Research investigating pragmatic abilities in healthy aging suggests that both production and comprehension might be compromised; however, it is not clear how pragmatic abilities evolve in late adulthood, as well as when difficulties are more likely to arise. The aim of this study is to investigate the decline of pragmatic skills in aging, and to…

Van der Linden's hierarchical model for responses and response times can be used in order to infer the ability and mental speed of test takers from their responses and response times in an educational test. A standard approach for this is maximum likelihood estimation. In real-world applications, the data of some test takers might be partly…

Though the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires secondary students with Asperger's syndrome (AS) to take high-stakes mathematical tests, many students with AS exhibit weaknesses in mathematical and executive functioning skills. The purpose of this mixed-methods case study was to explore the use of differentiated mathematical strategies with…

Providing a subset of studied items as retrieval cues can have detrimental effects on recall of the remaining items. In 2 experiments, the authors examined such part-list cuing impairment in a repeated testing situation. Participants studied exemplars from several semantic categories and were given 2 successive cued-recall tests separated by a…

This article examines the potential contribution of latent trait models to the study of intelligence. Nontechnical introductions to both unidimensional and multidimensional latent trait models are given. Multidimensional latent trait models can be used to test alternative multiple component theories of test item processing. (Author/CTM)

Discusses the long-term estrangement of psychology and educational testing, a breach that occurred as a result of differences in the goals of experimental psychologists and correlational psychologists who studied the measurement of aptitude and ability. Discusses the development of a new field merging modern knowledge of cognition and learning and…

Spearman's notions of mental energy and mental span presage modern conceptions of attentional resources and working memory as fundamental to intelligence. Viewing attention as the conative directing of the intellect, as "the application of intellectual energy," Spearman's quantitative law of mental span deals with limits on the…

A new model, the acceleration model, is proposed in the framework of the heterogeneous case of the graded response model, based on processing functions defined for a finite or enumerable number of steps. The model is expected to be useful in cognitive assessment. (SLD)

Presents two experiments involving 16 and 14 college students that were designed to enhance the sensitivity of reaction time as an information-processing correlate of general ability. Data from both are interpreted in terms of mental efficiency theories of intelligence. (SLD)

Analysis of 116 students revealed those who preferred to process mathematical information by verbal-logical means outperformed more visual students on tests. Spatial ability and knowledge of spatial conventions had less influence on performance than expected. (MP)

Points out that an aspect of Piaget's theory, the concept of stage, is being misrepresented through vague and incorrect use of the idea. (Author/GA)

Over the past 20 years, many theories on achievement motivation have been established to understand the complex interaction of motivational variables and identify the conditions that can enhance individuals' motivation. This review explores the role of conceptions of ability, its relations to other major motivational frameworks and factors…

Six alternative models of the ways in which individuals accept and organize information from potential sources are proposed. Parameter estimates were obtained from experiments testing the effect of evaluations of performance upon an individual's conception of his own, and others', ability to perform specific tasks. Then the models were tested…