This study investigates the role of specific inhibitory processes in lexical ambiguity resolution. An attentional view of inhibition and a view based on specific automatic inhibition between nodes predict different results when a neutral item is processed between an ambiguous word and a related target. Subjects were 32 English speakers with normal…

The way cognitive, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) can aid in further understanding of memory span change in children is discussed. ERPs are time-dependent changes in electrical activity of the brain (as recorded by scalp electrodes) following the presentation of a physical stimulus through auditory, visual, or somatosensory modalities. The…

Relationships between verbal ability, semantic category clustering, and speed of retrieval were studied. Lists of 30 words were presented individually to subjects with high- and low-verbal ability under free recall, delayed free recall, and clustering recall conditions. In the first stage of recall, high verbals displayed a significantly higher…

Several writers have suggested that changes in temporal perspective during adolescence are largely a consequence of the cognitive acquisitions held to characterize the period (i.e., emergence of formal operations reasoning). To replicate earlier research, which found little association between adolescents' formal operations reasoning and future…

Research based on author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Graduate School of the University of California at Los Angeles.

This report summarizes the research results and provides a reference. The basic question addressed was, "Is performance on multi-component tasks predicted by performance on the individual components performed separately?" In the first series of experiments, a dual task involving memory and verbal processing components to predict a…

Studies which have utilized low-error-rate linear type programs have not been able to compare the effectiveness of various modes of feedback in correcting error in programed learning. In the present study using 75 university students, it was possible to correct errors without teaching erroneous material by using materials designed to teach 30…

This study examined the relationship of tutorial enrichment of cognitive processes and reinforcement of lengthened response latency to measurements of impulsivity in 3- and 4-year-old children in a typical preschool setting. In a pretest-posttest control group design, 48 impulsive subjects (24 male and 24 female) were randomly assigned to tutorial…

This paper discusses three studies which examined the interaction of dimensional dominance with the attentional components of alertness and encoding. In Study I, twenty 6- and 7-year-olds observed thirty 3-second exposures of a color, then participated in a 40-trial choice reaction time task in which the familiarized color and a novel color served…

Reaction time to verify property statements was examined in the context of two semantic distance factors--typicality of the category member in the subject of the statement, and dominance of the category member's property in the predicate. (Author/NCR)

In seven studies, 7300 U.S., 891 Iranian, 534 Indian, and 216 Ghanaese persons aged four to 99 were interviewed regarding their consciousness. There were cross-national differences. (Author)

Meyer, Schvaneveldt, and Ruddy report that semantic context has a larger effect on visually degraded words than on undegraded words. Degrading stimuli takes place by superimposing a dot pattern over letters thereby slowing information processing. Four experiments explore alternative explanations of this research finding. (Editor/RK)

The study examines the role of conceptual tempo in creativity and problem solving. It was hypothesized that reflective children would do well on tasks involving evaluation components, while impulsive children would do well on typical creativity tasks. Results indicated no significant differences among the conceptual tempo groups. (Author)

Eighty-one university students were given a battery of reaction time tests and a group test of intelligence which yielded timed and untimed scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that speed of information-processing was an equally good predictor of timed and untimed intelligence test performance. (Author/LMO)

Two studies involving 16 and 20 mildly mentally retarded young adults supported a two-stage model for the relatively simple discrimination tasks employed, with initial sensory registration preceding and independent from subsequent central processing. (CL)