The purpose of this article is to review and critique each of the research studies published in this special issue. We will critique each article, derive one or more instructional design heuristics based on the findings for each study, and provide recommendations for extending particular lines of research. Three suggestions are provided concerning…

A framework for viewing human text comprehension, memory, and recall is presented that assumes patterns of abstract conceptual relations are used to guide processing. These patterns consist of clusters of knowledge that encode prototypical co-occurrences of situations and events in narrative texts. The patterns are assumed to be a part of a…

Most current information processing theories of cognition and memory share one common feature: the structure (state-space) of memory is fixed and retrieval from memory involves searching through that structure. Learning, where it is treated at all, involves transforming one such structure into another. This form of representation is questioned and…

The present study explored the effects of complex relational sentences upon the acquisition and recall of surrounding material in immediate and long-term memory. The study also investigated the effects of an immediate prompted recall test upon long-term retention, and the recallability of different types of content. Reading time (subject-paced; 16…

Two free-recall experiments were performed in which the subjects were required to rehearse items an equal number of times, but the number of items presented at a given time was varied. The main hypothesis was that increasing the number of items presented at once would increase processing demands and decrease performance. (Editor)

Predicts that ill-established cerebral dominance, as indicated by the problems of cross-laterality, would be related both to a limitation in information processing "irrespective of the type of information" (probably manifesting itself even with relatively small amounts of information) and significantly to reading retardation. (Author/RK)

In the present study, an attempt was made to determine whether temporal patterning and speach processes comparable to those obtained with categorized materials are involved in the recall of higher order units formed intraexperimentally. (Author)

Research supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. (VM)

Results showed that naming latency, for both letters and words, is sensitive to the number of items in the preceding list and also to the serial location of the probe item in the list. (Author)

Study based on a master's thesis submitted by L. Gartman to Ohio State University. (VM)

Describes a conceptual schema based on four basic requirements of the learner--stimulation, order, strategy, and meaning. These basic learner requirements are subdivided to describe the instructional environment necessary to provide an optimum fit between the learner and the environment. Fourteen references are cited. (Author/CHC)

Tulving and others (Tulving, 1974; Tulving & Madigan, 1970) have distinguished two kinds of forgetting of verbal information: trace-dependent forgetting and cue-dependent forgetting. Attempts to determine which type occurs in retroactive inhibition of free-recall learning. (Author/RK)

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that proactive interference over a series of Brown-Peterson trials results from a combination of the subject's failure to transfer information to a permanent memory state and failure to retrieve information from permanent memory. (Editor)