In two experiments a total of 662 high school students read a prose passage, took a verbatim or paraphrase quiz, and a week later completed a verbatim or paraphrase delayed test. Taking a quiz significantly enhanced performance on the delayed test. Performance was consistently much higher on the verbatim than on the paraphrase forms of quizzes and…

This paper identifies and describes three distinct variables on which prose passages can differ, from a linguistic point of view. Each of these variables relates to the way in which the content of prose is organized to convey meaning to the reader. The first variable is the position of information in a structure representing a passage's…

Two experiments were performed using messages of digits presented auditorily at a rate of two digits per second. In both experiments, messages of seven different lengths were employed, consisting of 4 to 10 digits in Experiment 1, and of 2 to 8 digits in Experiment 2. The Ss were asked to recall them in the original order, and then to estimate the…

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the development of evaluative and taxonomic encoding in children's memory. The task used was a modification of the Wickens short-term memory task in which subjects' recall of words is tested following a distraction task. The first experiment found that 11-year-old children, but not 8-year-old children,…

This study examines the effects on long-term retention of variations in intensity and temporal parameters of arousal following a single learning trial in a paired-associate task. Intensity of arousal was manipulated by using two levels of noise, 75 db. and 90 db., and a condition without noise. Noise was delivered to the 56 female university…

This study tests the hypothesis that labeling facilitates recall in nursery school children if and only if it leads to rehearsal. Subjects were 34 children ranging in age from 47 to 53 months. During pretraining, those children in the Label group named pictures of animals and fruits as they were presented, while those in the No Label group matched…

In the serial position memory task, a series of stimulus cards are placed face down in a row in front of the subject. A card identical to the stimulus card is then shown to the subject, who is required to indicate the position of this card in the stimulus array. The present three studies investigated the possibility that the labeling effect found…

The Sampling Organization and Recall Through Strategies (SORTS) test was administered to 87 educable mentally retarded (EMR) children (mean chronological age, 97 months; mean IQ, 70) and 31 nonretarded (NR) second grade children to determine Ss' characteristic grouping responses, the effects of various organizational strategies on recall and…

Two experiments were conducted to examine the possibility that numbering might have an effect on learning of lists composed of more meaningful and highly available materials, words, and to further explore the possibility that different strategies may be employed in learning the two types of lists. In Experiment 1, 40 female students from…

Presented is a test used to measure visual perception ability, which consists of 30 groups of forms that are similar to lines used in forming letters, but do not make letters. They are comparable to nonsense syllables used to simulate words. Each group includes four forms and is numbered. The test was used in Rodenborn's study to determine the…

The present study explores accuracy and speed of responses by the five-year-old child to expanded and conjoined sentences. The following factors were considered: (a) number of transformations, (b) types of transformations, (c) auxiliary-type sentence expansion and (d) type of query (those designed to elicit responses which should reflect…

In an experiment designed to explore the interaction of individual differences with question pacing in learning from written materials, 93 college students were administered aptitude tests representing verbal and memory abilities and then randomly assigned to treatments in which questions were placed after every one or four pages or were omitted…

The study sought to determine if relationships existed among Piagetian measures of reasoning and memory, and if development of the memory process in normals and retardates is identical. Subjects were 48 normals (IQ 90-110) and 48 retardates (IQ 50-75), all CA 8-20 years. A battery of assessments, including conservation, spatial imagery, and memory…

An information-theory model of human memory was tested in thirteen experiments which involved children (six years and older) and graduate students. The subjects conducted science investigations in laboratory and non-laboratory settings, solved problems of electrical circuits, and participated in classroom science lessons. The tasks used involved…

A probabilistic model (see SE 013 578) describing information processing during the cognitive tasks of recall and problem solving was tested, refined, and developed by testing graduate students on a number of tasks which combined oral, written, and overt "input" and "output" modes in several ways. In a verbal chain one subject…