Instructors are constantly baffled by the fact that two students who are sitting in the same class, who have access to the same materials, can come to understand a particular chemistry concept differently. Variation theory offers a theoretical framework from which to explore possible variations in experience and the resulting differences in…

Some have argued that belief in God is intuitive, a natural (by-)product of the human mind given its cognitive structure and social context. If this is true, the extent to which one believes in God may be influenced by one's more general tendency to rely on intuition versus reflection. Three studies support this hypothesis, linking intuitive…

This survey study explored perceptions and use of language learning strategies among English as a second language teachers and English-learning students (Grades 3-8, 10, and 11). The sample comprised 1,057 students (651 elementary, 275 middle, and 131 high school) and 54 teachers (31 elementary, 11 middle, and 12 high school) from 38 schools…

Purpose: While the natural expectation is that students seek greater depth of learning as they develop intellectually during their studies, some research calls this into question and even suggests that student learning can become shallower from year to year. The present study aims to investigate the relative depth of students' learning at…

Eye tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60 or more years) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g., "park"). In event-related potential (ERP) work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal…

This article examines responses of 13 preservice students to a mentoring program during their junior year. Throughout the first two terms of a five semester teacher education program, senior physical education specialists agreed to mentor them (in pairs or trios) relative to their development. This qualitative analysis included collection of…

Empirical evidence supporting frame-of-reference (FOR) training as an effective intervention for calibrating raters is convincing. Yet very little is known about who does better or worse in FOR training. We conducted a field study of how motivational factors influence affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcomes, as well as near transfer…

The present study examines the development of sight word reading in young children by examining changes in their self-reported reading strategies over time. A sample of 65 five to seven year olds were asked to read 40 real word items, all carefully matched for letter length and word frequency, on three separate occasions. Changes in the children's…

Visual representations are essential for communicating ideas in the science classroom; however, the design of such representations is not always beneficial for learners. This paper presents instructional design considerations providing empirical evidence and integrating theoretical concepts related to cognitive load. Learners have a limited…

This article provides a tutorial overview of cognitive architectures that can form a theoretical foundation for designing multimedia instruction. Cognitive architectures include a description of memory stores, memory codes, and cognitive operations. Architectures that are relevant to multimedia learning include Paivio's dual coding theory,…

This article presents a marital horizon theory of emerging adulthood that posits that young people's perceptions of marriage are central factors in determining subgroup differences in the length of emerging adulthood as well as the specific behaviors that occur during this period in the family life cycle. The model was tested with a sample of 813…

After forty-nine years of watching and working in higher education, Arthur Chickering has determined that three R's truly are fundamental to helping students learn. In stark contrast to the traditional set, Chickering's three R's challenge educators to recognize, respect, and respond to wide-ranging individual differences among diverse learners.…

We explored the ''idiothetic'' cognitive structure of RIASEC occupational percepts in a sample of Italian middle and high school students over a one year period, examining the possible bidirectional linkages between cognitive-vocational structure, involvement in career exploration activities, and exposure to authoritative parenting style. The…

It has been argued that battered women who kill their abusers represent a special class of defendants being unfairly treated in the legal system. As a result, commentators have argued for reforms to permit the judicial system to respond more fairly. Researchers have investigated the influences of these prescribed legal modifications and the…