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.…

Reviews literature on the relationship between psychosocial events and dying and death from a behavioral perspective. Individual control has a part in the relationship between the timing of death and psychosocial factors. It is argued that behavioral self-management is a useful therapeutic tool for working with clients nearing death. (Author/BEF)

Two experiments examined the role of presupposed (or old) and focal (or new) information in integrating sentences, by measuring comprehension time for various combinations of presupposed and focal information. (Author/AM)

A recognition memory experiment investigated memory scanning when stimuli were organized but not easily labeled verbally. The principle findings indicated that the organization of the to-be-remembered sets had a pronounced influence on performance. (Editor/RK)

A total of 12 second- and fifth-graders' semantic decision times for pictures and words were analyzed relative to the predictions derived from unitary- and dual-memory models. (MS)

Examined the effect of heart rate and behavioral measures of attention on infants' distractibility. Found longer distraction latencies during attentional engagement as defined by heart rate changes or behavior than for inattentive periods. Infants had longest distraction latencies when heart rate and behavior measures both indicated engagement.…

Examines the meaning of reaction time (RT) and the possibility that it may predict other cognitive and motor skills in the first year of life. Considers two competing models that specify the information-processing components underlying RT performance. Describes the neural data needed to definitively choose between the models and considers…

Examined associations between sleep and neurobehavioral functioning (NBF) in second-, fourth-, and sixth-graders. Found significant correlations between sleep- quality measures and NBF measures, particularly for the younger age group. Children with fragmented sleep were characterized by lower performance on NBF measures, particularly those…

To clarify the relationships between reaction time (RT) variability and intelligence, RT distributions from 303 male Navy recruits were partitioned into 16 fast-to-slow latency bands calculated with measures of mental ability. The slowest bands (worst trials) were the best predictors of intelligence and working memory performance. (SLD)

Multiple regression analyses of data from 449 children indicated statistically significant relationships between moderate levels of prenatal alcohol exposure and increased errors, increased latency, and increased total time on the Wisconsin Fine Motor Steadiness Battery and poorer balance on the Gross Motor Scale. (RH)

Sixty-four adults were tested on simple addition and multiplication problems presented in Arabic digit or English number-word format. Overall, response times and error rates were much higher with the word format, but more important, presentation format interacted with arithmetic operation and problem size. (DR)

The relationship between odd-man-out reaction time tasks and intelligence was examined in 2 experiments involving 79 college students. The two experiments indicate that tasks that assess the ability to perceive relationships among stimuli rapidly are good measures of general intelligence. (SLD)

Reviews research that supports the view that readers strip prefixed words of their prefix and lexically assess the words on the basis of their stem. An experiment using real and nonword stems found that nonwords that are considered to be stem morphemes are treated as being more wordlike than those that are not. (36 references) (MDM)

Two experiments assessed the performance of subjects on prefixed nonwords resulting from the incorrect combination of a prefix and a real word in Italian. The results support the view that prefixes may be represented as units of access or representation in the mental lexicon. (41 references) (MDM)