Media multitasking, using two or more medias concurrently, prevails among adolescents and emerging adults. The inherent mental habits of media multitasking-dividing attention, switching attention, and maintaining multiple trains of thought-have significant implications and consequences for students' academic performance. The goal of this review is to synthesize research on the impacts of media multitasking on academic performance. The research indicates that media multitasking interferes with attention and working memory, negatively affecting GPA, test performance, recall, reading comprehension, note-taking, self-regulation, and efficiency. These effects have been demonstrated during in-class activities (largely lectures) and while students are studying. In addition, students struggle to accurately assess the impact media multitasking will have on their academic performance. Further research should attend to understanding effects of media multitasking in more diverse instructional contexts and for varied academic tasks. Fostering students' self-regulation around media multitasking is a promising area for future efforts towards improving academic performance of college students.

Higher cognitive functions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by impairments in executive functions (EF). While some research attributes this to an overreliance of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), others demonstrate poor recruitment of the PFC in individuals with ASD. In order to assess the emerging consensus across neuroimaging studies of EF in ASD, the current study used a coordinate-based activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis of 16 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, resulting in a meta-analysis of data from 739 participants (356 ASD, 383 typically developing [TD] individuals) ranging from 7 to 52 years of age. Within-group analysis of EF tasks revealed that both TD and ASD participants had significant activity in PFC regions. Analysis of group differences indicated greater activation in ASD, relative to TD participants, in the right middle frontal gyrus and the anterior cingulate cortex, and lesser activation in the bilateral middle frontal, left inferior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, and precuneus. Although both ASD and TD participants showed similar PFC activation, there was differential recruitment of wider network of EF regions such as the IPL in ASD participants. The under-recruitment of parietal regions may be due to poor connectivity of the frontoparietal networks with other regions during EF tasks or a restricted executive network in ASD participants which is limited primarily to the PFC. These results support the executive dysfunction hypothesis of ASD and suggests that poor frontoparietal recruitment may underlie some of the EF difficulties individuals with ASD experience.

Despite decades of research, the brain basis of aberrant face processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains a topic of debate. The mid‐fusiform sulcus (MFS), a minor feature of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, provides new directions for studying face processing. The MFS closely aligns with face‐selective cortical patches and other structural and functional divisions of the fusiform gyrus; however, it has received little attention in clinical populations. We collected structural MRI data from 54 individuals with ASD and 61 age‐and‐IQ‐matched controls ages 8 to 40 years. The MFS was identified on cortical surface reconstructions via 4 trained raters and classified into known surface patterns. Mean MFS gray matter volume (GMV), cortical surface area (SA), cortical thickness (CT), and standard deviation of CT (CT SD) were extracted. Effects of diagnosis, age, and hemisphere on MFS surface presentation and morphometry were assessed via multinomial logistic regression and mixed effects general linear modeling, respectively. The MFS was reliably identified in 97% of hemispheres examined. Macroanatomical patterns and age‐related decreases in MFS GMV and CT were similar between groups. CT SD was greater in the left hemisphere in ASD. Participants' ability to interpret emotions and mental states from facial features was significantly negatively correlated with MFS CT and CT SD. Overall, the MFS is a stable feature of the fusiform gyrus in ASD and CT related measures appear to be sensitive to diagnosis and behavior. These results can inform future investigations of face processing and structure–function relationships in populations with social deficits. Lay Summary A small structural feature of the brain related to seeing faces (the mid‐fusiform sulcus; MFS) appears similar in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and neurotypical development; however, the thickness of this structure on the left side of the brain is more variable in ASD. People who are better at judging mental states from another person's eyes tend to have thinner and less variable MFS. This feature may teach us more about face processing and how brain structure influences function in ASD.

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Children judge moral transgressions as more serious and more punish-worthy than conventional transgressions (Slomkowski & Killen, 1992; Smetana, 1981). Children also judge the actions of in-group members more favorably than those of out-group members (Aboud, 2003; Zak & Knack, 2001). The current study asked whether children would judge moral and conventional transgressions committed by an in-group member differently when compared to the same acts committed by an out-group member (i.e., act judgments). Additionally, it asked whether children would judge the transgressors themselves differently based on their group status (i.e., in-group, out-group, neutral, and self). Results show that preschool children reliably judge moral and conventional transgressions differently. Compared to children's judgments of out-group members, their judgments of in-group members were more lenient. Results suggest that group membership does indeed affect how serious or punish-worthy a violation and a violator are judged to be. iii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to everyone who encouraged me and guided me through the trials and tribulations of writing this manuscript. In particular, my family, co-workers, and close friends who stood by my side throughout the entire process. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS df Degrees of freedom: number of values free to vary after certain restrictions have been placed on the data F Fisher's F ratio: A ration of two variances M Mean: the sum of a set of measurements divided by the number of measurements in the set M S Multiple Means p Probability associated with the occurrence under the null hypothesis of a value as extreme as or more extreme than the observed value r Pearson product-moment correlation < Less than = Equal to v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am excited to have this opportunity to thank the family, friends, and faculty members who have helped me with this research project. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Jason Scofield, Deborah Casper, and Stephen Thoma for their support of this thesis, their input, and their encouragement. Thank you to, Jason Scofield, the chairman of this thesis, for your inspiring words and constant support throughout this entire process. I would like to thank Grace Albright and Sarah Cagle for their assistance in collecting data. A huge thank you to the parents, children, preschools, and teachers who participated in this study. You made this thesis possible, and I am grateful for each of you. This research would not have been possible without the support of my friends and my family who always encouraged me to keep on working. Thank you for supporting me.