Leadership observation is a technique that relies on active and inactive recall to enhance learning through connecting theoretic concepts to real-world examples. This article makes the case that leadership observation should be thoughtfully used as a pedagogical tool to aid in students' leadership learning. Knowledge will be shared through…

Self-generated information is better recognized and recalled than read information. This so-called generation effect has been replicated several times for different types of stimulus material, different generation tasks, and retention intervals. The present study investigated the impact of individual differences in learners' disposition to engage…

The episodic context account of retrieval-based learning proposes that retrieval enhances subsequent retention because people must think back to and reinstate a prior learning context. Three experiments directly tested this central assumption of the context account. Subjects studied word lists and then either restudied the words under intentional…

Intentional forgetting of previously learned information is an adaptive cognitive capability of humans but its cognitive underpinnings are not yet well understood. It has been argued that it strongly depends on the presentation method whether forgetting instructions alter storage or retrieval stages (Basden, Basden, & Gargano, 1993). In…

Research from the adaptive memory framework shows that thinking about words in terms of their survival value in an incidental learning task enhances their free recall relative to other semantic encoding strategies and intentional learning (Nairne, Pandeirada, & Thompson, 2008). We found similar results. When participants used incidental…

This study examined effects of synonym generation on second language (L2) vocabulary learning during reading in both incidental and intentional vocabulary learning contexts. Spanish-speaking adult learners of L2 English (N = 114) at low- and high-intermediate proficiency levels read an English passage containing 10 target words translated in the…

This study was designed to identify strategies used during intentional vocabulary learning and to assess the relationship between strategy use and vocabulary learning performance. English-speaking students of Spanish studied new Spanish words while viewing word-picture pairs. The participants then completed posttests and answered questions about…

When students ask for a study advice, many professors would say something like this: "Read carefully. Write down unfamiliar terms and look up their meanings. Make an outline. Reread each chapter." That's not terrible advice. Some scientists would say that professors left out the most important step: "Put the book aside and hide the notes. Then…

This study found that 3-year-olds instructed to remember a particular location in a memory task engaged in deliberate behaviors which were positively related to later recall. This was not true for 3-year-olds instructed only to wait or for 2-year-olds in either instructional condition. (JMB)

Preschoolers' recall and clustering of organized lists of pictures were examined either under deliberate instructions to remember or in incidental learning situations. It was concluded that the activity of the children determines depth of processing and subsequent retention, not the intent to remember. (JMB)

Differences in recall and number of trials to criterion between incidental learning groups and control groups of undergraduate students when memorizing CVC trigrams of high or low intralist similarity were investigated in this study. Results indicate that incidental learning did occur and suggest that incidental learning facilitates intentional…

Contrasts sequential and relational processing manipulations of passages with manipulations which focus on individual lexical items and the propositions in which they are embedded. Finds recall to be superior when readers use sequential and relational processing during performance of individual item-specific lexical processing. (RS)

Tested the hypothesis that focusing on details of studying (a low-action identity) would enhance performance and persistence. Data for 35 Belgian college students supported this hypothesis for academic nonprocrastinators, but for procrastinators, a low identity was found to enhance only task persistence and performance on a creative response…

Recall of the spatial location of objects in four object arrays was studied with subjects ranging in age between 5 and 23 years. Using pictorial materials, the procedure focused on the variation with age of conditions which affect recall of the objects and their location. (GO)

Adults in their twenties and sixties were tested for free recall, cued recall, and recognition of words that they had studied in an intentional memory task or generated associations to in an incidental orienting task. Significant age-related declines in performance on intentional items were observed regardless of type of memory test. (Author)