In multisite evaluation studies, questions of primary interest often focus on whether particular facets of implementation or other aspects of classroom or school environments are critical to a program's success. However, the differences with which teachers implement programs can depend on an array of factors, including differences in their…

Klin et al., 2004 and Levine et al., 2000 concluded that readers fail to resolve noun phrase anaphors when the antecedent is difficult to retrieve from memory and the inference is not necessary for comprehension. In four experiments we investigated the hypothesis that these inferences were actually partially encoded. Although the results of a…

A hyper-emotion theory of psychological illnesses is presented. It postulates that these illnesses have an onset in which a cognitive evaluation initiates a sequence of unconscious transitions yielding a basic emotion. This emotion is appropriate for the situation but inappropriate in its intensity. Whenever it recurs, it leads individuals to a…

In this response to Muis et al. (2006), I draw on the writings of Dewey to explore three critical questions. The first question is what is gained or what is lost when the study of epistemology moves from philosophy to psychology and eventually to educational practice? The second asks whether the primary question under examination should be "if"…

The four dominant theories of reasoning from conditionals are translated into formal models: The theory of mental models (Johnson-Laird, P. N., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2002). Conditionals: a theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. "Psychological Review," 109, 646-678), the suppositional theory (Evans, J. S. B. T., & Over, D. E. (2004). "If."…

How do people learn causal structure? In 2 studies, the authors investigated the interplay between temporal-order, intervention, and covariational cues. In Study 1, temporal order overrode covariation information, leading to spurious causal inferences when the temporal cues were misleading. In Study 2, both temporal order and intervention…

This paper develops the argument that rule and inferential models of communication are interdependent--that explanations provided by one model must invoke properties of the other model if a more complete explanation of communication is to be arrived at. Rule and inferential models are examined separately in the paper as to their functions in…

This study investigated, with a dissociation paradigm, the distinction between remembering the information in a text, and learning from a text and applying the acquired knowledge (e.g., by making inferences). After reading an expository text, subjects (110 undergraduates) performed either a memory (recognition) or an inferencing (verification)…

The categorization of evidence through an "inverse inference" model is a preliminary attempt to organize the manner in which the ordinary language user perceives the use of evidence. While discussions on the nature of evidence have an important place in the realm of the theoretician and methodologist, this model attempts to explain how…

Two parallel studies investigated the influence of principle-based and attribute-based similarity relations on new category learning by preschoolers. One of two possible functions of a single novel artifact (which differed between studies) was modeled for children and practiced by children. Children then judged which test objects received the same…

Canonical correlation analysis is illustrated and three common fallacious interpretation practices are described. Simply, canonical correlation is an example of the bivariate case. Like all parametric methods, it involves the creation of synthetic scores for each person. It presumes at least two predictor variables and at least two criterion…

Distinguishing two forms of inference (additive and general vicariance), this paper describes a procedure for assessing class vicariance that attempts to control potentially confounding effects of verbal comprehension. The term "class vicariance" refers to the inference that a class remains invariant under arbitrary dichotomous…

Limitations of dummy coding and nonsense coding as methods of coding categorical variables for use as predictors in multiple regression analysis are discussed. The combination of these approaches often yields estimates and tests of significance that are not intended by researchers for inclusion in their models. (SLD)

Multiple evaluation methods (MEMs) can cause an inferential challenge, although there are strategies to strengthen inferences. Practical and theoretical issues involved in the use by social scientists of MEMs, three potential problems in drawing inferences from MEMs, and short- and long-term strategies for alleviating these problems are outlined.…

The utility and interpretation of a coefficient derived by use of the generalizability theory is discussed in this article. Then it is employed to assess the reliability of several school-level variables from the High School and Beyond study. (JD)