Experiments explored the hypothesis that immediate memory span varies with length of recalled words. Relationships between memory and word length, temporal duration, reading speed and visual and auditory presentation were investigated. Results are interpreted in terms of a phonemically-based store of limited temporal capacity with varied…

The resumption of skilled performance following a period of no practice is often characterized by motor activity of a lower quality than that demonstrated prior to the rest period. This phenomenon, termed warm-up decrement, is usually brief, lasting for only a few trials or minutes of postrest practice. This study attempted to determine the effect…

Understanding vision is not a simple task. Nevertheless, a great deal is known about vision, more than about any of our other senses. The articles collected in this volume were chosen and organized with the intention of providing a survey of a number of different areas of vision research. Three major sections focus on the general categories of…

Recent findings have shown that bizarre imagery can be an effective mnemonic aid when lengthy retention intervals are employed, and when the surrounding context contains more normal elements. Testing the hypothesis that an interaction exists between context and time of testing with bizarre images, a study paired 40 male and female undergraduates,…

A good spelling teacher teaches by "taste" rather than by "recipe": instead of strictly adhering to procedural outlines, good teachers alter their lessons according to students' needs. In addition, good teachers: (1) recognize the importance of visualization for spelling; (2) understand the two kinds of visualization--for…

A within-subjects, three condition design was employed to examine the effects of three relaxation techniques on blood pressures, pulse rates, and self-report measures of relaxation for 12 college students. Respiratory Manipulation Training incorporated instructions to exhale and not to inhale for as long as possible. When breathing could no longer…

A mnemonic device is any technique or system to improve or aid the memory by use of formulas. Memory aids enjoyed great popularity in ancient times, but with the advent of literacy, the need for memorization was lessened and mnemonics were not taught regularly. However, recent research in cognitive psychology suggests that mnemonics, taught and…

Thirty eleventh-grade students were the subjects of a study to determine whether a person reporting a high degree of mental imagery in reading would also score well on comprehension tests and report a positive attitude toward reading. Subjects were first given the Estes Reading Attitude Scale, the results of which indicated no significant…

A few empirical studies of mnemonic techniques were conducted in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then, until the 1960s, very little research was done on mnemonics. A revival of research interest in mnemonics, in the late 1960s, accompanied the general acceptability of cognitive processes as a legitimate area of research. Now we're back where we…

Changes in manipulative play with objects were examined in a longitudinal sample of 10 boys and 9 girls tested at ages 9, 13, and 18 months. Stability of individual differences in play was also examined. Each child was observed individually for 7 minutes in a room in which a tea set was the only toy present. Seven types of play behavior were…

This report describes a study of how maps are learned. Subjects (undergraduate students at the University of California) studied a simple map under various conditions and then answered questions about the map and drew the map from memory. It was found that local relations are learned before large-scale relations, that different types of map…

The purposes of this study were to determine if test stimulus was a member of the memory set and if items in an interactive image held in short term memory (STM) could be scanned simultaneously. In experiment one, 50 university subjects compared a test word with a set of one to three words held in STM. The rate of STM search was obtained by…

Studied was the interaction between curriculum treatment and selected aptitude variables as predictors of learning and transfer scores. Visualization ability was measured by a paper folding test; general reasoning ability was measured by the Necessary Arithmetic Operations Test. Geometry students (191) were assigned to treatment groups for two…

Two groups of retarded adolescents were presented sets of multiple verbal directions (imperative sentences). One group was exposed to pictures illustrating the objects and action of each direction in addition to the verbal directions. Subjects were required to carry out performances demanded by the directions. The direction-following behavior of…

In three experiments undergraduates were presented with eight adjective-noun phrases within a paired-associate list context in the orders adjective-noun and noun-adjective and instructed that either word would be given as a cue for recall. The same phrases were presented within a prose context where recall was tested by the cloze procedure. In the…