During language acquisition children generalise at multiple layers of granularity. Ambridge argues that abstraction-based accounts suffer from lumping (over-general abstractions) or splitting (over-precise abstractions). Ambridge argues that the only way to overcome this conundrum is in a purely exemplar/analogy-based system in which…

The syntactic behaviour of human beings cannot be explained by analogical generalization on the basis of concrete exemplars: analogies in surface form are insufficient to account for human grammatical knowledge, because they fail to hold in situations where they should, and fail to extend in situations where they need to. [For Ben Ambridge's…

Ambridge argues that the existence of exemplar models for individual phenomena (words, inflection rules, etc.) suggests the feasibility of a unified, exemplars-everywhere model that eschews abstraction. The argument would be strengthened by a description of such a model. However, none is provided. I show that any attempt to do so would immediately…

This commentary critiques Ambridge's radical exemplar model of language acquisition using research from the Longitudinal Study of Early Language, which has tracked the language development of 30+ children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) since 2002. This research has demonstrated that the children's capacity for abstraction at the grammatical…

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…

Cooper et al. (this issue) develop an interactive activation model of spatial and imitative compatibilities that simulates the key results from Catmur and Heyes (2011) and thus conclude that both compatibilities are mediated by the same processes since their single model can predict all the results. Although the model is impressive, the…

Pieter Muysken's keynote paper, "Language contact outcomes as a result of bilingual optimization strategies", undertakes an ambitious project to theoretically unify different empirical outcomes of language contact, for instance, SLA, pidgins and Creoles, and code-switching. Muysken has dedicated a life-time to researching, rather…

Integrative hierarchical models have sought to account for the extensive comorbidity between various internalizing disorders in terms of broad individual difference factors these disorders share. However, such models have been developed largely on the basis of self-report and diagnostic symptom data. Toward the goal of linking such models to…

Proposes an object-oriented conceptual data model tailored for organizing and representing basic map elements and their relationships, as well as operations of interest for the management of geographic data. Discussion includes both conceptual abstraction primitives (classification, generalization, and aggregation) and a spatial abstraction…

A developmental model of mental activity is proposed, describing central processing skills that are metaphorical in nature. This metaphorical thinking, in which semantic fields and knowledge domains are juxtaposed to enable individuals to perceive similarities between prior knowledge and unfamiliar situations, enables individuals to develop toward…

Discusses criticisms of behavioral science research methodologies, and offers solutions which emphasize that it is only on the basis of theory that one can decide on an appropriate hypothesis to be tested, on a correct method of statistical analysis, and on whether the experimental results can be generalized to a population of interest. (Author/KS)

The paper proposes a model which combines traditional metacognitive explanations for the acquisition of social skills in behaviorally disordered adolescents with situationally specific environment variables. Research is reported suggesting that newly learned social skills may not generalize to a wider variety of real life situations because social…

The recent research on school or educational leadership is reviewed in an attempt to define some of the major recurring research problems. This paper outlines and describes both methodological problems and organizational perspective problems so that future research efforts can be strengthened. (BW)

The article presents a model of learning based on the four learning stages of (1) acquisition, (2) proficiency, (3) maintenance, and (4) generalization. The importance of directing instruction at the appropriate learning stage is stressed and examples are given. (DB)

Discussed are the nature of the development of conceptual relationships, and the structure of concepts. The topics are presented with regard to the importance of combining metaphors with two alternate approaches to learning, the first being rote learning and the other being inductive learning. The paper is intended to be a model of the concept of…