We examined whether 2 types of interpolated tasks (i.e., retrieval-practice via free recall or guessing a missing critical item) improved final recognition for related and unrelated word lists relative to restudying or completing a filler task. Both retrieval-practice and guessing tasks improved correct recognition relative to restudy and filler…

A fundamental property of human memory is that repetition enhances memory. Peterson and Mulligan (2012) recently documented a surprising "negative repetition effect," in which participants who studied a list of cue-target pairs twice recalled fewer targets than a group who studied the pairs only once. Words within a pair rhymed, and…

Despite the clear long-term benefits of spaced practice, students and teachers often choose massed practice. Whether learners actually fail to appreciate the benefits of spacing is, however, open to question. Early studies (e.g., Zechmeister & Shaughnessy, 1980) found that participants' judgments of learning were higher after massed than after…

Two experiments on how symmetrical difficulty factors (word familiarity and concreteness) affect stages of associative learning are reported. Learning parameters reacted in a qualitatively similar manner to stimulus and response manipulations. Paired associate items are represented in memory as unitary traces rather than as separate stimulus and…

Mild memory impairment was detected in 28% of a sample of healthy community-dwelling older adults using the delayed recall trial of a word list learning task. Statistical analysis revealed that individuals with memory impairment also demonstrated relative deficits on other measures of memory, and tests of executive function, processing speed and…

Reported an experiment on the effects of taxonomic organization on 7- and 11-year-olds' free and cued recall of two- and four-category lists. Analysis used a stages-of-learning model that simultaneously delivered estimates of the impact of these manipulations on storage and retrieval components of recall. (Author/CB)

Seventy-nine first-year and 85 third-year students were tested on the meanings of French words from vocabulary lists. Twenty percent were then taught memory-improvement strategies, 20 percent were taught strategies and given guided practice, and 20 percent learned the lists without aids. The strategies significantly improved the performance of…

The concepts in a hierarchically structured list consisting of 24 number-word pairs were aligned systematically with position and numbers, or with the number stimuli only. Some lists involved an alignment appropriate to only the lowest conceptual level. Other lists were completely unstructured when viewed in terms of either position or number. The…

In simultaneous learning two verbal lists are interlaced for study, with each tested separately. In the present experiments simultaneous learning was used as a means of determining the conditions under which study time or learning resources might be reallocated between lists. One of the lists was called the standard list and remained constant…

Second-graders, fifth-graders, and adults participated in an experiment of cued recall for cue-target picture and word pairs. Results suggested that differences in the encoding of both specific and categorical attribute information contribute to developmental recall differences independently of encoding intent and stimulus modality. (Author/CB)

It was hypothesized that freedom to choose words to be learned, but not the actual choice of words per se, improves performance in paired-associate tasks. Subjects offered an attractive or meaningful choice performed significantly better than subjects offered an unattractive choice, which was equivalent to no choice at all. (Author/CP)

Six experiments were intended to characterize more completely a phenomenon found when lists were first learned in isolation and then placed together for simultaneous learning. The subjects learned three lists, each list clearly distinguishable from the other. One of the lists was recalled, another was tested for frequency information, and the…

Three studies were performed to investigate the effects of training versus instructions in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use one or more strategies. The amount and type of training differed for each of the experimental groups. Strategies taught included the method of loci,…