Discusses the importance of teaching English-as-a-Second-Language students to be effective listeners, examining different types of listening (listening for gist, listening for specific information, and inference) and describing how to determine the direction in which students listen (top down or bottom up). Two sidebars present teaching tips and…

Examines the relationship between readers' implicit models of reading and motivation to read. Argues that transaction models increase motivation to read by legitimizing the meaning-construction process and by increasing the type and number of deeper-processing strategies such as inferencing, generating hypotheses, and the construction of a…

Statistical significance reporting and use in educational and psychological research is reviewed. An assessment of the use of statistical significance in articles published in MECD from 1990-1996 is presented. The elements of statistical significance (including sample size, effect size, and power), interpretation of results, common erroneous…

Suggests two models of how readers create bridging inferences to resolve signals to textual cohesion. Evaluates reading times, verification accuracy, verification latency, and regressive eye fixations to support the model which views bridges as the result of a form of deduction in which the reader tacitly establishes premises that provide rational…

Examines the influence of interclause connectives on inference generation. Finds that readers incorporate causal knowledge-based inferences in the discourse representations for sentences containing a causal connective, and that connectives elicit inferences that are based on the connective's meaning. (SR)

Addresses the state of the art in use of statistical significance tests and effect size interpretation, explicating the current debate regarding hypothesis testing; reviewing the newly published American Psychological Association Task Force on Statistical Inference report on statistical inference; examining current trends in reporting practices in…

Describes the development of an introductory course that exposes mathematical sciences majors to a full range of issues that most practicing statisticians may face including data acquisition, design of experiments, use of theory, and formal writing. Provides a summary of laboratories and student perspectives. (Author/MM)

The study of statistics can be enhanced by using real-world data and problems obtained from the Internet. Uses data on HIV infections in Asian and Pacific Islander females to teach both descriptive and inferential statistics. (ASK)

Discusses the extent to which the existing literature offers insights into effectively teaching statistical inference. Describes an in-class exercise that helps students understand inferential statistics. Explains that students learn more about concepts such as population distribution, sampling distributions, and standard error of the estimate.…

This paper investigated six to nine year old children's ability to use contractive and possessive apostrophes, the effects of type and token frequency, and the effect of teaching on this ability. Apostrophes provide an interesting opportunity to examine the basis of frequency effects in rule inference, as type and token frequencies dissociate in…

Noveck (2001) argued that children even as old as 11 do not reliably endorse a scalar interpretation of weak scalar terms ("some", "might", "or") (cf. Braine & Rumain, 1981; Smith, 1980). More recent studies suggest, however, that children's apparent failures may depend on the experimental demands (Papafragou…

Graphing data and/or results from quantitative studies have been noted in the social sciences and the field of education as a means toward employing solid methodological practices. The publication rate in the JCSD of six specified graphs was examined under two editor ships from 1999 to 2003 and 2004. Preliminary results from the review suggested…

Genre-specific reading or comprehension strategies can help older, striving students comprehend expository and narrative texts. Students being taught to be strategic and methodical in their approach can create a generation of readers, who will be able to apply their critical thinking skills to any piece of text they encounter.

Inferences about spatial, temporal, and other relations are ubiquitous. This article presents a novel model-based theory of such reasoning. The theory depends on 5 principles. (a) The structure of mental models is iconic as far as possible. (b) The logical consequences of relations emerge from models constructed from the meanings of the relations…

We summarize some of the most important findings from research evaluating the hypothesized causes of specific reading disability ("dyslexia") over the past four decades. After outlining components of reading ability, we discuss manifest causes of reading difficulties, in terms of deficiencies in component reading skills that might lead to such…