In 2000-2001, the authors derived a 13-category classification system for Web-based educational resources, based on analysis of 199 educational resources recognized as "exemplary" by four national entities. In 2004, we re-examined that classification system, analyzing a stratified random sample of 40 exemplary Web-based resources from the same…

The main purpose of this research was to determine three- to six-year-old pre-schoolers' recognition of basic geometric shapes, the criteria they use to distinguish members of a shape class and whether or not those criteria change in relation to age. Participants were 100 children aged three to six. Data were gathered from individual interviews…

For-profit higher education is a large, complex system of institutions, and its explosive growth over the last decade has made it a prominent force in shaping higher-education policy and practice. The for-profit educational sector is composed of a diverse set of colleges, but most of the literature neatly ignores this. The author argues that…

In this article, the authors explore semantic context effects in speaking. In particular, the authors investigate a marked discrepancy between categorically and associatively induced effects; only categorical relationships have been reported to cause interference in object naming. In Experiments 1 and 2, a variant of the semantic blocking paradigm…

Categorization in well-known natural concepts is studied using a special version of the Varying Abstraction Framework (Vanpaemel, W., & Storms, G. (2006). A varying abstraction framework for categorization. Manuscript submitted for publication; Vanpaemel, W., Storms, G., & Ons, B. (2005). A varying abstraction model for categorization. In B. Bara,…

This article offers a new perspective on pedagogy and learning culture by emphasizing the key role played by "learning relationships." The first part of the paper describes the theoretical background in the work of Bordieu, and Lave & Wenger, and considers how, through the role of identity, individual relationships reflect the influence of…

With a clearer understanding of the way humor works, individuals might be better able to give it the attention it deserves when they study and teach the arts. But where do they turn to find a theoretical framework for the study of humor--one that will help them clarify the role that humor plays in the arts and that will help them as well to…

The purpose of this research was to explore the effects that gender and institutional classification have on the inclusion of syllabus components. Course syllabi (N = 350) written by men and women from seven types of institutions, based on Carnegie classification, were sampled and evaluated for the presence of 26 syllabus components. The gender…

The Ethical Climate Typology (ECT) and Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ) are instruments traditionally used to examine the ethical work climate in organizations. The instruments were modified to correct shortcomings acknowledged in the literature and tested on a sample of libraries. Data analysis suggested that some modifications improved the…

The recent revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act; IDEIA) in the United States (U.S.) has created the opportunity for an unprecedented change in the way in which learning disabilities (LD) are identified. As a result of this revision, intense and often polarizing debate has…

In four experiments, Malt and Sloman [Malt, B. C., & Sloman, S. A. (2007). Category essence or essentially pragmatic? Creator's intention in naming and what's really what. "Cognition, 105," 615-648] show that the naming of artifacts is affected by discourse context. They see this phenomenon as posing a problem for the intentional-history theory of…

Since the publication of the O'Carroll et al. (1996) nomenclature for suicidology, there have been a number of published letters and articles, as well as an active e-mail dialogue, in response to, and elaborating upon, this effort to establish a standard nomenclature for suicidology. This new nomenclature has been presented on a number of…

The learning object remains an ill-defined concept, despite numerous and extensive discussion in the literature. This paper attempts to address this problem by providing a classification that potentially brings together various perspectives of what a learning object may be. Six unique types of learning objects are proposed and discussed:…

Particulate questions were used to investigate the strength of the mental association between the concept of compound and microscopic representations of molecules in students with different levels of chemistry preparation. The results have suggested that the mental association between the concepts of compound and particulate representations of…

Motion information available to different sensory modalities can interact at both perceptual and post-perceptual (i.e., decisional) stages of processing. However, to date, researchers have only been able to demonstrate the influence of one of these components at any given time, hence the relationship between them remains uncertain. We addressed…