Describes Noel Entwhistle's book "Styles of Learning and Teaching," detailing how it can be used to help students learn and store knowledge. Also describes a course on the theory and practice of cognitive processes taught at Carnegie Mellon University. (DH)

This study was undertaken to determine whether afternoon reading instruction results in greater achievement for beginning readers than does morning instruction. One hundred first grade pupils participated in the study. Implications for practice and continued research are discussed. (Author/MT)

This study examined the relationship between cognitive style and information processing in preschoolers, and described developmental changes in their performance on a central-incidental learning task. Sixty preschoolers, in two age groups (mean ages of 4-1 and 4-11), were administered tests of reflection-impulsivity, field dependence-independence,…

Children 6- to ll-years-old heard concrete sentences which they were asked to learn. Half the children received imagery instruction. Greater short-term memory and verbal competence predicted better sentence learning in the imagery condition, but not in the control condition. (Author/NH)

Dual task procedures (finger tapping and associative memory) were used to examine developmental differences in the amount of mental effort required to deploy rehearsal and elaboration. Sixth-grade and college students participated. Some evidence for a developmental difference in mental effort was found. (TJH)

Fifteen FORTRAN 77 programs are contained in the described package. Three programs are available for each of five forgetting models involving 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10-parameter models. The programs compute parameter estimates and test parameter estimates both between and within experimental conditions. (Author/GDC)

Compared one experimental reminiscence group, using a conventional format to recall memories from different life stages and another using an experiential format that included focusing on feelings and thoughts with each other and with control samples that did not formally meet in groups, but that were tested in groups. All groups increased in…

Sixteen skilled and 16 learning disabled (LD) readers (ages 11-12) viewed nonsense pictures either without names, with names that emphasized the semantic aspects of the picture, or with names unassociated with the pictorial representation. Results suggested that semantic coding deficits in LD readers were localized to retrieval processes.…

A simulation model of episodic memory, MINERVA Z, is applied to the learning of concepts, as represented by the schema-abstraction task. The model successfully predicts basic findings from the scheme-abstraction literature, including some that have been cited as evidence against exemplary theories of concepts. (Author/LMO)

A model of information processing has been developed that combines concepts from the study of attention and the study of problem solving. The model has been realized as a computer program and used to simulate a variety of phenomena from the attention and performance literature. (Author/LMO)

Studies with Nootropic psychoactive drugs (such as Piracetam) suggest that Piracetam lacks significant side effects; promotes memory and learning; and improves the reading ability of dyslexics, possibly by directly affecting the left-brain hemisphere. Results are contrasted with studies showing the lack of effectiveness of intensive teaching.…

Effects of prior knowledge and elaborate processing on retention of connected discourse were studied. Using the mean scores of the control group from each condition, derived scores were calculated for experimental groups. Results indicate prior knowledge and elaborative processing operate to diminish retroactive interference generated by reading a…

Discusses various forms of confabulation, and conditions that often give rise to these disorders. Asserts that confabulatory states frequently are associated with cerebral damage that involves the right hemisphere, notably, the frontal (often bilaterally) and parietal lobes - areas intimately involved in arousal, attention, information regulation,…

Reports two experiments in which eight patients with organic memory disorders exhibited a pattern of search behavior that resembled mnemonmic precedence--the ability to retrieve an object at an initial location, but not at a new location. (HOD)

Describes a study which used a discrimination-learning procedure to compare the ability of language-disordered and normal children to modify hypotheses. In a series of two-dimensional learning set and orthogonal problems, all children reached learning set criteria quickly; on orthogonal problems, language-disordered children performed…