In unidimensional absolute identification tasks, participants identify stimuli that vary along a single dimension. Performance is surprisingly poor compared with discrimination of the same stimuli. Existing models assume that identification is achieved using long-term representations of absolute magnitudes. The authors propose an alternative…

A model of reading comprehension focuses on eye fixations, which are related to the level of reading processes--words, clauses, and text units. Longer pauses are associated with greater processing difficulty. This model is illustrated for a group of undergraduate students reading scientific articles from "Newsweek" and "Time" magazines. (GDC)

A theory is presented that postulates that people in all cultures use four relational models to generate most kinds of social interaction, evaluation, and affect. Ethnographic and field studies (n=19) have supported cultural variations on communal sharing; authority ranking; equality matching; and market pricing. (SLD)

This article describes cross-cultural research on the relation between how people conceptualize nature and how they act in it. Mental models of nature differ dramatically among populations living in the same area and engaged in similar activities. This has novel implications for environmental decision making and management, including commons…

This article advances an attributional theory of motivation and emotion, with achievement strivings as the theoretical focus. Causes of success and failure share three common properties: locus, stability, and controllability. Stability of causes influences changes in expectancy of success. Expectancy and affect guide motivated behavior.…

A theory for the visual and cognitive processing, which accounts for slower naming of pictures than reading of words, is introduced. Two experiments assessed the differences distinguishing word reading and picture naming, using 58 undergraduates. The coding of the mind is neither intrinsically linguistic nor imagistic; it is abstract. (TJH)

This article gives a comprehensive description of a theory for efficient assessment of knowledge. The essential concept is that the knowledge state of a subject, with regard to a specified field of information, can be represented by a particular subset of problems that the subject is capable of solving. (SLD)