The concept of consciousness played a central role in Vygotsky's research and theory. Unfortunately, with the advent of behaviorism, consciousness fell into disfavor. One of the major obstacles in studying consciousness is that there is no single acceptable definition of the term. Various researchers have dealt with five different aspects of…

The foundations of knowledge by tradition have been treated analytically, and knowledge has been characterized as a theoretical subject. This article introduces a steering mechanism as the prerequisite for a study of knowledge work and maintenance on empirical grounds. Knowledge is treated synthetically, that is, as something that exists only…

Designed to examine the structural differences in the representation of medical problems in subjects with varying degrees of medical expertise, this study uses an online, thinking-aloud technique to investigate the validity of Feltovich and Barrows' model of expert medical knowledge and illness scripts. Study methodology involved asking one…

Most of the "talk" about the role of mass media in the Third World is generated by politicians rather than by professional communicators. The "Developmental Play Model" treats media experience as an encounter with the "self" and considers the "self" as an integral part of the mass communication process. The…

Research on text organization has demonstrated that reading is responsive to the number and complexity of idea units or propositions in a text, and that the capacity of children to recall information is responsive to the relative importance of the idea units. A study was undertaken to examine an extension of these propositions: namely, that…

Research efforts to model speech perception in terms of a processing system in which knowledge and processing are distributed over large numbers of highly interactive--but computationally primative--elements are described in this report. After discussing the properties of speech that demand a parallel interactive processing system, the report…

Two experiments were conducted (1) to identify the component processes of language comprehension that draw upon cognitive capacity for their execution, and (2) to determine differences in patterns of resource allocation during integrative processing for good and poor readers. In the first experiment, nine good and nine poor college-age readers…

The report summarizes recent and ongoing research on processes involved in the development of antisocial behavior disorders in children and adolescents. Studies address both the applied problem of preventing aggressive behavior and the overall relation of cognition to social behavior. A social information processing model of social competence is…

The theoretical foundations of thinking skills models differ. One category of thinking skills programs uses the cognitive process approach on the premise that thinking abilities depend upon certain fundamental processes. Thinking skills programs that present a strategic approach to thinking are called heuristics-oriented programs, and focus on an…

To further the understanding of how the brain operates at the most basic level of interest to human communication theorists, intrapersonal communication, this paper reviews the arguments against the hemispheric dominance theory and for a neurological processing style model of brain functions and then focuses on the impact of the corpus callosum (a…

Working on the assumption that an adequate model of comprehension must also deal with its connotative aspect (the aspect that concerns the feeling, mood, or "tone" of the text), this paper examines the concept of contextual tone. After defining tone according to its various senses and synonymous forms (voice, attitude, style, mood, and…

Using data from a study that examined the writing of basic skills and regular college freshman students on three separate tasks, this paper discusses the effect that translating a generalized task into one that engages personal commitment by the writer has on the cognitive strategies employed to respond to that task. After a discussion of the…

Using reading models interchangeably with reading theories blurs the distinction between models as representations and theories as explanations. This report presents several models of reading comprehension and compares the functional purposes and research implications of selecting one model over another. The report draws the following conclusions:…

This document is concerned with the important extra-logical knowledge that is often outside of traditional discussions in mathematics, and looks at some of the ingredients and processes involved in the understanding of mathematics. The goal is to develop a conceptual framework in which to talk about mathematical knowledge and to understand the…