Many aspects of cognition decline from middle to late adulthood, but the dimensionality and generality of this decline have rarely been examined. We analyzed 20-year longitudinal data of 6203 middle-aged to very old adults from Greater Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. Participants were assessed up to eight times on 20 tasks of fluid…

Retarded subjects were compared with mental- and chronological-age matched controls on serial short-term memory (STM) tasks. Retarded subjects were inferior to the control groups on both primacy and recency items, under two recall conditions. These data are discussed in relation to possible mechanisms underlying IQ-related individual differences…

Three studies of college students found a sex difference in the correlation of memory scanning rate, short- and long-term components of free recall, and word recognition with memory span. Findings are discussed in terms of prior work and a theory presented to account for the obtained sex differences. (Author/RD)

The hypothesis that a task that increases in complexity (increasing its correlation with a central measure of intelligence) does so by increasing its dimensionality by tapping individual differences or another variable was supported by findings from 46 adults aged 20-70 years performing a mental counting task. (SLD)

Two experiments examined whether correlations between IQ and probed serial running memory depend on IQ-related individual differences in the retention of order information in short-term memory. Children's IQ correlated with memory, regardless of whether instructions emphasized serial or free recall; and with recent item but not recent order…

Tested whether tonic EEG power is related to memory performance by analyzing ongoing EEG for 60 subjects in 5 experimental conditions. Subjects with good memory performance had significantly larger upper alpha power, but less theta and lower alpha power. Also discusses findings for subjects good at calculation. (SLD)

Asian-American, White, and Black Children in grades 2-6 were tested for intelligence, achievement, and short-term memory. Factor analysis yielded two main factors: memory and general intelligence. The three groups differed distinctly at every grade level. Achievement correlated more with memory than with general intelligence. (Author/CP)

To study age-related improvements in information processing, a release from proactive interference (PI) procedure was used with 144 children in conjunction with a running memory task. For class of item and acoustic similarity, evidence was found for PI release with age, but there was no evidence of a relationship between short-term memory (STM)…

Current studies of cognition emphasize the contrast between two approaches to analysis of individual differences. It is concluded that the cognitive components approach incorporates the cognitive correlates approach, avoids the inadequacy of correlational methods, and models individual differences on various dimensions of cognitive functioning.…

The relationship between reasoning ability, as indicated by performance on conventional reasoning tests, and working memory capacity was investigated in 4 studies involving 723, 412, 414, and 595 military recruits, respectively. The results demonstrate a consistently high correlation between general reasoning ability and general working-memory…

A reevaluation of a number of experiments suggests that normal and retarded persons differ on short-term memory tasks from the time of initial stimulus exposure. The hypothesis that memory differences are due to differential encoding as a result of more adequate rehearsal by the normal subjects is unacceptable. (Author/BW)

Memory-based searching was compared in 15 developmentally delayed and 24 normal two-year-olds. In a relatively easy memory task, individual differences were minimal, but searching for a plausible alternative location based on memory revealed marked individual differences and an important difference in the cognitive functioning of the delayed…

Individual differences in procedural and declarative learning of a sequence-learning task by 455 adolescents were measured and compared to one another and to scores on a performance battery. A framework is proposed to explain the results based on a combination of approaches to explain dissociations found in memory. (SLD)

A case is made for the construction of nomothetic theories that can also explain individual differences. The discussion uses examples from the memory area and presents an approach to memory that explains individual findings and individual differences in the context of a single model. (SLD)

Discusses work by Arthur Jensen in addition to his well-known work on the genetics of intelligence. Includes studies of learning, memory, the cumulative-deficit hypothesis, Spearman's hypothesis, and the speed of information processing. (SLD)