The general ability factor (G), as enunciated by Charles Spearman in the model of cognitive functioning, has been the foundation of psychometric theory and test making practices for 80 years. Through these decades, some psychologists disagreed with this theory, especially Godfrey Thompson and E. L. Thorndike. Nevertheless, various aptitude tests…

This report contains excerpts from papers and summaries of discussions and program actions carried out during a series of seminars held to establish research priorities under the Information Technology and Education Programme (ITE) in the United Kingdom. The seminar on "Information Technology" (IT) included Kenneth Ruthven's…

The paper describes the use of expert systems technology in translating test and observational data into objectives for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) with handicapped students. The Math Test Interpreter (MTI) is designed to combine student information, results from the Key Math Diagnostic Arithmetic Test and additional program generated…

The first of five sections in this report places intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) in its historical context through discussions of traditional computer-assisted instruction (CAI) linear and branching programs; TICCIT and PLATO IV, two CAI demonstration projects funded by the National Science Foundation; generative programs, the…

The question of whether human thinking can come to simulate computer intelligence--i.e., AI in reverse--is addressed in this paper. Examples are given of three computer tools which perform several functions that constitute an intellectual partnership between student and tool. Such functions include: (1) assuming part of the intellectual burden in…

To determine which variables best predict academic achievement, a study explored relationships among teacher perception of student communication apprehension (CA), intelligence, academic achievement, and self-reported CA in 203 public elementary school students, ages 8 to 12 years in grades 3-6. The Personal Report of Communication Fear (a 14-item…

Among opportunities to advance the state of the art of intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI) are the evaluation of ICAI systems and the use of the underlying technology in ICAI systems to develop tests. Each issue is addressed via its theoretical context, key constructs, appropriate references to the literature, methodological aspects,…

Systematic observations of thousands of high school students in the California Mentally Gifted Minors/Gifted and Talented Education programs identified five principles underlying the development of high level thinking skills in this population: (1) Exceptional performance on any criterion requires mutually reinforcing antecedents, the effects of…

A confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the respective viability of factor structure models for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) standardization data. The traditional verbal-performance split was compared to an alternative model proposed by Gutkin, Reynolds and Galvin. The confirmatory analysis indicated that the…

Rigidity, as it relates to aging, refers to motor/cognitive, personality/perceptual, and psychomotor functioning. To investigate the relationship of rigidity to intelligence and educational level in younger and older adults, and of rigidity to age and sex, 48 young adults (25 male, 23 female), with a mean age of 23, and 45 older adults (21 male,…

Revised version of paper towards nuclear war were investigated. Two questionnaires were administered. The first included five incomplete sentences designed to assess indirectly each respondent's fear of nuclear war. In response to either "My greatest fear regarding the future is..." and "I worry about...", 23 of 127, or 18.1 percent of those…

Thirty normal first-grade students with a mean age of 7.0 years were administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability. Pearson intercorrelations among the summary indices of these cognitive measures were uniformly high, ranging from…

The product of researchers' efforts to develop a computer processor which distinguishes between relevant and irrelevant information in the database, Spreading Activation Processor for Information Encoded in Network Structures (SAPIENS) exhibits (1) context sensitivity, (2) efficiency, (3) decreasing activation over time, (4) summation of…

In two separate experiments, children (2nd and 7th graders) and adults generated oral descriptions of the picture stories in the WISC-R picture arrangement task. Comprehension of the stories was assessed by subjects' use of logical connectives and by mention of subtle themes in interpreting the more difficult stories. In both experiments and on…

People in interaction with others organize their perceptions of a social situation in terms of plans even when the others' plans are poorly formulated. They use their models of others' plans in formulating their own. Much of what occurs in discourse centers on a continual communication about and reformulation of one's own plans and one's own…