Assesses the validity of a 20-item scale that purportedly measures long term memory records--in this case, frightening mass media. Evidence for validity emerged in that subjects' scale scores were related to negative emotion, negative cognitions, and skin conductance during film clips of scary movies. (NKA)

Argues that the construction of new utterances formulated by speakers of English as a foreign language is the result of the cognitive process linking up old form (memory) with new form (intent). A model sentence is learned through a process of morphological and syntactical interference and eventually becomes, due to creative re-ordering, a new…

Without opportunities to acquire multiple forms of literacy, children will be handicapped in their ability to participate in the legacies of their culture. The forms in which thinking occurs should not be subjected to the status differences and inequities of society. (MLW)

Investigates ability of nine-month-old infants to imitate simple actions with novel objects. Looks at both immediate and deferred imitation. Findings show that imitation in early infancy can span wide enough delays to be of potential service in social development. (Author/RWB)

The structure of cognitive abilities was examined through tests administered to 81 prelingually deaf Yougoslavian children (ages seven to eight). Results suggested the existence of two levels of cognitive organization: (1) automatic (involving highly integrated perceptual skills and short-term memory); and (2) representational (involving symbols…

Major research findings relevant to use of the Wechsler Digit Span subtest in psychoeducational assessment are summarized. The cognitive processes and behavioral characteristics which determine performance on Digit Span are related to complex abilities. Recommendations and implications for research and assessment practice are presented.…

Provides evidence for the utility of schema-based frameworks which assume that schemas and scripts organize information, aid in comprehension, and guide information retrieval. (FL)

Reports the use of a memory load-interference paradigm and the easy-to-hard paradigm as converging operations to study capacity limitations in five- to six-year-old's reasoning. Concludes that transitive inference ability in children is capacity limited. (HOD)

Results revealed that arithmetic-disabled and spelling/arithmetic-disabled children had significantly lower storage and retrieval scores on a nonverbal task but did not differ on a verbal task; reading/spelling-disabled children differed only on retrieval scores from verbal task; and the reading/spelling/arithmetic-disabled children differed only…

In three experiments, differences between good and poor writers were examined on six cognitive-processing tasks: ordered letters, ironic memory, letter reordering, word reordering, sentence reordering, and paragraph assembly. Both college and high school students were studied. Significant differences were found in abilities to hold and…

Three experiments exploring the relationship of cognitive effort to the differences in word recall between skilled and learning disabled readers are described. Results suggest the amount of cognitive effort that can be effectively expended to produce a distinctive memory trace is related to individual differences in attentional capacity.…

The first experiment made use of adjunct questions to manipulate the probability that kindergarten and second-grade children would make inferences during comprehension. The second investigated the relative influence of memory for details, memory for explicit information, and age on memory for inferences. (Author/RH)

Explores the use of introspective writing by others as a means of understanding two characteristics of intrapersonal communication: the process of selective memory which defines and redefines personal history and the pattern of habitual thinking which confirms self-identity. Recommends the classroom use of memoirs and journals. (PD)

Discusses learning behaviors where the "picture superiority effect" (PSE) seems to be most effective in biology education. Also considers research methodology and suggests a new research model which allows a more direct examination of the strategies learners use when matching up picture and text in efforts to "understand"…

The question of how children represent and use comparative or partially ordered information is examined. Two experiments tested a conjecture that a common representation, a linear order, underlies the processing of all comparatives. (Author/MS)