In this article, time effects on intelligence test scores have been investigated. In particular, we examined whether the "Flynn effect" is manifest in children from the middle and higher IQ distribution range, measured with a child intelligence test based on information processing principles--the Leiden Diagnostic Test. The test was administered…

The medial temporal lobe memory system matures relatively early and supports rudimentary declarative memory in young infants. There is considerable development, however, in the memory processes that underlie declarative memory performance during infancy. Here we consider age-related changes in encoding, retention, and retrieval in the context of…

As a professor of English at Diablo Valley College in northern California where she teaches a variety of writing and literature courses, the author finds her students' essays so often lack not only shape and drama, but the ring of emotional truth as well. Their "life" stories are lifeless and their "true" stories sound somehow…

The human brain appears to have several "regions" that are structured to do different kinds of spatial thinking, according to a large and rapidly growing body of research in a number of disciplines. Building on a previous review of research with older children and adults, this article summarizes the research on spatial thinking by young children.…

Three accounts of common ground maintenance make different assumptions about speakers' responsibilities regarding listener-privileged information. Duplicated responsibility requires each interlocutor to assimilate the other's knowledge before designing appropriate utterances. Shared responsibility appeals to least collaborative effort [Clark, H.…

This study investigated the relationship between components of working memory (WM) and the macrostructure (e.g., planning, writing, and revision) and microstructure (e.g., grammar, punctuation) of writing. A battery of WM and writing measures were administered to 160 high-school students. Overall, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the…

The purpose of the present study was to assess the extent to which reading disabilities (RD) in young adults are related to deficits in specific aspects of temporary storage of verbal information, namely, memory span and the central executive (CE) component of working memory. Thirty-two native Hebrew-speaking young adults with and without RD were…

Latent class analysis (LCA) has been successfully applied to tasks measuring higher cognitive functioning, suggesting the existence of distinct strategies used in such tasks. With LCA it became possible to classify post hoc. This important step forward in modeling and analyzing cognitive strategies is relevant to the overlapping waves model for…

It has been widely established that depressed mood states and clinical depression, as well as a range of other psychiatric disorders, are associated with a relative difficulty in accessing specific autobiographical information in response to emotion-related cue words on an Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986).…

Evidence from 3 experiments reveals interference effects from structural relationships that are inconsistent with any grammatical parse of the perceived input. Processing disruption was observed when items occurring between a head and a dependent overlapped with either (or both) syntactic or semantic features of the dependent. Effects of syntactic…

This report describes the first of three stages in a study in the domain of problem solving: the definition and explication of schema knowledge. One objective of this research is to understand how schema knowledge is acquired and used in the chosen domain. The focus is on ways in which instruction influences the development of specific knowledge…

The "levels effect," the finding that the more central to the meaning of a passage an idea is the more likely that idea is to be retained, does not seem to hold for immediate recognition. Therefore, a study was conducted to test a model of information storage that predicted that when surface structure information was preserved in its…

Discusses the value of memorized factual material in science. Describes the use of mnemonic devices to facilitate memorization. Provides a list of 14 mnemonic devices commonly used in science other than ROY G. BIV, which is used to remember the colors of the visible spectrum. (CW)

Explores the central thesis of cognitive science that the mind is an information processor. Discusses the study of reading as an opportunity to gain insight into how that processor works. Provides several examples that illustrate some of the relationships between eye movement, short-term memory, and long-term memory. (TW)

A set of immediate memory-span tests, concept- and rule-learning tasks, and an IQ test were administered to adolescents. A color-form memory factor and IQ substantially predicted rule-learning proficiency. Effects of memory aids appeared to induce conceptual rules and serve as a base for rehearsing information. (Author/RD)