Marilyn Jager Adams

Models of Word Recognition.

Abstract Major hypotheses about the processes involved in word recognition are reviewed and then assessed through four experiments. The purpose of the first experiment was to examine some basic aspects of the processing of words, pseudowords, and nonwords, and beyond that, to discover basic differences in their processing that might underlie the word advantage. The second experiment was designed to assess the contribution of whole-word and letter cluster cues to the word advantage. Finally, Experiments III and IV were focused on the question of whether the word advantage can be wholly explained in terms of response bias or sophisticated guessing. Taken together, the results of these experiments were most compatible with criterion bias models. A version of the criterion bias model is suggested wherein the word advantage is attributed to interfacilitation among single letter and lexical units in memory.

Long-term memory for a common object ☆

Abstract A series of experiments was done to determine how completely and accurately people remember the visual details of a common object, a United States penny. People were asked to: draw a penny from unaided recall; draw a penny given a list of its visual features; choose from among a list of possible features those which do appear on a penny; indicate what was wrong with an erroneous drawing of a penny; and select the correct representation of a penny from among a set of incorrect drawings. Performance was surprisingly poor on all tasks. On balance, the results were consistent with the idea that the visual details of an object, even a very familiar object, are typically available from memory only to the extent that they are useful in everyday life. It was also suggested that recognition tasks may make much smaller demands on memory than is commonly assumed.

Word Recognition: The Interface of Educational Policies and Scientific Research.

As a result of a tremendous amount of research in educational, cognitive and developmental psychology on the nature and acquisition of reading skills, practitioners have a goldmine of evidence upon which to design effective educational programs for beginning and problem readers. This evidence is highly consistent in terms of delineating different stages of reading that young children pass through, the types of skills that they are to acquire, and the sorts of difficulties that they are likely to encounter. The purpose of this paper is to broadly outline current knowledge of the beginning stages of reading acquisition for both normal and problem readers and to relate this knowledge to current language arts curricular practices in North America.

Aristotle'S Logic

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses syllogisms developed by Aristotle that are intended to represent the simplest of all possible implicative chains and, as such, provide people with a simple, content-independent system for reducing and evaluating all possible argumentation. The chapter reviews Aristotles logic with the purpose of establishing the sources and significance of the differences over its interpretation and discusses prominent theories of the psychology of syllogistic reasoning to extract from them the major classes of difficulty that beset the human reasoner. These difficulties are examined against the clarified understanding of the essentials of the logic. Difficulties must indeed reflect weaknesses in the logical dispositions, and these might be alleviated through changes in the presentation of the logic. The problem derives in part from peoples difficulty in recognizing the alternate interpretations of the individual premises. Any conclusion that is compatible with both the strongest and weakest interpretations of the premises will necessarily be compatible with any between them; if no such conclusion exists, the premises are indeterminant.

Models of Reading1

Schema-theoretic models of reading, as they propose limited attention, interactive processing, and an extended knowledge base, are shown to have far greater descriptive flexibility than their simpler theoretical predecessors. However, it is argued that this flexibility is purchased at the cost of explanatory power. The problems this must present to researchers are discussed.

Logical competence and transitive inference in young children

Abstract Five-year-old children were trained on the length relationships between the adjacent members of a five-term series of sticks. They were then tested on their abilities (1) to judge the length relationships between nonadjacent pairs of the series, and (2) to incorporate an unseen novel stick into the series through inference. Children who were trained with sticks of markedly different lengths succeeded on the first test but not the second; they apparently relied on memory for the absolute lengths of the sticks. Children in the other groups succeeded on both tests. The critical factor in inducing the use of seriation and transitivity seemed to be the elimination of alternative solutions.

The Operator-Model Architecture and its Psychological Framework

Abstract The operators of complex equipment are frequently members of a team who must manage their control functions across numerous interruptions. They succeed, in part, because of their multi-tasking skills. The OMAR System includes a suite of representation languages as the basis for constructing models of these human multitasking behaviors. Prior to the development of the computational languages, a psychological framework was developed that attempts to identify key elements of the computational foundation for these behaviors. The psychological framework and the design of the representation languages for developing models of human multi-tasking behaviors are described.

Situational awareness in the commercial aircraft cockpit: a cognitive perspective

A cognitive theory is presented that has relevance for the definition and assessment of situational awareness in the cockpit. The theory asserts that maintenance of situation awareness is a constructive process that demands mental resources in competition with ongoing task performance. Implications of this perspective for assessing and improving situational awareness are discussed. It is concluded that the goal of inserting advanced technology into any system is that it results in an increase in the effectiveness, timeliness, and safety with which the systems activities can be accomplished. The inherent difficulties of the multitask situation are very often compounded by the introduction of automation. To maximize situational awareness, the dynamics and capabilities of such technologies must be designed with thorough respect for the dynamics and capabilities of human information-processing.<<ETX>>

Effectiveness of an Interactive Map Display in Tutoring Geography.

Abstract : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of different aspects of the SCHOLAR CAI system. The experiment compared how well students learn using SCHOLAR with (1) the interactive map display of Map- SCHOLAR, (2) a static labeled map, and (3) an unlabeled map. The results of the experiment showed that the students learned significantly more with the interactive map display, than with either the labeled map or the unlabeled map. A new method called backtrace analysis was used to assess the effectiveness of specific aspects of the tutoring strategy and the map system used in the experiment.

Comparison of two teaching strategies in computer-assisted instruction

Abstract Three experiments were run using the SCHOLAR CAI system to teach geography to high-school students. The experiments compared a method of teaching derived from analysis of human tutors (Tutorial Mode) vs a method derived from programmed instruction (Block-Test Mode). In the three experiments, Block-Test Mode was systematically converged toward Tutorial Mode in order to pinpoint what aspects of teaching strategy affected students learning. Tutorial Mode was significantly more effective in the first two experiments, and nonsignificantly in the third. The results indicated that the major factor affecting students learning was the strategy that tutors use of reviewing the material in greater depth on a second pass. The advantage of CAI for purposes of implementing and evaluating different teaching strategies was discussed.