Neuropsychology professor Steven Petersen describes what scientists are finding out about brain development, synaptic growth and wiring, intentional and incidental learning, the role of emotion in learning, and declarative and implicit memory systems. Neuroscience has only the broadest outline of principles to offer today's educators. (MLH)

Explored whether source-monitoring training (SMT) would help 3- to 8-year-olds report only experienced events during a target interview. Found that SMT reduced 7- and 8- year-olds' false reports in response to direct questions but had no impact on younger children's performance. Findings suggest a transition between 3 and 8 years in strategic use…

Focuses on the relationship between memory and history in historiography. Addresses research in three broad areas: (1) the relationship between collective memory and national identity; (2) the memory of the Holocaust and the issue of narrative; and (3) the debate called the "end of history." (CMK)

This study compared working memory in 28 high-functioning autistic individuals (ages 7-18) with that of 30 individuals with Tourette Syndrome or typically developing. No group differences were found. Performance was significantly correlated only with age and IQ. Results suggest that working memory is not an executive function seriously impaired in…

This article reviews research on positive and negative effects of verbally or mentally rehearsing a memory of an abuse incidence on the length, accuracy, and structure of children's reports of a particular incident. Implications for interviewing children in sexual abuse investigations are discussed and a set of recommendations is provided.…

Attitudes of graduates of the class of 1976 of the University of Illinois toward their alma mater were studied in 4-wave survey of 2,306 graduates. Students developed a stronger attachment to the university and more favorable attitudes about program major with the passage of time. (SLD)

Discusses educational technology as a form of technical rationality and considers the conflict between practitioners' epistemological position as constructivists and technical rationality. Topics include cybernetics; autonomous systems theory; enactive constructivism; representation versus effective action; mind and memory; enaction in artificial…

Tested role of event plausibility and script-relevant knowledge in events suggestively planted in memory of 5- to 7-year olds and 9- to 12-year olds. Found that the majority did not remember either false event. Significantly more children recalled the plausible but not the implausible false event; only one recalled the implausible but not…

Compared performance of 9-year-olds with arithmetic difficulties to that of age-matched and ability-matched controls on 10 tasks used to assess different aspects of working memory, including subtypes of executive function. Found deficits in executive and spatial aspects of working memory that seem likely to be important factors in poor…

Examines Asian American children's literature. Suggests that four representations of memory in Asian American children's literature (memory as recovery, as cultural change, as catharsis, and as border crossing) compose an empowering discourse for Asian and Asian American students negotiating competing cultural and economic motives in American…

Used event-related potentials to novel and primed upright and inverted faces to examine evidence of repetition priming in 6-month-olds. Found that repeated faces demonstrated greater negativity than novel faces, and upright faces demonstrated greater negativity than inverted faces. Comparisons with adults tested in a similar experiment support the…

Addresses how existing theories of implicit cognition may contribute to the understanding of spelling development. Reviews adult literature on implicit memory and implicit learning that may be applied to spelling development. Presents a multilevel model of representational redescription from which to investigate the interrelation of implicit and…

Explores the fundamental principles of memory, eyewitness accuracy, and police questioning techniques in witness identification in a criminal case. Studies the details of an actual series of attacks and the subsequent police investigation to illustrate that memory is a reconstructive process rather than an accurate recording of events. (Author/ASK)

Age-related changes in representational flexibility are a characteristic feature of declarative memory development. The authors suggest that a qualitative shift in the nature of infants' memory representations accounts for increasing memory flexibility with age. We will argue that a comprehensive theory of declarative memory development must (1)…

Finds teaching prereading kindergartners in the rime analogy strategy and prereading skills resulted in more reading than teaching either alone. Notes many children developed the untaught abilities of medial and final phoneme identity and the letter recoding reading strategy; and children were able to generalize the rime analogy strategy to read…