The authors discuss 258 undergraduate business majors' perceptions of the nature and uses of financial and managerial accounting. Perceptions were measured with Stapel Scales constructed on 11 descriptive statements. Findings indicated that students distinguish between financial and managerial accounting, but that they do not view the two as…

Studied 622 adults and 211 undergraduates to determine the relationship of perceptual speed and speed of marking psychometric answer sheets to individual differences in performance on psychometric tests. Findings suggest strong relationships between age, speed, and intelligence-test performance. (RJC)

Reviews psychometric approaches to problems of modeling student achievement (the student model) within intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). A number of cognitively oriented psychometric approaches, including latent-trait models, statistical pattern recognition methods, and causal probabilistic networks are described and discussed within the current…

Informal Assessment sometimes interprets enthusiasm and confidence in mathematics for cognitive competence. Presented are two case studies of interviews conducted to study the affective and reflective capacities underlying children's mathematical thinking during a nonroutine problem-solving task. (MDH)

This study investigated whether a unitary elemental process or several independent processes underlie psychometric "g" (factor of general intelligence). Results with 101 college students administered 2 intelligence tests and a large battery of elementary cognitive tasks suggest that as many as 4 independent components make up…

Measures the effects of presentation mode and perceived difficulty on retention of academic content material. Finds the main effects of presentation mode and difficulty to be significant; however, pairwise comparisons of means for mode did not show significant differences. (NH)

Cognitive engagement in self-regulated learning was investigated at the levels of component cognitive processes and sets of these components (acquisition and transformation) by collecting data on the cognition of 33 high school seniors. Multitrait-multimethod analyses reveal that measures of self-regulated learning are not coherent. (SLD)

A critical evaluation of the use of stochastic independence in psychological research is provided, considering (1) confirming the null hypothesis; (2) power of the statistical test; (3) Simpson's paradox; and (4) between-subjects and within-subject correlations. The importance of formal models in studying (in)dependence is emphasized. (SLD)

Considers theories of cognition and consciousness in four traditions: neuroscience, cognitive science, activity theory and the distributed cognition approach. The primary focus is on social theories of consciousness--activity theory and distributed cognition, but biological and computational models are also considered as a foil or background…

Describes general components of attribution theory as it applies to social motivation and behavior in children. Reviews research on the subject and its application in context of best practices, cognitive behavioral model of social-skills training. Details use of attributional assessment, modeling, and coaching/reframing for each phase of training.…

Two experiments investigated the effect of choice on cognitive and affective engagement during reading. Both experiments compared college students who either selected what they read or were assigned the same story without being allowed to choose. Discusses results and the need for a more explicit theory of choice. (Author/GCP)

Investigated the relationship of coping resources and cognitive appraisals to emotions produced by the end of a romantic relationship. Results based on 231 participants suggest that preventive coping resources affected the appraised desirability of the event, as well as initial emotional reactions. Combative coping resources also affected…

This commentary details a number of problems with the study design and data analysis reported by Finkel et al. The commentary also provides suggestions for more fruitful approaches for analyzing data from such studies in the future. (Author/BC)

Reviews the results of four studies included in this issue of "School Psychology Quarterly" which found all four cognitive profile reports lacking reliability, validity, or diagnostic utility. Argues that ipsative methods are inferior to normative methods in cognitive assessment. Recommends that psychologists eschew the application of…

A study of 82 preschoolers determined that a new play assessment (Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment), which identifies cognitive play skills, possessed acceptable interrater reliability and could discriminate between the play of typically developing preschoolers and those with preacademic problems. (Contains 65 references.) (JOW)