Providing a comprehensive survey of cutting-edge work on second language learning, this "Handbook," written by a team of leading experts, surveys the nature of second language learning and its implications for teaching. Prominent theories and methods from linguistics, psycholinguistics, processing-based, and cognitive approaches are…

Executive function (EF) skills are the attention-regulation skills that make it possible to sustain attention, keep goals and information in mind, refrain from responding immediately, resist distraction, tolerate frustration, consider the consequences of different behaviors, reflect on past experiences, and plan for the future. As EF research…

Challenges the notion that long-term memory retrieval efficiency is a potential source of individual and developmental differences in cognitive functioning. Fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and college-aged subjects participated in a task using the Posner letter matching paradigm and were assessed with tests of verbal and spatial ability. (Author/CB)

Research has suggested that memory performance may be related to the extent of stimulus processing during acquisition. To examine processing efficiency and processing deficiency differences between younger and older adults, four studies were conducted. In the first study, young and old adults rated word lists, manipulated for generation specific…

The focus of research on cognitive processes has shifted toward an examination of the relationship between memory and interindividual differences of personality. A review of the research on two such personality traits (i.e., locus of control and field dependence-independence) shows that studies of locus of control as a factor in learning and…

Although research in episodic recall memory, comparing younger and older adults, favors the younger adults, findings in semantic memory research are less consistent. To examine age differences in semantic and episodic memory recall, 72 young adults (mean age, 20.8) and 72 older adults (mean age 71) completed three memory tests under varied…

Evaluates preschoolers' ability to distinguish left-right mirror-images of objects on a memory task and ability to name rows of objects on a page in a consistent lateral direction. Abilities were assessed first without specific instructions on the relevance of left-right information and then with instructions. (Author/AS)

An overview of theory and research in memory as it relates to developmental differences is offered in this paper, which is intended to provide background information for the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project (a multi-level series of video and print resources for classroom use). A model for viewing information processing…

Because visual short-term memory deficits are common in children with reading problems, a series of experiments were reviewed which examined the role of phonological processes in short-term memory. Results suggest that both developmental and individual differences in verbal memory span are related to efficient phonological processes. (Author/DB)

Points out that the world of television activates, cultivates, and alters the gender schemata that children bring to the viewing situation. Finds that viewing can also promote creation of new schemata or modification of existing ones. (Author/RWB)