This report describes digital computer simulation efforts in a study of memory systems for two important cases: that of the individual the brain; and that of society, the library. A neural system model is presented in which a complex system is produced by connecting simple hypothetical neurons whose states change under application of a…

A series of four experiments was performed based on a model of human information processing. The model postulates four stages in the processing of an external stimulus: encoding (stage 1), central processing (stage 2), response selection, e.e. decoding (stage 3), and response execution (stage 4). The total reaction time can be decomposed into two…

Three experiments examined the role of contingent associations in learning double-function, verbal-discrimination lists. Some 15-pair lists were constructed of category instances in such a way that the learning of three contingent associations based on category names would mediate correct performance for all 15 pairs. The first experiment gave no…

The purpose of this research was to experimentally manipulate input and output orders of information and separate storage and retrieval components of prose free recall. The cued partial recall method, used in word list recall, was adapted to a prose learning task. Four short biographical stories of about 55 words each were systematically combined…

Research tested an anxiety reduction technique in a computer-based learning situation. Computer-based situations were used because they permitted controlled studies using materials relevant to the real-life needs of students and allowed repeated measurements of state anxiety in response to learning materials. Thus, the relationships between…

In a series of six experiments, undergraduate college students visually imagined letters or words and then classified as rapidly as possible the imagined letters for some physical property such as vertical height. This procedure allowed for a preliminary assessment of the temporal parameters of visual imagination. The results delineate a number of…

The ability of nursery school children to associate pairs of toys was assessed under four experimental conditions: (1) control, (2) subjects manipulating the toys, (3) subjects generating a sentence, and (4) subjects generating a sentence while manipulating the toys. All three subject-involvement conditions produced significantly better…

This paper discusses some methodological, theoretical and physiological issues to be considered in the use of film tests in research relating to visual cognition and memory. One trouble spot in methodology is the use of a square data matrix with an insufficient number of observations in proportion to variables. A second methodological problem…

The purpose of this research was to investigate developmental changes in encoding processes. It attempted to determine the extent to which children of varying ages utilize semantic (denotative or connotative) and acoustical encoding categories in a short-term memory task. It appears to be a reasonable assumption that as associational hierarchies…

Recent theories of verbal memory have hypothesized that memory for a stimulus is not represented by a unitary memory trace, but rather by a coding on several attributes of the event. The present experiment tested the differential forgetting hypothesis in a unique way. Words were presented either visually (V) or auditorally (A) in a continuous…

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that learning under conditions of high arousal should lead to stronger permanent memory and weaker immediate memory than learning under conditions of low arousal. When digital vasoconstriction was used as the measure of arousal, the results confirmed the hypothesis. Learning under high and low arousal…

Eight experiments using as Ss either retarded children, normal children, or normal adults studied the relations of retardation and normal development to the perceptual process of identification. Two experiments were reported on the identification of stimuli varying in either one, two, or three dimensions. Retardates did not perform as well as…

To provide a further test of the paired-associate analogy to retroactive inhibition in free recall, this experiment investigated the effect of presenting both original learning (OL) and interpolated learning (IL) in either blocked category (B) or random (R) fashion. IL-OL Similar (S), IL-OL Different (D), and control (C) conditions were included.…

The memory model, based on information theory proposed by Moser (see SE 013 578), was used to compare the cognitive processing patterns of second and eighth grade Negro and Caucasian students in solving the "parallel circuits" problem. (Connecting two light bulbs and a dry cell so that when both bulbs light, one bulb can be unscrewed,…

From a study on drug treatment effects on the memory and affective functioning of ambulatory geriatric volunteers, the author recommends several methodological accommodations as necessary and expedient to geriatric assessment. Special procedural attention is required by certain characteristics unique to, or exaggerated among, elderly participants.…