This article demonstrates the potential of using hierarchical Bayesian methods to relate models and data in the cognitive sciences. This is done using a worked example that considers an existing model of category representation, the Varying Abstraction Model (VAM), which attempts to infer the representations people use from their behavior in…

Griffiths and Tenenbaum (2006) asked individuals to make predictions about the duration or extent of everyday events (e.g., cake baking times), and reported that predictions were optimal, employing Bayesian inference based on veridical prior distributions. Although the predictions conformed strikingly to statistics of the world, they reflect…

Categorization in well-known natural concepts is studied using a special version of the Varying Abstraction Framework (Vanpaemel, W., & Storms, G. (2006). A varying abstraction framework for categorization. Manuscript submitted for publication; Vanpaemel, W., Storms, G., & Ons, B. (2005). A varying abstraction model for categorization. In B. Bara,…

Kahneman and Tversky's critique of Cohen's position on adults' probability reasoning is not valid. If they think Baconian logic is normatively unsound, the onus is on them to explain why. It is valid and useful because nature itself is full of causal processes. (Author/RD)

The majority of the models which attempt to explain category-specific deficits are based on the assumption that the conceptual knowledge is represented in a permanent way in memory (abstractive view). Carbonnel, Charnallet, David, and Pellat (1997) showed that a non-abstractive view would be more suitable to account for some of these cases. The…

Attempts to identify variables for predicting academic success in electronics and find a model for predicting success in each of three main types of electronics programs. Results indicate that student's success in math and science in high school is a good predictor of their success and abstract learning preference is a valid discriminator between…

In this study involving 32 first graders, results indicated that imitative learning was accomplished and translated into action by a two-step process of informational analysis involving abstraction and subsequent inference. (Author/WY)

Tests semantic integration and frequency tally models of memory among 60 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children. Data from third and fifth graders show different patterns of results for regular and anomalous stories. The true-inference error rate was significantly greater than the error rates for false premise and false-inference sentences in…

Relationships between word knowledge and proverb comprehension was examined in 150 typically achieving adolescents (ages 12, 15, and 18). Word knowledge was associated with proverb comprehension in all groups, particularly in the case of abstract proverbs. Results support a model of proverb comprehension in adolescents that includes bottom-up in…

The four dominant theories of reasoning from conditionals are translated into formal models: The theory of mental models (Johnson-Laird, P. N., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2002). Conditionals: a theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. "Psychological Review," 109, 646-678), the suppositional theory (Evans, J. S. B. T., & Over, D. E. (2004). "If."…

Reviews a model of cognitive development relating the self and self-evaluation, guidelines for applying the model, and counseling applications. Recognizes that individuals may vary their level of abstraction depending on such things as the source of information, the context, and the part of the self being discussed. (LLL)

An intelligence model of processes and content of thought is proposed. Processes include remembering, evaluating, generating, and transforming, while content is self, forms, ideas, and persons, determining levels of complexity for learning. The TETRA model is compared with J.P. Guilford's aptitude structure of intellect. Theory implications for…

A curriculum theory begins in the transference of meaning from the familiar and the comprehensible to the abstract and perplexing problems arising from the actual teaching situation. These metaphors that evolve into theories serve to direct research by creating a symbolic language. (JN)

A model of conditional reasoning predicted that children under 12 would respond correctly to questions of uncertain logical form if premises and context enabled them to access counterexamples from memory, and that children's performance with uncertain logical forms would decrease when empirically true premises are presented in a fantasy context.…