This book concludes a six-volume review of research and theory on learning and cognition. Its six chapters cover the following topics: theories of semantic memory, comprehension and memory of text, coding processes in memory, perceptual learning from reading, speech perception, and the organization and core concepts of learning theory and…

A listener's inferences about why speakers say what they do can influence what the listener remembers. Psychologists studying memory for discourse have neglected to give attention to the source of the information to be remembered. In a study to determine what effects adding information has on remembering initial discourse, subjects listening to…

A comprehension model of simultaneous interpretation activity raises three types of problems: structure of semantic information stored in long-term memory, modalities of input processing and specific restrictions due to situation. A useful concept of semantic mnesic structures includes: (1) a componential-predicative lexicon; (2) a propositional…

Four experiments examined the effect of input sequence on memory for simple stories. After reading stories written in either chronological or flashback sequence, subjects made a decision about the underlying order of occurrence of two events. Responses were consistently faster and more accurate on chronological sequences under three conditions of…

The literature on performance differences in various tasks as a function of reflection-impulsivity (R-I) is reviewed in this publication. A series of four experiments is then described which involve the cognitive-perceptual basis of R-I of children on a picture recognition memory task. Results from these studies indicated the following important,…

This study examines recall of narrative prose for evidence of underlying structures such as the grammar used in the story's sentence structure. Subjects listened to repeated presentations of a tape recording of two pages from a history book, with verbals collected after each presentation. The subjects used in this experiment were 13 undergraduate…

Thematization, the relative frequency of a discourse referent, and topicalization are conceptualized as related discourse functions. In a probe recall experiment, a word with a thematized referent was a better recall probe than a word with a nonthematized referent. Also, an agent noun was a better prompt than a recipient, and this semantic…

One of man's most distinctive characteristics is the manner in which he stores and communicates information. Language has always been an important part of this process, but recently machines have begun to share the spotlight. This book presents a look at the role of language in the process of communication and man's relation, present and future,…

Studies of recall and recognition short-term memory (STM) were reviewed, and a series of studies of serial recognition memory of normal and retarded children was described. In experiments using a recall procedure there were decrements in initial performance level with decreasing age and IQ but less evidence that forgetting occurred at a faster…

Four experiments were conducted to assess the effects of certain stimulus variables on children's discrimination learning. In general, it was found that word frequency was negatively related to discrimination learning as long as the words were meaningful to the subjects. Moreover, the relationship between word and performance reversed in…

Subjects read narratives about a meal at a fine restaurant or a trip to a supermarket. The same 18 items of food, attributed to the same characters, were mentioned in the same order in the two stories. As predicted from current formulations of schema theory, foods from categories determined to be part of most people's restaurant schemata were…

Naming tasks were used in two studies to test for conceptual organization in young children by comparing the latencies for naming objects in primed vs. non-primed conditions. In the primed condition, a taxonomic category was primed by prior activation of a coordinate member of the same category. In Study 1, 54 kindergarten children were randomly…

The theoretical and methodological concepts for research on aptitudes as cognitive processes are discussed. Individual differences constructs are reviewed in relation to cognitive processing models, and studies of short-term memory are reviewed. A coordinated approach to the study of aptitude as information processing is recommended. (Author/RD)

The purpose of this article is to examine the capacity limitations of the active memory system as seen in the nature of the forgetting mechanisms. (Author/NCR)

Conventional paragraph structure requires that the topic sentence be presented first, followed by connected, coherent sentences. The processing role of these rules was investigated by comparing performance on reading simple passages that conformed to or violated conventional paragraph organization. (Author/SW)