Three experiments were conducted, investigating the buildup of and the release from proactive interference, in which the stimulus materials were brief prose passages about specific topics. Each passage was followed by a multiple-choice test, and then a final test on all the passages read was given. Implications of the data for standardized tests…

Two experiments are reported in which recall of the same information is compared following different priming passages. In one case the subjects were primed by material that was consistent with the content of the main passage; in a second case, the priming introduced information in conflict with it. It was found that inconsistent priming led to…

A perspective, based on an elaboration of Underwood's (1969) attributes model of memory, is advanced which proposes that for all types of information both detailed and thematic attributes are stored. Two experiments using prose passages as stimulus materials test this proposal. (Editor/RK)

According to Barlett (1932) remembering prose is a constructive process. Meaningful material is stored in memory in schematic form and recall is achieved by a process of reconstruction. Bartlett observed that recall becomes distorted with the passage of time. This research deals with constructive remembering over time in terms that are compatible…

Research supported in part by a Research Foundation of the State University of New York summer research fellowship to Marcia Johnson. (VM)

This report presents a summary of the research designed to develop a psycholinguistics of comprehension and memory for meaningful written prose paragraphs. The approach departs from most previous ones by seeking to formulate an explicit theory, instead of relying on informal qualitative judgments as to paragraph structure, the scoring of data, and…