Licensure and certification decisions are usually based on a chain of inference from results of a practice analysis to test specifications, the test, examinee performance, and a pass-fail decision. This article focuses on the design of practice analyses and translation of practice analyses results into test specifications. (SLD)

This review of the study of analogy in modern cognitive science sets the stage for three articles that follow to illustrate some current research and theories on analogy use. Analogy is a powerful cognitive mechanism that people use to make inferences and learn new abstractions. (SLD)

Notes that inference is the strategic process of generating assumptions, making predictions, and coming to conclusions based upon given information in text and in illustrations. Discusses the use of causal and relational inferences. Presents strategies that help emergent readers focus their attention on important information that is explicitly…

Offers suggestions for booktalk strategies so librarians can help children learn to enjoy chapter books, making the transition from beginning readers. Discusses lack of illustrations, making inferences from the dialog, building background knowledge from the back of the book, and understanding flashbacks. (LRW)

Describes an approach to addressing issues of validity of inferences and the extrapolation of inferences to target domains beyond the assessment for alternative assessments. Makes the case that in both language testing and educational assessment the roles of language and content knowledge must be considered, and that the design and development of…

This paper makes the point that descriptive and inferential measures of nonnormality and graphic displays of the frequency distribution of important variables should be routine in research reporting. This point is particularly true for research involving measures with nonarbitrary metrics where the distribution shape is unaffected by measurement…

Three studies focused on: (1) the definition of structure in a specific domain of knowledge; and (2) the relationship between the ways in which knowledge is structured and the ways in which it is used. Evidence suggested that the knowledge of expert children is structured hierarchically into well-defined families and family-groups. (RH)

Examined concepts of mental activities involved in acts of knowing in 54 children of 8-10 years and adults. Ten-year-olds and adults judged memory involvement to be the most important relation among mental activities. Eight-year-olds judged comprehension and attention according to the involvement of visual or verbal information. (RJC)

Results of two studies investigating preschool children's ability to infer another person's knowledge or ignorance on the basis of that person's recent perceptual experience suggest that understanding of perception as a source of knowledge is present by the age of three years. (RH)

Assessed age differences in making inferences from prose. Older adults correctly answered mean of 10 questions related to implicit information and 8 related to explicit information. Young adults answered mean of 7 implicit and 12 explicit information questions. In spite of poorer recall of factual details, older subjects made inferences to greater…

Two experiments with 11 college students demonstrate the influence of their prior visual adaptation to motion on the imagined speed of an imaginary moving object. Results suggest that imagined motion and real vision may engage common neural mechanisms without being functionally equivalent. (SLD)

Hierarchical models are extremely promising tools for data analysis, but it is important not to lessen hard thinking about data and iterative model checking when fitting hierarchical models. More and better software, methods to assure proper calibration, and materials in support of hierarchical model use are all needed. (SLD)

A psychological theory of the logical particle "if" is presented that consists of a lexical entry, a set of pragmatic comprehension processes, and a reasoning program. The core of the theory is two inference schemas originally proposed by logicians. The theory can account for available data from children and adults. (SLD)

The distinction between remembering text information and applying the acquired knowledge (making inferences) was studied with a dissociation paradigm, using 110 undergraduates who performed verification and recognition tasks. The same variables did not affect performance on the two tasks. Text organization affected recognition but not verification…

Cross-lagged methodology (CLM), which is virtually ignored by psychological researchers, is suggested for studies of causal relations in which controlled experimentation is unfeasible. The longitudinal facet in the design of CLM is highlighted. Advantages and limitations of the CLM are described. (SLD)