Tested 54 college students who were rating videotaped speakers on trustworthiness and their tympanic temperature. Concluded that credibility operationalized as trustworthiness is related to physiological arousal, as measured by tympanic temperature. (PD)

This training study examined the modifiability of older adults' (n=73) performance on measures of attentional processes and training transfer to the psychometric ability domains of perceptual speed, memory span, and fluid-crystallized intelligence. Significant training effects occurred for attention measures, and these effects were maintained at…

Of four stories, preschool girls liked one with a female character and feminine activity best, and one with a male character and masculine activity least. The reverse was true for boys. Measures taken a day later showed that children recalled more about stories they had liked least the day before. (Author/MJL)

The World Basic Place Vocabulary Test was designed to provide feedback on place vocabulary capabilities of 13-year-old students in various parts of the world. The results from 12,500 students in 13 countries indicate that this knowledge store is not very great. European students outperformed those in North America. (RM)

The relationship between reading achievement and ability to process verbal information in achieving and nonachieving fourth-grade readers is examined. Evaluation of verbal processing abilities indicated that achieving readers performed better on all abilities measured except automatic word processing. (Author/PN)

Discusses three strategies that help students remember information from the author's point of view: webbing, pyramiding, and think sheets. Notes that each strategy highlights superordinate ideas and shows how ideas relate to each other. Offers instructional techniques for using the three strategies. (FL)

Suggests that disabled readers can benefit from the use of mnemonic devices as they learn to recognize words and identify their meanings. (FL)

Short-term recall of printed English words by deaf signers of American Sign Language was found to be less than that of hearing subjects when ordered recall, but not when free recall, was required. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that a speech-based code facilitates retention of order information. (Author/RD)

Describes how the British use literature texts in the examination room. (HOD)

Twenty-four college seniors summarized a 167-word text. Five days later, they completed a sentence-recognition task and described components of successful text summarization. It appeared that students who summarized efficiently also stored information in memory efficiently. (Author/CJ)

Examined and measured effects of individual differences among the elderly in a cognitive training program emphasizing general learning skills. Memory improvement was greater for learning skill training and social support compared with a waiting list group. Individual variability obscured statistical differences in treatment effect. Examined…

The study reported investigated the role of memory aids in conjunctive and biconditional inductive processes of attribute-identification and rule-learning tasks, using 132 tenth grade students as subjects. Fifteen references are listed. (CHC)