Research on language processing has shown that the disruption of conceptual integration gives rise to specific patterns of event-related brain potentials (ERPs)--N400 and P600 effects. Here, we report similar ERP effects when adults performed cross-domain conceptual integration of analogous semantic and mathematical relations. In a problem-solving…

This study evaluated a new measure for analyzing the process of children's problem solving in a series completion task. This measure focused on a process that we entitled the "Grouping of Answer Pieces" (GAP) that was employed to provide information on problem representation and restructuring. The task was conducted using an electronic…

EARLY FORMS OF NUMERICAL REASONING WERE INVESTIGATED BY EXAMINING THE ROLE OF A SET OF VARIABLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSERVATION OF NUMBER. CONSERVATION OF NUMBER WAS DEFINED AS THE RECOGNITION THAT THE NUMBER OF OBJECTS CONSTITUTES AN AGGREGATE WHICH IS NOT CHANGED MERELY BY REARRANGING THEM. EXPERIMENT ONE WAS CONDUCTED WITH CHILDREN FROM…

Many science curriculum development projects have the goal of increasing students' ability to employ scientific or formal reasoning strategies. Argues that longitudinal data of students who acquired formal reasoning strategies as a consequence of specific instruction are needed to provide evidence that these skills will help in other academic…

This study examined 6- to 8-year-old Slovenian children's acquisition of matrix completion proficiency and compared microgenetic and age-related changes on the task. Microgenetic analyses indicated that: variability of children's errors increased before they discovered the correct strategy, the correct strategy became dominant shortly after…

This study examines the influence of selected performance factors and social role participation upon Piagetian cognitive funcitoning during the aging years. By administering a battery of concrete and formal reasoning tasks and measures of fluid intelligence, the effects of varying instructional set and age of E on the cognitive performance of 80…

This investigation addressed the following questions: (1) Can the ability to control variables be taught to high school biology students who, on a written test of logical operations, do not demonstrate formal reasoning; (2) Would students who are classified as early formal operational thinkers on the written test of logical operations be able to…

Reports the use of a memory load-interference paradigm and the easy-to-hard paradigm as converging operations to study capacity limitations in five- to six-year-old's reasoning. Concludes that transitive inference ability in children is capacity limited. (HOD)

The current study aimed to test a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) model of analogical reasoning based on the relating of derived same and derived difference relations. Experiment 1 recorded reaction time measures of similar-similar (e.g., "apple is to orange as dog is to cat") versus different-different (e.g., "he is to his brother as…

The effect of playing a logic game, Master Mind, on student learning in physics was examined in this study. An experimental group of 16 Electronics Engineering Technology students played the game during class one hour per week for seven weeks. A control group of nineteen students took the course without playing the logic game. Results showed that…

A study was designed to examine the relationship between certain measures of cognitive development and reading scores, particularly reading comprehension scores. Forty-one adult basic education students, ranging from 16 to 62 years of age (mean age of 25) and predominantly from lower socioeconomic groups, were administered the following three…

The complex and multi-faceted nature of the cognitive process of reasoning is discussed. The factor-analytic history of the isolation and definition of the three most important currently recognized reasoning factors (general reasoning, induction, and logical or deductive reasoning) is traced through the psychometric literature, and the…

Thought processes as they are observed during problem solving are discussed. A theoretical framework is designed to establish the correspondence between the tactics the subjects use to solve problems and thinking processes. (NCR)

To investigate similarity judgements in different cultural contexts, the performance of two groups of children on seven similarity tasks and on two tests of metaphor was compared. The 45 Canadian and 45 Canadian-Greek children (ages 5, 8, and 11) had different cultural and linguistic backgrounds but common schooling experiences. The seven tasks…