Examined whether a detailed analysis of age-related changes in error patterns could reveal the mechanisms underpinning development in short-term memory. Tested developmental changes among 7- to 11-year-olds in their serial recall of lists of 6 letters, finding developmental differences in the patterns of errors. (JPB)

Interviewed 13- to 34-months olds about their trauma injury within days and after 6, 12, and 18 or 24 months. Found that the youngest demonstrated little verbal recall. Some who could not narrate about past events at time of injury could verbally recall target words 18 months later. Most of the oldest children demonstrated good verbal recall 2…

Examines development of representational thought from the perspective of Jean Mandler's image-schema theory and an action-theoretical approach derived from Piaget's theory. Concludes that empirical findings fail to support hypotheses of early onset, and that representational development is more adequately interpreted within the context of an…

Two experiments used Headed Records memory model to examine preschoolers' performance on a variation of Perner's Smarties task, a false-beliefs test. Data indicated that when the computational demands imposed by the original task are reduced, young children can and do remember what they had thought about the contents of a tube even after its true…

Tested in two studies 4- to 7-year-olds' face recognition by manipulating the faces' configural and featural information. Found that even with only a single 5-second exposure, most children could use configural and featural cues to make identity judgments. Repeated exposure and feedback improved others' performance. Even proficient memories were…

When asked to recall their earliest personal memories, most children and adults have virtually no recollection of their infancy or early childhood. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as childhood amnesia. The fate of our earliest memories has puzzled psychologists for over 50 years, particularly in light of the importance of early experience…

To learn about teachers' conceptualization of memory strategy use, memory knowledge, and developmental changes in these skills, investigators administered a questionnaire to 59 teachers of children in kindergarten through sixth grades. The questionnaire included sections on strategy use, metamemory skills, and memory monitoring and control…

Information-processing students solving problems in the 1960s and 1970s accepted the tradition of early experimental psychology in concentrating primarily on the study of "knowledge-lean" tasks in which competence can usually be acquired over short periods of learning and experience. In recent years, experts have examined knowledge-rich…

Case's cognitive developmental theory was used in an investigation of unconstrained drawings by children 4, 6, 8, and 10 years of age. The objectives were: (1) to look for qualitative changes in drawing at these ages, (2) to relate whatever changes were found to qualitative changes in other tasks during the same period, and (3) to test whether a…

A battery of immediate memory tests was given to eight mentally retarded Down's Syndrome Ss, eight controls matched on chronological age (CA), and eight controls matched on mental age (MA). All Ss were required to identify both receptively and expressively 24 items from the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. There was no significant difference…

The work reported aims at the construction of a sufficient theory of transition in cognitive development. The method of theory construction employed is computer simulation of cognitive process. The core of the model of transition presented comprises self-modification processes that, as a result of continuously monitoring an exhaustive record of…

Developmental selective learning processes of elementary school age children were investigated using two types of incidental learning methodologies. The purposes of this study were to: (1) compare the effects of the two types of incidental learning paradigms, and (2) determine the influence of different kinds of stimulus relationships on…

Three research studies were performed to assess patterns of memory organization with respect to complementary and similarity dimensions, referring to associations based on functional relatedness and grammatical relatedness, respectively. The first study failed to replicate the results of a study by Denney and Ziobrowski (1972), indicating that…

This book, containing conference papers and a summary of activities, focuses on the contributions which current research in cognitive psychology can make to the solution of problems in instructional design. The first three parts of the book include sets of research contributions followed by discussions: part one deals with different strategies for…

The present study was conducted to demonstrate the power of imagery instructional sets to improve the recall of units more complex than in the traditional paired associate (P-A) paradigm and to evaluate imagery as a memory organizer. Forty-eight sixth grade children were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, defined by the…