Examines whether children of different reading abilities would benefit from a mnemonic imagery strategy in a prose-learning situation. Consistent with previous findings, mnemonic imagery students remembered more name/accomplishment information than did control students. (HOD)

The current study attempted to further clarify the relationship between speed and span by directly examining whether slower identification of item information is the source of memory span difficulties in learning disabled children. Results indicated that span performance varied directly with naming speed. (Author/LMO)

Reports on research which tested individuals (N=773) for their memory of Spanish learned in high school or college. Data suggest that knowledge is retained and can be accessed 25 to 50 years later, and that what happens during learning, not periodic practice after schooling ends, is critical for long-term memory. (JN)

The effects of text-provided aids on readers' understanding of scientific passages are discussed. Two techniques are pretraining on definitions and signaling. In the experiments, subjects read a scientific passage with either definitions pretraining, signaling, both, or neither. Results indicated these techniques helped readers build mental models…

Describes a poetry workshop in which the teachers intended to teach the students but instead found themselves learning with the students. Discusses the importance of elder poets' use of reminiscence and relationships. Techniques that were used, such as audiotaping and discussion of poems, and formula stems are explained. (CT)

Hypothesizes that overloading the working memory may leave no space for thought and organization such that faulty (or even no) learning takes place. Provides examples of this hypothesis and possible remedies. These remedies focus on design of laboratory manuals and equipment and on curriculum content order. (JN)

Cognitive and educational psychology have much to offer in developing strategies for efficient learning and memory. How mnemonic skills were taught in continuing education and in introductory college-level cognitive psychology courses is described. (RM)

In three experiments, differences between good and poor writers were examined on six cognitive-processing tasks: ordered letters, ironic memory, letter reordering, word reordering, sentence reordering, and paragraph assembly. Both college and high school students were studied. Significant differences were found in abilities to hold and…

Three experiments exploring the relationship of cognitive effort to the differences in word recall between skilled and learning disabled readers are described. Results suggest the amount of cognitive effort that can be effectively expended to produce a distinctive memory trace is related to individual differences in attentional capacity.…

Results of five experiments in which adults and children were exposed to two study strategies for vocabulary learning: (1) repetition of words with meanings and (2) associative elaboration (the keyword method). Subjects were asked to choose one of the two study methods for learning a 24-item list of new vocabulary words. (SL)

The first experiment made use of adjunct questions to manipulate the probability that kindergarten and second-grade children would make inferences during comprehension. The second investigated the relative influence of memory for details, memory for explicit information, and age on memory for inferences. (Author/RH)

Tests second- and sixth-grade students' incidental memory for words under acoustic- and semantic-processing conditions. The findings were predicted by an associative-processing account of incidental memory previously advanced by Ghatala (1981) and indicate that both knowledge-base development and processing activity determine children's incidental…

Explores the use of introspective writing by others as a means of understanding two characteristics of intrapersonal communication: the process of selective memory which defines and redefines personal history and the pattern of habitual thinking which confirms self-identity. Recommends the classroom use of memoirs and journals. (PD)

Discusses learning behaviors where the "picture superiority effect" (PSE) seems to be most effective in biology education. Also considers research methodology and suggests a new research model which allows a more direct examination of the strategies learners use when matching up picture and text in efforts to "understand"…

The relationships of spelling achievement to rote learning, rule learning, and self-evaluated spelling ability were investigated. A questionnaire, a structure task which produced a measure of rote learning and rule learning, and the Wide Range Achievement Test (Spelling) were administered to 50 college students. (Author/PN)