Semantic knowledge accumulates through explicit means and productive processes (e.g., analogy). These means work in concert when information explicitly acquired in separate episodes is integrated, and the integrated representation is used to self-derive new knowledge. We tested whether (a) self-derivation through memory integration extends beyond…

Study was designed to investigate the effects of color cues and of subject-employed strategies in the development of selective attention in a short-term memory task. (Authors)

Developmental selective learning processes of elementary school age children were investigated using two types of incidental learning methodologies. The purposes of this study were to: (1) compare the effects of the two types of incidental learning paradigms, and (2) determine the influence of different kinds of stimulus relationships on…

This paper reports three experiments concerning methodological issues in studies on incidental learning performance which use verbal and nonverbal procedures and which appear to be hampered by differences in stimulus materials, learning opportunities, and dependent measures. The first study, using 128 children from grades 3, 5, 7, and 9, attempted…

A short term memory task was used to explore the effects of color cues and of a condition that permitted rehearsal as compared to one that did not. Eighty subjects per grade at grades 3, 5, and 7 were tested. A stimulus array consisted of five cards, each of which contained pictures that could be designated as central or incidental. The stimulus…

Among elementary, junior high, and college students, intelligent retrieval methods for recalling 20 letters of the alphabet consisted either of mentally proceeding through the alphabet from the onset and writing down each previously written letter as encountered and recognized, or else first rote recalling some letters and then switching to the…

Tests second- and sixth-grade students' incidental memory for words under acoustic- and semantic-processing conditions. The findings were predicted by an associative-processing account of incidental memory previously advanced by Ghatala (1981) and indicate that both knowledge-base development and processing activity determine children's incidental…

Results as a whole did not support the hypothesis that poor readers show deficits in selective attention relative to age-matched normal readers. (RH)

Normal fluctuations in consciousness and spontaneous trance states may produce inadvertent hypnotic influence in the classroom. Two case studies illustrate how students may be thus influenced by explicit or implicit suggestions, resulting in subsequent self-defeating behaviors. These cases were successfully treated by reconstructing earlier…

This study investigated the effects of distractors on children's task-relevant (central) and task-irrelevant (incidental) recall on a short term visual memory task involving pictures of familiar animals and household articles. The effect of mode of distractor (auditory or visual) and the effect of developmental level were also studied. Subjects…

To study the development of selective attention in children a paradigm was developed in which certain features of the stimulus were designated as relevant for task performance while others were defined as incidental. Performance on the central task was assessed as well as later recall of information about the incidental stimuli, and these two…