Four- and five-year-old children were asked to compare the burning times of pairs of partially synchronous lights differing in intensity, bulb size, or both. (Author/MP)

Compared the performance of institutionalized and noninstitutionalized older adults in five negative transfer studies. Results showed that, in general, the performance of institutionalized old people resembled that of brain-damaged amnesic patients tested under similar conditions; old people living at home generally behaved more like normal, young…

Experiments demonstrating that perceptual identification and recognition memory both rely on memory for single prior processing episodes, contrary to common assumption, are reported. The balance between data-driven and conceptually-driven processing in reading is explored, and the effects of changing the subject's reliance on one or the other…

These studies confirm the view that the "air gap" phenomenon, which refers to the area that remains when ground and sky lines are constructed at the bottom and top of a drawing, is commonly found in the free drawings of middle and later childhood, but that it is readily abandoned when task demands are modified accordingly. (Author/DB)

Experiments were performed to determine the contribution of imagery and semantic factors to the hypermnesia effect (increases in retention over successive recall attempts). Results showed that hypermnesia accompanies meaningful processing regardless of whether verbal or imagery encoding is emphasized. Semantic elaboration increases reminiscence…

Two experiments, using pictorial or verbal stimuli, were designed to test encoding among young children and adults. In both experiments, results indicated progressively smaller encoding specificity effects with increasing age. Comparisons of recall patterns were conducted to ensure that encoding differences accounted for results. (Author/DB)

Examined whether children (ages 4-5) were, like adults, capable of using precued information to preselect a response and remember it briefly. Findings suggest that the 10 preschoolers could preselect a response and maintain it for about one second, but they had difficulty over a 3- or 5-second delay. (Author/SJL)

Taking a test on a passage one has just studied is known to enhance later retention. This effect was influenced by the type of initial test used. It was evident in the case of the initial short-answer test, but not in the case of multiple choice and free recall tests. (Author/RD)

A model of context effects in perception is applied to perception of letters. Perception results from excitatory and inhibitory interactions of detectors for visual features, letters, and words. The model produces facilitation for letters in pronounceable pseudowords as well as words and accounts for rule-governed performance without any rules.…

The effects of visual prompting, aural prompting, and visual/aural prompting on the representation of words or phrases received aurally were investigated. Results indicated that prereading children responded differently to phrases received in normal language versus the other cued conditions. (Author/GK)

Tested assumptions about behavioral cues that clients use to infer what helpers intend. Questions and acknowledgments were best predictors of client perceptions. Guiding was perceived more often than advisement actually occurred. Intention of communicating understanding of message shifted from reflection in the analogue to acknowledgment in the…

A study investigated the recall of terminal location and distance of both preselected and constrained movements. Systematic alteration of the magnitude and direction of the starting position for recall movements revealed that the distance moved significantly interfered with the recall of the terminal location, but that distance was usually…

Matched pairs of skilled and less skilled readers read aloud material in cloze procedure format and printed in geometric transformations. Skilled readers made greater use of grammatical and contextual information. The stability of differences suggests that differential utilization of syntactic and semantic cues contributes to differences in…

Kindergarten, third- and sixth-grade children indicated verbally that giving in response to dependency cues was more meritorious than giving in expectation of reciprocity. When provided an opportunity to choose between giving to dependents or those who could reciprocate, children chose to help others who could reciprocate. Further experimentation…

Paralinguistic and nonverbal behaviors were the best predictors of ratings of subjects' overall performance. Complex verbal categories were the most significant predictors of skill across different situations. Results also showed clear sex differences in degree and pattern of cue usage between male and female judges. (Author)