The authors present 10 experiments that challenge some central assumptions of the dominant theories of visual search. Their results reveal that the complexity (or redundancy) of nontarget items is a crucial but overlooked determinant of search efficiency. The authors offer a new theoretical outline that emphasizes the importance of nontarget…

For 15 years an ongoing research project at the University of Pittsburgh has focused on the effects of variations in visual complexity and color on the storage and retrieval of visual information by learners. Research has shown that visual materials facilitate instruction, but has not fully delineated the interactions of visual complexity and…

This study hypothesized that subjects who display proportional responses on the Pouring Water Task have developed the ability to comprehend logical arguments of the form referred to as "reasoning to a contradiction," while subjects who display additive responses on the same task have not. To test this hypothesis, 100 additive and…

This study examines the nature of the highly variable black-white difference across diverse tests and indicates the major systematic source of this between-population variation, namely, Spearman's g. Eleven large-scale studies (discussed in the appendix), each one comprising anywhere from 6 to 13 diverse tests, show a significant and substantial…

The efficient reader constructs tentative hypotheses about the meaning of the text that has been read and about the content yet to come. The hypotheses remain tentative until all related information has been accounted for. The reader then constructs a model that considers all of the details in a text. If a promising interpretation fails to account…

One hundred and sixty first grade boys and girls of normal intelligence were tested for ability to conserve multiple space relations. The criterion task apparatus was a wooden T with a model of schoolhouse attached and centered above the point of contact of the horizontal and vertical axis. The T had a track running the length of both its axes…

Awareness of the presence of sexual double entendres within a word association test was investigated with measures of response time, verbal content of responses, and videotaped facial expressions. Subjects characterized as internal-field independent were found to become aware earlier in the task, to test out their developing hypothesis about the…

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of social reinforcement as a function of familiarity with the adult agent administering the reinforcers. First and fifth grade children were tested in a marble dropping task on two successive days. On the second day half of the children at each grade level were tested by the same experimenter…

A study of the speech process was conducted. The process is described as one closely linked to the one involved in the problem of the serial order in behavior. It is pointed out that in the speech of young children the grammatical relations that are properties of elementary underlying sentences appear in the grammatical meanings. Six examples of…

A sample of 278 students enrolled in an introductory statistics course was used to determine which of a set of cognitive and affective variables correlate with course performance. It is suggested that individual diagnostic profiles are useful in establishing prescriptive treatments designed to help students likely to experience difficulty in…

Eighty-one students were asked to read an article under different conditions of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The qualitative differences in learning process and outcomes and the quantitative differences in recall of factual knowledge were investigated in relation to the various experimental subgroups created. (Editor/RK)

This study examines the claim that cognitive preferences in science are no more than expressions of levels of cognitive operation as described by Bloom's Taxonomy. 667 twelfth grade students of chemistry and 989 twelfth grade biology students took a cognitive preference and an achievement test in their respective disciplines. The limitations of…

Building on Bloom's, and subsequent educational taxonomies, a larger, synthetic, theoretical basis, called the process hierarchy theory, is developed. Its relationship to general systems theory and its metatheoretical context are described. A general methodology for empirically testing aspects of the theory using mathematical modeling is explored.…

Questions the conclusions described in PS 501 739. (MB)