Elementary deduction is the ability of unreflectively drawing conclusions from explicit or implicit premises, on the basis of their logical forms. This ability is involved in many aspects of human cognition and interactions. To date, limited evidence exists on its cortical bases. We propose a model of elementary deduction in which logical…

The development of additive ("If only I had done...") and subtractive ("If only I had not done....") counterfactual reasoning was examined in children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (HFASD) (n = 72) and typically developing controls (n = 71), aged 6-12 years. Children were presented four stories where they could generate…

A successful theory of conditional reasoning requires an account of how reasoners recognize the pragmatic function a conditional statement is meant to perform. Situations in which it is ambiguous whether a conditional statement was meant to add information or to correct a mistake are discussed in this article. This ambiguity has direct…

This study examined reasoning about fairness in gender-related traditional practices in Benin, West Africa. Fifty adolescents (M = 15.7 years) and 46 adults (M = 33.4 years) were interviewed about traditional practices involving gender hierarchy. Results indicate that the majority attributed decision-making authority to a traditional authority for…

In this invited article, we present an ongoing research program in the area of writing. Although this program has focused on students with learning disabilities (LD) and other struggling writers, it has also concentrated more broadly on issues involving writing development and general writing instruction. One purpose of this review was to share…

Fluency in information technology (IT Fluency) is a component of life-long learning necessary for a Liberal Arts student's post-graduate success in the global and digital economy. While challenging, promoting IT fluency at Liberal Arts colleges can be achieved through the integration of digital storytelling pedagogy in existing humanities…

In the last few decades, analogy, which is considered as a special case for reasoning, has attracted a great deal of attention from cognitive scientists. Although analogy was rarely applied in previous decades, now it is often considered by educators and researchers as a strategy to provide creative solutions and poetic writing (Paris & Glynn,…

Epistemic criteria are the standards used to evaluate scientific products (e.g., models, evidence, arguments). In this study, we analyzed epistemic criteria for good models generated by 324 middle-school students. After evaluating a range of scientific models, but before extensive instruction or experience with model-based reasoning practices,…

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of question prompts and peer review on scaffolding students' problem-based learning in a web-based cognitive support system. Ninety-six pharmacy students were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition. The students in both conditions were asked to generate solutions to a…

The purpose of this paper is to inform evaluators of a method of evaluating capacity building in educational programs. One definition of capacity building is helping an organization increase its ability to fulfill its mission (Wing, 2004). Evaluators of capacity-building efforts therefore must focus on evidence that the program has helped to build…

Some researchers suggest that grievance procedures and the arbitration process are effective tools that encourage careful decision making by school districts and administrative staff in the handling of personnel decisions (Shipley, 1974). Others contend that grievance procedures, which typically include arbitration as the final stage of the…

Argumentative writing is a challenging communication task that calls upon sophisticated cognitive and linguistic abilities. Pre-adolescents (n = 80; mean age = 11;10; range = 10;6-13:5) were asked to write an argumentative essay on the controversial topic of training animals to perform in circuses. Additionally, they were asked to solve a set of…

This paper describes a model for the analysis of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. Empirically validated through an extensive student-focused survey, this model puts forward a concept of quality that challenges that which is commonly used in institutional analysis. Research indicates that quality, rather than being a simple…

In this study we attempt to propose a new model of proportional reasoning based both on bibliographical and research data. This is impelled with the help of three written tests involving analogical, proportional, and non-proportional situations that were administered to pupils from grade 7 to 9. The results suggest the existence of a…

The present study examined the cognitive profile in Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) males, and investigated whether cognitive profiles are similar for FXS males at different levels of intellectual functioning. Cognitive abilities in non-verbal, verbal, memory and executive functioning domains were contrasted to both a non-verbal and verbal mental age…