Angela Lukowski

University of California, Irvine | UCI ·  Department of Psychology and Social Behavior

Down syndrome (DS) is the most prevalent chromosomal condition, affecting one in every 733 babies born annually in the United States. Grounded in the communication theory of resilience (CTR;), the present analysis was conducted to evaluate mothers’ communicated resilience in narratives about the birth and diagnosis of their child with DS. In so doi...

Previous research has examined parents' reflections on their child's Down syndrome diagnosis based on whether the diagnosis was provided prenatally or after birth, revealing few significant differences; by comparison, few studies have examined parents' reflections on the birth of the child in relation to the timing of the diagnosis. This study was...

Study objectives: This study was conducted to determine (1) whether the distribution of undergraduates who endorse insomnia or behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome (BIISS) varied during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic relative to normal sleepers and in comparison to values reported pre-pandemic and (2) whether group (i...

Grounded by the ecological systems perspectives proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979) and Fivush and Merrill (2016), the present study was conducted to examine whether autobiographical memory (AM) and self-construal differed in young adults raised in the same macrosystem, but with unique microsystems. European American (EA) participants were born...

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, undergraduate students experienced sleep problems and mental health issues that were negatively associated with academic achievement. Studies comparing undergraduate sleep and health pre- to mid-pandemic have yielded mixed results, necessitating additional research on other cohorts and examination of potential moderato...

Age and gender differences are prominent in the temperament literature, with the former particularly salient in infancy and the latter noted as early as the first year of life. This study represents a meta-analysis utilizing Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) data collected across multiple laboratories (N = 4438) to overcome limitations...

University students commonly experience sleep problems which have implications for daily functioning and academic achievement. For this reason, research is needed to identify modifiable individual difference variables that may contribute to better sleep in this population. Temperament and sleep hygiene may be two such factors. As part of a larger s...

Objective: The present study was conducted to examine the impact of experimentally-manipulated perceptions of sleep on self-reported affective reactivity and recovery from a social stressor in undergraduate students. Design: The study design is experimental, as the participants were randomly assigned to either good or poor perceived sleep qualit...

Background: Research conducted with typically developing (TD) infants and children generally indicates that better habitual sleep and sleep after learning are related to enhanced memory. Less is known, however, about associations between sleep and recall memory in children with Down syndrome (DS). Aims: The present study was conducted to determi...

Participation in social skills therapy (SST) facilitates cognitive functioning in children with developmental disabilities. The present pilot study examined whether participation in SST was associated with enhanced encoding and 1-month delayed recall in children with Down syndrome (DS). Children were presented with novel three-step event sequences...

Infants and children with Down syndrome (DS) can look forward toward bright futures, as individuals with DS are living healthier, more productive lives than ever due to medical advances, opportunities for early and continued intervention, and inclusive education. Despite these advances, infants and children with DS experience challenges in specific...

Although there are theoretical reasons to expect associations among temperament, sleep hygiene behaviors (SHB), and global sleep quality (GSQ), these relations have not yet been examined despite their potential impact on undergraduate student well-being. The present study was conducted to (1) examine relations between temperament and GSQ in univers...

The primary goal of the present research was to examine associations between sleep quality and the subjective experience of autobiographical events. In an online study, 141 university students reported on past events that varied by valence (positive or negative) and temporality (most significant or from the previous 2 weeks); they also completed me...

Background: Although group differences have been found between children with Down syndrome (DS) and typically developing (TD) children when considering sleep problems and temperament independently, none of the research conducted to date has examined sleep-temperament associations in children with DS. The present research was conducted to determine...

Whereas previous research has indicated that sleep problems tend to co-occur with increased mental health issues in university students, relatively little is known about relations between sleep quality and mental health in university students with generally healthy sleep habits. Understanding relations between sleep and mental health in individuals...

The attached supplemental file includes the data analyzed in the present report. (SAV)

The ability to recall the past allows us to report on details of previous experiences, from the everyday to the significant. Because recall memory is commonly assessed using verbal report paradigms in adults, studying the development of this ability in preverbal infants and children proved challenging. Over the past 30 years, researchers have devel...

Background: Whereas research has indicated that children with Down syndrome (DS) imitate demonstrated actions over short delays, it is presently unknown whether children with DS recall information over lengthy delays at levels comparable with typically developing (TD) children matched on developmental age. Method: In the present research, 10 chi...

The emergence of consolidated nighttime sleep and the formation and maintenance of parent-infant relationships are 2 primary developmental achievements of the infancy period. Despite the development of a transactional model that links parenting behaviors to infant sleep, limited attention has been devoted to examining experimental manipulations of...

The authors of the monograph discuss conceptual and methodological issues in the study of sleep-behavior associations, report on the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques for assessing sleep in infants and children, and suggest the importance of examining sleep-behavior relations across multiple disciplines of influence. The primary fo...

Problematic sleep can be detrimental to the development of important cognitive functions, such as working memory, and may have the potential for negative behavioral consequences, such as risk-taking. In this way, sleep problems may be particularly harmful for youth – whose cognitive abilities are still developing and who are more susceptible to ris...

Adult-provided supportive language facilitates memory for the past in preverbal and verbal children. Work conducted with 18-month-olds indicates that children benefit from supportive adult language when tested after a 4-week delay but not when tested immediately after sequence demonstration; moreover, findings reveal that supportive language provid...

Sleep-temperament associations have not yet been examined among university students, despite awareness of the high incidence of sleep problems in this population. The present study was conducted (a) to examine whether sleep quality was associated with temperament among university-attending young adults and (b) to determine whether particular compon...

Research indicates a positive relation between the sibling constellation and theory of mind (ToM) development in typically developing (TD) children. Less is known about this association in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined the association among the presence and number of siblings, birth order, and false belief...

Throughout infancy and into early childhood, there are significant developments in the duration of time over which memories are maintained and in the robustness of infants' memories. In the preschool years, there are additional changes in recall of both routine and unique events, as well as in the reports that children provide about their memories....

Previous research suggests that sleep is related to cognitive functioning in infants and adults. In the present study, we examined whether individual differences in infant sleep habits over the seven days prior to elicited imitation testing were associated with variability in (a) the encoding of 2-step event sequences and (b) memory for the present...

A deficit in theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to infer the mental states of others, has been implicated as one of the major characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, little attention has been devoted to possible differences in ToM ability within ASD. The current study examined ToM performance in children with early-onset autis...

Background: The extreme male brain theory of ASD has progressed from the early “folk psychology (FPS) versus folk physics (FPH)” theme to an overarching theoretical model supported by neuropsychological and neurobiological studies (Klin, 2009). However, a gap in the folk theory literature remains; namely, little is known about FPS and FPH in young...

The second year of life is marked by pronounced changes in the length of time over which events are remembered. We tested whether the age-related differences are related to differences in memory for the specific features of events. In our study, 16- and 20-month-olds were tested for immediate and long-term recall of individual actions and temporal...

Despite increasing interest in the early development of executive control, few assessment tools are available for use in the second year of life. At 15 and 20 months, children completed a task battery that included reaching and sequence imitation tasks expected to require executive control. With age, children showed reduced perseveration and increa...

Background: A deficit in theory of mind (ToM) has been implicated as a primary characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD; Baron-Cohen et al., 1985); however, some research indicates that this deficit is not universal in all children with ASD (Ozonoff et al., 1991). Previous findings suggest that some variability could be attributed to langua...

Iron deficiency in infancy negatively impacts a variety of neurodevelopmental processes at the time of nutrient insufficiency, with persistent central nervous system alterations and deficits in behavioral functioning, despite iron therapy. In rodent models, early iron deficiency impairs the hippocampus and the dopamine system. We examined the possi...

Background: Regressive autism is characterized by the loss of acquired language and social skills at approximately 18 to 24 months in addition to a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many studies have attempted to explain the different developmental trajectories between children with regressive and non-regressive autism; however, the...

We examined generalization in 9-month-old infants after a 24-h delay using deferred imitation. Infants flexibly applied their knowledge of sequence actions across changes in props even though they had no opportunity for immediate imitation.

The ability to remember people, objects, and events one encounters is critically important for effective functioning in the world. Remembering your mother's face, where you left your keys, and that it is your daughter's birthday tomorrow allow you to successfully manage your day, as well as your relationships with others. Questions about the proces...

Long-term memory undergoes pronounced development in the latter part of the 1st year. This research combines electrophysiological (event-related potential [ERP]) and behavioral (deferred imitation) measures of encoding and recall, respectively, in an examination of age-related changes in and relations between encoding and recall during this time. I...

Detection of novelty is an important cognitive ability early in development, when infants must learn a great deal about their world. Work with adults has identified networks of brain areas involved in novelty detection; this study investigated electrophysiological correlates of detection of novelty and recognition of familiarity in 9-month-old infa...

Mother-child conversations about a devastating tornado and about 2 nontraumatic events were examined to determine whether there were (a) differences in use of internal states language when talking about traumatic and nontraumatic events and (b) similarities in mothers' and children's use of internal states language. At Session 1, which took place 4...

In Experiment 1, participants rated the believability of 9 unbelievable and 9 believable headlines as determined via preratings. After 1 day, participants made believability ratings and recognition judgments for 18 unbelievable headlines (9 targets and 9 foils) and 18 true headlines (9 targets and 9 foils). Experiment 2 conceptually replicated the...

Although 9-month-old infants are capable of retaining temporally ordered information over long delays, this ability is relatively fragile. It may be possible to facilitate long-term retention by allowing infants to imitate event sequences immediately after their presentation. The effects of imitation on immediate and delayed recognition and on long...