Eye Movement Patterns in Solving Science Ordering Problems

Dynamic biological processes, such as intracellular signaling pathways, commonly are taught in science courses using static representations of individual steps in the pathway. As a result, students often memorize these steps for examination purposes, but fail to appreciate either the cascade nature of the pathway. In this study, we compared eye movement patterns for students who correctly ordered the components of an important pathway responsible for vasoconstriction against those who did not. Similarly, we compared the patterns of students who learned the material using three dimensional (3-D) animations previously associated with improved student understanding of this pathway against those who learned the material using static images extracted from those animations. For two of the three ordering problems, students with higher scores had shorter total fixation duration when ordering the components and spent less time (fixating) in the planning and solving phases of the problem-solving process. This finding was supported by the scanpath patterns that demonstrated that students who correctly solved the problems used more efficient problem-solving strategies

Do Different Groups Have Different Epistemic Intuitions? A Reply to Jennifer Nagel

Intuitions play an important role in contemporary epistemology. Over the last decade, however, experimental philosophers have published a number of studies suggesting that epistemic intuitions may vary in ways that challenge the widespread reliance on intuitions in epistemology. In a recent paper, Jennifer Nagel offers a pair of arguments aimed at showing that epistemic intuitions do not, in fact, vary in problematic ways. One of these arguments relies on a number of claims defended by appeal to the psychological literature on intuitive judgment and on mental state attribution (also known as “theory of mind”, “mindreading” and “folk psychology”). I call this the "theoretical argument". The other argument relies on recent experimental work carried out by Nagel and her collaborators. It is my contention that in setting out her theoretical argument, Nagel offers an account of the relevant scientific literature that is, in crucial respects, flawed and misleading. My main goal in this paper is to rectify these errors and to make it clear that, once this is done, Nagel’s theoretical argument collapses. Since Nagel’s experimental work has not yet been published, and available details are very sketchy, I do not discuss this work in detail. However, in the final section of the paper I offer some critical observations about Nagel’s strategy for dealing with empirical data that does not support her view – both other people’s and her own

The development of reasoning heuristics in autism and in typical development

Reasoning and judgment under uncertainty are often based on a limited number of simplifying heuristics rather than formal logic or rule-based argumentation. Heuristics are low-effort mental shortcuts, which save time and effort, and usually result in accurate judgment, but they can also lead to systematic errors and biases when applied inappropriately. In the past 40 years hundreds of papers have been published on the topic of heuristics and biases in judgment and decision making. However, we still know surprisingly little about the development and the cognitive underpinnings of heuristics and biases. The main aim of my thesis is to examine these questions. Another aim is to evaluate the applicability of dual-process theories of reasoning to the development of reasoning. Dual-process theories claim that there are two types of process underlying higher order reasoning: fast, automatic, and effortless (Type 1) processes (which are usually associated with the use of reasoning heuristics), and slow, conscious and effortful (Type 2) processes (which are usually associated with rule-based reasoning). This thesis presents eight experiments which investigated the development of reasoning heuristics in three different populations: typically developing children and adolescents between the age of 5 and 16, adolescents with autism, and university students. Although heuristic reasoning is supposed to be basic, simple, and effortless, we have found evidence that responses that are usually attributed to heuristic processes are positively correlated with cognitive capacity in the case of young children (even after controlling for the effects of age). Moreover, we have found that adolescents with autism are less susceptible to a number of reasoning heuristics than typically developing children. Finally, our experiments with university students provided evidence that education in statistics increases the likelihood of the inappropriate use of a certain heuristic (the equiprobability bias). These results offer a novel insight into the development of reasoning heuristics. Additionally, they have interesting implications for dual-process theories of reasoning, and they can also inform the debates about the rationality of reasoning heuristics and biases

Analogical Reasoning and Working Memory

Analogical Reasoning (AR) is the ability to find a relationship between two objects that is not based on featural (attribute-based) similarities. As such, reasoning by analogy is thought to be crucial in learning and scientific discovery. Analogies have played an important role in the conceptualisation of both IQ (Spearman, 1927) and cognitive development (Piaget, Montangero & Billeter, 1977). Yet very little is understood regarding the component processes which underlie analogical thought. Recently, there has been a resurgent interest in the field: one brought about by modern computational methodologies which purport to model the cognitive architecture of analogical thinking. A prominent feature has been the introduction of capacity based processing constraints claimed to arise in the reasoning processes from limited Working Memory Capacity (WMC) resources (Halford, 1992, 1993, 1998; Hummel & Holyoak, 1997; Morrison, Doumas, & Richland, 2011; Richland, Morrison & Holyoak, 2004, 2006, 2010). Adopting a Working Memory (WM) perspective (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974; Baddeley 2000) the aim of this research is to investigate whether individual differences in WM mediate AR, as well as critically assessing the current theories of AR in relation to this. In chapter 1 the research behind AR-WM is reviewed with reference to modern interpretations of what analogy is and how it might be measured. In chapter 2 (Experiment 1), a flexible new scene-based measure of analogical ability, the Richland Picture Analogies (RPA; Richland, et al, 2004, 2006) is introduced, the data confirming effects of complexity and distraction hypothesized by Richland and her colleagues. Experiment 2 related performance on the RPA with quantitative measures of WM, concluding that IQ was related to relational responding in the RPA over and above that of WMC. Experiment 3 further explored the role of WM, observing an effect of processing/storage (WMC) but not storage (STS). In chapter 3, the role of WMC was further examined. Experiment 4 using a reaction time (RT) paradigm demonstrated that featural responding was unlikely to be a prepotent response, and instead related to conflict resolution. Experiment 5 adopted a dual-task methodology and attempted to explore the involvement of WMC under load in conditions of complexity and distraction. Unfortunately, the low level of variance proved an insurmountable problem. Experiment 6 examined Executive Functions (EFs) as a potential explanation for both IQ and WMC effects in the RPA. Overall, it is concluded that WM does indeed mediate analogical performance within the RPA, but that effects of relational-complexity, as suggested by Halford (1992, 1993, 1998) are not as evident as might have been supposed. Instead the data from Experiments 2-6 suggests that individual differences in processing efficiency as well as the ability to divide and control attention in novel circumstances may explain the variance in relation responding reported by Richland et al. (2004, 2006) and found in Experiment 1. It is hypothesized that one of the core aspects of AR is task relevance, the research concluding that other interpretations of how WM affects AR should be considered beyond the traditional theories

Relational Integration in Working Memory: Determinants of Effective Task Performance and Links to Individual Differences in Fluid Intelligence

Working memory is a critical system of human cognition, providing a conscious stream of thought that allows us to focus attention, store and manipulate temporary information, and flexibly solve complex problems. Although traditionally seen as a multi-componential system with distinct capacity-limited stores (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974), there is a growing consensus that working memory is a more dynamic, attentional-based system limited by the ability to both maintain and disengage from memory representations. Central to this maintenance and disengagement is the integration of representations by binding them into established or novel relations – a process termed relational integration. Working memory tasks are often linked to higher-order abstract reasoning (fluid intelligence) tasks which requires abstraction of relations; and the capacity for relational integration is prevalent throughout comparative cognition. Despite this, the nature of relational integration within working memory is not well understood. This is at least in part due to the difficulty in quantifying unique relational integration demands, separately from well-established passive storage theories and attentional control theories, where predicted outcomes often coincide. Considering the importance of working memory in higher-order functioning, the current project aims to understand the nature of relational integration in working memory, identifying aspects of relational integration which contribute to successful task performance on working memory and fluid intelligence tasks. To this end, several studies are conducted which investigate determinants of relational integration including complexity, salience, and systematicity. Consistent evidence emerges that indicates the ability to establish, maintain, and dissolve multiple strong and flexible bindings is the best predictor of task performance on relational integration tasks; and can predict well-established abstract reasoning tasks over-and-above classic working memory tasks which emphasize attentional control demands or at least, a demarcation of storage and processing

Morphological awareness in readers of IsiXhosa

This study focuses particularly on the development of four Morphological Awareness reading tests in isiXhosa and on the relationship of Morphological Awareness to reading success among 74 Grade 3 isiXhosa-speaking foundation-phase learners from three peri-urban schools. It explores in-depth why not all previously established Morphological Awareness tests for other languages suit the morphology of isiXhosa and how these tests have been revised in order to do so. Conventionally, the focus of Morphological Awareness literature has been on derivational morphology and reading comprehension. This study did not find significant correlations with comprehension, but rather with the children's ability to decode. Fluency and Morphological Awareness have not been given as much attention in the literature, but Morphological Awareness could be important for processing the agglutinating structure of the language in reading. This study also argues that it is not a specific awareness of derivational morphology over inflectional morphology, but rather a general awareness of one's language structure that is more important at this stage in their literacy development; specifically a general awareness of prefixes and suffixes. In addition, it was found that an explicit awareness of the morphological structure of the language related more to fluency and tests that accessed an innate and implicit Morphological Awareness had the strongest correlations overall with comprehension. The findings from this report have implications regarding how future curriculum developments for morphologically rich languages like isiXhosa should be approached. The positive and practical implications of including different types of Morphological Awareness tutoring in curricula is argued for, especially when teaching younger readers how to approach morphologically complex words in texts

Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

Iterated language learning experiments have shown that meaningful and structured signalling systems emerge when there is pressure for signals to be both learnable and expressive. Yet such experiments have mainly been conducted with adults using language-like signals. Here we explore whether structured signalling systems can also emerge when signalling domains are unfamiliar and when the learners are children with their well-attested cognitive and pragmatic limitations. In Experiment 1, we compared iterated learning of binary auditory sequences denoting small sets of meanings in chains of adults and 5-7-year old children. Signalling systems became more learnable even though iconicity and structure did not emerge despite applying a homonymy filter designed to keep the systems expressive. When the same types of signals were used in referential communication by adult and child dyads in Experiment 2, only the adults, but not the children, were able to negotiate shared iconic and structured signals. Referential communication using their native language by 4-5-year old children in Experiment 3 showed that only interaction with adults, but not with peers resulted in informative expressions. These findings suggest that emergence and transmission of communication systems is unlikely to be driven by children, and point to the importance of cognitive maturity and pragmatic expertise of learners as well as feedback-based scaffolding of communicative effectiveness by experts during language evolution