Organizational form significantly affected learning and retention in this name-attribute organizational study. Learning condition affected criterion performance, memory and error rates. An analysis of critical words (names, attributes, values) recalled indicated that hierarchical position influenced word memorability. (Author/MV)

Investigates whether 8-year-olds can be taught a mental imagery strategy to improve their memory of prose they read. Results of the study showed that the children taught the strategy answered more questions than the group who did not receive those instructions. (Author/DEP)

This monograph analyzes theoretical and methodological problems that may have prevented previous research from detecting retroactive inhibition with meaningful discourse and reports on two experiments based on the analysis. (Author/TA)

A 2,217-word news article was reduced 10 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent by one of three reduction methods: word frequency, grammatical, and subjective. Reduction method had no effect on comprehension at the 10 percent and 30 percent reduction levels, but at the 50 percent level the subjective method produced better reading performance than…

From evidence of this study it appears that a person will learn more from a prose passage if he forms images of the things and events described in the passage. (Authors/MB)

The effects of verbal and pictorial organizing material on comprehension of paragraphs was investigated with second- and fifth-graders. Results suggest that knowledge of the interrelationships among elements is important, if not essential, for the comprehension of prose material. (Author/RC)

The hypothesis that reorganizing written material while taking notes would aid free recall was evaluated in two experiments with high school juniors. Results are discussed in terms of the encoding variability hypothesis which predicts that reorganizing material aids recall. (RC)

Examines the relationship between the number of learning goals and decreased performance on goal-relevant test items, and explores characteristics of goal-descriptive directions that influence the recall of incidental information from text. (BJG)

Two studies examined the role of self-reference as a mnemonic for prose material. Prior to reading descriptive passages, undergraduate students received self-reference, other-reference, linguistic, or control processing instructions. Overall, the self-reference instructions resulted in the greatest amount of recall. (Author/LMO)