Responses of approximately 250 Israeli students who evaluated college instruction were analyzed with respect to lower-level (LLC) and higher-level cognitive processes (HLC). LLC and HLC were found to be complementary, rather than competitive; and both contributed to students' ratings of teaching and of course interest. (Author/GDC)

The thought processes involved in students' answers to different kinds of teachers' questions were investigated using data obtained from a previous study. It was found that the chances are about even that there will be a correspondence between the cognitive level of the question and of the response. (Author/GDC)

First, third, and eighth graders performed four different orienting activities to different words. Under an incidental learning paradigm, the children's recognition was tested after the orienting activity. Age differences in recognition were absent, and the effect of the orienting activity responses on recognition supported depth of processing…

Studied the cognitive equivalence of computerized and paper-and-pencil reading comprehension tests using verbal protocol analysis. Results for 48 college students indicate that the only significant difference between the computerized and paper-and-pencil tests was in the frequency of identifying important information in the passage. (SLD)

This study examined the perceived difficulty of the dichotic listening task and strategies used in performing the task among boys with reading disability, age-matched boys, and reading-matched boys. Boys with reading disabilities and younger reading-matched boys were more likely to find the dichotic model confusing when the left ear was attended…

Discusses hierarchical complexity of tasks as a way of conceptualizing information in terms of the power required to complete a task, and its implications for developmental psychology and information science. Provides an analytic solution to the definition of developmental stages and allows for the possibility within the science of scaling the…

This research unites traditionally disparate developmental domains--cognition and locomotion--to examine the classic cognitive issue of the development of inhibition in infancy. In 2 locomotor A-not-B tasks, 13-month-old walking infants inhibited a prepotent response under low task demands (walking on flat ground), but perseverated under increased…

In an effort to improve the ways in which words are learned, the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) is attempting to determine the difficulty level of all non-technical words in the English language. This item banking project entails: (1) identifying words that should be calibrated; (2) writing a test item for each word; (3) testing the…

In this study 6,942 items from two standardized achievement test batteries--the Stanford (Early School Achievement Battery, Achievement Battery, and Test of Academic Skills) and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills--were analyzed. Focus was on determining: (1) the extent to which these test batteries included general cognitive operations (GCOs)…

Two experiments investigated children's strategies for solving geometric matrices that were correctly or incorrectly completed and that varied in number of elements and number of transformations. Examining the relationship between working memory and item complexity, the first experiment tested 90 boys and girls of 7, 10, and 13 years of age for…

The effects of the randomization of information in clinical cases on the comprehension of 16 physicians and 16 medical students were studied, using structured and unstructured forms of two clinical cases. Attention was directed to the effects of case difficulty and text structure on representations of cases in written protocols, ability to access…

The effects of age, task, and egocentric responding on visual-spatial perspective taking were studied among 41 preschool children between 3.0 and 5.9 years of age. Children were individually administered three perspective-taking measures: the upside-down/right-side-up task, a block task, and a picture box task, all previously described in the…

The unified theory described in this paper characterizes human reasoning as an information processing system with a hierarchical sequence of components and subtheories that account for performance on successively narrower tasks. Both deductive and inductive theories are subsumed in the unified componential theory, including transitive chain theory…

Two variables involved in attitude change provided the basis for this study, the cognitive complexity of the subject and the dimensions of stimulus materials. After a pretest, 165 interpersonal communication students were divided into two groups according to their cognitive complexity levels. The dimensions of the stimulus were presented on two…

This study examines the effects of three levels of visual complexity upon the learning of an instructional slide tape program about the functions of a human heart. The three levels of complexity were a simple line drawing in color, an illustration in color, and a realistic color photograph. The effects of visual stimulus complexity upon…