Examines developmental change in processes used to retrieve information from semantic memory. Twenty-nine 8-, 12-, and 21-year-olds were asked to name as many animals and pieces of furniture as they could in separate 7-minute intervals. Results suggested that information in semantic memory changes with age, but that retrieval processes do not.…

Discusses Russell's (1975) system for administering and scoring the Logical Memory and Visual Reproduction subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Certain innovations such as obtaining a delayed recall appear to be useful, but comparisons with other studies indicate difficulty with the impairment ratings that were devised. (JAC)

Eleven boys at a summer camp were asked to recall the mode, duration, and intensity of their physical activity during the preceding seven days. When compared with their counselor's records, the boys were accurate enough to make seven-day recall applicable as a summary tool of children's total energy expenditure. (Author/MT)

Five studies were carried out to analyze role of short-term storage in reading of organized text. By interrupting the subject's reading with a distractor task, information that was being carried in short-term storage was removed. It was found that this interruption effect could be countered by giving the subject the last one or two sentences that…

Studies the much-debated issue of the role of rote, repetitive rehearsal (maintenance rehearsal) on the establishment of memory traces that outlast the rehearsal process itself. Results show that there is an effect of maintenance rehearsal on long-term recognition performance and that this effect depends on the mental resources devoted to the…

Compared 24 children with Attentional Deficit Disorder to a control group of 17 children with emotional problems (controls) using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and an adaptation of the Coding subtest to measure short-term visual memory. Results showed superiority of the control group on the short-term visual memory task.…

The article summarizes findings of research on individual differences in reading ability, noting the primary effects of lack of phonological awareness on the ability to phonologically segment, analyze, and synthesize the speech stream. Other sources of individual differences are also addressed: early visual processes, naming processes, context,…

Describes a study which sought to determine whether memory for input language is affected by proficiency in the nondominant language. The subjects were native Hebrew speakers with varying degrees of proficiency in English. Basic and advanced subjects did not score higher with input in their dominant language. (SED)

Discusses results of a study of good and poor third-grade readers that indicates that difficulties with phonetic representation could underlie the inferior sentence comprehension of poor beginning readers. In addition, the finding that these children place greater reliance on immature processing strategies raised further possibility that tempo of…

Analyzes data from three experiments that investigated the effect of decision making on memory. Results indicated that, whether internally generated or externally provided, decisions produce a reorganization of memory traces, which produces differential accessability of supporting and contradictory facts. Also concludes that this differential…

Primary advantage of authoring languages is special subroutines facilitating educational programing; primary disadvantages are execution speed, memory limitations, and little gain in programing ease. Primary advantage of authoring systems is menu-driven editors; primary disadvantage is significant limitation in the frame-based branching programed…

Measures of prenatal exposure in 123 infants to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cord serum PCB level, and maternal report of contaminated fish consumption predicted less preference for a novel stimulus on Fagan's test of visual recognition memory (VRM) at 7 months. Preference for novelty decreased in a dose-dependent fashion and postnatal…

While six- and nine-year-olds were as good as adults in distinguishing what they did from what they saw someone else do, children had particular trouble across a range of actions in distinguishing actual from imagined doing. All subjects recalled actions according to performer; organization by person categories reduced clustering based on action…

The relationship between forward and backward digit span and basic cognitive processes was examined. Subjects were administered measures of sequential processing, simultaneous processing, and planning. Correlational analyses indicated the serial processing character of forward digit span, and the relationship between backward digit span and…

Outlines a proposed model for understanding the human information processing system, which is conceptualized in terms of three interrelated major elements--executive, working, and long-term memory--with emphasis on the structure of long-term memory. Thirty-one references are listed. (MBR)