Examines performance as a literary critical method. Describes group performances of James Dickey's "The String" in an advanced college interpretation course, and considers two central issues: (1) what is learned through the performance of a specific literary work; and (2) what features of a concrete text require performance attention,…

Recommends that teachers be skilled and respectful in helping students identify the functions of religion. The "Simulated Garbage" technique urges students to consider the qualities that give a religion coherence and meaning, without relation to external criteria of seeming rightness. (RAE)

A theory of deductive reasoning is presented for inferences that depend on multiply quantified premises. It is argued that reasoners construct mental models based on their knowledge of the meaning of the quantifiers. Three experiments, with 54 university students and adults, corroborated the theory. (SLD)

Evaluates the effect of explicit instruction in second language reading comprehension strategies on intermediate-level French students' (N=53) reading comprehension and inferential ability, and seeks to determine what type of learners derive the greatest benefit from the instruction. The positive effect that reading strategy training has on…

Examines the functional characteristics of intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI), proposes a structural model that defines expertise requirements for the development of an ICAI system, and discusses the requirements of a multidisciplinary cooperative effort for its development. Knowledge acquisition, learning needs, and instructional…

The seven chapters of this special issue explore problems in how to better understand the reasoning process that is used to establish evaluative conclusions. The many unanswered questions about reasoning should stimulate further investigation of the meaning of sound evaluative reasoning. (SLD)

The unfulfilled promise of criterion-referenced measurement is that it would permit valid inferences about what a student could and could not do. To come closest to achieving all that criterion-referenced testing originally promised, tests of higher item density, with more items per amount of domain, are required. (SLD)

Coping style and effects of counseling intervention on pain tolerance was studied for 61 elementary school students through immersion of hands in cold water. Bayesian predictive inference tools are able to distinguish between subject characteristics and manipulable treatments. Sensitivity analysis strengthens the certainty of conclusions about…

Criticizes Herrnstein and Murray for their lack of respect for the truth, displayed throughout "The Bell Curve"; their willingness to encourage disharmony between groups they identify as cognitively different and to foment fear and distrust of an alleged underclass portrayed as dangerous and beyond help; and their lack of interest in…

This study investigated the effects of culture-specific background knowledge and inferences upon second-language readers' comprehension of text. Ten Korean adult second-language readers were asked to think aloud as they read a short story from another culture and then answer a detailed set of postreading questions. (20 references) (VWL)

This paper argues that judgment-based assessment of data from multiply replicated single-subject or small-N studies should replace normative-based (p=less than 0.05) assessment of large-N research in the clinical sciences, and asserts that inferential statistics should be abandoned as a method of evaluating clinical research data. (Author/JDD)

Investigates the extent to which readers make inferences and integrations during reading. Finds that slow readers and readers with "careful-reading" instructions appear to infer script-arguments and integrate arguments to a high degree. Finds that fast readers and readers with "fluent-reading" instructions do not infer script-information and show…

The role of analogical mapping in the formation of conceptual misrepresentations was studied by analyzing target-domain inferences generated by 193 third graders learning from an analogy. Explicit knowledge of the instructional goal decreased the number of conflicting inferences. Implications for learning are discussed. (SLD)

Studies whether global, causal inferences are made during comprehension. Provides verbal protocol data in the form of talking aloud during reading. Discusses the data with reference to processing claims and working-memory models. Considers what verbal protocols reveal about processing. (HB)

Twenty-one learning-disabled and 22 nondisabled junior high students heard a series of audiotaped stories describing interactions between 2 individuals, with each story containing a statement that was either sincere, deceptive, or sarcastic. Probes of students' interpretations of these statements found that learning-disabled students were less…