The cognitive conflict hypothesis asserts that information that directly contradicts a prior conception is 1 of the prerequisites for conceptual change and other forms of nonmonotonic learning. There have been numerous attempts to support this hypothesis by adding a conflict intervention to learning scenarios with weak outcomes. Outcomes have been…

An inductive concept-identification model of expository text processing, consonant with current theories of macrostructure development, is proposed as part of a reading comprehension instruction model. An evaluation study with fourth and sixth graders is described. Results are interpreted as supporting the model. (Author/BS)

The task consisted of categorizing a set of slides depicting concepts of freedom, nonfreedom, justice, and nonjustice. The results of the analysis indicated that abstract thinkers performed significantly better than did concrete thinkers and that performance increased as a function of grade level. (Author/BJG)

The conversion model of formal reasoning was examined for its ability to predict the decisions made by college students when solving concrete and abstract syllogisms. Results supported the model's contentions that reasoner's decisions reflect natural language processes in the encoding of syllogistic premises, and follow rationally from…

The efficiency with which learning disabled and nonlearning disabled college students perform cognitive processing tasks was examined. A simple visual reaction time and speeded classification tasks were used. Learning disabled adults were slower and more variable on speeded classification tasks but did not differ on visual reaction time tasks.…

The cumulative hierarchical assumption of Bloom's Taxonomy was tested by orienting American Australian subjects at four taxonomic levels to the same study material and administering an unexpected memory test. Moderate support was obtained for the cumulative hierarchical assumption, but it is concluded that the evaluation category is misplaced.…

The hierarchical relationships between behaviors in the cognitive and affective domains that led to teachers' voluntary acceptance of Individually Guided Education were studied, using ordering theory. The results indicated that cognitive skills and attitudes were integrally related and built on each other, leading to mastery of the goal.…

Performance on a battery of tests of vocabulary words by 72 college students was compared as a function of whether the prior instruction involved presenting material in an organized or scrambled fashion. Organizing vocabulary words during study facilitated performance in categorizing, processing for understanding, or producing a word. (SLD)

Race was more salient than sex when 93 white preschool children (46 males and 47 females) in a virtually all-white community characterized photographs of others, but sex and race were equally salient in self-classification. Consistency between cognitive and affective responses increased with subjects' ages from 3.0 to 5.7 years. (SLD)