This article concerns the effect of context on people's judgments about sequences of chance outcomes. In Experiment 1, participants judged whether sequences were produced by random, mechanical processes (such as a roulette wheel) or skilled human action (such as basketball shots). Sequences with lower alternation rates were judged more likely to…

Stage theories are prominent and controversial in science. One possible reason for their appeal is that they provide order and predictability. Participants in Experiment 1 rated stage theories as more orderly and predictable (but less credible) than continuum theories. In Experiments 2-5, we showed that order threats increase the appeal of stage…

In the ordered RNR/RNN serial pattern task, rats often reduce their running speeds on trial 2 less within the RNR than within the RNN series. Initially, investigators (Capaldi, 1985; Capaldi et al., 1983) considered this trial 2 differential speed effect evidence for rats' anticipation of inter-trial outcomes within each series. Later findings,…

Three experiments with short-term recognition tasks are reported. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants decided whether a probe matched a list item specified by its spatial location. Items presented at study in a different location (intrusion probes) had to be rejected. Serial position curves of positive, new, and intrusion probes over the probed…

Investigates whether elementary school children can successfully execute a mental rotation on Marmor's state-comparison task without knowledge of logical sequence relations, whereas such knowledge is required to construct or evaluate external representations of the successive states in a rotation movement. (HOD)

Thirty-six kindergartners were asked to respond to questions and construct figures designed to test their knowledge of hierarchical relations. Subjects had considerable knowledge of subset and superset classification, and could draw transitive inferences with little difficulty; however, they appeared to have little appreciation of the asymmetry…

Compared 24 month olds' ordered recall of events constrained by enabling relations with that of arbitrarily ordered events equated for familiarity and temporal invariance. Children's ordered recall of events constrained by enabling relations was superior to that of arbitrarily ordered ones, indicating that, after experience with an event in…

Data suggests that perceptual processing in the language-appropriate direction is an established skill by the time a child finishes second grade. (Author)

Two strings of letters were presented. Subjects were instructed to indicate whether the second string contained the same elements as the first, regardless of position. Reaction time increased with the number of positions that the letters were displaced. Results indicate that order may be an important factor in retrieval from memory. (Author/BW)

The similarity match took longer than the identity match, and the difference in latency increased as the number of lines in the pattern increased. (Author)

The ability to recognize, extend, and relate patterns and sequences to numeric, figural, and word representations plays a prominent role in science education. This study provided validation information for an instrument to assess childrens' ability to recognize and extend patterns and sequence in different representational forms. A 57-item…

Described are a discrete group of isometries that fix a line but do not stabilize a point. Each type is accompanied by an example of their representation in concrete form which served as material on which young children could operate. Pupil responses to each situation are provided. (CW)

A set of studies investigated the relative importance of operative schemes and figurative (rote) memory. In Study I, 60 concrete operational children from grades 1-4 were asked to reconstruct two types of stimuli from memory. In order to separate the effects of operative and figurative skill use, learning disabled children with poor figurative…

This 19-page workbook presents the elementary student with topological concepts through sequences of pictures with related questions. Generally the questions ask, "How are the pictures different?" and "How are they the same?" Several topological concepts are presented in this manner: connectivity, number of holes, closed and open curves, networks,…