This study focused on the input-to-intake phenomenon: Can foreign language/second language (L2) learner-readers process grammatical information presented via written input as intake? Multiple tasks were designed to assess the processing of input into intake by first- and second-year students of Spanish. (JL)

As part of the development of a scoring algorithm for a simulation-based dental hygiene initial licensure examination, this effort conducted a task analysis of the dental hygiene domain. Broad classes of behaviors that distinguish along the dental hygiene expert-novice continuum were identified and applied to the design of nine paper-based cases…

Speech production studies have shown that the phonological form of a word is made up of phonemic segments in stress-timed languages (e.g., Dutch) and of syllables in syllable timed languages (e.g., Chinese). To clarify the functional unit of mora-timed languages, the authors asked native Japanese speakers to perform an implicit priming task (A. S.…

Configural visual abilities in thirteen children with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to 13 children matched on mental age and 13 children matched on chronological age. Configural abilities were tested through four tasks (1) Silhouette (2) Fragmented (3) Mooney and (4) overlapping figures. In the first three tasks, it was necessary to take into…

Background: Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with fronto-striatal dysfunction. There is debate as to the extent to which TS is associated with cognitive impairment. Some authors argue that any impairments seen are attributable to comorbid psychiatric symptomatology, whilst others have suggested that…

Using cognitive load theory and cognitive theory of multimedia learning as a framework, we conducted two within-subject experiments with 10 participants each in order to investigate (1) if the audiovisual presentation of verbal and pictorial learning materials would lead to a higher demand on phonological cognitive capacities than the visual-only…

Information storage in the brain is a temporally graded process involving different memory phases as well as different structures in the mammalian brain. Cortical plasticity seems to be essential to store stable long-term memories, although little information is available at the moment regarding molecular and cellular events supporting memory…

We investigated the role of executive and spatial representational processes in impaired performance of block construction tasks by children with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare genetic defect that results in severely impaired spatial cognition. In Experiment 1, we examined performance in two kinds of block construction tasks, Simple Puzzles, in…

This report is the third in a series of research projects concerning abilities and performance processes, particularly in school mathematics. A theoretical scrutiny of traditional psychometric testing, cognitive processes, their interrelationships, and an empirical application of the theoretical considerations on the level of junior secondary…

The effects of age, task, and egocentric responding on visual-spatial perspective taking were studied among 41 preschool children between 3.0 and 5.9 years of age. Children were individually administered three perspective-taking measures: the upside-down/right-side-up task, a block task, and a picture box task, all previously described in the…

An information-processing assessment of the construct validity of aptitude tests is presented. It is stated that aptitude tests have been rather successful because they possess high construct validity, although the constructs in terms of which the tests may be most profitably understood are information-processing rather than psychometric ones. It…

A task analysis of the conceptual skills prerequisite to learning to read by a phonics-based method is made in an attempt to distinguish these skills from reading's component skills. The model for task analysis presented by Gagne, in which a cumulative learning of prerequisite conceptual skills is assumed, is used. The analysis deals primarily…

Ninety-eight undergraduate education majors received a battery of ability tests, measuring general reasoning, associative memory, and trait anxiety and were randomly assigned to three groups--no feedback, feedback, and learner control--for a computer-assisted instruction course on Xenograde systems (an imaginary science). Four state anxiety…

Discussed is the process of hierarchical task analysis (a tool used to decide what to teach and when to teach it) as it relates to the setting of instructional goals and objectives. (BD)

Explores content or contextual validity of social rule classifications produced by sample of 12-year-old child coders. Analyses of variances revealed that categorization schemes generated by child coders were contextually valid as determined by raters' mean ratings. (Author/RWB)