The link between absenteeism and students' academic performance at university is perpetually a hot topic for teaching academics. Most studies suggest the effect is negative, although the strength of this effect is in dispute. The issue is complicated further when researchers draw their inferences from different angles, such as the removal of a…

In his commentary, Foster (2010) made arguments at 2 levels, offering a broad critique of statistical or methodological approaches in developmental psychology in general together with critical comments that applied only to our recent article (Dogan, Stockdale, Widaman, & Conger, 2010). Certain criticisms by Foster aimed at the field as a whole…

The "Magic" String is a discrepant event that includes a canister with what appears to be the end of two strings protruding from opposite sides of it. Due to the way the strings are attached inside the canister, it appears as if the strings can magically switch the way they are connected. When one string end is pulled, the observer's expectation…

We present a hierarchical Bayesian framework for modeling the acquisition of verb argument constructions. It embodies a domain-general approach to learning higher-level knowledge in the form of inductive constraints (or overhypotheses), and has been used to explain other aspects of language development such as the shape bias in learning object…

The prealgebra curriculum presents many opportunities for encouraging students to justify their inferences. Requiring students to communicate clearly the reasoning behind their solutions, with appropriate mathematical language and notation, helps lay the groundwork for future, proof-based mathematics courses. Prealgebra students can even be…

Current theories of text processing say little about how authors' narrative choices, including the introduction of small mysteries, can affect readers' narrative experiences. Gerrig, Love, and McKoon (2009) provided evidence that 1 type of small mystery--a character introduced without information linking him or her to the story--affects readers'…

In many situations, readers are asked to learn from multiple documents. Many studies have found that evaluating the trustworthiness and usefulness of document sources is an important skill in such learning situations. There has been, however, no direct evidence that attending to source information helps readers learn from and interpret a…

This article presents the author's response to the commentary essays by Charles Alderson and Fred Davidson on "Demystifying a Q-matrix for making diagnostic inferences about L2 reading skills" (Jang, 2009). The author stresses that their commentaries provides vital perspectives on the challenges to pushing the boundaries of current testing…

This mixed-methods study reports psychometric properties of the 34-item Reasoning about P-values and Statistical Significance (RPASS) scale. RPASS is being designed as a research tool to assess effects of teaching methods on students' inferential reasoning. During development (Phase I), two graphical scenarios and 12 items were added to the scale,…

This study explores how public schools in Michigan are meeting the mandate to provide online learning opportunities as a condition of graduation. Michigan became the first state in the nation to mandate online learning opportunities as a condition for graduation with the passage of the Michigan Merit Curriculum. Although the mandate for compliance…

We examined student attitudes toward a team-based learning method known as the readiness assurance process encompassing team exams to model how student satisfaction is initially shaped and subsequently changed over time as a function of scholastic performance and perceived development of professional skills (PS). We found that students were…

What is formative assessment? Why do we do it and what do students gain? Formative assessment is not a one-time event. It is not the product or end result of a set of well-defined steps. Rather, formative assessment is a process identified in this resource as INFORMative assessment when it is a collection of strategies that engage teachers and…

Cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) is a new theoretical framework for psychological and educational testing that is designed to provide detailed information about examinees' strengths and weaknesses in specific knowledge structures and processing skills. During the last three decades, more than a dozen psychometric models have been developed…

Two studies tested the applicability of Weiner's (1995, 1996, 2001, 2006) attributional model of social conduct to roadway environments. This model highlights the role of inferences of responsibility after making causal judgments for social transgressions. Study 1 employed written scenarios where participants were asked to imagine themselves…

The present study investigated the development of inferencing in five to seven year old children. The subjects consisted of thirty typically developing children of five, six and seven years, distributed into three groups of ten. Four sets of material were prepared and for each two types of questions were constructed. The questions being of literal…