Instructing people to forget a list of items often leads to better recall of subsequently studied lists (known as the benefits of directed forgetting). The authors have proposed that changes in study strategy are a central cause of the benefits (L. Sahakyan & P. F. Delaney, 2003). The authors address 2 results from the literature that are…

Giftedness researchers have long debated whether there is empirical evidence to support a distinction between giftedness and attained level of achievement. In this paper we propose a general theoretical framework that establishes scientific criteria for acceptable evidence of superior reproducible performance, which any theory of exceptional…

The author reviews the literature and makes tentative conclusions concerning the physiological correlates of learning and memory. Particular attention is given to the issues of spinal cord learning, subcortical learning, cerebral cortex learning, localization of learning within the brain (specificity vs. non-specificity), and association areas…

In two experiments, undergraduates did/did not create a maplike representation while learning a passage, and were either forced to study the map, instructed to study, or given no map prior to reading. Free-recall data showed that forced map study benefited learners with low vocabulary scores. (Author/GK)

Four kinds of learning are the basis for most of the discussion in this paper: direct-application learning, basic skills, background knowledge, and personal learning. (Author/CB)

In studies on the effect of advance objectives on readers' comprehension of prose, reliable differences were noted in the areas of the passages students focused upon depending on the presence of objectives and the level of learning they required. No differences were observed in reading comprehension. (JD)

The authors have been engaged in research focused on students' depth of learning as well as teachers' efforts to foster deep learning. Findings from a study examining the teaching practices and student learning outcomes of sixty-four teachers in seventeen different states (Smith et al. 2005) indicated that most of the learning in these classrooms…

Analyzes the process of learning--both intentional and non-intentional--and concludes that the view that learning is learning only if it is formal and intentional is false. (RK)

From the cognitive model of multimedia learning proposed by [Schnotz, W., & Barnett, M. (2003). Construction and interference in learning from multiple representation. "Learning and Instruction, 13", 141-156], two hypotheses regarding the learning of spatial arrangements of objects were derived: the integration hypothesis and the multiple source…

The main purpose of the research was to make a comparative study of: (1) trial-and-error learning, in which a subject performs and is provided with knowledge of results; and (2) observational learning, in which a subject either observes the performance of another subject or is otherwise provided with equivalent information as to the correctness…

A series of papers will be written to review in a comprehensive fashion the literature related to 3 categories of variables in concept learning: task variables, stimulus variables, and learner variables. This paper, the first of the series, focuses on task variables. Research dealing with instructions, temporal factors, and feedback is critically…

An experiment was conducted to determine whether tutoring is a learning activity from which the tutor, as well as the tutee, gains cognitively. Undergraduate students (N=80) participated in the study. Half of the subjects studied selected material to tutor another subject. The other half studied material to prepare for a test that they would take.…

One hundred-fifty subjects studied a passage with questions interspersed at different locations. Total level of acquisition was highest in treatments involving postquestions and no questions. The results were attributed to the influence of adjunct questions on learner expectations that affect the selective processing of information. (Author/JAC)

One of the great challenges in higher education is to help students integrate their learning. The capacity to make connections is essential to the conduct of personal, professional, and civic life, and is at the very heart of liberal education. It is also, arguably, more important than ever, and more difficult to achieve, as students transfer…

Intentional and incidental learning was investigated developmentally and comparatively using a paired associate learning task with 90 educable mentally handicapped or normal, elementary or secondary school Ss. (DB)