Orlando and Thissen (2000) developed an item fit statistic for binary item response theory (IRT) models known as S-X[superscript 2]. This article generalizes their statistic to polytomous unfolding models. Four alternative formulations of S-X[superscript 2] are developed for the generalized graded unfolding model (GGUM). The GGUM is a…

In this essay, the author tries to look forward into the 21st century to divine three things: (i) What skills will researchers in the future need to solve the most pressing problems? (ii) What are some of the most likely candidates to be those problems? and (iii) What are some current areas of research that seem mined out and should not distract…

The study compared five adult stutterers' and five adult nonstutterers' fluent speech patterns produced during one nonshadowed reading and two speech-shadowing conditions (immediate repetition of a heard message). Among results were that stutterers produced fewer speech production errors than nonstutterers during shadowing conditions. (Author/DB)

Two studies with three-year-old children tested the hypothesis that, whereas errors of phenomenism predominate when children are asked about objects' real and apparent properties, errors of intellectual realism predominate when children are asked about objects' real and apparent identities. Results provided some support for the property-identity…

Examined five possible rules that children might use to interpret the terms "big" and "little." Increasing consistency in rule usage appeared to be the most significant developmental progression for children between the ages of three and five with respect to these terms. (Author/RH)

Examines the abilities of high school students (n=394) to reflect aspects of 36 cubes that were depicted in 2-dimensional perspective as upright and transparent. The reflections of points, edges, or corners was established through two-sided mirrors variously positioned within each cube. Analysis of the response errors reveals a tendency toward…

This study evaluated performance of blind (n=17) and sighted adults on a haptic numerosity task of braille symbols in which symbol size was varied. Although blind subjects performed better than seeing subjects, the rate of learning and patterns of errors were similar, except that blind subjects did better with standard than with enlarged symbols.…

This longitudinal study evaluated grammatical judgments of "well formedness" of children (N=21) with specific language impairment (SLI). Comparison with two control groups found that children with SLI rejected morphosyntactic errors they didn't commit but accepted errors they were likely to make. Findings support the extended optional infinitive…

Findings suggest that semantic knowledge for concrete objects is represented and organized in similar ways in autistic, retarded, and normal children. Previous findings on cognitive deficits in autistic children are more likely related to their inability to use cognitive representations in an appropriate and flexible manner. (Author/RH)

This study investigated the influence of peer support and leading or misleading questions on reports of a neutral event by 48 children (ages 5 to 10). Younger children made significantly more errors in response to directly misleading questions than to indirectly misleading questions. Peer support did not influence children's prompted recall…

Comparison of 30 learning disabled (LD) children, ages 7 to 13, and controls on a computerized test of attentional skills indicated LD subjects committed more omission errors and responded at a slower rate but did not differ from the controls on commission errors, suggesting inefficient allocation of processing resources rather than attentional…

Strategies young children used to correct errors in nesting seriated cups changed substantially with age, becoming increasingly more flexible and involving more extensive restructuring of the relationships among the cups. The same trend toward increasing flexibility of thought and action also appeared in procedures children used to combine the…

Three classes of conceptual bugs presenting obstacles to all novice programmers and not related to any specific program--parallelism, intentionality, and egocentrism--are identified and exemplified through student errors. It is suggested these bugs are rooted in students' intuitive feeling that programming languages, like humans, have intelligent,…

The study examining the nature of misreadings of vowels by 10 good and 10 poor grade 3 readers of the Kannada language (which has a phonetically regular script) found that both groups misread vowels in equal proportion to their total number of misreadings. (DB)

In comparative judgments of two stimuli separated by a time interval, there is often a systematic asymmetry (time-order error). From a review of the literature it is concluded that the time-order error should be classified as a perceptual phenomenon that can be predicted with adaptation-level theory and sensation weighting. (Author/CB)