The 3 most often-used performance measures in the cognitive and decision sciences are choice, response or decision time, and confidence. We develop a random walk/diffusion theory--2-stage dynamic signal detection (2DSD) theory--that accounts for all 3 measures using a common underlying process. The model uses a drift diffusion process to account…

SCIENCE UNITS CONSTRUCTED TO DIRECTLY TEACH CRITICAL THINKING ARE COMPARED WITH CONVENTIONAL SCIENCE UNITS FOR EFFECTIVENESS IN THE TEACHING OF CRITICAL THINKING. THE SAMPLE INCLUDED 1,554 FOURTH, FIFTH, AND SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS TAUGHT BY 65 TEACHERS IN FIVE DIFFERENT SCHOOL SYSTEMS. TEACHERS OF THE 469 STUDENTS IN THE RESEARCH GROUP WERE…

Four presentations from the 1985 Annual Michigan School Testing Conference on "Assessing Higher Order Skills" are offered in this paper, and the chairman of the First General Session provides an introductory section. The papers individually and collectively address the problem of defining higher order thinking skills. A second major…