Scientists are not deficient in mental imagery: Galton revised.

In 1880, Galton carried out an investigation of imagery in a sample of distinguished men and a sample of nonscientists (adolescent male students). He concluded that scientists were either totally lacking in visual imagery or had "feeble" powers of mental imagery. This finding has been widely accepted in the secondary literature in psychology. A replication of Galton's study with modern scientists and modern university undergraduates found no scientists totally lacking in visual imagery and very few with feeble visual imagery. Examination of Galton's published data shows that his own published data do not support his claims about deficient visual imagery in scientists. The modern data for scientists and nonscientists and the 1880 data for scientists and nonscientists are in agreement in showing that all groups report substantial imagery on recollective memory tasks such as Galton's breakfast questionnaire. We conclude that Galton's conclusions were an example of theory-laden interpretation of data based on the initial responses from several very salient scientists who reported little or no visual imagery on Galton's imagery questionnaire. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Epistemological beliefs' contributions to study strategies of Asian Americans and European Americans.

Given the increasingly culturally diverse composition of students in American classrooms, understanding the nature of cultural differences is necessary to generate effective instructional interventions. This study examines the individual differences in epistemological beliefs, ways of knowing, study strategies, and academic performance among different cultural groups. These cultural groups include European Americans (Americans of European ancestry) and first and successive generations of Asian Americans. College junior and senior business majors completed instruments assessing epistemological beliefs, ways of knowing, and study strategies. Multivariate analyses of variances revealed significant differences among cultural groups in 5 study strategies (low anxiety, selecting main ideas, testing strategies, high motivation, and information processing), course grades, and reading comprehension. Regression analyses revealed that beliefs about learning speed, knowledge construction, characteristics of successful students, and separate knowing contributed to cultural differences. This study highlights the need to avoid strong stereotyping and to consider individual differences in the classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)