Examined children's naturally occurring arguments sampled from transcripts of discussions in fourth-grade classrooms. Found that children's arguments had vague referring expressions, sometimes did not contain explicit conclusions, and seemed to lack explicit warrants to authorize conclusions. Missing or oblique information was usually given in the…

Suggests ways for using data from championship tennis as a means for exploring probabilistic models, especially binomial probability. Examples include the probability of winning a service point and the probability of winning a service game using data from tables and graphs. (AIM)

The concept of consequential validity wrongly links the idea of the consequences of test use with the idea of validity, widely held to be rooted in the accuracy of inferences drawn from examinees' test performances. The reification of consequential validity can distract from a needed clarity about test use consequences. (SLD)

Developments in cognitive and developmental psychology have broadened the inferences researchers want to make about students' learning and the nature and acquisition of knowledge. The principles of inference that led to standard test theory can support inference in the broader context of the cognitive revolution. (SLD)

Examines how native and second-language English speakers interpret reflexive anaphores and pronominals in certain sentence types. Interpreting anaphores was more difficult overall and a consistent order of difficulty was found for five different sentence types. Results are discussed in the context of the Parameterized Binding Theory and the Subset…

A critical reanalysis of Barrett, Caldwell, and Alexander's (1985) critique of dynamic criteria. Summarizes and questions Barrett, et al.'s three definitions of dynamic criteria and their conclusion that reported temporal changes in criteria could be explained by methodological artifacts. A greater focus on dynamic criteria as constructs is…

Responds to Austin, Humphreys, and Hulin's (1989) critique of Barrett, Caldwell, and Alexander, suggesting that the burden of proof still rests on the advocates of the concept of dynamic criteria, and that empirical support is lacking for the existence of dynamic criteria as a simplex. Contrary evidence from educational, organizations, and…

To test predictions regarding the attentional capacity requirements of Piaget's stage of concrete operations, a battery of concrete operational tasks and two measures of attentional capacity were administered to 120 first-, second-, and third-graders. Findings concern class inclusion, transitivity of length and weight, and multiplication of…

Discusses the use of truth tables to help students establish valid or invalid conclusions under a given set of premises. Provides several inference examples using the truth table. (YP)

Examines personal relevance in relation to the ability of 48 5- to 10-year-old children to describe others in terms of psychological characteristics. Results suggest that verbal inferencing skills of young children have been underestimated and that they may be more oriented toward affective goals than older children when anticipating interaction…

Describes how storytelling can enhance both literal and inferential comprehension, motivate oral discussion, increase perceptual knowledge of metaphor, explain and promote interesting language usage, instill deeper meaning to children's personal experiences, and excite children about literature, storytelling, and creative interpretations of story.…

A new item-fit index is proposed that is both a descriptive measure of deviance of single items and an index for statistical inference. This index is based on assumptions of the dichotomous and polytomous Rasch models for items with ordered categories. A simulation study is described. (SLD)

Examined whether the use of superordinate terms in 206 children's definitions is predictable by relevance theory. Children (ages 5-10) gave definitions for 16 basic-level words and 4 superordinate words from natural kind and artifact semantic domains. Superordinate terms were used more frequently when they supported more inferences. Findings…

Two experiments studied how preschool children acquire a naive theory of kinship (NTK). Overall, results implicate a type of theory building that involves inferences from preexisting knowledge rather than structural change, use of analogy, or acquisition of new knowledge. (DR)

This commentary on EC 603 695 argues that significance testing is a necessary but insufficient condition for positivistic research, that judgment-based assessment and single-subject research are not substitutes for significance testing, and that sampling fluctuation should be considered as one of numerous epistemological concerns in any…