This article analyzes a corpus of 1,600 brailling errors made by one expert braillist. It presents a testable model of braille writing and shows that the subject braillist stores standard braille contractions as part of the orthographic representation of words, rather than imposing contractions on a serially ordered string of letters. (Contains 1…

Previous research has found that "similar" sounds interact in phonological nasal consonant harmony, wherein certain consonants become nasals when the word contains a nasal (e.g., Kikongo: /-kun-idi/ [right arrow] [-kun-ini] "planted"). Across languages, stops and approximants are chiefly affected, especially voiced consonants and ones that match…

Studies of autobiographical memory have shown that observed levels of incidental learning are often relatively low. Do low levels of retention result simply from a low learning rate, or is learning also asymptotic? To address this question, it is necessary to trace performance over a large number of learning opportunities, and this was carried out…

The purpose of the study reported herein was to identify the common mistakes made by junior secondary students in Hong Kong when learning algebra and to compare teachers' perceptions of students' ability with the results of an algebra test. An algebra test was developed and administered to a sample of students (aged between 13 and 14 years). From…

Twenty male adults with ADHD, 16 dyslexic adults, 15 comorbid adults, and 16 normal controls were compared on performance and underlying brain responses, during a cued Continuous Performance Test (O-X CPT), with the aim of discovering features of information processing differentiating between the groups. The study evaluated both cue- and…

To address the specific impairment of imitation in autism, the imitation abilities of 22 children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with and without autism were compared. Based on previous research, we predicted that children with FXS and autism would have significantly more difficulty with non-meaningful imitation tasks. After controlling for…

Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis is a statistical technique used for ensuring the equity and fairness of educational assessments. This study formulates a new DIF analysis method using the information similarity index (ISI). ISI compares item information functions when data fits the Rasch model. Through simulations and an international…

This Monte Carlo study investigates the beneficiary effect of including auxiliary variables during estimation of confirmatory factor analysis models with multiple imputation. Specifically, it examines the influence of sample size, missing rates, missingness mechanism combinations, missingness types (linear or convex), and the absence or presence…

A central issue in the study of reading and spelling has been to understand how the consistency or frequency of letter-sound relationships affects written language processing. We present, for the first time, evidence that the sound-spelling frequency of "subgraphemic" elements of words (letters within digraphs) contributes to the…

In this article, we present a theory of test translation whose intent is to provide the conceptual foundation for effective, systematic work in the process of test translation and test translation review. According to the theory, translation error is multidimensional; it is not simply the consequence of defective translation but an inevitable fact…

The Soviet Union collapsed more than 20 years ago, but the traces left in occupied countries by this monstrous system still affect the lives of millions of people. Under the glittering surface of newsworthy events that regularly appear in the mass media, there are many other wounds hard to heal. The system of education is one of the social…

This is the first study to explore lexical and grammatical development in a deaf child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Inattentive sub-type (ADHDI). The child, whose family language was Spanish, was fitted with a cochlear implant (CI) when she was 18 months old. ADHDI, for which she was prescribed medication, was diagnosed…

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) is used frequently as a treatment for problem behavior. Previous studies on treatment integrity failures during DRA suggest that the intervention is robust, but research has not yet investigated the effects of different types of integrity failures. We examined the effects of two types of…

Building up messages as a cognitive activity within the linguistic multi-level system is the result of the interaction between the various components of this system. Yet, this interactive process occurring in the language user's mind while encoding can vary from person to person. Likewise, it also differs in different recipients while decoding.…

The study of student error, important across many fields of educational research, has begun to attract interest in the field of e-learning, particularly in relation to usability. However, it remains unclear when errors should be avoided (as usability failures) or embraced (as learning opportunities). Many domains have benefited from taxonomies of…