Results of two studies using the Esper paradigm to determine development of rule application and discovery are reported. Subjects learned and generalized when rule and structure were provided, but there was little evidence of rule discovery. Manipulations of memory and attention facilitated learning, but only attention facilitated rule discovery.…

The kind of semantic information that facilitates relearning was investigated. The paradigm consisted of three stages: (1) learn a list of number-word pairs; (2) return for a retention test; and (3) relearn a new list of pairs that have various kinds of semantic relatedness to the originally learned pairs. (Author/CTM)

Examines three misconceptions teachers and parents make about children and learning to spell: (1) learning to spell is based primarily on a child's knowledge of phonics, (2) learning to spell is a memorization process, and (3) children should not write if they cannot spell words correctly. (HTH)

Identifies strategies identified by psychologists as effective aids to long-term remembering, traces the relationship between memory skills and memory development, investigates metamemory, and suggests implications of memory development for the mentally handicapped. (Author/DB)

In order to determine whether mistakes committed by younger children are the result of retention mistakes rather than faulty perceptual encoding, twenty children (6, 8, 10, and 12 years old) reconstructed two visual patterns from immediate memory, while twenty other children (5 and 6 years old) reconstructed the identical patterns by direct…

This article on using mnemonics with students having learning and behavior problems first offers a case study of a 7th grade student and then describes the letter strategy, the keyword mnemonic method, and the pegword method. Seven steps for implementing mnemonic strategies are offered. An inset reviews the research literature on using mnemonic…

Used a children's story and interviews to compare how six-year-olds in three cultures conceptualize learning in their preschool environments. Found that Swedish and Japanese children who did not recall a coherent narrative relied on their own understanding of point of story rather than on words of story, whereas Chinese children looked for key to…

A jaded education professor deplores the endless memorization, mindless assignments, and incessant testing going on in high school classrooms, to the exclusion of intellectually and aesthetically challenging pursuits. He refuses to devise another strategic plan, restructuring, or curriculum standard. Schools must strive to enculturate youngsters…

Investigates effects on college students of a memory improvement course. Reports that the benefits of the course (short-term increased perception of memory abilities and use of memory techniques) are related more to skills than to knowledge. (RS)

Describes the use of past educational experiences and resulting attitudes to illustrate effective teaching methods to students in social studies methods courses. Positive memories center around a hands-on approach, whereas negative memories focused on memorization and rote learning. (LS)

Keyword mnemonics were used in 2 of 3 instructional procedures (systematic teaching, an imposed keyword method, and an induced keyword method) to teach science vocabulary to 37 students with mild disabilities in grades 6, 7, and 8. Favorable results for both keyword methods were obtained. (DB)

Examines previous studies of the effects of prediction activities, prior knowledge, and text type upon reading comprehension. Finds the three elements unimportant to ordinary reading. Observes that many schema theory concepts arose from analysis of difficult reading. Suggests that the schema theory variables may arise only in atypical reading…

The effectiveness of a mnemonic study strategy, the keyword method, was applied with 10 learning-disabled middle school students studying a science chapter on rocks and minerals. Posttests after the four-day implementation indicated mixed results with some content acquisition but a need for further instruction in strategy utilization. (DB)

Places the current educational reform movement in a historical context. Maintains that students today are no more ignorant of history than were previous generations. Distinguishes between memory, remembering, and meaning and suggests the application of these categories to the improvement of history instruction. Describes sample exercise. (RW)

Two experiments examined immediate and long-term serial list learning effects for common nouns for 42 fifth graders. Results provide additional evidence that long-term forgetting may be greater for learners who receive mnemonic instruction than for untrained controls, in spite of some immediate enhanced recall. (SLD)