Background: Understanding the different factors that determine vocabulary development in young children is essential for the diagnosis and rehabilitation of language disorders in children. Language development is closely related to other cognitive processes such as auditory verbal learning and memory. This research focuses on the development of a…

The present study examined the verbal learning performance and the semantic organization used by Greek reading-disabled readers as compared to a control group using a list-learning task. The sample consisted of 45 elementary school children with reading difficulties and 45 comparison children matched for age and gender. Tests of reading ability,…

There is reliable evidence that new vocabulary is primarily acquired through wide independent reading. However, struggling readers tend to avoid reading, resulting in limited word encounters and inadequate vocabulary growth, and they often have difficulties inferring the meanings of new words from context. While there are no clear solutions to the…

Some patients considered for left temporal lobectomy for epilepsy present with normal verbal learning and no MRI evidence of hippocampal pathology. In order to preserve learning function, the surgical approach in these cases often aims at sparing the hippocampus. Parahippocampal structures, including the left perirhinal region, however, also…

The article offers teachers suggestions on ways to instruct elementary students in the vocabulary of mathematics. It gives examples of math difficulties at the elementary school level, math difficulties related to vocabulary, and math difficulties related to problem solving. (DB)

Gifted students with spatial strengths are often overlooked and underserved in American schools. These students have remarkable areas of talent but often have verbal learning difficulties that prevent them from being identified for gifted services. This article focuses on definitions of spatial ability, characteristics of these learners, possible…

Subjects learned one, two, or three verbal lists simultaneously. Recall of the common list after 24 hours increased directly as the number of lists learned simultaneously increased. Assuming that simultaneous learning reduced interference, the interference was from extraexperimental sources of a proactive nature. (Author/CP)

The effects of semantic (S), orthographic (O), and unrelated (U) verbal stimuli on word retrieval were examined. S stimuli inhibited locating items within categories, whereas U stimuli inhibited locating the appropriate category. The discrepancy between the present outcome and the previous finding of S prime retrieval facilitation is discussed.…

The fan effect (the difficulty in retrieving any one fact after learning many about a concept) occurs only when the facts with repeated concepts are stored as independent episodes. It tells us nothing about the code formed by a pattern of interconnected concepts. (Author/CP)