Four experiments examined the "distinctiveness of encoding" hypothesis with respect to recall of text materials. Specifically, they investigated: (1) recall of distinctively versus nondistinctively encoded material; (2) readers' interactions with the semantic base of the text; (3) encoding and recall of semantic content; and (4) the role…

The storage and retrieval of individual sentences occuring in small sets was substantially enhanced when the sentences were nominally linked by common concepts and when the learner was encouraged to process them semantically. Sentence recall was also positively increased when the learner perceived them to be in a meaningful order. (RC)

Methods of mapping cognitive structure were compared. Free and controlled word association tests and a tree-construction test were administered to graduate students. Very similar patterns of relations among words and graphic representations of these structures were produced. No agreement among the individual measures of concept interconnectedness…

An account was tested of the development of the interplay between automatic processes and cognitive resources in reading. According to compensatory-encoding theory, with advancing skill, readers increasingly keep automatic processes from faltering and provide timely, accurate data to working memory by pausing, looking back, rereading, and…

Correlations between phonological, orthographic, semantic, metacognitive, and working memory measures were studied for 40 learning-disabled students and 40 skilled readers ages 8 to 12. Results suggest that the cognitive processes that contribute to reading deficits are best understood in the context of their combination with other operations.…

An information processing model was fitted to individual learning of paired associates and word definitions for 378 fifth to tenth-grade students. Reliable individual differences in acquisition rate and long-term retention were found. Correlations with traditional aptitude and achievement scores were discussed; no significant sex or ethnic group…

This study identified cognitive processes that underlie individual differences in working memory (WM) and mathematical problem-solution accuracy in elementary school children at risk and not at risk for serious math difficulties (SMD). A battery of tests was administered that assessed problem solving, achievement, and cognitive processing in…

Stories were constructed in which minor variations in content influenced the relationship existing between statements. The stories had four episodes, which were either logically related or independent. First and third graders could more accurately recall the structure of the logically organized episodes than that of the temporally listed episodes.…