The four dominant theories of reasoning from conditionals are translated into formal models: The theory of mental models (Johnson-Laird, P. N., & Byrne, R. M. J. (2002). Conditionals: a theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. "Psychological Review," 109, 646-678), the suppositional theory (Evans, J. S. B. T., & Over, D. E. (2004). "If."…

A principle of second-order isomorphism asserts that the functional similarities among internal representations parallel the functional similarities among the external objects to which those representations correspond. Research was conducted in accordance with this principle. (Author/BJG)

This paper studies the dynamics of attempting to access two spatial memories simultaneously and its implications for the accuracy of recall. Experiment 1 demonstrates in a range of conditions that two cues pointing to different experiences of the same object location produce little or no higher recall than that observed with a single cue.…

This paper is simultaneously a test and refinement of the E-Z Reader model and an exploration of the interrelationship between visual and language processing and eye-movements in reading. Our modeling indicates that the assumption that words in text are processed serially by skilled readers is a viable and attractive hypothesis, as it accounts not…

Categorizing performance of 12 expert and 12 novice subjects was compared in 3 experiments for feature listing; object naming; and category verification. In all, 15 dog experts and 16 bird experts participated. Implications for research concerning the basic level for categorizing objects are discussed. (SLD)

Eight experiments involving 134 infants aged 7.5 to 11.5 months show that even the youngest give evidence that they use featural information to individuate objects in an occlusion event. When tested with an event-mapping task, even 9.5-month olds give evidence that they can use featural information to interpret an occlusion event as long as the…

Evidence has been mixed on whether speakers spontaneously and reliably produce prosodic cues that resolve syntactic ambiguities. And when speakers do produce such cues, it is unclear whether they do so ''for'' their addressees (the "audience design" hypothesis) or ''for'' themselves, as a by-product of planning and articulating utterances. Three…

A basic but unresolved issue in the study of memory retrieval is whether multiple independent cues can be used concurrently (i.e., in parallel) to recall a single, common response. A number of empirical results, as well as potentially applicable theories, suggest that retrieval can proceed in parallel, though Rickard (1997) set forth a model that…

Explicit information-seeking actions are needed to evaluate alternative actions in problem-solving tasks. Information-seeking costs are often traded off against the utility of information. We present three experiments that show how subjects adapt to the cost and information structures of environments in a map-navigation task. We found that…

The Feature Integration Theory of visual search proposed by A. M. Treisman and others (1980, 1986) is reviewed, and a modified Guided Search theory is presented in which the parallel stage guides the serial stage as it chooses display elements to process. A computer simulation illustrates the theory. (SLD)

Presents a view of processing in which the structural relations among elements are an important factor in explaining the relative speeds of global and local processing. Results of three experiments involving 74 college students show the advantages to processing global structure even when local and global forms have the same conspicuity. (SLD)

Proposes a parallel distributed-processing (PDP) model to account for choice-reaction-time performance in diverse cognitive and perceptual tasks that are interrelated in terms of stimulus-stimulus and stimulus-response overlap. Simulation results support the PDP model. (SLD)

Studied ordinal numerical knowledge in 2- and 3-year-old children in 2 experiments involving 46 children. Results show that children as young as 2 years make purely numerical discriminations, but children who lacked any verbal numerical knowledge could not make ordinal judgments. (SLD)

Results of 5 experiments involving 385 undergraduates imagining animals from another galaxy are consistent with the idea that similar structures and processes underlie creative and noncreative aspects of cognition. The concept of structured imagination and the role of characteristic properties are explored. (SLD)

A theory is presented to explain the perception of partially occluded objects and illusory figures, from both static and kinematic information, in a unified framework. This detailed theory of unit formation accounts for most cases of boundary perception in the absence of local physical specification. (SLD)