Forty children (ages five to nine) with or without reading disabilities, matched for mental age or reading age, completed a phoneme-grapheme learning task. Reading-disabled children took more trials than controls to learn correspondence pairs. Performance on the phonological processing task of short-term memory was the best predictor of overall…

Memory and information processing were studied with public school students, aged 10-15, who had educable mental handicaps (n=60), trainable mental handicaps (n=60), and no mental handicaps (n=60). Study participants completed a picture recall and relocation test, in order to determine if differences existed between the groups based on…

This study investigates whether color and background information in motion visuals have different effects on memory and comprehension of students in various grade levels. A three-by-three factorial pretest-posttest design was used, comparing levels of visual complexity and grade levels. The instructional content was a 12-minute computer animation…

The third of four symposium papers argues that, if instructional methods are to improve learning, they must have two aspects: a direct trace to a specific learning process, and empirical support that demonstrates their significance. Focusing on the tracing process, the paper presents an information processing model of learning that can be used by…

A framework for describing relationships among the different linguistic systems in a bilingual or second language learner is proposed. The framework attempts to represent the ways in which knowledge of one language is used in integrating into memory new knowledge about another language. The model is partially implemented in a computer program that…

One cognitive theory of spelling states that the spelling of words can be produced in one of three ways, depending on the amount and kind of information stored in the memory about a particular word. Assuming this theory as a foundation, this study reviewed two forms of computer assisted instruction developed in an effort to build an instructional…

This study assessed the effects of bizarreness, prompt modality, and prompt type for 144 five and eight year-old children on recognition memory of pictorial pairs. Presentation of stimuli was self-paced, allowing for the collection of study time and response latency data, as well as recording number correct. While both bizarre and nonbizarre forms…

This paper explores the concept of metamemory, generally defined as the individual's knowledge of and awareness of memory. The concept of metamemory is compared to three other categories of memory and a model of what the growing child could conceivably acquire in the domain of metamemory is presented. Brief reviews of existing research relations…

This study involved fifty-eight 3-year-olds. It sought to determine whether the preschoolers could learn to discriminate visually the critical elements of shape through a program of perceptual-motor training, transfer such knowledge to similar but different shapes, and then resist the process of forgetting the critical elements. The children were…

Discusses a study that examined the role of four cognitive factors (formal reasoning ability, prior knowledge, field dependence/independence, and memory capacity) on achievement in chemistry as measured by tests of lab application, chemical calculations, and content knowledge. Reports the significance of prior knowledge and formal reasoning…

Discusses some of the difficulties involved with chemistry laboratory experiences and some laboratory manuals. Cites studies that indicate that part of the difficulty can be attributed to constraints relating to the short-term memory of the operational information and the assumption that students have a certain level of knowledge. (TW)

The effect of auditory free recall on four lists of monosyllabic word ensembles was studied in 10 learning-disabled and 10 nondisabled first grade boys. (Author/PHR)

Women students ages 35-55 wrote about their experiences in formal education, focusing on being exposed, being different, mother's expectations, being chosen, being included, and understanding the rules. Analysis indicated the centrality of relationships in construction of self-concept as learners and the persistence of these beliefs into…

This paper presents a general framework for the process of answering questions from memory. The focus is primarily on verification and recognition tasks. Six experiments support the assumptions of the proposed framework. The experiments are designed to address the following categories of inquiry: (1) Can we adjust our strategy preference to mirror…

The focus of the presentation pertains to the informational consequences of knowledge of results. Knowledge of results is assumed to be corrective in that the learner is informed that a previous response(s) was wrong. Provided the learner has an opportunity to rehearse or practice following feedback, the feedback procedure or session is in a sense…