The extent to which an orienting activity exerts control over the encoding process was studied. Two experiments were reported in which associative meaningfulness was varied under conditions of semantic and nonsemantic processing. Both experiments showed effects of meaningfulness following both semantic and nonsemantic tasks. (Author/MH)

This article focuses on the mechanisms of the human brain whose function is vision. (SA)

This study found that color in a film helped fourth- and fifth-grade students of all ability levels learn incidental information, but affected learning of task-relevant information differently depending on ability level. (Author/JEG)

Discrimination learning set performance was examined in preschool children as a function of age and number of trials per problem. Subjects were 120 children three, four, five, and six years old. (MP)

Twenty-two third-grade good and poor readers were tested for their ability to name pictures while trying to ignore words or nonword strings of letters printed inside the pictures. Both groups experienced more interference from intracategory than extracategory words, indicating that they processed the words automatically. Only the good readers…

Adult age differences in recognition memory for pictures of faces were assessed under different instructional conditions to test the processing-deficit hypothesis. (Author/SS)

Preschoolers learned colors more rapidly than sizes and forms when cup stimuli were used. They learned sizes and forms more rapidly than colors when face stimuli were used. (RL)

Successful teacher education and effective teacher and student motivation may be obtainable through a positive approach to the Hawthorne Effect, which is the principle that increased attention to an operative situation leads to an increased productivity by that operation, regardless of all other surrounding variables. (LH)

This study sought to determine whether differences in cognitive style would be reflected in the quantity of information available in memory. In order to obviate the criticism that differences between impulsive and reflective subjects might be a function of exhaustiveness of search, stimuli were presented for a restricted period. (Author)

Experimenters analyzed a prose passage into 350 idea units, then interspersed throughout the text pictures depicting main ideas, or both main ideas and nonessential details. For fourth- and sixth-grade subjects, pictures did facilitate both immediate and delayed recall, but only of main ideas. (Author/JEG)

Second-grade children, third-grade children, and adults judged whether pictures were members of a positive or negative memory set while trying to ignore irrelevant words printed inside the pictures. (JMB)

This article describes the distribution of mass in a hand-held object as a fundamental but unrecognized contributor to the sensation one receives from the object. Experiments producing fractions for human sensitivity are given. (SA)

The application of visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) -- a testing procedure involving the use of visual stimuli following auditory responses -- was studied with 21 mentally handicapped children (ages 1-6 years). (Author/DLS)

Kindergarteners and second-graders were shown pairs of pictures, one picture at a time, and asked to name each picture as rapidly and as accurately as possible. Pictures pairs were of four types which reflected the factorial combination of associative relatedness (high and low) with categorial relatedness (high and low). (SB)

Emphasizes the oral aspect of language and the writing skills children gain from hearing literature read aloud. (SB)