The uniform principle assuming that comprehension precedes production in language acquisition was examined using Down's Syndrome children taught to comprehend singular/plural nouns and produce such forms for another noun. Three subjects reached criterion production first and one reached comprehension first, suggesting the modes can develop…

Spaced presentations of 12- and 15-word lists were better recalled when no task or an easy task intervened between presentations. Results indicate a lack of generality in Bjork and Allen's 1970 findings and a need for a two-factor theory of the spacing effect, and are evidence for a spacing effect. (CHK)

Evidence supports the hypothesis that visual word recognition may involve recoding into phonemic form. Less pronounceable nonsense words are recognized as nonsense faster than those more pronounceable. Differences in pronounceability may produce their effects during sequencing of neural instructions of each phoneme. (CHK)

Experiments explored the hypothesis that immediate memory span varies with length of recalled words. Relationships between memory and word length, temporal duration, reading speed and visual and auditory presentation were investigated. Results are interpreted in terms of a phonemically-based store of limited temporal capacity with varied…

In two experiments using the Brown-Peterson memory paradigm, instructions to guess had small effects on recall, but sizeable effects on incidence of prior list intrustion. However, results indicate that proactive interference is primarily the result of inability to generate correct items, rather than confusion between present and previous items.…

This contradicts N. F. Johnson's arguments that word perception does not follow letter perception and that letter analysis awaits identification of the word as a unit. His experiments lack controls, and uncontrolled factors may contribute to his effects. Johnson's implications for prior-letter-processing models are contradicted. (CHK)

Three experiments are reported regarding reaction time. Letter comparison time was found to increase when other irrelevant letters were present, regardless of whether or not the letters made up a word or a word-like configuration. Word comparison time was found to increase when distractors were similar to targets. (Author/RM)

Rote, repetitive Type I Rehearsal is defined as the continuous maintenance of information in memory using the minimum cognitive capacity necessary for maintenance. An analysis of errors made on a forced-choice recognition test supported the hypothesis that acoustic-phonemic components of the memory trace are added or strengthened by this…

Levels of processing were manipulated as a function of acquisition task and type of recognition test in three experiments. Experiment I showed semantic acquisition to be superior to rhyme acquisition given a standard recognition test, whereas rhyme acquisition was superior given a rhyming recognition test. Results are interpreted and discussed.…

Two experiments showed the proportion of recalled words recognized to be higher than expected when the experiment was conducted under typical study conditions. Under special study conditions, the proportion of recalled words recognized more closely approximated expected values. Exceptions depend on encoding operations rather than on the properties…

One hundred forty-four subjects received 4 Brown-Peterson trials with recall triads from a common encoding category. Items on three trials were from a common subset, while on the fourth, the subset was shifted or not, and a cue was presented or not. The cue influenced response generation, a shift improved recall. (CHK)

A study examined how preschool children use information about linguistic contrast in learning new words. The 72 subjects were assigned to four groups to play a game. They were asked to get an unfamiliar item, one of nine swatches of different colors, shapes, and materials. In the first group, the children were told only one label (color, shape, or…

Subjects listened to a story containing sentences with five quantifiers (all, many, some, a few, and none) and were tested to determine recognition of quantifiers. The degree of confusion between any two quantifiers declined monotonically with the separation of the two terms in a linear order. (SW)

Two experiments tested for effects of intralist cues upon recognition probability. Categorized and random lists were each tested, with targets appearing with zero, one or three intralist cues. Experiments showed substantial effects of trials and list type, but not of intralist context. (CHK)

Three experiments are described which support the hypothesis that in a lexical decision task, prefixed works are analyzed into their constituent morphemes before lexical access occurs. Results compare classification times of nonwords that are and are not stems, of free and bound morphemes, and of stems and control items. (CHK)