Investigated were the effects of two types of stimuli, preferred and non-preferred, on the free recall and clustering of 16 moderately and severely retarded children (mean IQ = 39.12, mean CA = 10.84 years) who were enrolled in public schools. An empirical determination was made as to whether to classify a particular conceptual category of stimuli…

To determine student readiness in any academic subject, teachers must determine individual levels of cognitive competencies children possess.

Two detection experiments were conducted with short lists of synthetic speech stimuli where phoneme targets were compared to syllable targets. Results suggest that phonemes and syllables are equally basic to speech perception. (Author/RM)

Two experiments used the sentence-picture verification paradigm to study encoding and comparison processes with spatial information. Subjects decided whether a spatial description of a geometric figure matched a second figure. Three critical results demonstrated that task-specific variables could be the primary determinants of how subjects verify…

In a modification of the sentence-picture comprehension task (Chase & Clark, 1972), 70 university undergraduates verified sentence-picture pairs. The findings limit the generalizability of any linguistic comparison model; two different comprehension strategies were used consistently by different subjects, whose choices of strategy were predictable…

Investigates the relationship between memory for prose and the structural characteristics of the semantic representation proposed by Kintsch. Results extend the generality of Kintsch's model across a wide range of ages, and indicate that a proposition is more likely to be recalled when its superordinate is also recalled. (EJS)

An experiment is described that involved presenting sentences to the subject for study and then testing single words for recognition (the subject had to decide whether the test word was in one of the study sentences). A large priming effect was obtained. (Author/RM)

Investigates the relationships between levels of cognitive complexity and three levels (graphic, formal, and inferred) of modeling complexity in community college students. (GA)

French sentences with a long ambiguous word just before a target phoneme led to faster reaction times than did sentences with a short unambigous word just before the target phoneme. (Author/SW)

How a child answers questions provides information about how he or she processes input. A child's early responses to questions at age one year, three months, were compared to her responses at one year, seven months, when she was in the two-word stage. (SW)

Twelve one-word-stage children were given minimally contrasting two-word instructions. Since non-linguistic cues were eliminated, comprehension involved making non-syntactic inferences from the word combinations. The children could respond correctly to some of the instructions, and even carried out some unfamiliar activities. (Author/SW)

This experiment examined the spoken serial recall by adults and second grade children of aurally presented lists of digits, synthetic stop consonants, and synthetic vowels. (SB)

Reviews past research and cites new research which suggest that subscores on reading comprehension tests really test the same thing and thus are not useful for diagnosing ability in skill areas. (MKM)

This research investigates the role of speech recoding, particularly its relationship to meaning analysis during reading. Experiment I documents a speech processing conflict; Experiment II analyzes this conflict; and Experiment III demonstrates contributions of speech and meaning processes to reading memory. Results are related to three classes of…

Research has uncovered the underlying processes of reading. Research on three of these processes is reviewed: (1) elucidating a general model of reading; (2) developing word recognition accuracy and efficiency; and (3) improving comprehension through the training of text processing and through enhancement of vocabulary and background knowledge.…