A study of 150 subjects aged 20-84 found that (1) the encoding strategy used was not characteristic of a given age; (2) elderly subjects reproduced less during encoding and retrieved fewer elements during recall; (3) until 74, there was a relationship between the encoding strategy and performance; (4) after 75, memory problems developed…

Considers how memory contributes to a writer's developing capacity for self-expression. Notes that modern applications of classical memory ("memoria verborum"/natural memory and "memoria rerum"/artificial memory) enable students to generate details that flesh out their texts as well as provide meaning to those texts. (MM)

A study investigated the usefulness of the Fisher Association Lists, a computerized system of word associations, in accessing memories and forming new associations with them. It is concluded that the lists are a general aid to creativity by providing access to all the common associations in our culture. (MSE)

Four experiments investigated children's confusion regarding memories of what they said and what they imagined saying. The ability to distinguish imagined from actually uttered words increased with age, while performance in sentence completion tasks decreased. Metamemory suggestions did not affect elaborations. (SAK)

Patterns of memory dysfunction were determined in 50 middle school learning disabled readers (LD) through a hierarchical cluster analysis. Results were consistent with memory capacity theories of LD and provided external validation for classification of LD readers on psychometric measures according to patterns of memory performance. (Author/DB)

Tests two hypotheses: (1) that cued recall elicits significantly more conversational information than free recall; and (2) that conversational interactants recall more of their partner's utterances than their own. Finds cued recall produced significantly higher amounts of remembering than free recall. (MS)

Dutch adults were divided into 4 groups: (1) 26 who remained worried about dementia after reading a brochure about it; (2) 51 whose worry decreased after reading; (3) 7 who started worrying after reading; and (4) 26 not worried before or after reading. Cognitive test batteries showed the effects of the brochure were not in accordance with its…

Two experiments explored six and nine year olds' memory and comprehension of sentences describing spatial or linear relationships. When subjects were instructed to recognize only verbatim sentences, memory was independent of reasoning. When subjects were specifically instructed to recognize the gist of sentences, however, memory and reasoning were…

Grossberg's principles of neural modeling are reviewed and extended to provide a neural level theory to explain how analogies greatly increase the rate of learning and can make learning and retention possible. (PR)

This study investigated whether phonological working memory was associated with spoken language development in 38 preschool children. Significant differences were found, with children who had good phonological memory abilities producing language that was more grammatically complex, contained a richer array of words, and included longer utterances…

Two experiments examined whether infants might use the prosody of sentences to organize and remember spoken information. Results suggest that infants better remember phonetic properties of words prosodically linked together within a single clause rather than a list, and words that are prosodically linked within a single clausal unit as opposed to…

The uncertain status of cognitive inhibitory mechanisms is addressed, focusing on their function in memory retrieval. Four experiments with 249 college students show that classical associative theories of interference are insufficient as accounts of forgetting and that inhibitory processes must be at work. (SLD)

A class of multinomial models for source monitoring is developed and evaluated. These models are capable of taking data from source-monitoring models and separately measuring the cognitive capacities that underlie such data. Usefulness of the models is demonstrated with published data from areas of reality monitoring and bilingual memory. (SLD)

Discusses the establishment of collective memory studies. Addresses six premises for collective remembering that are basic to contemporary scholarship: that collective memory is processual, unpredictable, partial, useable, both particular and universal, and material. Discusses the future of collective memory studies. (SR)

Recall was assessed three times for older adults in three groups: (1) participants in self-taught memory training (n=22); (2) delayed-training control group (n=24); and (3) attention-placebo group (n=23). The self-taught group's recall was superior to the control but equal to the attention-placebo group. Self-teaching resulted in improved…