Undergraduates listened to a list of words and nonwords. They then listened to a list of items, some of which contained phonemic variations of items in the first list, and stated whether items had been presented previously. Subjects made more recognition errors to items that had phonemic variations occurring near the beginning rather than the end…

A form of autosuggestibility in which children's answers to memory tests were shifted in the direction of their illogical solutions to reasoning problems was studied in 5 experiments with 396 primary-grade students. A model of how gist intrusion causes autosuggestibility is developed. (SLD)

Asserts that the growing number of challenges to the veracity of delayed recall response is a reaction to the recognition that child sexual abuse is tragically common. Research has provided overwhelming evidence that sexual abuse creates serious psychological problems. Additionally, physical abuse, domestic and criminal violence, and war-related…

Replies to criticism of theories on repressed memory recall. Therapists are cautioned against continuing to use ill-chosen treatment techniques that can result in irreparable damage to patients, their families, and the mental health profession. (JPS)

The heated debate over the methodology of repressed memory therapy is becoming tainted by purely emotional reactions on both sides. Evidence on both sides is ignored by one side or the other, and an objective overview is lacking. The definition of what constitutes "evidence" may be at the heart of the debate, along with a…

Those supporting the idea of the "false memory" syndrome are the same as those supporting the "false allegation" syndrome. Only in the 1980s has the issue of child sexual abuse, once inconceivable, become an accepted phenomenon. (JPS)

Explains the "false memory" advocates as the result of a backlash against political gain by an oppressed minority. Confirming a diagnosis of molestation by mental health professionals is not founded on a single memory, but rather on a constellation of memories and symptoms. (JPS)

Interviewed Israeli students to assess the Adult Attachment Interview's test-retest reliability and effects of the interviewers on the interview itself. Information about subjects' memory and intellectual abilities was obtained from external sources. Found a high degree of interrater and test-retest reliabilities, irrespective of interviewers.…

In memory strategy utilization deficiency, a child spontaneously produces an appropriate strategy but receives little or no benefit from it for recall. Three studies suggest two causes: children's failure to relate the task situation to their event knowledge, or to link the strategy to a second strategy, in this case linking a selective attention…

Presents a model of information processing that demonstrates how to facilitate knowledge acquisition. Various instructional strategies designed to reduce the effect of impositions are described, such as use of novelty, mystery, and questioning techniques; reducing complexity of instructional messages; and the automaticity of secondary skills. (JKP)

Examined the ability of 1-year olds to remember the location of nonvisible targets. Found that infants were able to associate a nonvisible target with a direct landmark and to code its distance and direction with respect to themselves or the larger framework. Difficulty of coding with indirect landmarks was associated with cognitive complexity and…

Two studies involving 177 undergraduates examined the effects that mental representations derived from maps and verbal descriptions have on the recall of facts from a text. Findings suggest that there may be fundamental differences between visual and verbal representations of the same space. (SLD)

Examined changes in preschoolers' ability to distinguish among memories of performed, pretended, and imagined episodes, and used source monitoring as a tool for inferring the nature of preschoolers' conceptualization of pretense. Found significant improvements between ages three and four in their ability to distinguish performed actions from…

Examined four and seven year olds' recall of standard features of a repeated event as opposed to features that deviated from that event. Younger children had more difficulty determining which features occurred in the events. Concludes that younger children organize their memory for general and specific event episodes differently than older…

Discusses studies of the neurobiology of memory and cognition. Presents the findings of anatomic and physiological studies of monkeys that have led to discoveries about the structure of working memory. (MCO)