A new item-fit index is proposed that is both a descriptive measure of deviance of single items and an index for statistical inference. This index is based on assumptions of the dichotomous and polytomous Rasch models for items with ordered categories. A simulation study is described. (SLD)

Examined whether the use of superordinate terms in 206 children's definitions is predictable by relevance theory. Children (ages 5-10) gave definitions for 16 basic-level words and 4 superordinate words from natural kind and artifact semantic domains. Superordinate terms were used more frequently when they supported more inferences. Findings…

Two experiments studied how preschool children acquire a naive theory of kinship (NTK). Overall, results implicate a type of theory building that involves inferences from preexisting knowledge rather than structural change, use of analogy, or acquisition of new knowledge. (DR)

This commentary on EC 603 695 argues that significance testing is a necessary but insufficient condition for positivistic research, that judgment-based assessment and single-subject research are not substitutes for significance testing, and that sampling fluctuation should be considered as one of numerous epistemological concerns in any…

Presents a mathematical-categorization model using multiple-step chains of reasoning (CORs) and memory for examples. In 5 experiments, 144 undergraduates memorized descriptions of fictional people, then made predictions from incomplete descriptions using 1-, 2-, or 3-step CORs. The multiple-step context model with one- and two-step inference…

The minimalist hypothesis of inference processing is proposed. According to this hypothesis, the only inferences coded automatically during reading are those based on easily available information and those required to make statements in a text locally coherent. Five experiments with 249 college students support the hypothesis. (SLD)

Recommends treating basic skills students as if they have innate knowledge, not an intellectual disease. Underscores inference as a key activity in critical thinking. Suggests strategies for improving students' inferential powers. Argues that the strategies can help students recognize their inferential ability and learn to use it in writing. (SG)

Examination of English-as-a-Foreign-Language reading coursebooks indicated that these books do not systematically incorporate insights derived from research into training designed to develop lexical inferencing strategies. The books give little advice on exploiting cues from morphology and little relationship is detectable between proposed…

Five experiments were used to determine whether and why second graders, fourth graders, and college students differ in modifying causal inferences about a surprising event in a story. Illustrated how encoding and retrieval factors contribute to inference modification. Results showed small developmental increases in inference modification in…

Investigates how adult readers represent causal relations among events in a narrative, specifically by testing two models of text comprehension, the linear chain of text model versus the network model. Provides support for a network model of the representation of causal relations in narratives. (HB)

Argues that an adequate theory of inference generation should accurately predict whether particular classes of knowledge-based inferences are generated online during text comprehension. Proposes a "constructionist" theory which accounts for the findings of cognitive psychology and discourse processing. (HB)

Applies schema theory (assimilation, accommodation, and medium) to the processes associated with learning from the news media. Finds subjects given consistent information most willing to make inferences, with those receiving inconsistent information more likely to remember more facts. Finds that mode of presentation has little effect. (SR)

The statistical analysis of processing tree models is advanced by showing how the parameters of estimation and hypothesis testing, based on the likelihood functions, can be accomplished by adapting the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. The adaptation makes it easy to program a personal computer to accomplish the stages of statistical…

Many curricula for teaching reading in a foreign language do not include the skill of understanding the implicit meaning of texts. This article presents a taxonomy of inferences drawn from selected taxonomies of Pearson and Johnson, Warren et al., and Nicholas et al., which are also reviewed. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/LB)

Investigated age differences from early childhood to adulthood in the capacity to understand--in a psychologically meaningful way--traits in stories wherein main characters perform actions based on a positive, negative, or incidental motive that result in an emotional consequence for another character. Found that even 5- to 6-year-olds made trait…