The document provides the final report of a study on metamemory processes (involving the individual's knowledge of his own memory functions) in 120 mildly and moderately retarded children (5-16 years old). Covered in Chapter I is literature on research needs, project phases, general memory development, metamemory development, and strategic…

B. J. F. Meyer's approach to prose analysis is utilized in this paper to examine differences in learning and memory of text by readers across the adult lifespan. The analysis system is described briefly and compared to other approaches. Several studies are then summarized that employ this hierarchical analysis system to study learner…

The process of acquiring knowledge from texts is considered from two perspectives: the learning of the individual facts in the text, and the integration of the facts into a coherent representation reflecting relations among the facts. The former process is presumed to depend on the linguistics content of the text, while the latter process depends…

Memory of incidentally learned material was investigated across three developmental levels in immediate and 24-hour delay conditions. First grade, sixth grade, and college students were assigned randomly within developmental level to one of four experimental conditions: Type I immediate, Type I delay, Type II immediate, or Type II delay. In the…

The elusive phenomenon of individual learning differences was probed via the concepts of transfer and practice at different stages of the learning process. Order of presentation of two films covering different subjects provided the transfer task. Practice was introduced by five repetitions of the films, interspersed among six repetitions of an…

It is difficult to account for the real and easily measured differences in verbal competence. Differential psychologists investigate basic traits from which observed behavior is thought to be generated, but if thinking is viewed as a problem in information handling, research will more profitably focus on the relationship between behavior in…

Subjects were 96 college students who were assigned to eight experimental groups. Five groups took notes during or after listening to segments of a 16-minute tape-recorded lecture. Note-takers reviewed their notes during a 10-minute review session provided all subjects immediately prior to a 20-minute free recall test given 48 hours after lecture…

Research generally indicates that imagery facilitates children's learning on basic memory tasks, such as paired-associate learning. The role of imagery in prose recall is less well defined, however. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the construction of mental images on eight year old's ability to recall progressively…

Mental activities and information learned in one context are not necessarily available for use in another. They often have to be learned anew in the second context, although perhaps with less time and effort. The fact is, however, that relatively little is known about how the activities of the mind affect one another. The study of bilingualism,…

The process of learning with respect to age is discussed. Learning may be defined as the acquisition of information or skills. Three non-cognitive factors varying with age are loss of speed, health, and motivation. Studies on learning in relation to age have not controlled for non-learning factors. Perceptual and psychomotor studies are not…

The generation of dynamic mental imagery is known to facilitate paired associate (PA) learning in older subjects. Wolff and Levin (in press) have reported that children who were apparently too young to generate mental imagery of this kind did benefit from self-generated motoric interactions involving pairs of toys. Since the result was obtained…

Reports on research showing that when an event, or a problem, is repeated, the processing of that event is not necessarily repeated. Instead, sometimes the solution is remembered, and this is shown to influence subsequent retention, as well as such tasks as word perception. (AM)

Semantic elaboration, a language-based mnemonic strategy, was taught to 15 students (aged five to nine years) with moderate learning difficulties over a six-month period, using pictures as stimuli. Among reported results was an improvement in overall performance on memorization of pairs of pictures. Generalization to items not used during teaching…

Describes activities designed to help students think critically and to accurately process information. (FL)