Higher schooling attainment is associated with better cognitive function at older ages, but it remains unclear whether the relationship is causal. We estimate causal effects of schooling on performances on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) word-recall (memory) test at older ages in China, Ghana, India, Mexico,…

Examines mechanisms that may account for why evaluations made by participants involved in conversations are more influenced by subliminal negative cues than are evaluations made by observers. Explains three studies in which subliminal priming tasks were used with differing cognitive loads and self-preservation concerns among a group of…

The method presented provides a systematic approach for communicating information about interrelationships between concepts taught in a psychology course. Students who did not receive the information through traditional instructional methods received enhanced scores on tests of structural understanding. Five references are listed. (MER)

Three experiments investigated the possibility that adult age differences on block design tasks originate because of reduced efficiency with increased age in the cognitive processes associated with block manipulation. Older adults were substantially slower and less efficient than younger adults in performing tasks with minimized design…

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and 20 tests from the French Kit were administered to over 100 undergraduates. Analyses revealed ten factors: verbal comprehension, visualization, memory span, syllogistic reasoning, general reasoning, induction, mechanical knowledge, number facility, spatial orientation, and associative memory.…

Administered a battery of psychometric ability tests to 211 undergraduates and 622 other adults ranging in age from 43 to 78. Findings were consistent with the view that speed of information processing can be an important correlate of individual differences in rates of intellectual aging and a performance-specific confound that distorts estimates…

Free response and machine-scorable versions of a test called Formulating Hypotheses were compared with respect to construct validity. Results indicate that the different forms involve different cognitive processes and measure different qualities. (Author/JKS)

An investigation of social behavior measures obtained from interviews and a wide variety of cognitive variables rarely produced significant relations. Results suggest that rather than trying to place social intelligence within a cognitive abilities taxonomy, a separate taxonomy of social intelligence should be developed. (Author/BS)

The performance of 57 Mexican American bilingual college students on Spanish and English versions of problem solving tasks was investigated. The tasks included word recognition, sentence verification, reading span, syllogisms, and reasoning. The results indicated that the subjects used similar cognitive skills in performing both the Spanish and…

This study examined whether a timesharing factor can be identified when a number of competing tasks are presented in the midst of a range of single tests designed to sample a broad range of psychological dimensions. A battery of single and competing tasks was presented to 126 subjects. (Author/LMO)

The cumulative hierarchical assumption of Bloom's Taxonomy was tested by orienting American Australian subjects at four taxonomic levels to the same study material and administering an unexpected memory test. Moderate support was obtained for the cumulative hierarchical assumption, but it is concluded that the evaluation category is misplaced.…

Four experiments were performed to validate the newly developed Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). Results with 475 community-dwelling adults and young adults and 161 neurologically impaired people in three experiments and a fourth experiment involving 41 college students show the promise of the TOMM for detecting exaggerated or faked memory…

The aim of this study was to develop a procedure that could be used to appraise the cognitive features of subject (achievement) tests. Cognitive taxonomies and an accompanying coding scheme were developed and applied to the Graduate Record Examinations subject tests in Psychology and Literature in English. The taxonomies were based on the manifest…

To examine the effectiveness of various writing devices, a study used Richard Carter's Signalled Stopping Technique (SST) to compare these devices as used in two student-authored science stories. The SST indicates how messages are mentally processed, and uses the following seven stops: (1) C (confusion); (2) R (reread); (3) Q (question); (4) T…

Relates an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that cognitive change resulting from information inputs can be represented as linear motion of concepts in multidimensional space. (MH)