenced memory. Six-year-olds’ memory responses were biased away from a distractor that was close to the target location and on the outside of the target location relative to the center of the monitor. Distractors that were far from the target or that were toward the center of the monitor relative to the target location had no effect. Three-year-olds’ responses were biased toward a distractor when the distractor was on the outside of the target location and farther from the target. Distractors that were near the target location or toward the center of the monitor had no effect. These biases provide evidence that young children’s maintenance of a location in memory is influenced by attention.

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