The present study examined the impact of divided attention on children's and adults' neutral and negative true and false memories in a standard Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Children (7- and 11-year-olds; n = 126) and adults (n = 52) received 5 neutral and 5 negative Deese/Roediger-McDermott word lists; half of each group also received a…

Although phonological representations have been a primary focus of verbal working memory research, lexical-semantic manipulations also influence performance. In the present study, the authors investigated whether a classic phenomenon in verbal working memory, the phonological similarity effect (PSE), is modulated by a lexical-semantic variable,…

The extent to which an orienting activity exerts control over the encoding process was studied. Two experiments were reported in which associative meaningfulness was varied under conditions of semantic and nonsemantic processing. Both experiments showed effects of meaningfulness following both semantic and nonsemantic tasks. (Author/MH)

Relationships between verbal ability, semantic category clustering, and speed of retrieval were studied. Lists of 30 words were presented individually to subjects with high- and low-verbal ability under free recall, delayed free recall, and clustering recall conditions. In the first stage of recall, high verbals displayed a significantly higher…

Two experiments with 188 college students investigated the facilitative effect of typographical signals such as underlining, headings, or other devices to help readers identify specific points. Results do not support a general facilitative effect of typographical signals but suggest that use of signals depends on the reader's strategic processing.…

Focusing on the sequence of cognitive processes of spellers of varying ability, a study evaluated the effectiveness a teaching package that adapts Robert Dilt's spelling strategy to the college classroom. Subjects, 25 students from an introductory level psychology class, were divided into three groups, each of which participated in two one-hour…

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)

Free-recall memory performance of and spontaneous strategy use by 227 field-dependent and field-independent undergraduates were investigated by means of memorized word lists that were high or low in inherent organization and when cognitive strategy instruction was provided or withheld. Results are consistent with current views of field-dependence…

Research has suggested that behavioral differences may account for the effects of caffeine on information processing. To investigate the effects of caffeine on memory for supraspan word lists, 107 college students (47 males, 60 females), divided into 12 groups by high and low impulsivity scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory, participated in…

Short-term recall of printed English words by deaf signers of American Sign Language was found to be less than that of hearing subjects when ordered recall, but not when free recall, was required. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that a speech-based code facilitates retention of order information. (Author/RD)

Gender schema theory proposes that sex typing derives from gender-based schematic processing, particularly from the self-concept itself being assimilated to the gender schema. In two studies sex-typed individuals were found to have a greater readiness to process information (including information about the self) in terms of the gender schema.…

Synonyms within languages were compared with exact repetition of words as aids to recall. Interlingual synonyms had effects identical to those of exact repetition, whereas intralingual synonyms were less effective than exact repetition. Bilingual equivalence of words does not appear to be due to common underlying semantic structures. (Author/RD)

The effect of the sensory discriminability of targets from nontargets on depth of nontarget processing was examined. Depth of nontarget processing was measured by semantic overlap between targets and nontargets, reaction time, and nontarget recall. Depth of processing decreased as sensory discriminability increased, supporting multiple-loci…

Performance on a battery of tests of vocabulary words by 72 college students was compared as a function of whether the prior instruction involved presenting material in an organized or scrambled fashion. Organizing vocabulary words during study facilitated performance in categorizing, processing for understanding, or producing a word. (SLD)

Nouns were presented in triads as pictures, printed words, or spoken words and followed by various types of interference. Measures of short- and long-term memory were obtained. In short-term memory, pictorial superiority occurred with acoustic, and visual and acoustic, but not visual interference. Long-term memory showed superior recall for…