Results support Sherman's hypothesis that sex differences in tests of field independence, such as Witkin's Rod-and-Frame Test and Embedded Figures Tests, are artifacts of the well-known sex differences in space perception and are therefore not evidence that females are less analytical than males. (Author/BJG)

The similarities between television viewing and fantasy activity (daydreaming, reverie, mind-wandering, internal dialogue) more than warrant the building of a theoretical construct, especially in the context of recent empirical research on television viewing consequences. A construct of the television viewing process, based on cognitive theories…

The purpose of this study was to investigate in children from ages 4 to 10 the development of logical propositions and to determine whether or not there is a developmental sequence in children's ability to supply missing elements of syllogisms. A specially designed instrument, consisting of an equal number of items with missing major premises,…

When the science of linguistics is treated as a variety of ways for searching for truth and theory, rather than as a body of established theories, it can be taught successfully in the early grades. Some of the generalizations in linguistics (e.g., the articulatory description of differences between significant sounds, of the classification of…

Comprehension of a problem or task that is generated in the real world rather than presented as a well-defined problem-statement of the kind encountered in textbooks or psychological laboratories was related to the ability of recognizing, selecting and formulating problems. The process of acquiring and utilizing this ability was conceptualized…

The general objective of this study is the investigation of some of the cognitive processes underlying adult second language acquisition through the analysis of the development of morphological markers of temporality in the acquisition of Spanish as a second language (L2) among native English speakers. It is argued that analysis of data on the…

Two selection and nine evaluation hypothesis testing tasks varying systematically with respect to causality, response alternatives, and context continuity were administered to two samples of adults (N=35; N=32). It was to determine effects of these variables and the degree to which subjects reasoned with material conditional, biconditional,…

Two methodological problems often arising in dyslexia research are considered. The first problem concerns the validity of experimental measures and the related problem of interpreting null results. The second problem involves the effects of sampling from a disabled population if the disorder under investigation has multiple unknown origins.…

If a motive for cognitive consistency and the extravert's preference for the arousing and novel are opposing tendencies, one would predict that highly extraverted individuals will show less preference for states of cognitive consistency than those who are less extraverted. Two experiments test this prediction. (Author/RK)

Multinomial modeling--a methodology that can be used to measure and study cognitive processes--is discussed, and applications are presented. This statistically based technique involves estimating hypothetical parameters that represent the probabilities of unobservable cognitive events and is compatible with computational theories of cognition.…

Ways in which scientists and science students respond to anomalous data are analyzed. There are seven distinct ways in which they respond, only one of which is to accept the data and change theories. Factors that influence theory change and implications for science instruction are reviewed. (SLD)

Mental-rotation task response times from 12 studies involving 505 adults--251 males and 254 females--were used to evaluate 5 hypotheses concerning sex differences derived from an X-linked genetic model. The model assumes that task facilitation in speed of mental rotation is mediated by a recessive gene. Four hypotheses derived from the model were…

Tests the hypothesis that two general developmentally-based levels of hypothesis-testing skills exist. Finds a positive relationship between level of hypothesis-testing skill and performance on a transfer problem involving the test of a hypothesis based on unobservable entities. Also finds a positive relationship between level of…