Considerable work during the past two decades has focused on modeling the structure of semantic memory, although the performance of these models in complex and unconstrained semantic tasks remains relatively understudied. We introduce a two-player cooperative word game, Connector (based on the boardgame Codenames), and investigate whether…

We examined whether 2 types of interpolated tasks (i.e., retrieval-practice via free recall or guessing a missing critical item) improved final recognition for related and unrelated word lists relative to restudying or completing a filler task. Both retrieval-practice and guessing tasks improved correct recognition relative to restudy and filler…

Paired associated learning (PAL) is a critical skill for making arbitrary associations among print, pronunciation and meaning in reading development. Extended from past research of PAL, this study investigated whether PAL operated flexibly to linguistic demands of languages, by examining word reading abilities in Chinese-English bilingual…

An event-related potentials (ERPs) study examined word-to-text integration processes across sentence boundaries. In a two-sentence passage, the accessibility of a referent for the first content word of the second sentence (the target word) was varied by the wording of the first sentence in one of the following ways: lexically (explicitly using…

Students (N = 124) viewed 14 timed Web pages that distinguished 14 confusing word pairs. In a 2 x 2 factorial design, the authors gave all of the students matrices containing representational pictures for each pair of words, as well as examples of each word in use. One factor in the design was the absence or presence of rules of usage for each…

Working from previous findings that learning of paired nouns improves when the nouns are joined by a verb rather than a preposition, and by a preposition rather than a conjunction, the present study investigates the factors influencing this form-class effect and offers an explanation in terms of transformational grammar. (Author/FWB)

The experimental results reported here indicate that sentences are remembered and recalled in terms of semantic representations of the indicated words or concepts rather than in terms of phonological representations. (FB)

This study examined correlations between hard (low-associate) and easy (high-associate) verbal paired associates and episodic and semantic memory in a mixed clinical sample of 91 male veterans. The study concludes that hard paired-associate learning should not be presumed to measure episodic memory selectively. (SLD)

Language development in preschool children was studied using pairs of pictures with three types of verbal elaboration formed for each pair. After a training trial thirty children listened to one of three types of elaboration (simple sentence, compound or complex sentence, and paragraph). They were asked to name the corresponding response item.…

The purpose of this study was to (1) compare the semantic relationships among common nouns obtained via two different measurement procedures and (2) determine if the use of these relationships to classify the various words results in differential degrees of learning when the stimuli are cast in terms of the paired-associate learning paradigm.…

Two vocabulary tasks--one production and one recognition--were compared with the expectation that the recognition task would yield better performance than the production task. The pairs of pictures used in the recognition task were divided into eight groups defined on target and distractor frequency and same-different conceptual category…

Study resulting in the conclusion that the semantic relationships between words in the bilingual's languages influence tasks involving secondary memory, whereas no interlingual interference occurs in a second learning situation depending mostly upon primary memory. (Author/FWB)