Stuart Katz

Answering Reading Comprehension Items Without Passages on the SAT

Performance of college undergraduates on the Reading Comprehension task of the SAT was well above chance when the passages were deleted. Moreover, examinees and test items performed similarly with or without the passages: individual performance correlated with verbal SAT score, and the difficulty of items belonging to a passage correlated with a normative measure based on equated delta. The findings demonstrate that the Reading Comprehension task substantially measures factors unrelated to reading comprehension.

R L Gregory and Others: The Wrong Picture of the Picture Theory of Perception

It is the position of R L Gregory and other cognitive theorists that perceptual knowledge conceived as an inner picture leads to an infinite regress, but that perceptual knowledge conceived as an abstract or coded representation does not. It is argued here that this view is mistaken. All inner representations, whether pictorial or abstract, lead to the regress because all representations, inner or outer, require interpretation, and hence an interpreter. The problem will not disappear, furthermore, by formalizing the representation because rule-following is not equivalent to interpretation. The regress can only be avoided if the whole organism is made the interpreter, and representations are given their appropriate place: in the external world, not inside heads.

The abstraction of linguistic ideas in “meaningless” sentences

It was proposed that the Bransford and Franks linear effect is unrelated to semantic processes and will, therefore, occur even when “meaningless” sentences (i.e., sentences containing nonsense instead of meaningful content words) are employed. Within the Bransford and Franks format, Ss were given either the meaningless sentences or control sentences. Results showed a significant linear effect for the meaningless sentences. Furthermore, although the slope of the effect for meaningless sentences was flatter than that of the control, other data ruled out a semantic integration explanation based on the availability of semantic information contained in sentence structure. A simple guessing strategy hypothesis was offered to account for the linear effect.

The ecological approach to development: An alternative to cognitivism

Abstract The paper begins with the introduction of a simple systems theory framework which is then used to analyze developmental theories. Two approaches to development are identified: the ecological approach and the cognitive approach. The former is a form of radical environmentalism which relies upon Gibsons notion of temporal structure. The latter is the more familiar approach to development exemplified by Piagets theory. A comparison of the two viewpoints indicates that the ecological approach has certain advantages over the cognitive approach. A more elaborate systems theory model is then introduced which allows for a detailed description of the advantages of the ecological approach. Finally, some traditional objections to radical environmentalism are addressed, and the implications for developmental research are briefly sketched.

The Bransford-Franks linear effect: Integration or artifact?

It was hypothesized that the Bransford-Franks linear effect is an artifact of the method of presentation of stimulus sentences and is unrelated to semantic processes. Ss were given sentences containing the same information in one of two ways. In a control condition, which was identical to the procedure used in earlier research, overlapping combinations of ideas were presented during learning and recognition; in an experimental condition, ideas were presented one at a time. Results demonstrated that one-idea sentences received significantly higher recognition confidence ratings in the experimental condition, thus supporting the artifact interpretation. It was proposed that Ss assign recognition confidence ratings based on the probability that a sentence containing a certain number of ideas could have occurred in acquisition.

The Contribution of Passage and No-Passage Factors to Item Performance on the SAT Reading Task

A regression analysis was carried out to assess the contributions of passage and no-passage factors to item variance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test reading comprehension task. Unlike earlier regression studies of multiple-choice reading tasks, no-passage factors were experimentally isolated from passage factors, and passage factors from the multiple-choice context. Results showed that no-passage factors play a larger role than do passage factors, accounting for as much as three fourths of systematic variance in item difficulty and more than half of total variance. The task, therefore, appears largely to reflect the systematic influence of factors having nothing to do with the comprehension of reading passages.

The SAT Reading Task in Question: Reply to Freedle and Kostin

In a previous issue of Psychological Science, we reported that test takers correctly answer many multiple-choice questions on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) reading task when the passages that normally accompany the questions are missing More important, we found a high correlation between performance with and performance without these passages (Katz, Blackburn, & Lautenschlager, 1991, Katz, Lautenschlager, Blackburn, & Harris, 1990) We concluded that factors having little to do with passage comprehension contribute substantially to performance on the task In a recent commentary, Freedle and Kostin (1994) argued otherwise Using reading items on the SAT and other college-entrance examinations, these authors (hereafter, FK) carried out stepwise regression analyses, apportioning into two groups 65 predictor variables, 46 passage and 19 question variables The question variables were assumed to measure non-passage factors The authors reported that passage variables contribute substantially to variance in item difficulty (sometimes more than 50%, depending on test and item selection), whereas question variables contribute little FK concluded that we have exaggerated the role of nonpassage factors on reading tests

Can indirect realism be demonstrated in the psychological laboratory

The psychological experimenter has his apparatus of lamps, tuning forks, and chronoscope, and an observer on whose sensations he is experimenting. Now the experimenter by hypothesis (and in fact) knows his apparatus immediately, and he manipulates it; whereas the observer (according to the theory) knows only his own ’sensations’, is confined, one is requested to suppose, to transactions within his skull. But after a time the two men exchange places: he who was the experimenter is now suddenly shut up within the range of his ’sensations’, he has now only a ’representative’ knowledge of the apparatus; whereas he who was the observer forthwith enjoys a windfall of omniscience. He now has an immediate experience of everything around him, and is no longer confined to the sensations within his skull. Yet, of course, the

Why There is No Error in the Direct Theory of Perception

According to Gibsons direct theory, perception is an achievement, not a process. Perceptual error, therefore, is the failure to perceive. Taken in isolation, this assertion leads to implausible consequences, but taken together with other assertions of Gibson, it may be understood, without contradiction, to mean that there is no absolute error in perception. Whether perception is successful or not is determined by the context in which the perceptual act occurs.

ANSWERING READING COMPREHENSION ITEMS WITHOUT THE PASSAGES ON THE SAT-I

Research has shown that many items on the old SAT reading task are answered correctly when the accompanying passages are missing. The purpose of this study was to find out if the new SAT (SAT–I) is similarly flawed. Reading tasks from two parallel forms of the SAT–I were administered with and without the passages. Analysis showed that, without the passages, examinees performed much better than would be expected by chance. Also, over-all scores in the without-passage condition were strongly correlated with SAT Verbal score. Finally, an item analysis showed that more than 60% of all items were flawed. It appears that performance on the SAT–I reading task, like that on its predecessor, is primarily associated with factors unrelated to reading the passage.