P. Lewicki and others (1988) suggested that subjects unconsciously abstract tacit knowledge about a complex pattern of events in a situation that departs from the artificial grammar learning pattern. The present experiment with 40 third year university students offers an alternative framework that does not assume unconscious rule abstraction. (SLD)

In four experiments, college students were presented with lists of either Armenian or English letters on a tachistoscope. The data indicate that extensive practice may be a necessary condition for capacity-free processing but may not be a necessary condition for involuntary processing. (Author/RD)

Four possible mechanisms for short-term item recognition are distinguished. Manipulations of recency, particularly of negative probe items, provide critical tests. Two experiments were conducted using Sternberg's varied-set reaction time paradigm, coupled with procedures intended to minimize rehearsal and control the recency of probes and memory…

Three experiments examined whether the phenomena of visual search for single characters (Sternberg, 1966) generalizes to word and word-category search when target and distractor sets had varied and consistent mappings across trials. Previous results were replicated. Four principles of search are discussed within a theory of automatic/control…

Reber found that subjects given neutral instructions to memorize letter strings from a synthetic language learned more about the underlying grammar than those instructed to try discovering the rules for letter order. Two experiments explored the relationship between implicit and explicit processes in the acquisition of complex knowledge.…

This examination of retrieval interference in memory theories argues that relevant world knowledge can reduce interference by integrating factors learned about a concept. Three recognition experiments were conducted and two hypotheses were considered to account for the results: human associative memory and script analysis. (Author/RD)

Text information relevant to questions was learned better than text information irrelevant to questions. Results are predicted by a theory that readers selectively allocate a greater volume of attention to question-relevant information, and that a process supported by the additional attention causes more of the information to be learned.…

Four experiments investigated the attentional requirements of learning as assessed by a serial reaction time task. The effects of a dual-task condition, plus the responses of memory disorder patients, were also investigated. The relationship between learning and awareness, preserved learning in amnesia, and the separateness of memory systems are…

Three experiments explored the effect of affectively congruent or incongruent primes on evaluation responses to positive or negative valenced targets (the "affective priming" effect). Experiment 1 replicated the basic affective priming effect with Spanish nouns: reaction time for evaluative responses (pleasant/unpleasant) were slower on…

The question of whether performance measures may be more accurate than examination methods to assess an individual's abilities and knowledge is examined, based on a literature review. An information processing view that focuses on the internal activities of thinking and the relationship to external stimuli is considered. Information processing…

Describes study of undergraduates that measured the effect of audiovisual channel correspondence during television news programs on attention and memory. Learning variables in multimedia presentations are discussed, reaction time with visual and auditory probes is examined, factual memory and visual memory tests are described, and implications for…

This study demonstrated an aptitude-strategy interaction in linear syllogistic reasoning; specifically, that the efficiency of each of four alternative strategies for solving linear syllogisms would depend on subjects' verbal and spatial abilities. The four strategies, as well as research methods in aptitude-treatment interaction, are discussed.…