The mental processes underlying everyday predictive and postdictive judgments about objects undergoing change or no change were studied with 40 adults. Results supported a single information processing model for describing performance on both prediction and postdiction problems. The implications of the study of everyday inductive reasoning are…

Eliminative connectionism as a theory of how humans generalize universal relationships to unfamiliar instances cannot account for the way universals are extended to arbitrary items. The discussion shows that the class of eliminative connectionist models currently in vogue cannot extend universals outside the training space. (SLD)

Examines connectionist simulations indicating that starting with simplified inputs or limited memory is not necessary in training recurrent neural networks to learn pseudo-natural languages; such restrictions hinder acquisition. Suggests that Gold's theorem and possible lack of explicit negative evidence do not implicate innate,…

Offers a brief overview of the Structure Building Framework, a simple framework for describing the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in discourse comprehension. Reviews the seminal work on which it is based (the first decade of structure-building research); and recounts the research conducted by the author to test the Structure Building…

Describes the workings of one cognitive model for the development of literary knowledge. The model derives from current discussions of the role of conscious processes in language learning. (Author/VWL)

This pilot study tests a new model of undergraduates' information-seeking behavior that incorporates the epistemological development theories of college students and suggests stages of cognitive processes that students undertake as they construct knowledge. Results suggest that students' stages of epistemological development directly impact their…

Compares and contrasts working memory theory of Baddeley and theory of constructive operators of Pascual- Leone. Concludes that although the theory of constructive operators is complementary with working memory theory (explains developmental and individual differences that working memory theory cannot), the converse is not true; theory of…

Eight commentaries are provided on an article examining the means by which bilinguals control their two language systems. (Author/VWL)

Replies to commentaries written by eight peers in response to an article the author wrote on the means by which bilinguals control their two language systems and in which he proposed an inhibitory control model that embodies the principle that there are multiple levels of control. (Author/VWL)

Describes multilevel modeling of cognitive function in 70 subjects with schizophrenia, 115 of their healthy first-degree relatives, and 66 controls. Describes four methodological issues arising during data analysis and how multilevel modeling can be used, and discusses some cautions in the use of multilevel models. (SLD)

Discusses usability and interpretation issues for single-strategy cognitive assessment models that posit a stochastic, conjunctive relationship between a set of cognitive attributes to be assessed and performance on particular items/tasks of the assessment. Also discusses stochastic ordering and monotonicity properties that enhance the…

The interaction between short- and long-term memory is studied within a model in which phonemic and (temporal) contextual information have separate influences on immediate verbal serial recall via connections with short- and long-term plasticity [Burgess, N., & Hitch, G.J. (1999). Memory for serial order: a network model of the phonological loop…

Consequential conditionals are defined as "if P then Q" statements, where P is an action, and Q a predicted outcome of this action, which is either desirable or undesirable to the agent. Experiment 1 shows that desirable (viz. undesirable) outcomes invite an inference to the truth (viz. falsity) of their antecedent. Experiment 2 shows that the…

J. P. Minda and J. D. Smith (2001) showed that a prototype model outperforms an exemplar model, especially in larger categories or categories that contained more complex stimuli. R. M. Nosofsky and S. R. Zaki (2002) showed that an exemplar model with a response-scaling mechanism outperforms a prototype model. The authors of the current study…

This article proposes that visual encoding learning improves reading fluency by widening the span over which letters are recognized from a fixated text image so that fewer fixations are needed to cover a text line. Encoder is a connectionist model that learns to convert images like the fixated text images human readers encode into the…