Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and behavioral measures were used to study the potential effects of individual differences in verbal working memory capacity on the processing of sentences with a local syntactic ambiguity in German. Results indicate that syntactic processes in language comprehension are related to individual differences in…

This study examined the effect of exemplar typicality on reaction time and accuracy of categorization. High-functioning children (age 9-12), adolescents (age 13-16), and adults with autism (age 17-48) and matched controls were tested in a category verification procedure. All groups showed improved processing throughout the lifespan for typical and…

We attempted to simulate the main features of letter-by-letter (LBL) dyslexia in normal readers through stimulus degradation (i.e. contrast reduction and removal of high spatial frequencies). The results showed the word length and the letter confusability effects characteristic of LBL dyslexia. However, the interaction of letter confusability and…

When children are asked questions that invite them to react and respond thoughtfully to what they have read, teachers can gain a great deal of insight into the thinking habits of their students. Discussions of ideas offer teachers valuable opportunities to observe their students' thinking habits and skills, the breadth and precision of their…

This study examined children's explanatory style for health- and safety-related events. Fifty children (ages 8 to 11) were interviewed using 12 health-related questions based on Seligman's Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations (CAVE) method. Children and their mothers also completed a health status form, which included questions on the…

The verbal organizing abilities of the bilingual, multilingual, and monolingual, as measured by four subscales of the Goyer Organization of Ideas Test (GOIT), were investigated. A total of 163 subjects from 5 universities having high populations of multilingual students were administered the GOIT. Bilinguals were not as effective on the sequential…

The role of affect in counseling has been examined from several orientations. The depth of processing model views the efficiency of information processing as a function of the extent to which the information is processed. The notion of cognitive processing capacity states that processing information at deeper levels engages more of one's limited…

What children do in play is simultaneously influenced by the properties of the play object and the skills of the child. Properties of objects lend themselves to re-engagement in investigative play or support for shared action. Repeated play with particular objects increases the number of actions possible with these objects. The process of…

INTELLECTUAL, EDUCATIONAL, NEUROLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN VARIOUS PATTERNS OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE THE THINKING PROCESS. INDIVIDUALS DIFFER IN THE CONCEPTS THEY HOLD AND IN THEIR USE OF THESE CONCEPTS BECAUSE OF VARIATIONS IN INTELLIGENCE AND BACKGROUND OF EXPERIENCE. THE RANGE AND LEVEL OF CONCEPTS…

THE EXAMINATION WAS CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE IF A CHILD'S ABILITY TO CREATE (COGNITIVE ORIGINALITY) IS INDEPENDENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH HIS GENERAL LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE. ONCE THIS PROVED TO BE THE CASE THE INVESTIGATORS THEN PURSUED THE STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES THAT DISTINGUISH INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ON THE CREATIVITY AND INTELLIGENCE…

In a study of individual differences in long-term memory access, university undergraduates verified (1) whether an item was a member of a category; (2) whether two items belonged in the same category; and (3) whether two words had the same name. Reaction times from these tasks were correlated with verbal ability, as measured by performance on a…

The study deals with the motivational characteristics which relate to divergent thinking and tests three hypotheses: no significant difference with regard to their fluency, flexibility, originality or combined divergent thinking scores exists between children with (1) high and low need for approval, (2) high and low anxiety, and (3) approval needs…

The present study attempted to identify and describe individual differences in concept learning. It was hypothesized that if a significant portion of the reliable individual variation in a complex learning situation could be identified and described, it would be reasonable to expect that subsequent predictions could be made about the conditions…

The purpose of this project was to develop new information and analyses that would contribute to development of a systematic understanding of cognitive structure, including its acquisition and utilization during problem solving. Experimental and theoretical work was done on three specific problems. (1) Studies of individual differences and effects…

The contrasting approaches of differential psychology and cognitive psychology to the same individual differences data are outlined. Using data from the Clark and Chase sentence-picture verification task, four loci of conflict between these two disciplines are identified: (1) theory versus measurement; (2) meaningfulness versus reliability; (3)…