Focuses on an important aspect of conceptual thinking--the role of causal notions in the content of our concepts. Presents a set of experiments introducing the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IOED), in which he shows that people confidently believe they know how things work, but when challenged are forced to acknowledge that their understanding is…

The authors, using the recently developed Position Classification Inventory, examined male and female perceptions of a nonprofessional occupation. Results suggest that the PCI shows promise as a method of classifying occupations according to J. L. Holland's (1997) theory. (Contains 20 references and 2 tables.) (Author)

Introduces Michel Foucault's "Archaeology of Knowledge" as a way of addressing Wayne Wiegand's charges of problems in the discipline of library and information science. Highlights include a discussion of discursive formations, or the ways in which a collection of texts are organized with respect to each other; and history as a discursive…

This article argues that attempts to identify criteria that mark out higher-order thinking and distinguish it from lower-order thinking are still far from satisfactory. Bloom's cognitive hierarchy is discussed, as are the characteristics of higher-order thinking assembled by Resnick. (IAH)

It is suggested that the strength of a categorical argument increases with the degree to which the conclusion and premise categories are similar to the members of the lowest level category that includes both premise and conclusion categories. (SLD)

The neural net model of J. E. R. Staddon and A. K. Reid (1990) explains exponential and Gaussian generalization gradients in the same way as the diffusion model of R. N. Shepard (1958). The cognitive generalization theory of Shepard (1987), also implemented as a connectionist network, goes beyond both models in accounting for classification…

Details the philosophical and practical dimensions of five types of validity used in qualitative research: descriptive, interpretive, theoretical, generalizable, and evaluative, with corresponding issues of understanding. Presents this typology as a checklist of the kinds of threats to validity that may arise. (SK)

Technological literacy is based upon the knowledge and ability to use technological systems, ideas, and words. A basic vocabulary for technological literacy is the foundation for technology education programs. (SK)

The first article discusses the need for a standard occupational classification system (SOC), the creation of the 1998 SOC, its implementation schedule, and plans for ongoing development. The second describes the government's industry classification system, tracking its creation through the North American Industry Classification System, which…

Presents a new class of models for person-by-items data. The essential new feature of the class is the representation of persons through membership in multiple latent classes, each of which belongs to one latent classification. Illustrates use of one of these models and compares them to some models in the literature. (SLD)

Discussion of the prevalence of giftedness proposes a metric-based system in which each of five levels of giftedness (in each field of talent) reflects a prevalence that is one tenth that of the previous level. Advantages to the system are identified and application suggests that 30-40 percent of the population is at least mildly gifted in at…

Argues that Waldo and Bauman's Goals and Process (GAP) matrix does not include task/work groups. Claims that it is not in the best interest of group work to undo or rework the Association for Specialists in Group Work's four core groups as a model. States that the field of group work needs a commonly shared framework/categorization from which to…

This response to Waldo and Bauman's article on the Goals and Process (GAP) matrix addresses two categorizations of group work: specialty groups and the GAP matrix. Briefly describes them, discusses their application to therapeutic groups for childhood sexual-abuse adult survivor groups, and proposes some adaptations. (Author/MKA)

Claims that Waldo and Bauman's Goals and Process (GAP) matrix improves the ability of both researchers and practitioners to communicate in more sophisticated terms about the goals and processes of various groups. Proposes that the GAP matrix be revised without retaining the original categories because they are obscure and obsolete. (MKA)

Presents an ongoing series of experiments with the TREC (Text Retrieval Conference) Interactive Track that test the feasibility and effectiveness of using clustering and classification as an aid to retrieval and answer construction. Results indicate that the success of the approach depends on assessing the quality of the final answers generated by…