'NO OPINION'-FILTERS: A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Research on the use of ‘no opinion’-filters suggeststhat respondents are the less likely to offer a substantiveresponse the more strongly the filter question is worded. Aseries of experiments is reported that demonstrates that filterquestions influence respondents' perception of their task: themore strongly the filter question is worded, the more respondentsassume that they will have to answer difficult questions, andthat they may not have the required knowledge. Accordingly,filter questions discourage respondents from offering globalopinions that they may hold. In line with this assumption, allrespondents who reported not having an opinion in response toa filter question, subsequently provided substantive responseson a global opinion question—presumably because the globalquestion asked was less demanding than expected on the basisof the filter. Analyses of these substantive responses indicatedthat respondents who initially reported not having an opiniondiffered from respondents who reported having one. Methodologicalimplications of these findings for the use of filter questionsand for research on the nature of ‘floating’ arediscussed.     

Classroom studies into cognitive style in mathematics for pupils with dyslexia in special education in the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK

The project reported here was designed to explore the cognitive style used by pupils with dyslexia when answering a range of mathematical questions. The research involved 132 pupils aged between 9 and 13 years, including 66 pupils in mainstream and 66 pupils in specialist schools, in three countries in Europe.
Detailed studies of the methods used by pupils attempting the given questions on a test of cognitive style suggested that they fell into two main categories. These pupils were observed when completing the test and their responses were categorised accordingly. The resulting numerical data were then analysed for differences between pupils within each country and between their non-dyslexic counterparts.
The results showed significant differences in the balance of cognitive styles employed by pupils with dyslexia as opposed to their non-dyslexic counterparts. Also there were interesting differences occurring between the pupils with dyslexia within the three countries on initial testing. Further differences were established after a six-month intervention period, suggesting that the characteristics of different curriculum models do have an impact upon pupils' flexibility as learners.     

Book reviews

Takeshita, Masataka. Ibn ^cArabi's Theory of the Perfect Man and Its Place in the History of Islamic Thought. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1987 (Studia Culturae Islamicae, 32). iii + 182 pp.

Pryor, John. H. Geography, Technology and War : Studies in the Maritime History of the Mediterranean, 649–1571. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. xvii +238pp.;£ 22.50 / US$ 39.50.

Baali, Fuad. Society, State and Urbanism : Ibn Khaldun's Sociological Thought. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988. 175 pp.; paper US$ 12.95, cloth US$ 34.50

Wilkinson, John (editor) with Hill, Joyce and Ryan, W.F., Jerusalem Pilgrimage 1099–1185. London: The Hakluyt Society,1988. xi + 372pp., 24 maps and plans; £ 16.00.

Heine, Peter. Kulinarische Studien: Vntersuchungen zur Kochkunst im arabisch‐islamischen Mittelalter. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz,1988. 137pp.; DM 68.