Human conditioning research shows that learning is closely related to consciously available contingency knowledge, requires attentional resources, and is influenced by language. This research suggests a cognitive model in which extinction consists of changes in contingency beliefs in long-term memory. Laboratory and clinical evidence on extinction…

It is not known why people move their eyes when engaged in non-visual cognition. The current study tested the hypothesis that differences in saccadic eye movement rate (EMR) during non-visual cognitive tasks reflect different requirements for searching long-term memory. Participants performed non-visual tasks requiring relatively low or high…

Cognitive triage is the nonmonotonic relationship between the order in which children read words out of long-term memory and the strength of the memory of the words read. Two experiments with 7 and 12 year olds compared the fuzzy-trace theory with an effortful processing explanation. Findings consistently favored the fuzzy-trace theory's…

In 3 experiments motivated by the implicit memory literature, the authors investigated the effects of different strengthening operations on the list strength effect (LSE) for explicit free recall, an effect posited by R. M. Shiffrin, R. Ratcliff, and S. E. Clark (1990) to be due to context cuing. According to the one-shot hypothesis, a fixed…

Six experiments examined the proposal that an item of long-term knowledge can be simultaneously inhibited and activated. In 2 directed forgetting experiments items to-be-forgotten were found to be inhibited in list-cued recall but activated in lexical decision tasks. In 3 retrieval practice experiments, unpracticed items from practiced categories…

Tested the hypothesis that fourth-graders have a greater tendency than first-graders to represent transformations as ordered series of beginning, middle, and end states. Predominantly constructed states of fourth-graders were components of continuous movements or transformations, whereas those of first-graders related to the experimenters' on the…

Outlines a proposed model for understanding the human information processing system, which is conceptualized in terms of three interrelated major elements--executive, working, and long-term memory--with emphasis on the structure of long-term memory. Thirty-one references are listed. (MBR)

The present study was designed to determine whether a reactivation procedure (consisting of the experimenter's manipulation of a previously experienced overhead crib mobile) would alleviate infant's poor retention after a 14-day interval. It is concluded that forgetting by young infants may result from failures in retrieval, and not failures in…

Explored whether developmental changes in the structure and coherence of preschoolers' personal narratives might provide some clues about childhood amnesia. Suggests that while children's narratives become more elaborate, more detailed, and more complex over the preschool years, children's recall of the same events over time is remarkably stable,…

New research findings on memory and learning systems have implications for continuing medical education in terms of format and length of learning activities, age of learners, and psychological factors such as stress and mental fatigue. (SK)

Research evidence indicates that self-report imagery ability is psychometrically distinct from objective, spatial test measures. One hypothesis put forward in the literature to explain this finding is that the nature of the stimulus is important. The aim of this article was to examine the relation between spatial abilities and measures of visual…

Retrieving the answer to a general knowledge question has been shown to involve two metacognitive processes--a feeling-of-knowing that initiates the search of long-term memory and a willingness to continue searching until an answer can be confidently stated. To extend this model, college students were asked to retrieve as many members of 2 natural…

This study examined the effects of familiarity of passage concepts and passage cohesion on retrieval of text information. Results showed that recall of propositions from passages with more familiar concepts was greater. Results indicate that familiarity stimulates elaboration of passage material and elaborations provide alternate retrieval…

Investigates adults' long-term memory of mathematics learned in high school. Reports findings regarding the subjects' attempts to draw graphs of simple linear functions. Categorizes diverse responses to the task of drawing a graph of a linear function. Analyzes in detail three cases based on recall theories that explain the mechanism of recalling…

Explored preschoolers' eyewitness testimony under conditions designed to maximize or degrade the quality of their event reports. Found that 3- to 4-year olds were highly accurate when questioned nonsuggestively about an engaging experience after a short delay, and could provide substantial information when prompted. However, they made many…