Skilled and unskilled readers from grades 3, 5, and 7 performed one of three memory tasks on a randomized list of primary word associates. Examined reading skill differences in relation to memory skills. (BD)

Matched groups of normal and retarded readers were required to perform same/difference judgments in which the interval between standard and comparison stimuli was either 0, 1, or 6 seconds. (BRT)

To evaluate the relative effectiveness of two media for conveying narrative information, young children and adults were presented the same story via television or radio. Media differences were found, with children in the radio condition showing significantly more errors in comprehension and memory than children in the television condition.…

Results of a study indicated that adults reading for retention spent more time focusing on syntactic structure, while those reading for immediate comprehension focused more of their time on semantic content. However, the children (fifth graders) used reading strategies that involved mixtures of both of the adult components. (SL)

Examines two sets of variables that influence age-related patterns of text recall--the effects of verbal ability level and text structure variables on text recall of younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Results indicate that age differences in the discovery and utilization of the organizational structure of texts were found to be mediated by…

The Wickens "release from proactive inhibition" task involves presenting several trigrams of one type for several trials and then shifting to another type. College students, elderly community residents, and elderly rest-home residents were compared on the Wickens task. College students were superior in over-all memory. (Author)

Normal and retarded children's use of color, number, length and continuous quantity as attributes of identification was assessed by presenting them with contrived changes in three properties. Surprise and correct memory responses for color preceded those to number, which preceded logical verbal responses to a conventional number-conservation task.…

Results showed that recall of verbal material hardly was affected by the eye-movement task but was much affected by backward counting, while nonverbal material was recalled with the same efficiency irrespective of type of distractor, suggesting different types of storage for the two types of material. (Author)

Tested use of visual imagery for overcoming memory loss in community-living older people with evidence of senile dementia. Patients and caregivers were randomly assigned into one of three training conditions: didactic, problem-solving, or wait list. Recall performance was somewhat improved for subjects in the didactic group. (Author)

Two studies examined progression in children's and adults' ability to monitor attempts to recall event details and the dependence of metamemory on question format. Only with an unbiased question format did subjects give higher confidence ratings after correct than after incorrect answers. When interviews contained misleading questions, children…

Two studies compared the effects of imagery-based instruction and rote learning on the long-term recall of English translations of Chinese ideographs. In no instance was there any indication that imagery-based mnemonics conferred an advantage beyond the immediate test of recall. (27 references) (Author/LB)

Long-term memory differences between 30 mentally retarded and 30 nonretarded young adults were assessed. Subjects studied a picture book after receiving semantic or nonsemantic encoding instructions. Semantic encoding improved the retarded subjects' recognition memory. Once items were encoded at a deep level, the long-term recognition of all…