Students (N=387) in grades 8, 10, 12, and college were administered eight reasoning items to test hypothesis that the basic logic utilized in individuals in scientific hypothesis testing is the biconditional and that the biconditional is a precondition for development of formal operations. Results and implications for science instruction are…

How can it be explained that, aside from inter-individual differences, pupils in certain classes are more responsive than others to the formal aspects of a problem that has been set? The author puts forward the hypothesis that teachers differ in their ability to operate relevant variations in the conception of problems. The differences in…

Reading comprehension scores from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, and the Gray Oral Reading Test were examined in relation to measures of reading, language, and other cognitive skills that have been hypothesized to contribute to comprehension and account for comprehension differences. In a sample of 97…

This article reviews research on the spatial contiguity and temporal contiguity effects. Research on these instructional design effects has focussed on the instructional benefits for novices of reducing split attention between spatially or temporally disparate but related elements of information. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 50…

Open-ended learning environments (OELEs) like microworlds have been touted as one approach for blending learning theory and emerging technology to support the building of student-centered understanding. The learning process involves developing a theory-in-action--an intuitive theory that is generated and changed by learners as they reflect upon…

This research investigates comprehension monitoring by studying the relation between the perception of comprehension during reading and detection of comprehension failures. Two groups of four college students (good and poor learners) defined by a post-hoc median split learned a physics chapter while rating their comprehension on a four-point scale…

This dissertation presents the results of an investigation of visual mental imagery as a strategy hypothesized to increase the amount of interaction with content material and therefore the level of information processing and acquisition, and to assist information retrieval on posttests. Four treatments were used in a crossed, randomized two by two…

Hypothesis generation has been proven to be a crucial phase in the clinical inquiry. The current instruments for measuring clinical problem-solving skills, however, are unable to differentially assess the hypothesis generating ability. For assessing this particular capability a new test is described. It is based upon exposing the examinee to an…

Statistical methods employed to test individual differences in dual-task performance and the existence of a general time-sharing ability are reviewed and critiqued. Specifically, both the types of data being collected and the types of data analysis procedures have been inadequate to the critical evaluation of a hypothetical…

This paper discusses receiver apprehension, an information processing syndrome, in the context of counterattitudinal advocacy. Receiver apprehension was conceptualized as a trait anxiety associated with misinterpreting, inadequately processing, and/or being unable to adjust to incoming messages. This processing anxiety suggested cognitive rigidity…

INFANT SCRIBBLING ACTIVITY IS NOT SIMPLY PLAY. IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF VISUAL ATTENTION AND PERCEPTION. YET, SCRIBBLING, UNLIKE WRITING IN THE COMMUNICATION SENSE, IS NOT MOTIVATED BY THE DESIRE TO INFORM, NOR TO SET DOWN THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. THE EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS OF THIS STUDY WAS THAT THE MOTIVATIONS FOR SCRIBBLING ARE (1)…

The study of ability factors in young children has passed the stage of demonstrating that separate factors exist, the effort now being devoted to systematic identification of measurable abilities. This study was designed to confirm some of the tentative abilities demonstrated in other studies and to extend the exploration into memory processes and…

Mathematical tasks calling for relational thinking were given to 60 children of Indian, Pakistani, or Bangladeshi origin who had spent their school lives in England, 60 who had arrived within the past 3 years, and 60 British children. Differences in the ability to abstract, hypothesize, and generalize were studied. (KC)

Case-based reasoning (CBR) focuses on analogy in the context of solving real-world problems. Its research methodology of computational modeling is aimed at deriving hypotheses about cognition. As a plausible educational model, CBR can help refine education philosophy and practice and contribute to the design of educational software. (SLD)

Notes that little agreement exists as to which factors influencing academic outcomes for second-language learners are of primary importance. The study hypothesizes that second-language learners in immersion situations undergo an attention shift away from auditory system processing and towards visual information processing. (59 references)…