Attaining the insight needed to solve the Mutilated Checkerboard problem, which requires discovery of an effective problem representation (EPR), is described. Performance on insight problems can be predicted from the availability of generators and constraints in the search for an EPR. Data for 23 undergraduates were analyzed. (TJH)

Experiments with 35 male/39 female college students and 220 male Navy recruits examined the nature of a general ability factor of intelligence--Spearman's "g." Patterns related to task complexity and reaction time variability were studied. "g" appears related to the ability to reconfigure working memory contents flexibly and…

Cardinality responses are affected by both the direction and nature of the elements in the counting sequence. Error analysis suggests six stages in the acquisition of cardinality. Although there appears to be a developmental dependency between counting and cardinality, this relationship is not significant in all cases. (RH)

To set an optimal decision criterion on a test of recognition, a subject must estimate the degree to which they can discriminate previously studied from unstudied stimuli. To do so accurately, the subject must assess not only their mastery of the material but also the extent to which the distractors yield mnemonic evidence that makes them…

The main goal here is to introduce a new perspective through which cognitive learning theory plays an active role in instructional hypermedia design and evaluation through testing educational mediums that elicit two distinct levels of cognitive processing for materials of different levels of complexity. Results indicate that if the cognitive level…

Cognitive load can be defined as the amount of mental effort that performing a specific task imposes on a learner's cognitive system. It can be measured by the number of new concepts embedded in a learning task. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, with their limited English proficiency and minimal entry knowledge of a subject matter,…

This paper analyses the effects of manipulating the cognitive complexity of L2 oral tasks on language production. It specifically focuses on self-repairs, which are taken as a measure of accuracy since they denote both attention to form and an attempt at being accurate. By means of a repeated measures design, 42 lower-intermediate students were…

A study was conducted that attempted to show changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) patterns (identified using topographic EEG mapping) when children were required to perform the relatively simple task of button pressing during an eyes-open baseline session of low cognitive demand and a complex reaction time (RT) task of high cognitive demand.…

Two studies were performed to investigate the effects of material and task variations in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use mental imagery, meaningful elaboration, and grouping. The type of training task or the order of training and test materials differed for each of the…

The complexity of language of four, five, and six year old children was examined in a psycholinguistic study that attempted to differentiate the characteristics of sentences that were difficult for children to comprehend from those which were easy, and to discover whether children used a subject-verb-object (S-V-O) language strategy to interpret…

This paper suggests that a change in mode of expression --narrative, descriptive, or expository--can influence the syntactic complexity of children's writing. The implications of the research studies reviewed here may offer direction for education in general. Instructional strategies which make use of variation in writing mode to encourage gains…

To investigate developmental differences in timesharing performance, 60 boys, 20 in each of three age groups (7-, 10- and 13-year-olds), performed an auditory matching task and a tracking task alone and concurrently, the latter under two sets of instructions. Decrements produced by concurrent performance were compared for the three age groups.…

Confined to the interaction of complexity/simplicity of the stimulus play, this paper both focuses on the differing patterns of response between cognitively complex and cognitively simple persons to the characters in "The Homecoming" and "Private Lives" and attempts to determine the responses to specific characters or groups of…

The development and validation of the Test of Thematic Analysis (TTA) are described. The TTA measures the effects of liberal education as distinct from other kinds of education and general maturation. Scores were higher among seniors than freshmen at traditional liberal arts colleges. No significant differences were obtained at two vocationally…

Investigates children's difficulty in understanding (numerical) place value. A counting and estimating task, based on Piaget's number theory, was devised to determine if children in grades one through five evidenced this construction. (Author/BB)