These proceedings emphasize multidisciplineary theory and research having implications for behavioral science and/or education. The contributions deal with one or more of the following questions: (1) How can one characterize the knowledge structures which underlie behavior associated with subject matter disciplines such as mathematics and…

This study investigates developmental trends in free recall, with emphasis on rehearsal processes. An overt rehearsal technique was used in which 28 children in grades 3, 6, and 8 were instructed to rehearse out loud while trying to memorize a list of unrelated nouns. Control groups at each age level received standard free recall instructions,…

Recent research has shown that certain stimuli are better remembered 6 months after initial exposure than after one week. An alternative explanation of these findings was tested. The explanation posited that the younger children "remember" as well at one week as 6 months later, but at the earlier testing many do not realize what aspect…

Three studies investigated some variables involved in the psychological processes related to instruction. One study looked at the influence of notetaking, length of the listening-study interval, and thematic organization of the lecture on recall. It found that more ideas were recalled when notes were taken than when notetaking was not permitted…

This study is an attempt to identify one source of individual differences in the extent to which readers learn from text and the means for accommodating it. Eighty college students were administered a series of aptitude tests and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups. The subjects then received six passages, each passage followed by a…

An assessment was made of 5- and 8-year-old children's performance on a short-term memory task under two auditory and two visual distraction conditions, as well as under a nondistraction condition. Performance under nondistraction was found to be superior to that under distraction (p<.001), indicating that the extraneous stimuli had a generally…

The recent deluge of published studies employing sentences or connected discourse as the unit of study has left unsolved the question of whether the two types of materials are essentially similar or importantly different. An understanding of this issue is crucial to theory, since the existence of major psychological differences between the…

The two studies outlined in this report gauged college undergraduates' ability to learn and to recall the content of certain passages when provided with "directed perspectives" or context clues. In the first study, 63 subjects were divided into three groups, were asked to read two stories, and were assigned a perspective (home buyer,…

A verbal concept-learning task permitting the externalizing and quantifying of learning behavior and 16 ability tests were administered to female graduate students. Data were analyzed by alpha factor analysis and incomplete image analysis. Six alpha factors and 12 image factors were extracted and orthogonally rotated. Four areas of cognitive…

A free-recall procedure demonstrated state-dependent learning using alcohol. Information encoded and stored while intoxicated was more effectively retrieved when later tests of recall were performed while intoxicated, as compared to recall accomplished in the sober state. (Editor/RK)

Study habits and memorization strategies were found to differ in fourth grade good readers and poor readers. The good readers also achieved higher recall. With training in efficient mnemonic strategies, however, the poor readers performed as well as the good readers. (GDC)

Elaboration and overt rehearsal are compared as instructional paradigms for memory retention. Superior long-term retention was produced in the elaboration condition when the initial acquisition effects were statistically removed. Short-term data suggest acquisition was complexly affected by experimental condition, I.Q., and task. Elaboration…

High cognitive processing capacity (CPC) students were superior to low-CPC students in prose learning. Of the four learning modes--programmed instruction (PI), control, chunking study outline, and adjunct questions--PI was the most effective. Substantial CPC and performance correlations and poor long-term retention suggested that PI was not best…

Beginning with an identification and brief description of the four major types of memory structures--networks of propositions, intellectual skills, images, and episodes--this extensive review of previous studies identifies many examples of improved retention and transfer resulting from combinations of structures, as opposed to single structures. A…

It was hypothesized that if the episodic structure of a story determines subjects' organization of that story in memory, then variation in structure should affect the organization of information in recall. (Author/NCR)