Reviews recent progress in modeling human cognition, in particular the use of computers in generating models. Topics covered include the information processing approach to cognition, problem solving, semantic memory, pattern induction, and learning and cognitive development. A 164-item reference list is attached. (JL)

Sixty 9-year-old Highland Mayan children whose schooling varied from kindergarten level to third grade were given tests of scene recognition, scene reconstruction, sentence recognition, and story recall. Results demonstrate that in this sample the relationship between schooling and memory test performance is not simply due to family background…

A new model is proposed for explaining children's performance on Pascual-Leone's test of M-space. The new model is used to generate theoretical performance curves for children at four different age levels and seven different levels of stimulus complexity, and it is a viable alternative. Differences between the models are reviewed. (Author/RD)

In four experiments, evidence was found for a complex psychological representation of musical pitch. The perception of music depends not only on psychoacoustic properties of the tones, but also on processes that relate the tones to one another through contact with a well-defined and complex psychological representation of musical pitch. (Author/RD)

Attempts to validate the basic constructs of a theory of cognitive switching developed from human performance literature and signaled stopping research. Presents data which display behavioral traces of the ways people organize television news into their information-processing system. (JMF)

Discusses the scope of information science, problems involved, and the areas of research needed for development. In particular, the processes occurring in thinking, memory, and knowledge are considered as they arise in the production and receipt of information. (Author/RAA)

Three groups of boys, aged 6, 9, and 12 years, performed a positioning task with retention intervals of 10 and 30 seconds and visual-plus-kinesthetic or kinesthetic-only cues. Developmental differences were evidenced between the six-year-olds and older boys but not between the two older groups. (Author/SJL)

The study investigated the effects of modality preference, mode of instruction, and verbal feedback on immediate and delayed recall of new words in 72 elementary age learning disabled students. (Author/PHR)

It is paradoxical that analog tasks are used in learning and memory studies of aging when older groups are less responsive or may terminate participation when faced with what they believe are meaningless stimuli or trivial tasks. Research with meaningful prose materials is recommended. (Author/BEF)

Employs a clinical interview methodology to examine some of the creative thinking strategies commonly used by children in elementary school grades. Results suggest that children use several strategies on creativity tasks. (RH)

Two experiments are described that examined the influence of time-of-day of presentation on immediate and delayed retention and its potential effects on retrieval from long-term memory. Time of presentation was found to influence both immediate and delayed (28 day) retention, but not retrieval from long-term memory. (Author/SJL)

Two experiments were designed to determine the effects of multiple-choice recognition test alternatives on subsequent memory for the correct answers. Results of both experiments are interpreted as demonstrations of the principle that long-term retention is facilitated such that memory evaluation occurs during initial recognition tests. (Author/RD)

A mediation versus production deficiency in memory processing was examined by testing the effect of instructions for rehearsal on performance of 128 average and disabled readers in grades 2 and 5. A second study examined effects of covert rehearsal on the memory of 64 average and disabled readers in grade 2 over trials. (Author/PHR)

Subjects with eidetic imagery showed significantly more accurate recall of the stimulus pictures thereby supporting the importance of eidetic imagery as an early mnemonic system. (Author/DB)

Reber found that subjects given neutral instructions to memorize letter strings from a synthetic language learned more about the underlying grammar than those instructed to try discovering the rules for letter order. Two experiments explored the relationship between implicit and explicit processes in the acquisition of complex knowledge.…