Humans are sensitive to the properties of individual items, and exemplar models are useful for capturing this sensitivity. I am a proponent of an extension of exemplar-based architectures that I briefly describe. However, exemplar models are very shallow architectures in which it is necessary to stipulate a set of primitive elements that make up…

This article is a response to commentaries on the article, "Microvariation in Multilingual Situations: The Importance of Property-by-Property Acquisition" (EJ1300541). This response is divided into sections focusing on the following issues: (1) full transfer and the notion of copying; (2) the definition of linguistic proximity; (3) some…

The radical exemplar model resonates with work on perceptual classification and categorization highlighting the role of exemplars in memory representations. Further development of the model requires acknowledgment of both the fleeting and fragile nature of perceptual representations and the gist-based, good-enough quality of long-term memory…

Ambridge argues that there is widespread agreement among child language researchers that learners store linguistic abstractions. In this commentary the authors first argue that this assumption is incorrect; anti-representationalist/exemplar views are pervasive in theories of child language. Next, the authors outline what has been learned from this…

In this paper, I narrate highlights of my long process of learning and teaching English as a foreign language in mainland China and Australia, presenting a picture of the practices of learning and teaching English in mainland China from the bottom up. Over the past 50 years, English learners in mainland China, as Gao Yihong has written, have…

Developments within education, psychology and the neurosciences have shed a great deal of light on how we learn while, at the same time, confirming for us all that learning is a profoundly complex process and far from understood. Against this background, and in this position article, we consider the recent rise in interest in the concept of…

Addresses Nelson's commentary on Ward, Vela, and Hass' study of children's category learning (both of which are in this issue). Discusses the issue of whether a holistic processing view provides a better account of children's learning than does an analytical view. (PCB)

Describes a classification scheme for multimedia interaction based on the degree of control and type of cognitive engagement in three different learning environments. Three levels of interaction are discussed, and implications for learner control and practice when designing interactive multimedia-based instruction are considered. (Contains 37…

Comments on this issue's article by Ward, Vela, and Hass on children's category learning. Suggests that aspects of the authors' methodology may have led them to underestimate holistic processing. (PCB)

Describes the slot-filler model of taxonomic knowledge development in which preschoolers derive "slot-filler" categories from event schemas. Maintains that the model has received considerable support across methodologies, ages, and sociocultural contexts. Argues that Krackow and Gordon's theorizing and methods could not lead to reliable,…

Shows how elaboration theory (ET) sequences the concepts in a taxonomy and argues that the product of an ET analysis is usually in general agreement with sequencing based on learning prerequisite relationships, and that ET sequencing of taxonomic concepts will not violate learning prerequisite relationships. (Author/MER)

Proposes an instructional transaction class hierarchy and describes capability, knowledge, interactions, and associated transactions for three classes of transactions: (1) component transactions (identify, execute, and interpret); (2) abstraction transactions (judge, classify, decide, generalize, and transfer); and (3) association transactions…

Presents and develops a general model of the nature of a learning system and a classification for learning systems. Highlights include the relationship between artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology; computer-based instructional systems; intelligent instructional systems; and the role of the learner's knowledge base in an intelligent…

Examines the models through which different academic disciplines approach inquiry. Faculty working in different models view their work differently, apply different evaluative standards, and accept different types of values. Although the discipline is more conspicuous than the model, the latter is equally important in understanding epistemological…

After a brief reminder of the essentials of the Structure-of-Intellect model, this paper points out what this model can tell us about the nature of learning, the imbalances in education and intelligence testing, about procedures for fostering intellectual growth, and about other incidental educational problems. (Author)