Two experiments evaluated young children's use of lexical inference. Found that equivalent transfer occurred when both clue-word pronunciation and orthography were present at transfer and when only the pronunciation of the clue word was given, but not when the clue word was pre-taught. Improvements from pre-taught clue words sharing rimes or vowel…

The theory that children's development of strategies-of-science experimentation is a consequence of developments in theory of mind was examined with 72 children in grades one, three, and five. Ability to predict, explain, and affect the reasoning of a doll or cartoon character predicted performance in planning controlled experiments and in…

This study evaluated use of a reading comprehension intervention to teach inferential reading to 30 underachieving prelingually deaf readers (ages 9 to 18) using pictorial material and printed text. The two experimental groups made significant reading gains during the 30-week period of intervention as compared to control groups. (Contains…

Describes an activity for teaching English that helps students deal with new words in context, grasp meaning of a text before going into detail, and infer the meaning of new words. The activity focuses on three main goals: building an understanding of the text in spite of new vocabulary; coping with new words, and building confidence. (Author/VWL)

Examines how the wording of statistical problems affects 11-12 year old children's answers. Ninety-six children were given statistical problems on two statistical concepts (base-rate and the law of large numbers). Indicates that the children had a high level of statistical intuition and knew when to reason statistically. (CMK)

We examine how attention to animacy information may contribute to children's developing knowledge of language. This research extends beyond prior research in that children were shown dynamic events with novel entities, and were asked not only to comprehend sentences but to use sentence structure to infer the meaning of a new word. In a 4 x 3…

Imagery could add an extra dimension to analyses of lifelong learning, which need to draw on diverse sources and techniques. This article has two principal components. First I suggest that the use of images might be divided into three categories: as illustration; as evidence; and as heuristic. I go on to explore the latter two categories, first by…

Inquiry learning requires the ability to understand that theory and evidence have to be distinguished and co-ordinated. Moreover, learners have to be able to control two or more independent variables when formulating hypotheses, designing experiments and interpreting outcomes. Can sixth-grade (9-10 years) children be trained to acquire these…

Current preschool assessments lack the ability to capture performance variance and complex thinking skills. This study examined the relationship among student performance, student feelings, and teacher perceptions as they apply to using a formal performance assessment in a preschool setting. A formal performance assessment was administered to 71…

Multilevel models are proven tools in social research for modeling complex, hierarchical systems. In multilevel modeling, statistical inference is based largely on quantification of random variables. This paper distinguishes among three types of random variables in multilevel modeling--model disturbances, random coefficients, and future response…

Children's learning--in the domains of science and religion specifically, but in many other cultural domains as well--relies extensively on testimony and other forms of culturally transmitted information. The cognitive processes that enable such learning must also administrate the evaluation, qualification, and storage of that information, while…

The validity of inferences based on achievement test scores is dependent on the amount of effort that examinees put forth while taking the test. With low-stakes tests, for which this problem is particularly prevalent, there is a consequent need for psychometric models that can take into account differing levels of examinee effort. This article…

Like all probabilistic decisions, recognition memory judgments are based on inferences about the strength and quality of stimulus familiarity. In recent articles, B. W. A. Whittlesea and J. Leboe (2000; J. Leboe & B. W. A. Whittlesea, 2002) proposed that such memory decisions entail various heuristics, similar to well-known heuristics in overt…

Children's sensitivity to context when making inferences about ability was investigated. In three studies, elementary school children (ages 5 to 10, total N = 332) were asked to reason about the relation between academic ability and the speed with which characters completed puzzle tasks. Participants were primed to interpret the characters' task…

This study explored infants' ability to infer communicative intent as expressed in non-linguistic gestures. Sixty children aged 14, 18 and 24 months participated. In the context of a hiding game, an adult indicated for the child the location of a hidden toy by giving a communicative cue: either pointing or ostensive gazing toward the container…