This study investigated children's memory of stressful, personally meaningful events--in this case, injury experiences. Children (2 to 13 years old) who were brought to the emergency room of a hospital were recruited as subjects if they had sustained trauma injuries such as broken bones or lacerations requiring suturing. A total of 42 were…

Research has demonstrated that subjects are sensitive to both thematic and non-thematic information in pictorial stimuli. Three experiments were conducted to investigate memory for pictures under conditions of difficult foil discriminability and lengthy retention intervals. The foils differed from the studied persons in the number and quality of…

A sorting-recall procedure was used to investigate how long-term memory in elderly subjects is affected by categorical organization. Sixty-four young adults (average age 20 years) and retirees (average age 67) sorted 48 unrelated words into two, four, six, or eight categories prior to recall. High- and low-frequency lists were tested, a…

Although the use of animated visuals is both common and popular among computer based instruction (CBI) designers, the theoretical and empirical foundation for their use have not been firmly established. Animated visuals represent a subset of instructional visuals, not a distinctive set. For this reason, general conclusions from research on static…

Piaget's theory that distinct stages in the organization of memory correspond to successive stages in cognitive development was tested using 150 eighth graders. Cognitive levels were assessed with Inhelder and Piaget's balance beam task, initially, and again at seven months. Mnemonic levels were assessed with Piaget and Inhelder's memory of an…

Assesses the validity of a 20-item scale that purportedly measures long term memory records--in this case, frightening mass media. Evidence for validity emerged in that subjects' scale scores were related to negative emotion, negative cognitions, and skin conductance during film clips of scary movies. (NKA)

Auditory and visual memory span were examined with 13 Down Syndrome and 15 other trainable mentally retarded young adults. Although all subjects demonstrated relatively poor auditory memory span, Down Syndrome subjects were especially poor at long-term memory access for visual stimulus identification and short-term storage and processing of…

Eight-week-old infants learned to execute an operant footkick to produce crib mobile movement in one of two conditions: training duration on (1) varied within single session and (2) consistent across multiple sessions. Results, in contrast with data from 3-month-olds, demonstrated that conditions of original learning influence immediate and…

Reports on research which tested individuals (N=773) for their memory of Spanish learned in high school or college. Data suggest that knowledge is retained and can be accessed 25 to 50 years later, and that what happens during learning, not periodic practice after schooling ends, is critical for long-term memory. (JN)

A study of preclinical medical students' cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills showed students had a very recent CPR course had a significantly lower failure rate than those with courses one or two years previously. The most frequent errors were in chest compression rate and inability to adhere to the single-rescuer compression-to-ventilation…

The distinction in meanings of the English word "educated" and Spanish "educado" is used to illustrate a theory of semantic memory for the bilingual that proposes two lexical stores, one for each language, in close cooperation with and connected by one semantic memory. The postulated relation between the lexicons and the semantic memory is…

Although cognitive psychology is concerned with the processes of knowing rather than with behavior, certain applications of cognitive psychology and learning theory have been achieved: (1) behavior modification; (2) bio-feedback; (3) psycholinguistics; and (4) information processing psychology. (CJ)

Examined the possible facilitating effect of thematic materials in Wason's selection task. Two experiments failed to replicate previous findings. In support of a memory-cueing hypothesis, improved performance was found for an implication rule that was part of subjects' past experience. (Author)

Describes how a behavioral system in Aplysia (marine snail) can be used to examine mechanisms of several forms of learning at different levels of analysis: behavioral, cell-physiological, ultrastructural, and molecular. Focusing on short-term sensitization, suggests how molecular mechanisms can be extended to explain long-term memory and classical…

Two metacognitive strategies, ARROW and BRIDGE, are presented that can be taught to students with language-based learning disabilities to help them manage the long-term memory demands of middle school and high school curricula. A metastrategy is presented that is designed to facilitate the development of strategic problem solving. (Author/CR)