Examines some of the sources of bias that enter into counselors' formulations of causal hypotheses and client problem representations. Presents a study of the think-aloud protocols of 32 counseling psychologists as they examined the file of a clinically diagnosable individual, and explores the implications of the findings for the training of…

In a study of the relationship between moral reasoning and teenage drug use, problems arose in an attempt to reduce qualitative data to a quantitative format: (1) making analytic sense of singular and universal responses; (2) the mistaken logical inference that each pattern of judgment should have behavioral indicators; and (3) construction and…

Five experiments involving a total of 268 college students indicate that people are especially likely to overinfer quantity or probability from numerosity when they are asked to make inherently difficult judgments, when they are asked to render judgments while performing a concurrent task, and when they are forced to make rapid judgments. (SLD)

A study investigated whether 20 individuals (ages 9 to 19) with mental retardation would use "common ground" (i.e., physical copresence, linguistic copresence, and community membership) to resolve verbal referential ambiguity. Both participants and matched-mental-age controls used all sources of common ground, but were less successful in using…

The causal network model of P. Van den Broeck and T. Trabasso (1986) was used to analyze the inferencing processes induced from verbal protocols from reading and thinking-aloud tasks. Results from 66 Dutch 10- and 11-year olds show no correlation between reading and think-aloud performance and comprehensive scores of a closed comprehension test.…

Compares the inference and backtracking approaches to solving logic puzzles in computer environments. (Author/ASK)

Investigated the role of context constraints on the course of predictive inferences during reading. Constraints were determined by manipulations of a context sentence that affected the extent to which an event was predictable. (Author/VWL)

Discussion of relevance in information retrieval focuses on manifestations of relevance within a system of relevance. Discusses intention, context, inference, and interaction; explains the concepts of affective, motivational, situational, and socio-cognitive relevance; and proposes a consolidated model of relevance manifestations. (Author/LRW)

Researchers, journal editors, textbook authors, and those responsible for writing publication manuals must work together to enhance the thoughtful reporting of statistical results and to make clear the necessity for reporting effect sizes. (SLD)

Suggests that researchers should report the results of appropriate significance tests and the effect sizes associated with each test. Discusses the roles of textbook authors, publication manuals, and journal editors in leading the movement to better statistical reporting. (SLD)

Uses the precise language of science to help teachers develop students' science process skills. Provides critical definitions for the terms observation, inference, prediction, hypothesis, guess, and operational question. By reducing the reliance on guessing, teachers encourage and model the fundamental inquiry skills necessary to do science. (SAH)

Examines the influence of language proficiency and comprehension skill on situation-model construction during narrative comprehension. Studies 12 college students who thought aloud reading French and English stories for comprehension and who performed a verb-clustering task after reading each text. Finds that the students generated more…

Documents the recent use of one-tailed F-tests in communication journals, and examines the arguments both for and against their use. Examines the use of these tests within the broader unresolved controversy surrounding the use of one-tailed tests. Recommends that future researchers should most often avoid one-tailed Fs, and generally exercise…

Selectively reviews influences on young children's word learning. Analyzes difficulties with the "constraint" concept in examining word learning. Concludes that the effect of so-called constraints cannot be separated from a wide range of cognitive and contextual influences on children's inferences about novel word meanings. Offers…

This study investigated how two readers of Mandarin with differing reading-proficiency skills interacted with a narrative passage, as well as what knowledge they brought to and made use of while reading the text. The perspectives of reading comprehension, transactional theory and social-cognitive models of reading served as this study's…