The author briefly responds to a number of terminological, theoretical, and empirical issues raised in some postscripts. The goal is not to respond to each outstanding point but rather to address some comments that in his view confuse rather than clarify matters. He responds to Plaut and McClelland and Quian Quiroga and Kreiman in turn.

The paper by Rupp and Templin (2008) is an excellent work on the characteristics and features of cognitive diagnostic models (CDM). In this article, the authors comment on some substantial and methodological aspects of this focus paper. They organize their comments by going through issues associated with the terms "cognitive,"…

In four experiments, Malt and Sloman [Malt, B. C., & Sloman, S. A. (2007). Category essence or essentially pragmatic? Creator's intention in naming and what's really what. "Cognition, 105," 615-648] show that the naming of artifacts is affected by discourse context. They see this phenomenon as posing a problem for the intentional-history theory of…

This article argues that attempts to identify criteria that mark out higher-order thinking and distinguish it from lower-order thinking are still far from satisfactory. Bloom's cognitive hierarchy is discussed, as are the characteristics of higher-order thinking assembled by Resnick. (IAH)

Synthesizes MacLaury's vantage theory, Barsalou's frame theory, and the relation between similarity, commonality, and difference. Frame theory elaborates on the structural components of mental representations, while vantage theory elaborates on the processing by which these components are integrated. (Author/VWL)

Briefly analyzes and critiques "The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" by Benjamin Bloom and others from the perspective of the values and epistemological presuppositions of the critical thinking movement. Suggests that the hierarchical organization of the taxonomy fosters mistaken assumptions about cognitive processes and may hamper…

Currently, the language sciences place together four different forms of mental activity on one plane of language, which results in confusion. This paper presents arguments from metaphysics, hermeneutics, and semiotics to demonstrate that there are actually three planes of language (a biologically-based information processing plane, a literal…

Shows that the categorical processes brought to light by MacLaury (1995, 1997) make it possible to account for differentiated activations of social representation. Considers the issue of unified versus dichotomized interpretations of data when these foster more than one view of a topic, and suggests that vantage theory settles the question in…

Weaknesses in the structure, levels, and sequence of Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive domains emphasize the need for both a new model of how individual learners process information and a new taxonomy of the different levels of memory, thinking, and learning. Both the model and the taxonomy should be consistent with current research findings. The…

In their original report [Kunde, W., Kiesel, A., & Hoffmann, J. (2003). Conscious control over the content of unconscious cognition. "Cognition," 88, 223-242] maintain that ''unconscious stimuli [do not] owe their impact [...] to automatic semantic categorization'' (p.223), and instead propose the action-trigger theory of unconscious priming. In a…

The question of innateness, which naturally arises in respect of the method of category construction proposed by vantage theory, is notoriously difficult. Discusses some of the problems inherent in this type of issue, along with attendant assumptions. Then, turns to what might constitute possible grounding for vantage theory. (Author/VWL)

Responds to W. Frawley's and J. Lantolf's comments on the Frauenglass and Diaz study concerning the interaction between private speech and cognition. Argues that Vygotsky's theory predicts a positive effect on children's problem solving activity. (HOD)

Organizational theorists have been constrained by the overuse of dichotomies. Complex social phenomena cannot adequately be represented through these simplifications of reality. This propensity of theorists to dichotomize is investigated and countered by the advocacy of disciplined naivete in the study of educational organizations. (MLF)

Claims that people determine whether something is a member of a given artifact kind by inferring that it was successfully created with the intention that it belong to that kind. Discusses function-based and intentional-historical accounts of artifact concepts. Concludes that a rich set of inferential capacities is needed to constitute a theory of…

This review of the literature on the neuropsychology of autism identifies several consistent findings, such as: existence of neuropsychological impairments in a wide range of domains; large individual differences in certain neuropsychological domains; greater difficulty with tasks involving social information; possible association of the amygdala…