The two experiments reported here examined the effects on judgments of frequency of three independent variables: presentation frequency, spacing of repetitions, and orienting task. (Author)

The present research examines the encoding-variability theory and a blend of the voluntary-attention and habituation theories referred to herein as effort theory. (Author)

Two experiments tracked the acquisition of skilled reading as college students read as many as 160 pages of geometrically inverted text and assessed the consequence for memory of skill at reading. Results were interpreted in terms that emphasized an operational basis to memory--pattern-analyzing procedures rather than conscious contents.…

Recently, Nilsson (1975) challenged Watkins's conclusion that the modality effect is a post-categorical phenomenon. In this brief reply the authors argued that Nilsson's findings are not only consistent with the postcategorical interpretation but also inconsistent with the precategorical interpretation. (Author/RK)

The results of this experiment suggest that requiring subjects to simultaneously suppress subvocalization and remember syllables depresses performance slightly, but encoding of speech sounds in short-term memory occurs independently of subvocal activity during the memory task. (Editor/RK)

To what extent does prior knowledge of a superordinate category facilitate recognition of an instance of that category? The results of this study reveal that the facilitating effect of a category prime on perceptual processing is inversely related to the quality of the stimulus information available. (Author/RK)

Attention has recently been drawn to experiments on the extent to which items can be recalled and recognized, and the overall level of recognition. A model proposing both direct-access and generation-recognition mechanisms in recall is shown to provide a satisfactory account of the phenomenon. (Editor)

A negative transfer paradigm was used to assess kindergarten, third-, and sixth-grade children's use of category relations in lists presented for recall. Results showed that negative transfer effects increased with age, with kindergarten children showing no evidence of interference relative to a control group. (Author/MP)

Three possible sources of memory span growth were tested with a modified version of the digit span task. Subjects were 18 students each from first, third, and sixth grades and from college. (Author/MP)

This study supported the hypothesis that the same prose passage would be stored in different memory locations as a function of its relationship to previous knowledge. Subjects told that a reading passage was about a famous person before reading the passage made more false positive errors in a recognition test. (Author/BH)

A reevaluation of a number of experiments suggests that normal and retarded persons differ on short-term memory tasks from the time of initial stimulus exposure. The hypothesis that memory differences are due to differential encoding as a result of more adequate rehearsal by the normal subjects is unacceptable. (Author/BW)

Human visual recognition on the basis of shape but regardless of size was investigated by reaction time methods. Results suggested two processes of size scaling: mental-image transformation and perceptual-scale transformation. Image transformation accounted for matching performance based on visual short-term memory, whereas scale transformation…

Examines the belief that age differences in memory are due primarily to input processes and secondarily, if at all, to retention processes. Examines this assumption by utilizing a test-retest paradigm with varying rehearsal conditions. Subjects were first- and second-grade children and college students. (BD)

Some of the major assumptions and premises of Arthur Jensen's theory of Level I and Level II cognitive abilities are examined using a model of cognitive abilities recently proposed by Das, Kirby & Jarman (1975) and known as simultaneous and successive syntheses. Four areas are discussed: quantity versus type of information processing, internal…

Subjects differing in cognitive complexity formed impressions from either (1) three positive and three negative experimenter-selected traits; (2) three traits of each evaluation generated by the subject in a preliminary session; or (3) three experimenter-selected traits of one valence and three subject-generated traits of the opposite valence.…