Two experiments studied preschool children's ability to infer numerosity from correspondence between two sets. Found that children were able to make inferences as early as three years of age. However, differences between the two conditions suggest production deficiencies in young children's use of counting as a problem-solving strategy when they…

The entire thesis of "The Bell Curve" disintegrates due to biased use of data, misrepresentations, and logical inconsistencies. Five basic flaws are: inferring causality from correlation, use of dubious racial categories, contradictory arguments concerning the immutability of cognitive ability and the relative contributions of heredity…

Three studies investigated the influence of principle-based inferences and unprincipled similarity relations on new category learning by three- to six-year-old children. Results indicated that categorization into newly learned categories may activate self-initiated, principle-based reasoning in young children, suggesting that spontaneous…

Argues that meaning is encoded not only in words but also in grammatical categories. These claims are illustrated and documented by analyzing one area of grammar in a number of different languages of the world: that area that is usually associated with the term of "evidentiality." (Contains 25 references.) (JL)

Studies binomial, negative binomial, and gamma regression models and gives a detailed description of inference procedures based on them. The process of model fitting and evaluation is illustrated by examples referring to the determination of endpoints in acute and chronic toxicity tests. (17 references) (Author/MDH)

Compares children's learning from structurally equivalent television and print versions of two stories. Finds that children invested more mental effort in reading than watching television, but the reverse was found using reaction time as a measure; inferential learning does not go better with print at all times; and television and print are not…

Considers whether causal antecedent and causal consequence inferences are generated on-line during comprehension and also determined the time course of their activation. Supports a bridging model of inference generation, since causal antecedents were generated online, whereas causal consequences were not. (HB)

Investigates whether spatial situation models are constructed in naturalistic story comprehension. Claims that, during normal reading, readers are not very much engaged in constructing, maintaining, and updating a spatial situation model. (HB)

Explains a model that can be used for debriefing after a highly interactive training activity such as role playing or simulation games. Elements of the model include (1) general decompression; (2) factual information from the activity; (3) inferences; (4) transfer, i.e., from the activity to real world situations; (5) generalizations; and (6)…

Two experiments investigated the possibility that three year olds would do better on tasks in which belief cues were stronger than on standard false belief tasks, in which the children could reason backward to the belief from its effects. Findings provided strong support for the view that three year olds do not fully understand the…

Discussion of relevance and the needs of the users in information retrieval focuses on a deductive object-oriented approach and suggests eight inference rules for the deduction. Highlights include characteristics of a deductive object-oriented system, database and data modeling language, implementation, and user interface. (Contains 24…

Examined relationship between children's ability to infer the veracity of an adult's statement and the adult's informedness. Found that children tended to believe utterances from speakers who were better informed than they themselves were and to disbelieve less well-informed speakers, with no age-related differences. Children gave explicit…

Investigates the extent to which forward inferences are activated and encoded during reading, as well as their prevalence and their time course. Finds that inferences were encoded and retained in working memory in both high- and low-predictability conditions, and that high-predictability forward inferences were encoded into long-term memory.…

Makes the case that science is best served when researchers focus on the size of effects and their practical significance. Advocates the use of confidence intervals for deciding whether chance or sampling variability is an unlikely explanation for an observed effect. Calls for more emphasis on effect sizes in the next edition of the American…

Four studies examined the tendency of preschoolers to use verbal labels versus appearance information in making novel inductive inferences. Results revealed that preschoolers tended to use trait labels of "shy" or "outgoing" rather than superficial resemblance in making psychological inferences. These results could not be attributed to biases on…