Josh Medrano

Thanks, Flavia!

Examining Subgroup Differences in School Readiness and Math Achievement in Asian American Children Through the Opportunity-Propensity Model Research Findings: The opportunity-propensity model of achievement was used to examine the ways in which demographic characteristics, child characteristics, and characteristics of home and learning...

Implications (also in the abstract) include further data reporting and disaggregation. We conclude that some subgroups might not benefit from one-size-fits-all policies.

In collaboration with @damcotto.bsky.social, this work is now out in Early Education and Development. doi.org/10.1080/1040...

For example, for Vietnamese children, Fall math scores mediated primary home language (English and another language), and for Other Southeast Asian children, parent reading, EFs, and bedtime routines were significant mediators.

In the overall group, we found that propensity variables (eg executive functions, working memory) mediated much of the antecednet variables (SES, immigration status, parental expectations, number of close grandparents and siblings). But these were not present in all subgroups.

In a new pub, we examined subgroup differences in Asian American children, particularly 1) the diversity of math achievement and 2) what factors predict this diversity. Ultimately, we wanted to see whether the factors predicting math achievement is the same across subgroups.

doi.org/10.1080/1040...

In a second, we form expectations about the likely traits and behaviors of people we meet. How does this ability develop? How do others’ perceived gender factor into it?

I’m thrilled to share a new paper now in press at Cognition with @andreicimpian.bsky.social and‪ @lucaspbutler.bsky.social.
1/6

Opinion | Don’t let Dr. Oz shame you into avoiding carrot cake The U.S. has a long history of judging food choices, especially those of the poor.

Protest of Dr. Oz never tasted so good...

"So, shame on Dr. Oz for suggesting that Medicaid & Medicare recipients shld avoid even the most meager of indulgences. Bc we all deserve to have our cake and eat it, too."

Sociology Medsky 🛟😷 health policy

Looking for another postdoc to work on preschool longitudinal fNIRS and ERP data-details here: publish.illinois.edu/danielchyde/...

✨New publication✨

The Role of Math Games for Children’s Early Math Learning: A Systematic Review

doi.org/10.5964/jnc....

with @gbramani.bsky.social

Postdoc position open in our #workingmemory lab! See here for more info: www.unige.ch/fapse/womcog...

Thanks Jason!

✨New publication✨ #MathActivities on #SocialMedia: Examining content, design, and alignment with mathematical cognition research

doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...

with Juyun Lee and Eric Dearing @ericdearing.bsky.social

Will it Sink or Float? No Gender Differences in Five- to Seven-Year-Old Children’s Persistence on a Science Task Recent studies suggest that girls as young as 4 years of age in the US are affected by negative gender-science stereotypes and persist less than boys on science tasks. However to date, no studies h...

📣📣 A recent paper by Nicole J. Stucke & Sabine Doebel in JCD:

Will it Sink or Float? No Gender Differences in Five- to Seven-Year-Old Children’s Persistence on a Science Task

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Does Focusing on the Unit of Change Help Children Learn Growing Pattern Skills? Children regularly encounter growing and decreasing patterns in songs, games, and daily routines. Over development, children learn to extend and abstract (i.e., recreate the pattern using different...

📣📣 A recent paper by Nicholas A. Vest and colleagues:

Does Focusing on the Unit of Change Help Children Learn Growing Pattern Skills? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

@nicholasvest.bsky.social
@marthaalibali.bsky.social

🚨Attention Job Seekers: We're hiring a quantitative researcher for a 1-year (possibly renewable for 2nd yr) position to study Career & Technical education! While not technically a postdoc, this would be a great fit for a recent PhD graduate! 🧵 careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

You may think summer is just starting but I promise you Fall is coming at us like a freight train. Do you need to teach neurosci to undergrads then? Check out this free book, funded by #NSF.

Help level the playing field by keeping your course resources free to students.

Cognitive flexibility moderates shifts in plausibility judgments of claims about climate change The current study investigated whether making plausibility judgments relies on executive functions (EF), particularly inhibitory control, the ability to suppress irrelevant information, and cogniti...

New publication with Svetha Mohan and @douglombardi.bsky.social on the role of executive functions in scientific thinking. In a scaffolding activity, adults shifted toward a more scientific (vs. non-scientific) stance, esp those with higher cognitive flexibility scores. doi.org/10.1080/0163...

🥳Excited to share that I am joining Columbia July 2025
@columbiauniversity.bsky.social

Looking for🚨lab managers🚨postdocs🚨grad students! Pls REPOST🙏

We study⭐️person perception⭐️social cognition using experimental, cross-cultural, & computational methods!

App👉shorturl.at/5UVPl
More👉shorturl.at/q18GM

Cover of the Handbook of Social Psychology 6th edition 2025

Since 1954, "The Handbook of Social Psychology" has been the field’s most authoritative reference work, and today is the launch of the 6th edition with 50 new chapters by 100 leading scholars. Best news? The HSP is now an open-access public resource—free to read, download, and share. the-hsp.com

A Vote for Civic Education Gift to Maryland Democracy Initiative Supports Political Engagement, Literacy Efforts

So happy to see the official announcement of this generous gift to support the important work of our Maryland Democracy Initiative @umaryland.edu! Thrilled to continue my small part of this collaborative endeavor! today.umd.edu/a-vote-for-c...

Science Explains How Children Best Learn Math—And Yes, Timed Practice Helps A new report shows that children learn arithmetic most effectively when instruction combines conceptual understanding and timed practice.

New from PSPI! www.psychologicalscience.org/news/2025-ap...

If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.

You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.

Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.

A group of eight people posing on the grass.

Year one in the lab at Berkeley is ✅
Excited to see what we’ll do in year 2. Onward!

screenshot of publication "Does working memory moderate the effect of fading on math performance?" at the British Journal of Educational Psychology

Also happy to announce a new publication with @damcotto.bsky.social at British Journal of Educational Psychology on whether working memory moderates the effect of fading (it didn't, but prior knowledge did; fading also had more benefits compared to other conditions). DOI: doi.org/10.1111/bjep...

Reunited with friends at #AERA2025 #SRCD2025 (Runzhi Chen from my time at UVA just defended at Illinois, @qiushan.bsky.social is finishing her first year as Asst Prof, Svetha Mohan is doing her dissertation at Tulane, and my fellow EdTerps are as usual being rockstars)

Remember crossposting?

Looking forward to sharing our work in today's symposium, entitled "Asian American Child and Youth Development: Contexts, Processes, and Outcomes" at #SRCD2025 #SRCD25 with Yoko Yamamoto, Tianlu Zhang, and Hua (Elaine) Luo

Title page of paper: To Improve Literacy, Improve Equality in Education, not Large Language Models

New 💫

Letter to the Editor in Cognitive Science, by @samhforbes.bsky.social & @olivia.science

lnkd.in/eea8Cwmd

I am teaching my phd writing workshop course this quarter, question: are there any words/phrases said to you by an advisor/mentor that stuck with you, were memorable, or particularly helpful? If so please reply below!

Cognitive offloading (using scrap paper) doesn't just help students remember more, it helps them think more clearly, especially when tasks involve several steps.