Cognitive Complexity

The study reported in this paper investigated the relationship between components of aptitude and the fluency, lexical variety, syntactic complexity, and accuracy of performance in two types of written and spoken narrative tasks. We also addressed the question of how narrative performance varies in tasks of different cognitive complexity in the written and spoken modes. Our findings indicate a complex interaction between aptitude components and task performance under different conditions. The components of aptitude that seemed to be most strongly related to the complexity and accuracy of production were inductive ability and grammatical sensitivity. The results also show that in writing the participants used more varied vocabulary than in speech, but their performance was similar in terms of syntactic complexity.

For many courses, mathematics included, there is an associated interactive e-learning system that provides assessment and tutoring. Some of these systems are classified as Intelligent Tutoring Systems. MyMathLab, Mathzone, and Assessment of LEarning in Knowledge Space (ALEKS) are just a few of the interactive e-learning systems in mathematics. In ALEKS, assessment and tutoring are based on the Knowledge Space Theory. Previous studies in a traditional learning environment have shown ALEKS users to perform equally or better in mathematics achievement than the group who did not use ALEKS. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of ALEKS on students' achievement in mathematics in an online learning environment and to determine the cognitive complexity of mathematical tasks enacted by ALEKS's initial (pretest) and final (posttest) assessments. The targeted population for this study was undergraduate students in College Mathematics I, in an online course at a pr...

This review assesses the adequacy of several commonly employed cognitive complexity measures on the basis of five criteria: high test-retest reliability with adults, association with chronological age across childhood and adolescence, independence from intelligence and verbal abilities, association with other indices of developed social cognition, and association with measures of developed communicative functioning. Extant research indicates that only one complexity measure—Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire—is satisfactory on all these criteria, whereas Bieri's widely used measure is deficient on most. However, research to date concerning the relationship of cognitive complexity (as assessed by Crockett's measure) to communication has failed to illuminate the specific role played by complexity as opposed to other social-cognitive factors with which it is associated.

The term "ochre" has many meanings: a colored stone, a pigment, sunscreen, a curiosity item, a mustard hue, or even an object used for ritual. Ochre found at archaeological sites is described as a range of earthy, ferruginous rocks with red-yellow-purple streaks. The use of ochre in the past has proven valuable for interpreting not only cognitive capabili ties of its users but also for its potential to shed light on behavioral and social factors. The late Pleistocene, and specifically the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa, is a time of significant behavioral and cognitive advances for Homo sapiens-this coincides with the habitual use of ochre. By looking at the collection and use of ochre in the African Middle Stone Age, placed within a global and temporal context, important behavioral conclusions can be made. Ochre has many potential uses, making interpretations of ochre use in the past complicated. Ethnographic and modern analogies are considered as well as the ex perimental work that has been produced by numerous researchers. All accounts have deepened our understanding of the many ways that ochre may have been used in the dis tant past. It is likely that both its color and mineralogical content dictated its use in the past.

This paper compares frequentist (maximum likelihood) and Bayesian approaches to mixed-effect logistic regression, which is a very popular tool for modelling linguistic variation. The main conceptual differences between frequentist and Bayesian inference are discussed and illustrated by a multifactorial case study of help + (to) Infinitive in U.S. magazines. The paper shows how to recycle the results of previous analyses as priors in a new Bayesian models, which helps to overcome problems with small samples.

Uncertainty is a pervasive feature of our times. In this paper I argue that an age of uncertainty is not a reason for despair, but rather an opportunity to develop and mobilize our capacities for creativity, complexity, and collaboration. Creativity because the future is not determined and has to be created. Complex thought because in an uncertain, networked world our thinking cannot be reductive and disjunctive, but must be able to address interconnectedness and uncertainty. Collaboration, because the crises facing humanity today require an awareness of our shared destiny and in a pluralistic society we need the ability to navigate creativity and complexity together.

The bone point (SAM 42160) from >60 ka deposits at Klasies River Main Site, South Africa, is reassessed. We clarify the stratigraphic integrity of SAM 42160 and confirm its Middle Stone Age provenience. We find evidence that indicates the point was hafted and partially coated in an adhesive substance. Internal fractures are consistent with stresses occasioned by high-velocity, longitudinal impact. SAM 42160, like its roughly contemporaneous counterpart, farther north at Sibudu Cave, likely functioned as a hafted arrowhead. We highlight a growing body of evidence for bow hunting at this early period and explore bow-and-arrow technology might imply about the cognition of people in the Middle Stone Age who were able to conceive, construct and use it.

During student-centered learning, the individual assumes responsibility for determining learning goals, monitoring progress toward meeting goals, adjusting or adapting approaches as warranted, and determining when individual goals have been adequately addressed. This can be particularly challenging while learning from the World-Wide Web, where billions of resources address a variety of needs. The individual must identify which tools and resources are available and appropriate, how to assemble them, and how to manage and support their unique learning goals. We analyze the applicability of cognitive principles to learning from Web-based multimedia, review and critically analyze issues related to cognition and student-centered learning from Web-based multimedia, and describe implications for design research and practice.

Enactivism as a radical conceptual shift in non-classical epistemology and in cognitive science is under consideration in the monograph. Consciousness is viewed as active and interactive, embodied and situated, its cognitive activity is carried out by in-building into a cognizing environment, i.e. by enacting a surrounding medium. Some prerequisites of emergence and development these notions are traced in studies of G. Berkeley, D. Hume, H. Bersson. The recent contributions of Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, Alva Noë in the development of enactivism are considered as well. Enactivism is treated as a new form of constructivism in epistemology. In its conceptual frames,  the mind-body problem, the problem of subject and object of cognition, the problem of connection of cognition with action can be solved in a non-traditional way. The book is addressed to specialists in epistemology and in philosophy of science as well as to all who is interested in the modern trends of development of philosophy.
В монографии рассматривается энактивизм как радикальный концептуальный поворот в неклассической эпистемологии и когнитивной науке. Сознание
представляется как активное и интерактивное, отелесненное и ситуационное, его когнитивная активность совершается посредством вдействования в окружающую и познаваемую среду, т.е. энактивирования среды. Прослеживаются историко-философские предпосылки возникновения этих представлений в учениях Дж. Беркли, Д. Юма, И. Канта, А. Бергсона, а также современный вклад в развитие энактивизма Франсиско Варелы, Эвана Томпсона, Алва Ноэ и др. Энактивизм рассматривается как новая форма конструктивизма в эпистемологии, в концептуальных рамках которого получают нетрадиционные решения проблемы сознания и тела, субъекта и объекта познания, связи познания с действием.
Книга адресована специалистам по эпистемологии и философии науки, а также всем интересующимся современными трендами развития философии.

We are building in LON-CAPA an integrated learning environment that will enable the development, dissemination and evaluation of PER-based material. This environment features a collection of multi-level research-based homework sets organized by topic and cognitive complexity. These sets are associated with learning modules that contain very short exposition of the content supplemented by integrated open-access videos, worked examples, simulations, and tutorials (some from ANDES). To assess students' performance accurately with respect to a system-wide standard, we plan to implement Item Response Theory. Together with other PER assessments and purposeful solicitation of student feedback, this will allow us to measure and improve the efficacy of various research-based materials, while getting insights into teaching and learning.

The ubiquitous role of the cyber-infrastructures, such as the WWW, provides myriad opportunities for machine learning and its broad spectrum of application domains taking advantage of digital communication. Pattern classification and feature extraction are among the first applications of machine learning that have received extensive attention. The most remarkable achievements have addressed data sets of moderate-to-large size. The 'data deluge' in the last decade or two has posed new challenges for AI researchers to design new, effective and accurate algorithms for similar tasks using ultra-massive data sets and complex (natural or synthetic) dynamical systems. We propose a novel principled approach to feature extraction in hybrid architectures comprised of humans and machines in networked communication, who collaborate to solve a pre-assigned pattern recognition (feature extraction) task. There are two practical considerations addressed below: (1) Human experts, such as pla...

Legal principles, legal values, and legal norms are essentially part of the same notion. Often in legal literature, legal principles are considered to be legal norms, general legal norms, legal values etc. In fact, legal principles are just legal norms that different from the latter are legal norms of general application that ignore specific legal facts. They can be considered as basic norms that represent the general consensus on basic society understandings. As such they are also kinds of default rules of behavior. From this perspective, the legal principles are rules of human behavior that used to be considered as just, before the law started being written. Thus, legal values would be considered a more general legal norms vis-à-vis legal principles and legal norms. Nonetheless, the coexistence of these three notions shows the complexity of their correlation and gives us an initial idea on what we will go through in out attempt to perform of comparative analysis between them. Key ...

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate the relationship between student learning and participation in Equal Opportunity Programs and Services (EOP&S) at Irvine Valley College (IVC).  An embedded survey design was developed using William Sedlacek’s non-cognitive questionnaire (NCQ), items from the Community College Survey of Engagement (CCSSE), items based on Marcia Baxter Magolda’s model of cognitive complexity, and items based on student learning outcomes for learning in EOP&S.  Students’ demographic characteristics, progress data, and grades were also collected.  The survey concluded with four open-ended questions examining students’ perceptions about their learning.  Though there were limited findings related to grades as an outcome measure, several NCQ scales were associated with the learning in EOP&S outcome measure.  Qualitative and mixed methods analyses extended statistical findings highlighting the importance of positive outlook and positive self-concept.  Finally, the study found that students’ academic and social involvement played a noteworthy role in students’ development, especially as related to cognitive complexity and learning in EOP&S.

We propose a comprehensive explanation for gender differences in responses to supportive communication grounded in a dual-process theory of communication outcomes. Two studies confirmed consistent gender differences in responses by US college students to supportive communication and assessed the mediating effects of an ability factor (cognitive complexity) and two motivational factors (expressive and instrumental orientations) on situation elaboration and message evaluation. Study 1 focused on everyday comforting contexts (N = 318), whereas Study 2 focused on bereavement (N = 103). Both studies found that cognitive complexity mediated gender differences in situation elaboration and further found that cognitive complexity and expressive orientation collectively mediated gender differences in evaluative responses to supportive messages. Theoretical and pragmatic implications of the results are discussed.

Cognitive complexity is a crucial factor in counselor efficacy, yet an empirically validated instrument that measures counselors’ cognitions about clients does not exist. Development and preliminary psychometric support for such a measure, the Counselor Cognitions Questionnaire (CCQ), are described. Evidence of validity and reliability are reported.

This exploratory study examined the use of animation as a learning tool for complex, life science content in a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences upper-division course. Sixty-three students were given CD-ROMs with six animations created in Macromedia Director® and completed on-line quizzes classified by conceptual learning goal emphasis (CLGE) from simple to complex. Percentages of correct, partially correct, and