Understanding the relative role of top-down and bottom-up guidance is crucial for models of visual search. Previous studies have addressed the role of top-down and bottom-up processes in search for a conjunction of features but with inconsistent results. Here, the author used an attentional capture method to address the role of top-down and…

In 2007, public school students in Puerto Rico at grades 4 and 8 participated in a Spanish-language version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in mathematics. A representative sample of approximately 2,800 students from 100 public schools was assessed at each grade. This report contains performance results on NAEP…

In the interest of continuing the push toward understanding the status of sociology in high schools, this research note reports some results from the first national study of high school sociology to be carried out in more than 25 years. It is also only the second national study to ever be conducted. Specifically, the author examines the prevalence…

Modern approaches for information technology based blended education utilize a variety of novel instructional, computational and network resources. Such attempts employ technology to deliver integrated, dynamically linked, interactive content and multi-faceted learning environments, which may facilitate student comprehension and information…

In 4 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that the structure of the informational environment makes small samples more informative than large ones for drawing inferences about population correlations. The specific purpose of the studies was to test predictions arising from the signal detection simulations of R. B. Anderson, M. E. Doherty,…

How children go about learning the general regularities that govern language, as well as keeping track of the exceptions to them, remains one of the challenging open questions in the cognitive science of language. Computational modeling is an important methodology in research aimed at addressing this issue. We must determine appropriate learning…

The increasing use of diary methods calls for the development of appropriate statistical methods. For the resulting panel data, latent Markov models can be used to model both individual differences and temporal dynamics. The computational burden associated with these models can be overcome by exploiting the conditional independence relations…

We examined the effects of previous trials on subsequent trials on performance in the continuous performance test (CPT) in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thirty-five non-medicated children with ADHD (31 males, four females; mean age 9y 10mo [SD 2y 4mo]) and 33 comparison children (20 males, 13 females; mean age 10y…

Precursor behaviors are innocuous behaviors that reliably precede the occurrence of problem behavior. Intervention efforts applied to precursors might prevent the occurrence of severe problem behavior. We examined the relationship between precursor behavior and problem behavior in three individuals with developmental disabilities. First, a…

Even when the scoring of an examination is based on item response theory (IRT), standard-setting methods seldom use this information directly when determining the minimum passing score (MPS) for an examination from an Angoff-based standard-setting study. Often, when IRT scoring is used, the MPS value for a test is converted to an IRT-based theta…

This study examines the impact of intensive family preservation services (IFPS) on racial disproportionality of placement into out-of-home care. A large sample was partitioned on the basis of race, risk, and services received. The probability of placement is examined as a function of these variables. High-risk minority children receiving…

This study explores the influence of gender on changes in recovery status among participants in a longitudinal study. The study sample (N = 1,202; 60% female) is recruited on referral to treatment, and annual interviews are conducted from Years 2 to 6 following intake. At each annual observation, participants are classified into one of four…

In the traditional statistical mechanics textbooks, the entropy concept is first introduced for the microcanonical ensemble and then extended to the canonical and grand-canonical cases. However, in the authors' experience, this procedure makes it difficult for the student to see the bigger picture and, although quite ingenuous, the subtleness of…

Many of the problems studied in cognitive science are inductive problems, requiring people to evaluate hypotheses in the light of data. The key to solving these problems successfully is having the right inductive biases--assumptions about the world that make it possible to choose between hypotheses that are equally consistent with the observed…

Guided by Bioecological Systems Theory and Schema Theory, I investigated mothers' perceptions regarding the emotional development of their preschool children. Researchers acknowledge mothers' contributing role in influencing children's behavioral displays of emotion, but there is a dearth in the literature on mothers. emotion-related behaviors,…