Conducted meta-analysis to examine empirical inconsistencies and theoretical controversies concerning false-belief tasks and understanding about mental states. Found that a combined model including age, country of origin, and four task factors accounted for 55 percent of the variance in false-belief performance. Findings are consistent with…

Proposes an expressive-cognitive approach to the resolution of unfinished business as an eclectic adaptation of the experiential model for resolving unfinished business. Suggests that this approach may be used as a complementary or alternative choice to the empty-chair intervention, particularly for clients who have difficulty engaging in or…

This paper is simultaneously a test and refinement of the E-Z Reader model and an exploration of the interrelationship between visual and language processing and eye-movements in reading. Our modeling indicates that the assumption that words in text are processed serially by skilled readers is a viable and attractive hypothesis, as it accounts not…

Van Breukelen offers a promising method for modeling both response speed and response accuracy. However, the underlying conception of both dependent measures is somewhat flawed, leading the author to conclude that the approach possesses limitations that, under revised assumptions, may not hold. The central misconception, and a set of related…

Previous research suggests that model competence does not emerge until relatively late in infancy (20-26 months). Development was systematically analyzed within 3 key areas--count noun learning, dual representation, and categorization--hypothesized to support the emergence of model competence in the second year. In an object-handling preferential…

The subjective likelihood model [SLiM; McClelland, J. L., & Chappell, M. (1998). Familiarity breeds differentiation: a subjective-likelihood approach to the effects of experience in recognition memory. "Psychological Review," 105(4), 734-760.] and the retrieving effectively from memory model [REM; Shiffrin, R. M., & Steyvers, M. (1997). A model…

As cognitive architectures move to account for increasingly complex real-world tasks, one of the most pressing challenges involves understanding and modeling human multitasking. Although a number of existing models now perform multitasking in real-world scenarios, these models typically employ customized executives that schedule tasks for the…

This article describes the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) cognitive architecture (Anderson et al., 2004; Anderson & Lebiere, 1998) and its detailed application to the learning of algebraic symbol manipulation. The theory is applied to modeling the data from a study by Qin, Anderson, Silk, Stenger, & Carter (2004) in which children…

This article suggests that researchers need to reconfigure their conception of multimedia based interactivity. By integrating and extending earlier conceptions of the construct, it is argued that the cognitive processes of users should be central rather than peripheral to interactivity research. A model is presented in which interactivity is…

Processing capacity-defined as the relative ability to perform mental work in a unit of time-is a critical construct in cognitive psychology and is central to theories of visual attention. The unambiguous use of the construct, experimentally and theoretically, has been hindered by both conceptual confusions and the use of measures that are at best…

Prospective memory is remembering to perform an action in the future. The authors introduce the 1st formal model of event-based prospective memory, namely, a multinomial model that includes 2 separate parameters related to prospective memory processes. The 1st measures preparatory attentional processes, and the 2nd measures retrospective memory…

Two accounts explain why studying pictures reduces false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995). The impoverished relational-encoding account suggests that studying pictures interferes with the encoding of relational information, which is the primary basis for false memories…

This paper presents the Featural and Unitary Semantic Space (FUSS) hypothesis of the meanings of object and action words. The hypothesis, implemented in a statistical model, is based on the following assumptions: First, it is assumed that the meanings of words are grounded in conceptual featural representations, some of which are organized…

This paper reviews a body of work conducted in our laboratory that applies functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better understand the biological response and change that occurs during prototype-distortion learning. We review results from two experiments (Little, Klein, Shobat, McClure, & Thulborn, 2004; Little & Thulborn, 2005) that…

"Weak central coherence" refers to the detail-focused processing style proposed to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The original suggestion of a core deficit in central processing resulting in failure to extract global form/meaning, has been challenged in three ways. First, it may represent an outcome of superiority in local…