This article provides one example of a method of analyzing qualitative data in an objective and quantifiable way. Although the application of the method is illustrated in the context of verbal data such as explanations, interviews, problem-solving protocols, and retrospective reports, in principle, the mechanics of the method can be adapted for coding other types of qualitative data such as gestures and videotapes. The mechanics of the method we outlined in 8 concrete step. Although verbal analyses can be used for many purposes, the main goal of the analyses discussed here is to formulate an understanding of the representation of the knowledge used in cognitive performances and how that representation changes with learning This can be contrasted with another method or analyzing verbal protocols, the goal of which is to validate the cognitive processes of human performance, often as embodied in a computational model

As we seek both to improve public school education in high technology areas and to link libraries and classrooms on the “information superhighway, ” we need to understand more about children’s information searching abilities. We present results of four experiments conducted on four ver-sions of the Science Library Catalog (SLC), a Dewey deci-mal-based hierarchical browsing system implemented in HyperCard without a keyboard. The experiments were conducted over a 3-year period at three sites, with four da-tabases, and with comparisons to two different keyword online catalogs. Subjects were ethnically and culturally di-verse children aged 9 through 12; with 32 to 34 children participating in each experiment. Children were provided explicit instruction and reference materials for the key-word systems but not for the SLC. The number of search topics matched was comparable across all systems and all experiments; search times were comparable, though they varied among the four SLC versions and between the two

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In this article we describe and analyze the evaluation of the Conceptual Helper, an intelligent tutoring system that uses a unique cognitive approach to teaching qualitative physics. The results of the evaluation are encouraging and suggest that the proposed methodology can be effective in performing its task.

It is often asserted that young children’s word learning is guided by constraints or internal biases. Constraints are broadly described as ‘‘any factor that favors some possibilities over others’ ’ (Medin et al., 1990). Researchers have argued that specialized lexical constraints cause children to make some inferences about word meanings before others. An analysis shows that the concept constraint is not informative because it does not differentiate a circumscribed set of word learning behaviors. Defining constraints as innate and domain-specific does not remedy this problem. We cannot separate the effects of so-called constraints or biases from a wide range of cognitive and contextual influences on children’s inferences about novel word meanings. This conclusion is supported by a selective review of these influences. The summary highlights our need for an explanatory framework that is sufficiently rich to capture the flexibility and diversity of children’s word learning. The core of such a framework is summarized as a set of general characteristics of human word learning. These characteristics must serve as a starting point for any viable theory of word learning. Prescriptions for future development of a viable framework are suggested. © 2000 Academic Press Word learning 1 is a complex and intractable problem for which researchers have offered a seemingly simple and powerful solution. The problem is that preschoolers ’ prolific acquisition of new words (averaging a half dozen per day; Carey, 1978) seems impossible given the radical indeterminacy of word meanings. A novel word has an indefinite number of possible meanings, and it is unlikely that children regularly receive information that unambiguously specifies a single meaning. Yet children often infer new words ’ correct or Preparation of the manuscript was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spencer

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This report reviews empirical studies of long-term retention and attempts to assess generalizable characteristics of performance as a function of the length of the retention intervals. First the results from laboratory studies of retention for lists of nonsense syllables and meaningful texts are discussed and a framework for methodological issues and critical procedural variables are proposed.

Acknowledgements: We would like to extend our thanks to the staff of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, especially Diane Gryzbek and Patrick McShea for welcoming us into the museum and providing access to information and resources related to this project. In addition, we would like to thank our colleagues Chris Schunn, Debbie Bernstein, and Mark McGregor for contributing to the intellectual development of this project. This research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Studying Dinosaur Learning on an Island of Expertise In this chapter we will describe some preliminary findings about the ways that islands of expertise influence family visits to a museum. We will briefly outline some of the key theoretical motivations for this work as well as some of the specific challenges associated with conducting research in museum settings. Video recording family interactions provides researchers with unique access to the kinds of experiences that collectively shape the everyday cognitive ecology of childhood. Through a selected set of example transcripts, we will illustrate how video allows us to capture the rich character and texture of parent-child communication and begin to understand the ways that it shapes informal learning. Children’s experience of the world around them is often filtered through a lens of curiosity and

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In psychological testing, the majority of psychodiagnostic approaches are strictly psychometric. These approaches have been criticized because of their lack of theoretical grounding in cognitive science and their limited use for decision making. Nichols, Chipman, and Brennan (1995) introduced a cognitive science approach that provides a theoretical basis for the development of methods for cognitively diagnostic assessment. The approach has drawn attention to the relevance of individual knowledge representations and to the assessment of qualitative verbal data as a basis for diagnosing declarative knowledge of an individual about aspects of his or her mental state, for example, structures of knowledge that refer to a particular subject matter to be learned, aspects of individual mental disorders, or personality features. According to this approach the focus is on what rather than how much a person knows. The present paper proposes both a theoretical framework and a methodology for assessing qualitative aspects of knowledge based on verbal data. It is applicable to psychodiagnosis in general but we focus specifically on