This article focuses on the early research domains investigated by Michael Pressley, along with the integrations and initiatives that were inspired by them. These research domains include verbal and imagery elaboration memory strategies, and developmental aspects of them; interrogative elaboration; pictorial strategies for language and literacy…

The role of motor activity in children's formation of dynamic mental imagery was investigated in two experiments using a paired-associate recognition task. From the recognition data, it was inferred that (2) the child's ability to form dynamic images relating two objects undergoes its most rapid development between the ages of five and eight; and…

Instructions were given to first and sixth graders to use an imagery-retrieval strategy in recalling 18 paired associates. (SS)

Presents a study of imagery induction during paired associate learning by preschool children. Studies the effect of experimenter-generated interactions between the stimulus pairs to be learned, self-generated interactions, and a combination of the two, on imagery induction. (BD/BR)

Three experiments were conducted in which expectations of learning and transfer based on associative theory or frequency theory differed from those based on a theory of mental imagery. (Editor)

Developmental and cultural factors in the use of imagery in learning and retaining specific paired associate tasks were studied in Anglo and Spanish American children. (ST)

The results showed the schizophrenic group to be similar to the controls on verbal and full-scale intelligence measures but significantly inferior on performance measures. The schizophrenic group also showed a general disadvantage in paired associate learning, with a trend toward specific differential difficulty with words as stimulus items.…

Free recall of concrete and abstract words, following imaginal, associative, or anagram incidental learning tasks, was tested. Recall was significantly greater for concrete than abstract words, and recall for the imaginal task exceeded that of the associative task, which exceeded that of the anagram task. The interaction between kind of word and…

Compared three techniques for teaching name-to-face associations to older adults. Participants (N=60) were divided into no image (control), image, and image plus judgment groups. Results showed strong improvement in remembering names when interactive imagery was used. Those in the image plus judgment group showed less forgetting in recall.…

Investigated whether there exists a stage of development at which "imagery-inducing motor activity" ceases to be facilitative relative to the effectiveness of alternative kinds of associative-learning strategies. (Author/SDH)

The purpose of this study was to test associative skills by means of a paired-associate task with varied mediational instructions. Subjects were 84 first grade ghetto children, 25% of whom were from Spanish-speaking homes; virtually all the other subjects were black. The 3 x 2 x 4 factorial design included: three mediation sets (imagery,…

Kindergarten and first grade children were given a paired-associate learning task following one of five types of strategy-training procedures. In the motor training conditions, subjects generated interactions involving pairs of toys by playing with them or by drawing pictures of them. It was found that relative to simple imagery practice, motor…

Findings were that imagery instructions for picture pairs were generally more facilitative than imagery instructions for word pairs, with children at this age exhibiting little variability in their capacity to utilize a visual imagery strategy when pictures comprised the learning materials. (Authors)

These results demonstrate the kindergarten child's relative inability to produce ongoing thematic activity when this activity is physically separated from the objects involved. (Authors)