Analogical reasoning was investigated among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) without intellectual disabilities and typical development (TD). Children were asked to select one of two targets in two conditions: (1) with and without spatial structure similarity; (2) with and without a perceptual distractor. Results demonstrate that…

Theories accounting for the development of analogical reasoning tend to emphasize either the centrality of relational knowledge accretion or changes in information processing capability. Simulations in LISA (Hummel & Holyoak, 1997, 2003), a neurally inspired computer model of analogical reasoning, allow us to explore how these factors may…

In this study, we test an information-processing model (IPM) of problem solving in science education, namely the working memory overload model, by applying catastrophe theory. Changes in students' achievement were modeled as discontinuities within a cusp catastrophe model, where working memory capacity was implemented as asymmetry and the degree…

Investigated the development of scientific reasoning in the context of self-directed experimentation. Subjects were fifth and sixth graders and noncollege adults. Found that neither valid strategies nor correct beliefs alone was sufficient to guarantee success, suggesting that regarding experimentation either as domain-general induction or as…

The subject of this article is the frame problem, as conceived by certain cognitive scientists and philosophers of mind, notably Fodor for whom it stands as a fundamental obstacle to progress in cognitive science. The challenge is to explain the capacity of so-called informationally unencapsulated cognitive processes to deal effectively with…

This study is based on an earlier investigation by Brant and Trabasso, in which it was demonstrated that 4-year-old children could perform transitive inferences when training forced information encoding by involving questions about two comparative dimensions of an object (long and short). The present study was designed to examine the sources of…

This paper describes an experiment on the "linguistic" synthesis of a controller for a model industrial plant (a steam engine). Fuzzy logic is used to convert heuristic control rules stated by a human operator into an automatic control strategy. (Author)

Study results indicate that teachers should be less concerned with teaching relationships between problem elements and more concerned with helping students to identify logical assumptions made in problem statement. (Author)

Presents an overview of artificial-intelligence-based inductive learning techniques and their use in information science research. Three methods are discussed: the connectionist Hopfield network; the symbolic ID3/ID5R; evolution-based genetic algorithms. The knowledge representations and algorithms of these methods are examined in the context of…

This paper investigates similarities and differences between the computer and the human brain in terms of thought processes and develops the theory that the computer can learn, is intelligent and does satisfy educational learning requirements. (Author/MK)

This paper questions evidence for the thesis that causal reasoning of older children is more logical than that of younger ones, and describes two experiments which attempted to determine (1) whether there are true developmental differences in causal reasoning, and (2) what explanations for developmental differences can be supported. In the first…

Based upon the concept that the psychological meaning of a syllogism depends upon the order of the premises in addition to the formal logic expressed, the analogical theory of the interpretation of syllogisms is developed, experimentally tested, and implemented as a computer program. (CTM)

This set of papers was originally developed for a conference on Issues and Directions in Mathematics Problem Solving Research held at Indiana University in May 1981. The purpose is to contribute to the clear formulation of the key issues in mathematical problem-solving research by presenting the ideas of actively involved researchers. An…

This paper reports an experiment designed to test theoretical relations among fast problem solving, more complex and slower problem solving, and research concerning fundamental memory processes. Using a cathode ray tube, subjects were presented with propositions of the form "Y is in list X" which they memorized. In later testing they were asked to…

In order to study the influence of the information-processing strategy of an adult model on the subsequent strategy of children, 216 grade school children solved modified twenty-questions problems. A repeated-measures factorial design was used with the following variables: (1) information-processing of model (hypothesis scanning, constraint…