Two experiments which tested recall differences among young children indicated: (1) organizational factors, not item processing per se, influenced previously found differences in children's recall of pictures following semantic and physical orienting tasks; and (2) physical orienting tasks may effectively inhibit subjects' processing of words, but…

The value of pictures as prose-learning adjuncts is the topic of the study described in this report. The experiments involved in the study followed five basic guidelines: oral presentation was chosen in order to measure comprehension while eliminating word-decoding problems; elementary school children were the subjects; fictional narratives that…

In this study of second and fifth graders, story relevant pictures and subject generated images were presented to determine the kind of story information likely to be enhanced by real and imagined pictures. Results indicate that central and peripheral information was facilitated by visual illustrations, primarily the former. (JEG)

A graph-theoretic paradigm is used to generalize the common measures of categorical clustering in free recall based on the number of observed repetitions. Two graphs are defined: a graph G that characterizes the a priori structure of the item set defined by a researcher, and a graph R that characterizes a subject's protocol. Two indices of…

Examines whether children of different reading abilities would benefit from a mnemonic imagery strategy in a prose-learning situation. Consistent with previous findings, mnemonic imagery students remembered more name/accomplishment information than did control students. (HOD)

The two experiments described investigated the effects of pictures on the recall of prose passages from newspapers by children. Both single pictures expressing the main idea and groups of pictures illustrating each sentence helped fourth graders recall content. (Author/BK)

Thirty learning-disabled students in grades five-eight read several passages and attempted to identify and remember main ideas. Students were assigned to one to three conditions: control, monitoring and self-questioning, or mnemonic. The monitoring strategy was most effective for main-idea finding, whereas the mnemonic strategy was most effective…

Describes study of eighth grade students conducted to test the effectiveness of mnemonic techniques to recall attributes of minerals. Results indicate that mnemonic instruction, when accompanied by experimentor-provided keywords and mnemonic illustrations, produced superior recall on both immediate and delayed performance tests. (Author/LRW)

Prose-learning strategies are classified in this paper as prose-dependent (those that authors can use to optimize communication) or processor-dependent (those that learners can use to optimize reception) and are cross-classified as stage-setting (those that prepare the learner for upcoming prose information) or storage-retrieval oriented (those…