Automaticity allows us to perform tasks in a fast, efficient, and effortless manner after sufficient practice. Theories of automaticity propose that across practice processing transitions from being controlled by working memory to being controlled by long-term memory retrieval. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies have sought to test this…

The present study addresses word recognition automaticity in Spanish-speaking adults who are neoliterate by assessing the event-related potential N170 for word stimuli. Participants engaged in two reading conditions that vary the degree of attention required for linguistic components of reading: (a) an implicit reading task, in which they detected…

Different theoretical accounts of second language (L2) acquisition differ with respect to whether or not advanced learners are predicted to show native-like processing for features not instantiated in the native language (L1). We examined how native speakers of English, a language with number but not gender agreement, process number and gender…

To pursue goal directed behavior, the cognitive system must be shielded against interference from irrelevant information. Aside from the online adjustment of cognitive control widely discussed in the literature, an additional mechanism of preventive goal shielding is suggested that circumvents irrelevant information from being processed in the…

Studies children's use of transformation (as a cognitive process) in identifying altered musical phrases in four phrase songs. Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) software was used to record the children's responses. Includes statistical tables. (MJP)

Demonstrates the use of Rasch models to assess the dimensionality of an item set across cohorts in longitudinal studies. Presents data from a study on adolescents' deductive reasoning ability showing that the same test items can be measuring qualitatively different latent traits in different subsamples or at different time points. (JPB)

As part of a long term project relating individual differences in performance on paper and pencil tests of intellectual aptitude and achievement to differences observed in laboratory studies of cognition, data have been collected comparing test scores with simple choice reaction times. The three studies summarized here suggest that the…

Multinomial modeling--a methodology that can be used to measure and study cognitive processes--is discussed, and applications are presented. This statistically based technique involves estimating hypothetical parameters that represent the probabilities of unobservable cognitive events and is compatible with computational theories of cognition.…

The relationship between sex of the experimenter and of a child's cognitive style on risk-taking behavior is reported. The Subjects were 30 boys and 30 girls in the fourth grade. An adult female experimenter administered Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures task to half the children of each sex to give a measure of the childrens' reflective or…

Investigates the relationship between student talk in cooperative learning groups and the learning of complex cognitive tasks. Studies 2 classrooms of 51 students in which a social studies unit designed to assess the development of problem-solving skills in a cooperative learning environment was administered. Reports a strong correlation between…

The metacognitive performance of four groups of students was examined. The students' processes of visual analysis and discrimination of real-life pictures were used to measure metacognition. There were 61 participants: 18 hearing students, 18 deaf and hard of hearing students, 16 students with mild mental disabilities, and 9 students with physical…

The experiment described was designed to evaluate the possible effects on students in a small seminar of an evaluation system in which students were freed from some of the pressures of the conventional grading system and allowed to participate in the grading process, and to determine whether such participation would affect the acquisition of…

This study sought to determine the extent to which instructional processes characterized by cognitive complexity influence the development of general cognitive abilities during the first, second, and third years of college. The sample for the study consisted of incoming first-year students at 18 four-year and 5 two-year colleges and universities…

This book is a collection of papers presented at the symposium, "Conference on Ordinal Scales of Cognitive Development, sponsored by the California Test Bureau. Papers include: "The Theory of Stages in Cognitive Development" (J. Piaget); "Two Approaches to Intelligence: Piagetian and Psychometric" (D. Elkind); "An…

This study focused on two methodological issues by testing for discriminant validity in a multitrait-multimethod matrix which contrasted the set of estimates obtained from two methods and the "regression weights" derived from each subject's estimates from the second method. In order to change the conceptions of social behavior held by persons from…