Previous research is mixed regarding whether laypeople are sensitive to sample size. Here the author argues that this is in part because sample size sensitivity follows a curvilinear function with decreasing sensitivity as sample size become larger. This functional form reconciles apparent discrepancies in the literature, accounting for results…

A new and very interesting approach to the analysis of responses and response times is proposed by Goldhammer (this issue). In his approach, differences in the speed-ability compromise within respondents are considered to confound the differences in ability between respondents. These confounding effects of speed on the inferences about ability can…

Information flows continuously in the environment. As we attempt to do something, our senses receive large volumes of information. In any conversation, messages are exchanged rapidly. To understand meaning, we have to focus, record, choose and process relevant information at every moment, before it is displaced by other information. Often,…

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effects of perceptual learning style preferences on L2 lexical inferencing and whether learners with certain perceptual learning styles benefited more from an explicitly instructional program. Joy Reid's (1995) Perceptual Learning Style Preferences (PLSP) Inventory and a lexical inferencing test…

This article contains the results of how a selected group of Finnish upper secondary students understand Lutheranism. The data consisted of 63 students' responses to a writing task together with complementary interviews of 11 students. The outcomes of phenomenographic analysis of variation in the students' understanding of Lutheranism are…

In Study 1, 10-, 13-, and 16-year-olds were assigned to conditions in which they were instructed to think logically and provided alternative antecedents to the consequents of conditional statements. Providing alternatives improved reasoning on two uncertain logical forms, but decreased logical responding on two certain forms; logic instructions…

Sensory or input factors can influence the strength of interference in the classic Stroop color-word task. Specifically, in a single-trial computerized version of the Stroop task, when color-word pairs were incongruent, opponent color pairs (e.g., the word BLUE in yellow) showed reduced Stroop interference compared with nonopponent color pairs…

Individual differences in response to a given treatment have been a longstanding interest in education. While many evaluation studies focus on average treatment effects (i.e., the effects of treatments on the levels of outcomes of interest), this paper additionally considers estimating the effects of treatments on the dispersion in outcomes.…

Eye fixations were assessed during the reading of continuation sentences confirming inferences suggested by a preceding context sentence. In multiple regression analysis, individual differences in available prior vocabulary knowledge, working memory span, and speed of access to prior word knowledge served as predictors of eye fixations.…