Significant correlations between measures of cognitive structure and performance were found using a procedure distinguishing between episodic and semantic memory as an heuristic with achievement test items. The design increased the likelihood of indications of semantic memory. Higher-order and lower-order cognitive processes are discussed.…

Examined the effects of orienting task-controlled processing on text recall of younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Younger adults recalled more when recall was intentional or when preceded by a deep-orienting task. Middle-aged and older adults recalled more when recall was intentional regardless of depth of orienting task. (Author)

In order to ensure the effectiveness of instruction on a new topic, teachers must help students recall prior "prerequisite" learning. The type of learning to be recalled varies with the type of learning outcome expected. (RJG)

Encoding voice information is a cognitively effortful, age sensitive process. For older adults, enhanced voice encoding under the intentional condition, relative to the incidental condition, was accompanied by a significant decrement in sentence recall. The age difference apparently reflects the diminished processing capacity of older adults.…

Horizontal vs vertical associative memory is defined. Vertical associative memory involves chunking--specifying new nodes representing combinations of old nodes. Chunking is the basis of semantic memory and cognitive learning. The hippocampal (limbic) arousal system is critical to the chunking process; its disruption produces the amnesic syndrome.…

Four experiments examined priming between newly learned paired associates through two procedures, lexical decision and item recognition. Results argue against a functional separation of the semantic and episodic memory systems. (Author/AM)

Variables affecting long-term retention are examined: (1) learner history--including ability, prior knowledge and self-confidence; (2) events (teaching techniques) occurring immediately before reading; (3) events occurring during reading; and (4) events in the retention interval, particularly practice effects. The ACT associationist model is used…

Cognitive Flexibility (availability in the individual's repertoire of various strategies and ability to select those most effective to the required task) is suggested as an important individual-difference variable. Some methodological problems in the assessment of cognitive flexibility as related to human memory are discussed. (Editor/SJL)

Investigates the possibility that memory for the conditioned response (CR) may be subject to the same sorts of interference that have been found to operate in verbal and perceptual-motor memory situations. Considers the implications for developing a general theory of memory. (Editor/RK)

Considers whether students will remember only the meaning of a lecture or the meaning plus the actual words used and if there is a difference in the amount of memory for various types of statements. In particular, are topic statements remembered better than mere illustrative material and is there preferential memory for extraneous statements…

Assesses developmental changes in verbal memory from the beginning of elementary school to late adolescence on the basis of data from the Munich Longitudinal Study. Suggests that overall, individual differences in verbal memory performance develop very early in life and are relatively unaffected by differences in educational experiences. (Contains…

Introduces the common theme among the papers presented in this issue, the development of working memory. Underlines the two different approaches presented. The neo-Piagetian perspective attempts to capitalize on the insights of Piaget's work by proposing information-processing accounts of cognitive development. The second perspective stems from…

Attempts the theoretical rapprochement of two theoretical constructs on working memory, neo-Piagetian models and Baddeley's model. Summarizes both types of models, then discusses their similarities and differences. Presents the results of a longitudinal study that supported the idea that these models might be complementary rather than…

Perspectives on reality monitoring and sociocultural learning were integrated in four studies of children's memory of contributions to the outcomes of collaborative exchanges. Findings suggested that reality-monitoring judgments reflect at least two cognitive processes, appropriation and attention to source of information, and may provide clues to…

Two focusing hypotheses were evaluated. First, do adjunct questions, focusing on science concepts and inserted after computer-animated sequences, selectively alter students' attentional processing and thus produce differential learning effects? Second, to these questions still provide enough metacognitive scaffolding to produce differential…