Two studies involving 177 undergraduates examined the effects that mental representations derived from maps and verbal descriptions have on the recall of facts from a text. Findings suggest that there may be fundamental differences between visual and verbal representations of the same space. (SLD)

Examined changes in preschoolers' ability to distinguish among memories of performed, pretended, and imagined episodes, and used source monitoring as a tool for inferring the nature of preschoolers' conceptualization of pretense. Found significant improvements between ages three and four in their ability to distinguish performed actions from…

Examined four and seven year olds' recall of standard features of a repeated event as opposed to features that deviated from that event. Younger children had more difficulty determining which features occurred in the events. Concludes that younger children organize their memory for general and specific event episodes differently than older…

Discusses studies of the neurobiology of memory and cognition. Presents the findings of anatomic and physiological studies of monkeys that have led to discoveries about the structure of working memory. (MCO)

This study, with 39 4-year-olds, found that children had better free recall accuracy and lowered suggestibility when they participated with a "babysitter" rather than observed a babysitter and child. Addition of forensic context (by a policeman prior to questioning) increased error in free recall but did not affect children's accuracy in…

Assessed 25-month-old girls' and boys' immediate and delayed recall of sequences depicting female-stereotyped, male-stereotyped, and gender-neutral activities. Girls showed equivalent recall of all sequence types. Boys showed better recall of male- than female-stereotyped sequences, and equivalent recall of male-stereotyped and gender-neutral…

Two studies investigated the effect of age on memory for visual and spatial information. Five to 10 year olds were asked to reconstruct a previously seen spatial arrangement of objects. The association between an object's identity and its location was weaker for younger than for older children. (LB)

Outlines a new personality typology that provides a coherent system for construing and conducting research on learning styles. Discusses analytic, holistic, objective, and subjective styles as the affect versatility. Presents implications for educational goals, such as determining which students can benefit from stylistic versatility and which…

This study examined the degree to which 31 13-year-old children with learning disabilities were comparable to younger reading and spelling matched controls in (1) phonological similarity effects, (2) phonetically based misspellings, and (3) relationships between memory and spelling performance. An overreliance on phonological codes was found for…

Examines the accuracy and changes that writers make when rereading their self-generated texts in a clozed condition. Finds that by sixth grade, learners are able to perform cloze tasks with accuracy similar to that of college undergraduates. Suggests that students have difficulty with revising their written work because they remember their writing…

Examined the learning of a manipulative response by well and at-risk infants of 6 to 13 months of age who had experienced respiratory interventions in the perinatal period. Risk status reliably predicted the learning performance. Results confirmed that the effects of perinatal interventions involving respiratory complications influenced infants'…

Two groups of 18-month-olds were exposed to a novel object labeled "dodo." The object was introduced when the infant's attention was focused either on the object or on another object. Infants in the group with attention on the object were more likely than the others to identify the dodo object in subsequent comprehension tests. (MDM)

This study investigated taxonomic clustering and use of frequency associations as features in the semantic memory of children (n=30 in grades two and six) with learning disabilities (LD). Results suggested that, when individual child-generated word lists (i.e., meaningful) are used, children with LD may not be impaired in their ability to utilize…

Reviews two projects studying the nature of mental representations of space induced entirely by language. The first project investigates perspective in descriptions of large-scale (e.g., convention center, town) space. The second project investigates mental representations of objects located immediately around the body. (37 references) (KRN)

To elucidate differences between normal age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD), batteries of traditional memory tasks and computer-simulated everyday memory tests were administered to 56 matched AAMI-AD pairs. Results demonstrate the feasibility of discriminating mild AD through these tests. (SLD)