The effects of arousal on verbal learning and memory are presently controversial. Investigators using different definitions of arousal, different tasks, and different methods have (as one would expect) produced different findings in the literature: (a) Arousal during acquisition leads to poor immediate but better delayed recall; (b) Arousal during…

It was hypothesized that the Bransford-Franks linear effect is an artifact of the method of presentation of stimulus sentences and is unrelated to semantic processes. Subjects were given sentences containing the same information in one of two ways. In a control condition, which was identical to the procedure used in earlier research, overlapping…

This study was designed to address two issues: "At what age do children spontaneously use a cumulative rehearsal strategy?" and "What effect does the use of the strategy have on their performance?" The subjects, 28 children at each of five grade levels (nursery, kindergarten, first, third, and fifth), were tested in a serial-position recall task.…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were any differences between the responses made by selected college students to information presented in a visual context and to the same basic information presented in a verbal context. Selected college students were asked to respond to pictorial information and to the same basic…

The analysis of previously obtained data concerning short-term visual memory and cognition by a method suggested by Tucker is proposed. Although interesting individual differences undoubtedly exist in people's ability and capacity to process short-term visual information, studies have not generally examined these differences. In fact, conventional…

This study was designed to investigate recall in preschool children, specifically the cuing technique and possible storage-retrieval differences. Forty-eight 4-years-old were divided into two groups. In the blocked presentation condition, items were presented in category sets of three items, with all items from a single category on cards of one…

This report focuses on memory research, using 'interestingness' as a variable in paired-associate (PA) learning and retention. Nine PA lists were constructed from 'interestingness' ratings (high, medium, and low) on both stimulus and response sides, and controls over associative properties of stimulus and response terms. Subjects (162) were…

The hypotheses of this study include: (1) intentional forgetting, operationalized by a forget signal, will produce augmented recall; (2) highly organized groups of sentences will produce the best recall; and (3) anxiety state will produce a complex interaction with the forget signal and degree of organization variable on the amount of materials…

Recognition errors of children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 were examined. Subjects learned words under intentional or incidental instructions and were tested immediately or 48 hours later. Subjects had to choose a target word from among acoustic, conceptual, associative and neutral distractors. The immediate recognition of 2nd-grade subjects was…

This report describes digital computer simulation efforts in a study of memory systems for two important cases: that of the individual the brain; and that of society, the library. A neural system model is presented in which a complex system is produced by connecting simple hypothetical neurons whose states change under application of a…

A series of four experiments was performed based on a model of human information processing. The model postulates four stages in the processing of an external stimulus: encoding (stage 1), central processing (stage 2), response selection, e.e. decoding (stage 3), and response execution (stage 4). The total reaction time can be decomposed into two…

Three experiments examined the role of contingent associations in learning double-function, verbal-discrimination lists. Some 15-pair lists were constructed of category instances in such a way that the learning of three contingent associations based on category names would mediate correct performance for all 15 pairs. The first experiment gave no…

The purpose of this research was to experimentally manipulate input and output orders of information and separate storage and retrieval components of prose free recall. The cued partial recall method, used in word list recall, was adapted to a prose learning task. Four short biographical stories of about 55 words each were systematically combined…

Research tested an anxiety reduction technique in a computer-based learning situation. Computer-based situations were used because they permitted controlled studies using materials relevant to the real-life needs of students and allowed repeated measurements of state anxiety in response to learning materials. Thus, the relationships between…

In a series of six experiments, undergraduate college students visually imagined letters or words and then classified as rapidly as possible the imagined letters for some physical property such as vertical height. This procedure allowed for a preliminary assessment of the temporal parameters of visual imagination. The results delineate a number of…