Children in grades one to four completed two sentence construction tasks: (a) Write one complete sentence about a topic prompt (sentence integrity, Study 1); and (b) Integrate two sentences into one complete sentence without changing meaning (sentence combining, Study 2). Most, but not all, children in first through fourth grade could write just…

The study examined the knowledge of the functional relations between potential difference, magnitude of current, and resistance among seventh graders, ninth graders, 11th graders (in technical schools), and college students. It also tested the efficiency of a learning device named "functional learning" derived from cognitive psychology on the…

The structure of two-tier testing is such that the first tier consists of a multiple-choice question and the second tier requires justifications for choices of answers made in the first tier. This study aims to evaluate two-tier tasks in "proportion" in terms of students' capacity to write and select justifications and to examine the effect of…

To what extent does the use of computational tools offer teachers the possibility of constructing dynamic models to identify and explore diverse mathematical relations? What ways of reasoning or thinking about the problems emerge during the model construction process that involves the use of the tools? These research questions guided the…

This article presents a practical methodology for creating and sustaining strategic planning, the task analysis. Utilizing our Teaching & Learning Center Strategic Plan as a model, we demonstrate how working with a weekly status report provides a comprehensive listing of detail necessary to analyze and revise the plan. The new methodology is…

People discriminate remarkably well among large numerosities. These discriminations, however, need not entail numerical representation of the quantities being compared. This research evaluated the role of both non-numerical and numerical information in adult judgments of relative numerosity for large-numerosity spatial arrays. Results of…

The authors introduce a model of skill acquisition that incorporates elements of both traditional models and models based on embedded cognition by striking a balance between top-down and bottom-up control. A knowledge representation is used in which pre- and postconditions are attached to actions. This model captures improved performance due to…

A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task. The main constraint on access to the current task code is proactive interference from old task codes. This interference and the mechanisms that…

When switching between tasks, participants are sometimes required to use different response sets for each task. Thus, task switch and response set switch are confounded. In 5 experiments, the authors examined transitions of response within a linear 4-finger arrangement. A random baseline condition was compared with the cuing of specific response…

We propose a linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) model of decision making and reaction time. The LBA is simpler than other models of choice response time, with independent accumulators that race towards a common response threshold. Activity in the accumulators increases in a linear and deterministic manner. The simplicity of the model allows…

For many decades, tool use has been viewed primarily as a cognitive achievement, an ability that separates not only adults and older children from infants, but humans from virtually all other species. According to this standard account, tool use and associated means-ends behaviors are dependent on symbolic or representational thinking. Organisms…

In 2 experiments participants named pictures of common objects with superimposed distractor words. In one naming condition, the pictures and words were presented simultaneously on every trial, and participants produced the target response immediately. In the other naming condition, the presentation of the picture preceded the presentation of the…

In two studies, the regulatory function of approach-avoidance cues in activating cognitive control processes was investigated. It was hypothesized that avoidance motor actions, relative to approach motor actions, increase the recruitment of cognitive resources, resulting in better performance on tasks that draw on these capacities. In Study 1,…

This study investigates how the context of mathematical tasks affects the performance of young children (ages 5-11). Subjects were 523 children from age 5 to 11. Three contexts of mathematical tasks (stereotypically boys' contexts, stereotypically girls' contexts and neutral contexts) are examined in three age groups (young, medium, and old).…

Reports two experiments on mechanism of interference in working memory. Experiment 1 shows that a target word in a memory list, which bears high similarity to one of 4 words read aloud in the retention interval, is recalled less well than a control word. A second target word, not similar to any word read aloud but with all its phonemes repeated…