Theories of cognitive processing suggest specific effects result from different elaboration treatments. To test this assumption, 125 high school students were randomly assigned to read concept materials containing adjunct elaborations that varied by elaboration type (mnemonics, schematics, or metaphors) and presentation mode (verbal or visual). To…

In a study of the effects of pictorial stimuli on story recall, 64 second graders were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and two control groups. The learning materials consisted of two orally presented ten-sentence stories. The experimental subjects viewed pictures while the stories were read, and the control groups followed the printed…

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether the results of previous research on rhymes detection were due to a rhyme production frequency bias (in favor of similar rhymes) in the materials used. The previous results had indicated that orthographically similar rhymes were detected more rapidly than dissimilar rhymes. In the three…

A large stratified sample of university undergraduate students differing in reading ability performed a diverse set of psychometric and information processing tasks in a study exploring the role of visual information processing skill as a component in reading ability. Using a correlation analysis of individual differences, the interrelationships…

Four problems in children's paired-associate memory were addressed: (1) reappraisal of the presumed developmental trend in presentation mode effect during grade-school years, (2) identification of the locus of this developmental effect, (3) evaluation of the influence of combined presentation (verbal plus pictorial) relative to pictorial…

The purpose of this study was to test the applicability of the dual coding hypothesis to children's recall performance. The hypothesis predicts that visual interference will have a small effect on the recall of visually presented words or pictures, but that acoustic interference will cause a decline in recall of visually presented words and…

The relative importance of visual and auditory information in judging student comprehension during a reading lesson was tested by having 42 adult subjects observe videotape recordings of reading lessons with individual children and estimate student comprehension with visual information only, auditory information only, or both visual and auditory…

Eighteen young (almost 16 years of age) and 18 old(average age 70) subjects were assigned to either the control or one of two experimental groups on the basis of their age, sex, vocabulary, and need for achievement scores. All participated in a test session and two experimental sessions. Results indicate that: (1) Items that have been often…

This paper presents a review of research on television viewing and child behavior. The first section of the paper presents a brief historical review of television research. This review includes research on the effect of television on people's lives, the effects of violent content on aggressive behavior and the possible harmful effects of…

This study explored the developmental changes in children's effective utilization of verbal versus pictorial stimuli in forming connections between stimulus and response elements in a paired-associate task. A total of 112 children (56 males and 56 females), half of them 4-year-olds and half 8-year-olds, were tested under eight conditions involving…

An experimental test of visual closure based on an information-theory concept of perception was devised to test the ability to discriminate visual stimuli with reduced cues. The test is to be administered in a timed individual situation in which the subject is presented with sets of incomplete drawings of simple objects that he is required to name…

Forty randomly selected school children, in four treatment groups of ten each (each comprised of children from the 5, 8, and 12 year age levels) participated in a study to determine the extent to which the capacity for information processed by a child increases in amount with development. Apprehension span (perception and transformation of aural…

In an effort to cross-validate a Japanese study, a 16 item test of logical connectives was administered to 223 boys and girls at each grade level (third through ninth grades) and two groups of college sophomore girls. The purpose of the test was to assess their understanding of class inclusion and exclusion, class intersection, and class union.…

The extent to which pictorial presentation would facilitate the comprehension of text-like passages among two populations of fourth-grade students was investigated. Subjects were 64 students each in high-socioeconomic status (SES) white and low-SES black groups. Simple passages amenable to pictorial presentation were read over a programed tape to…

It was hypothesized that, with stimulus words selected for familiarity and associative hierarchy, extreme responders give faster and more common or popular free associations than nonextreme responders. Results did not support this hypothesis. Predicted effects of stimulus word attributes were observed. (Author)