Examined performance of over one hundred 6- to 10-year olds on three of each of the following tasks: processing speed, memory span, phonological skill, and articulation tasks assessing speed with which they could say familiar stimuli. Found that performance on span tasks was predicted by phonology and articulation tasks but not by age or…

Assesses contributions of specific components of verbal and nonverbal working memory and of phonological awareness to the prediction of reading achievement. Tests 103 primary-age children on phonological awareness, working memory, academic achievement, and verbal intelligence. Finds phonological awareness and measures of working memory predicted…

A variety of memory strategies can be used to retrain an individual's ability to process information in working memory. This article provides step-by-step instructions for various memory encoding strategies. These strategies include training in perceptual grouping of number series, organization, mediation, mental imagery, and associative memory.…

Eight-, 10-, and 19-year-olds performed a verbal or spatial domain primary memory task. The task was performed alone or in conjunction with a verbal or spatial secondary memory task. In their performance of the primary task, only 8-year-olds showed interference by a secondary task that was based on a different domain from the primary task. (BC)

Children were presented with a related-word triplet (horse, pig, cow) with or without accompanying setting, or place, information (farm). Children were later given a retrieval cue from the first two words of the triplet and asked to recall the third word. Found that place information presented at acquisition and retrieval facilitated children's…

A new qualitative scoring system for the Rey Visual Memory Test was tested for its ability to distinguish between malingerers and nonmalingerers. The new system, based on the types of errors made, was able to distinguish between 53 psychiatrically disabled and 64 normal nonmalingerers, and between nonmalingerers and 91 possible malingerers. (SLD)

Studied the relationship of recognition memory, as evidenced by novelty preference in infancy, and characteristics of the home environment, measured by parental socioeconomic status, to children's later intellectual competence. Results for 69 Norwegian children, all born prematurely, show that visual recognition memory makes a significant…

Compared collective reminiscences of mothers and their 3- to 11-year-olds about a tornado and two nontraumatic events (one proceeding and one following the tornado) 4 months post-tornado and again 6 months later. Found that conversations about both traumatic and nontraumatic events varied with age. Children's tornado recollections were…

Examined influence of newly acquired information on 5- to 7-year-olds' memory and general representation of a personally experienced novel event. Found that advance information specific to the event led to better recall and better integration of the experience into a general event representation both soon after the event and 4 months later.…

Defines the ballad as the link between the written and the sung. Explains that ballad meter is made of quatrains that alternate between four-stress and three-stress lines, and contain an "abcb" or "abab" rhyme scheme. Notes that ballads are mnemonic devices and tell stories. Discusses modern balladeers and describes ballad writing assignments. (PM)

"Sine-wave speech" sentences contain only four frequency-modulated sine waves, lacking many acoustic cues present in natural speech. Adults with (n=19) and without (n=14) dyslexia were asked to reproduce orally sine-wave utterances in successive trials. Results suggest comprehension of sine-wave sentences is impaired in some adults with…

Six core profiles were identified on four fluid reasoning to comprehension knowledge constructs previously found to be both theoretically and empirically linked to children's reading acquisition: auditory processing, crystallized ability, processing speed, and short-term memory. Cluster analysis was used to develop this taxonomy and the…

Suggests that while postmodern criticism has enjoyed a certain amount of currency, the cost of this success has come in the form of detachment. Argues that a reconfiguration of the relations between nature and culture suggests that the posthuman provides us with a fresh perspective from which to examine rhetoric. Identifies some of the problems…

Details an intervention study which investigated whether children with Down syndrome (DS) would benefit from an "analytic" approach to reading instruction, which encompassed explicit training in phonological awareness. Concludes that DS children benefited from this type of instruction, even though their auditory-verbal memory is poor.…

Thirty-five learning-disabled readers (mean age 10) and 43 controls were compared on a sentence span task and on recall of everyday features, consequential events, and misleading information. Results indicated that subjects were deficient on working memory and naturalistic measures, but their naturalistic memory deficits did not appear to relate…