Since the mid-1800s, experimental psychologists have been using eye movements and gaze direction to make inferences about perception and cognition in adults (Muller, 1826, cited in Boring, 1942). In the past 175 years, these oculomotor measures have been refined (see Kowler, 1990) and used to address similar questions in infants (see Aslin, 1985,…

ourse comprehensionEvidence conflicts as to whether adults with right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) generate inferences during text comprehension. M. Beeman (1993) reported that adults with RHD fail to activate the lexical-semantic bases of routine bridging inferences, which are necessary for comprehension. But other evidence indicates that adults…

Assessment agencies are increasingly facing pressure on two fronts; first, to increase transparency and openness and second, to improve public confidence. Yet, in relation to one of the central concepts of educational measurement--inherent error--many believe that increased public understanding is incompatible with public confidence: a general…

Participants acquired spatial knowledge of a fictitious island by studying either (a) a complete physical map, (b) a sequence of part maps each showing the outline of the island and a subset of the landmarks, or (c) a sequence of sentences each describing a part map. During test, they verified the direction between 2 landmarks. Spatial knowledge…

Experiments offer more reliable evidence on causation than observational studies, which is not to gainsay the contribution to knowledge from observation. Experiments should be analyzed as experiments, not as observational studies. A simple comparison of rates might be just the right tool, with little value added by "sophisticated" models. This…

In science, inquiry is used as students explore important and interesting questions concerning the world around them. In mathematics, one contemporary inquiry approach is to create models that describe real phenomena. Creating mathematical models using spreadsheets can help students learn at deep levels in both science and mathematics, and give…

Studies of placement tests are typically narrowly concerned with their validation as instruments for the efficient grouping of students. They rarely explore the assumption that placement test content can be related to classroom tasks and so inform instructional decisions. This study focuses on a trial version of the Global Placement Test (GPT), a…

A think-aloud method was used to examine the content of information available to working memory during narrative comprehension in a CHI population. Twenty severe CHI participants (>1 year post-injury) and 20 controls talked aloud after they read each sentence of story narratives. Trabasso and Magliano's (1996a) verbal protocol analysis was then…

This article investigates the transition to memory-based performance that commonly occurs with practice on tasks that initially require use of a multistep algorithm. In an alphabet arithmetic task, item response times exhibited pronounced step-function decreases after moderate practice that were uniquely predicted by T. C. Rickard's (1997)…

Trait conceptions, such as smart, antisocial, and shy, can serve as tools for interpreting and making predictions about the social world. An understanding of children?s trait conceptions can lead to important insights into the way children acquire an understanding of human mental life. The present study was designed to examine positivity biases…

This article is a reflective account of a teacher implementing the comprehension strategy of questioning to encourage genuine conversations with text, instead of the inquisition technique of testing comprehension practiced in many classrooms. Through the structure of a "gradual release of responsibilities," students practice questioning in…

This study examined the effects of contiguity and feature animation on the recall, map reconstruction, inference performance, and en-route behavior of university students studying a computer-delivered reference map with associated text. Participants were randomly assigned to six versions of a computer program created by crossing three contiguity…

In this article, the authors (a) illustrate how displaying disattenuated correlation coefficients alongside their unadjusted counterparts will allow researchers to assess the impact of unreliability on bivariate relationships and (b) demonstrate how a proposed new "what if reliability" analysis can complement null hypothesis significance…

Children learn many new categories and make inferences about these categories. Much work has examined how children make inferences on the basis of category knowledge. However, inferences may also affect what is learned about a category. Four experiments examine whether category-based inferences during category learning influence category knowledge…

The fields of language testing and educational and psychological measurement have not, as yet, developed a set of principles and procedures for linking test scores and score-based inferences to test use and the consequences of test use. Although Messick (1989) discusses test use and consequences, his framework provides virtually no guidance on how…