Faculty of Health

Janice M Johnson

Professor Emeritus & Senior Scholar

Locations / Contact Info:

Behavioural Science - BSB
Keele Campus
Phone: 416 736 5115

Email address(es):

janicej@yorku.ca

Research Areas

Faculty & School/Dept.

Faculty of Health - Department of Psychology

Degrees

PhD - 1982
York University
Toronto, ON

MA - 1975
York University
Toronto,ON

BA - 1969
Long Island University
Greenvale,NY

Biography

Janice Johnson is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at York University, Toronto. She has been invited visiting professor at universities in Italy, the USA, and Chile. Her research interests are in cognitive development, individual differences, and cognitive process analysis. Her current research focuses on longitudinal study of metal-capacity development; children's reasoning in mathematics; measurement of attentional capacity, cognitive inhibition, and executive functions in children and adults; and effects of meditation on cognitive performance.

Selected Publications

Greenberg, L., Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2024). Schematic processing and emotional change: Implications for treatment. New Ideas in Psychology, 73, 101075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2024.101075

Johnson, J., Howard, S.J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2024). Two attentional processes subserving working memory differentiate gifted and mainstream students. Journal of Cognition, 7(1): 47, pp. 1–14. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.370

Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2021). The working mind: Meaning and mental attention in human development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Arsalidou, M., Pascual-Leone, J., Johnson, J., & Kotova, T. (2019).The constructive operators of the working mind: A developmental account of mental-attentional capacity. The Russian Journal of Cognitive Science, 6(2), 44-55 (English version) 56-70 (Russian version).

Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2017). Organismic causal models “from within” clarify developmental change and stages. In N. Budwig, E. Turiel, & P. Zelazo (Eds.), New perspectives on human development (pp. 67-87). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kim, T.H.M., Pascual-Leone, J., Johnson, J., & Tamim, H. (2016). The mental-attention Tai Chi effect with older adults. BMC Psychology, 4:29.

Im-Bolter, N., Johnson, J., Ling, D., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2015). Inhibition: Mental control process or mental resource? Journal of Cognition and Development, 16, 666-681.

Howard, S.J., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2014). Clarifying inhibitory control: Diversity and development of attentional inhibition. Cognitive Development, 31, 1-21.

Arsalidou, M., Pascual-Leone, J., Johnson, J., Morris, D., &Taylor, M. J. (2013). A balancing act of the brain: Activations and deactivations driven by cognitive load. Brain and Behavior. doi: 10.1002/brb3.128

Howard, S. J., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2013). Measurement of mental attention: Assessing a cognitive component underlying performance on standardized intelligence tests. Psychological Assessment and Test Modeling, 55(3), 250-272.

Balioussis, C., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2012). Fluency and complexity in children’s writing: The role of mental attention and executive function. Rivista di Psicolinguistica Applicata / Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics, 12, 33-45.

Pascual-Leone, J., Romero Escobar, E.M., & Johnson, J. (2012). Logic: Development of logical operations. In W. Hirstein (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (2nd ed., pp. 538-549). New York: Elsevier.

Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2011). A developmental theory of mental attention: Its applications to measurement and task analysis. In P. Barrouillet & V. Gaillard (Eds.), Cognitive development and working memory: A dialogue between neo-Piagetian and cognitive approaches (pp. 13-46). New York: Psychology Press.

Agostino, A., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2010). Executive functions underlying multiplicative reasoning: Problem type matters. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 286-305.

Arsalidou, M., Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2010). Misleading cues improve developmental assessment of attentional capacity: The colour matching task. Cognitive Development, 25, 262-277.

Im-Bolter, N., Johnson, J., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2006). Processing limitation in children with specific language impairment: The role of executive function. Child Development, 77, 1822-1841.

Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2005). A dialectical constructivist view of developmental intelligence. In O. Wilhelm & R. Engle (Eds.), Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence (pp. 177-201). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Pascual-Leone, J., & Johnson, J. (2004). Affect, self-motivation, and cognitive development: A dialectical constructivist view. In D. Dai & R.S. Sternberg (Eds.), Motivation, emotion, and cognition: Perspectives on intellectual development and functioning (pp. 197-235). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Johnson, J., Im-Bolter, N., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2003). Development of mental attention in gifted and mainstream children: The role of mental capacity, inhibition, and speed of processing. Child Development, 74, 1594-1614.

Johnson, J., Prior, S., & Artuso, M. (2000). Field dependence as a factor in second language communicative production. Language Learning, 50, 529-567.

Pascual-Leone, J., Johnson, J., Baskind, D., Dworsky, S., & Severtston, E. (2000). Culture-fair assessment and the processes of mental attention. In A. Kozulin & Y. Rand (Eds.), Experience of mediated learning: An impact of Feuerstein's theory in education and psychology (pp 191-214). New York: Pergamon Press.

Affiliations

Association for Psychological Science
Member

American Psychological Association
Member

Jean Piaget Society
Member

Psychonomic Society
Fellow

Society for Research in Child Development
Member

Supervision

Currently available to supervise graduate students: No

Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: No

Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: No

Current Research

Curriculum Vitae (C.V. file):

CV of Janice M Johnson