This research investigated whether episodic memory development can be explained by improvements in relational binding processes, involved in forming novel associations between events and the context in which they occurred. Memory for item-space, item-time, and item-item relations was assessed in an ethnically diverse sample of 151 children aged…

A longstanding and fundamental debate in developmental science is whether knowledge is acquired through domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms. To date, there exists no tool to determine whether experimental data support one theoretical approach or the other. In this article, we argue that the U- and N-shaped curves found in a number of…

Picture-grouping and word-association tasks were used to evaluate the hypothesis that paradigmatic (same form class) word associates are not always categorical and may be a function of the child's understanding of interactive and categorical relations. (SB)

Young, middle-age, and old adults ranked similarities of word pairs in a conditional rank-ordering task. Analyses of variance revealed an age-related decline in semantic processing but no such decline for elaboration. Older adults' retrieval was less compatible with initial processing than was the case for younger adults. (Author/ABB)

Considers reasons for infants' selective looking and information gathering. Discusses three general theoretical issues raised by studies of selective looking, related to type of information gathered, speed of processing time, and the effect of prior exposure on processing time. Considers these issues in relation to Needham's study of infant…

Describes four experiments that examined the ability of second- and fifth-grade children and college adults to use "extra-list" cues to retrieve episodic information from memory. Shows that effective cue use varied with both the "match" of cue and event classification, and with the associative structure of permanent memory.…

The factors underlying memory performance in learning are shown to be affected by strategic processing and by automatic processing. Strategic processing is under the conscious control and effort of the learner while automatic processing is dependent on the strength of associations between new concepts and known concepts in a given domain.…

Argues for an informational processing explanation for young infants' ability to use featural cues to differentiate objects, centering on the development of infants' ability to integrate both featural and object information. Considers information processing propositions and evidence on object segregation. (JPB)

Discusses connections between infants' use of object knowledge in recognition to computational, psychophysical, and neurophysiological research on adult perceptual segmentation and grouping. Considers these connections through a framework of the tasks and information involved in adult object segregation, and interprets Needham's results in this…

Two sets of tasks designed to measure operational thinking and the problem-finding skill of asking general questions were administered to 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children. Analyses performed on the quality of the children's questions revealed developmental trends consistent with earlier work on problem finding. (Author/JMB)

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…

Describes two studies in which young children were shown pictures that represented sound with postures and contexts, with conventions, and with combinations of information. Shows that the different types of pictorial representation of sound were not equivalent in their ability to evoke a correct interpretation. (HOD)

Study examined word associations from the perspective of cognitive level and thought processes. (Authors/MB)