The growing literature on semantic memory suggests that many concepts normally believed to belong to certain semantic categories functionally belong to other categories. This determination can be explored by a variety of priming methodologies in which a subject's reaction time is analyzed while making certain judgements about a visually presented…

Earlier research (Thorson, et al., 1976) found that latencies increase for acoustically confusable letter pairs and decrease for visually confusable letter pairs as a positive function of interstimulus interval (ISI). To extend these findings to different age groups, 30 young adults (mean age, 21.4 years) and 30 older adults (mean age, 68.8 years)…

Evaluates preschoolers' ability to distinguish left-right mirror-images of objects on a memory task and ability to name rows of objects on a page in a consistent lateral direction. Abilities were assessed first without specific instructions on the relevance of left-right information and then with instructions. (Author/AS)

Compares the semantic processing skills of younger adults (mean age 25) and older adults (mean age 68). After reading a sentence, subjects performed a task in which responses did not depend on retention. Results provided no evidence for age-related changes, including those associated with access to implied information. (Author/RH)

The way cognitive, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) can aid in further understanding of memory span change in children is discussed. ERPs are time-dependent changes in electrical activity of the brain (as recorded by scalp electrodes) following the presentation of a physical stimulus through auditory, visual, or somatosensory modalities. The…

Twenty-eight children (ages 5-13) with mental retardation, hyperactivity, and inattentiveness were administered fenfluramine and methylphenidate. Fenfluramine was superior to placebo on the memory task, whereas methylphenidate reduced commission errors on a continuous performance test. Methylphenidate caused shorter response times whereas…

Experiments were conducted on the speed of encoding differences between 15 school-age individuals with and 15 individuals without mental retardation, while retaining a full memory load or half memory load. Subjects with mental retardation allocated fewer attentional resources to encoding, even though encoding may require more of their resources…

More than 100 college students enrolled in a reading and study skills course participated in a study designed to show the effects of retrieval speed on adult reading comprehension. A microcomputer version of the Posner task was used to measure memory retrieval speed, and reading and listening comprehension were measured from McCall-Crabbs…

Recent studies of self-referent cognition have demonstrated that people process information about themselves more efficiently than other kinds of information. To investigate latency effects in self-referent decision-making, 60 college students participated in a three phase study. In phase one, each subject chose the trait within a pair that best…

In recent research, two qualitatively different classes of mental operations have been identified. The performance of one type of cognitive task requires attention, in the sense of mental effort, for its execution, while the second type can be performed automatically, independent of attentional control. Further research has shown that automatic…

Tests seven- , 10- , and 13-year-olds for developmental differences in processes and strategies involved in geometric matrix solution and the relationship between strategy differences and item complexity. (AS)

To determine whether children's knowledge of arithmetic facts becomes increasingly "automatic" with age, 7-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults were given a number-matching task for which mental arithmetic should have been irrelevant. Specifically, students were required to verify the presence of a probe number in a previously presented pair (e.g.,…