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…

Since the advent of the all volunteer force, the U.S. military has supported research to monitor, understand, and influence the propensity of American youth to enlist in the military. Interest in understanding determinants of military enlistment has increased since 1992 due to the shrinking size of the available youth cohort, competing demands for…

Previous research has shown that expert physicians' diagnostic performance improves when contextual information about a patient is available, while the performance of novices is not influenced by this source of information. These results are explained by supposing that experts' knowledge is organized in illness-scripts. This study examined this…

The networking procedure is explored as a way to describe and measure cognitive structures. A research project at Gottingen University (Germany) tried to operationalize economic contextual knowledge as a qualification for teaching in commercial (business) education. Networking was examined as a way to measure this knowledge. Each student should…

This study compared obtrusive observers and self-reports to a criterion, unobtrusive observers, to assess how accurately they measured tutor performance. Unobtrusive observers were used as a criterion for comparison because it was assumed that their measures were free of biases. Participants were 55 college-level peer tutors. Course sections were…

Some specific aspects of the process of discovery are explored as they are experienced in the visual arts and the physical sciences. Both fields use the same visual/brain processing system, and both disciplines share an imaginative and productive interest in the disciplined use of imagistic thinking. Many productive interactions between visual…

The two-part activity outlined in this paper reveals to undergraduate students that assumptions made in theory building remain unquestioned until one steps outside the initial realm of expectations, and that theories adopted have a demonstrable impact on behaviors. Part I defines a theory, describes the roles of assumptions and knowledge in…

A concept-map assessment consists of a task that elicits structured knowledge, a response format, and a scoring system. Variation in tasks, response formats, and scoring systems produce different mapping techniques that may elicit different knowledge representations, posing construct-interpretations challenges. This study examined two mapping…

Students' confidence calibrations on quizzes taken individually and again in structured learning groups were examined. Under conditions of weekly feedback on accuracy and confidence, students working as individuals and in groups were hypothesized to improve not only their accuracy, but also their calibration of confidence. Findings were based on…

This practicum attempted to promote teacher and student sensitivity to seven mainstreamed, oral, elementary school children with hearing impairments. It also aimed to promote more social interaction between students with impaired hearing and those with normal hearing and to effect a more comfortable transition from a special school to the…

A capstone course, entitled "Coordinating Seminar," has been developed at Rivier College, a small Roman Catholic liberal arts college in New England, as a vehicle for assessment in the Psychology Department. Assessment has been defined by Rivier College as a collegewide effort to document and verify the amount and quality of educational change in…

The 18 tests cited in this bibliography cover all age levels, although many are geared toward the secondary education level. The content of the tests focuses on the skills that individuals should possess in order to be effective consumers of goods and services. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies from the Test Collection…

This study investigated the musical thinking of two composers through the use of concurrent protocol analysis and examinined their problems, funded experience, and reflective thinking. The objective was to determine the extent to which there is an observed or implicit paradigm of reflective thinking in the thinking of a practicing composer. The…

The characteristics and elements of situated learning are described, along with some approaches that use this perspective. Situated cognition proposes a radically different explanation of learning that conceives of it largely as a social phenomenon rather than a process occurring within the mind of the individual. Situated learning requires…

The purpose of this paper is to review literature on analogical reasoning, to work out the implications of Polya's model of analogical problem solving, and to propose an alternative model of instructional design based on the use of analogical reasoning. Justification of the model is based on research on the nature of analogical thought and an…