A study extended word association methodology beyond isolated word stimuli to investigate the effects of written context on the meanings that proficient readers impart to words. A repeated-measures design was used to assess the responses of 62 sixth grade readers to target words at three levels: no context, limited context, and expanded context.…

Evaluated with 198 grade 5 students, 94 of whom were classified as high socioeconomic status (SES) and 94 as low SES, were corrolaries of A.R. Jensen's distinction between Level I (associative learning) and Level II (conceptual learning) aspects of intelligence. (Author/DB)

A common error in children's attempts to solve verbal analogies is to respond with a word strongly associated with the third term in the analogy. This is known as associative response. A study was conducted to investigate the cognitive processes underlying this response. Subjects, 112 fifth grade students, were administered a battery of tests…

Supports the hypothesis that, with time held constant, children instructed to build relationships between text and their knowledge and experience and among the different parts of a text comprehend that text better than do children who are not so instructed. (AEA)

A traditional cued recall task and an item recognition priming paradigm were used to assess the locus of associative memory difficulties in learning-disabled children. Results for 24 learning-disabled and 24 nondisabled sixth graders are discussed within the explicit and implicit memory framework of P. Graf and D. L. Schacter (1985). (TJH)

The relationship between reading achievement and ability to process verbal information in achieving and nonachieving fourth-grade readers is examined. Evaluation of verbal processing abilities indicated that achieving readers performed better on all abilities measured except automatic word processing. (Author/PN)

A study proposed a sequenced process for inferring word meaning from context in order to investigate experimentally where, within the process, differences between learners of varying skill occur, and to discover the kinds of information students need in order to acquire vocabulary most effectively. Six five-step tasks, each designed around an…

Different effects of instructional strategies on recall and comprehension of terms frequently used in formal analysis of art were examined. The study looked at a synthesis of three theoretical positions: dual-coding theory, schema theory, and elaboration theory. Two-hundred and fifty sixth-grade students were randomly assigned to three groups:…

A study explored a potential aptitude-by-treatment interaction associated with the keyword method of vocabulary acquisition. This method is a two-stage mnemonic process whereby an unfamiliar term is first transformed into a familiar concrete stimulus and then a thematic relationship is created between the transformed stimulus and the information…

A study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of oral language responses as predictors of the reading performance of intermediate-grade students. Responses were considered to be paradigmatic if they illustrated superordinate, coordinate, contrast, or part-whole relationships. Other responses were considered syntagmatic. Subjects were 52 fourth…

Offers three activities for middle school classrooms. Activity 1 uses a newspaper reporter exercise to demonstrate two viewpoints of the U.S. Civil War. Activity 2 develops geographic awareness of direction and distance on a sphere through study of the great circle route. Activity 3 provides associative learning clues and mnemonic devices for…