Category knowledge allows for both the determination of category membership and an understanding of what the members of a category are like. Diagnostic information is used to determine category membership; prototypical information reflects the most likely features given category membership. Two experiments examined 2 means of category learning,…

Numerous studies related to listening comprehension strategies have been published in the past two decades. The present study seeks to build upon two previous reviews of listening comprehension strategies research. Of particular interest in this review are studies dealing with the types of cues used by listeners, the sequence of listening,…

Mardia's measure of multivariate kurtosis has been implemented in many statistical packages commonly used by social scientists. It provides important information on whether a commonly used multivariate procedure is appropriate for inference. Many statistical packages also have options for missing data. However, there is no procedure for applying…

Although knowledge-based inferences (Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994) depend on general knowledge, there may be differences across knowledge areas in how they support these processes. This study explored processing differences between 2 areas of knowledge (physical cause?effect vs. goals and planning) to establish (a) that each would support…

The performance of older adults and depressed people on linear order reasoning is hypothesized to be best explained by different theoretical models. Whereas depressed younger adults are found to be impaired in generative inference making, older adults are well capable of making such inferences but exhibit problems with working memory (Experiments…

This article raises some questions about the usefulness of meta-analysis as a means of reviewing quantitative research in the social sciences. When a meta-analytic model for SAT coaching is used to predict results from future studies, the amount of prediction error is quite large. Interpretations of meta-analytic regressions and quantifications of…

Literature on multivariable causal inference (MCI) and literature on scientific reasoning (SR) have proceeded almost entirely independently, although they in large part address the same phenomena. An effort is made to bring these paradigms into close enough alignment with one another to compare implications of the two lines of work and examine how…

This article analyzes three approaches to resolving the classical Meno paradox, or its variant, the learning paradox, emphasizing Charles S. Peirce's notion of abduction. Abduction provides a way of dissecting those processes where something new, or conceptually more complex than before, is discovered or learned. In its basic form, abduction is a…

Processing abilities in aphasia, and the nature of processing breakdowns, were the focuses of this investigation. Individuals with either fluent or nonfluent aphasia, plus a control group, participated in a cross-modal lexical priming task designed to elicit priming effects when activation of inference interpretations occurred. Comprehension of…

In Study 1, 10-, 13-, and 16-year-olds were assigned to conditions in which they were instructed to think logically and provided alternative antecedents to the consequents of conditional statements. Providing alternatives improved reasoning on two uncertain logical forms, but decreased logical responding on two certain forms; logic instructions…

This study examined 4- and 5-year-olds' ability to spontaneously use the relative duration and frequency of another's object-directed gaze for inferring that person's preference. In Experiment 1, analysis revealed a strong age effect for judgment accuracy, which could not be accounted for by cue-monitoring proficiency. Reducing the saliency of the…

This study introduces an order-constrained Bayes inference framework useful for analyzing data containing dichotomous scored item responses, under the assumptions of either the monotone homogeneity model or the double monotonicity model of nonparametric item response theory (NIRT). The framework involves the implementation of Gibbs sampling to…

One of the most important review topics the author teaches in middle school is the use of metric measurement for problem solving and inquiry. For many years, she had students measuring various objects around the room using the tools of metric measurement. She dutifully taught hypothesizing, data collecting, and drawing conclusions. It was…

The purpose of this article is to comment on the prior article entitled "Examining Instruction, Achievement and Equity with NAEP mathematics data," by Sarah Theule Lubienski. That article claims that a prior article by the author suffered from three weaknesses: (1) An attempt to justify No Child Left Behind (NCLB); (2) drawing causal…

The concept of progression is applicable to how students' geographical understanding can advance over a period of time, and how courses can be designed to facilitate such advances. Understanding is a product of experience, ideas and mental processes, and the interrelationships between them. The ideas which are most characteristic of geographical…