Contrasts changes in semantic memory in elderly normal controls and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients before patients expressed symptoms. Found that controls generated more uncommon exemplars from closed semantic categories (fruits and vegetables) than did AD patients prior to presumed onset of AD. AD patients were just as productive as controls…

Examined 225 Chinese young adults from only-child families and those with siblings to determine relationship between childhood memory and self-description. Found that, compared to subjects with siblings, only-children subjects had more private and fewer self-descriptions, earlier first memories, more specific and more self-focused memories. (LBT)

The nature and magnitude of practice effects on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (D. Wechsler, 1987) were studied with 64 adult college students. The clinically meaningful increase observed across the four test sessions highlights the importance of controlling for practice effects on repeated administration of neuropsychological measures. (SLD)

Contains two major parts: (1) summarizes research exploring interactions between metamemory and domain-specific knowledge in influencing children's text recall and comprehension; and (2) describes an experiment investigating the generalization of findings that metacognitive knowledge is important even where domain-specific knowledge is rich to…

Considers predictions derived from an instance-based model of effects of age of acquisition on face categorization. Describes test of predictions, which found that speed of college students' categorization of 185 faces from two television programs was influenced by frequency of occurrence on the show, time the characters were in the show, and time…

Proposes a theory of social cognition to account for the comprehension and verification of social information. The theory views comprehension as a process of constructing situation models of new information on the basis of previously formed models about its referents. The comprehension of both single statements and multiple pieces of information…

Describes a new theory of likelihood judgments based on D. L. Hintzman's (1984, 1988) MINERVA2 memory model. The model, MINERVA-DM (decision making), accounts for a wide range of likelihood-judgment phenomena. Extends the model to expert-probability judgment and shows how MINERVA-DM can account for both good and poor calibration (overconfidence)…

Demonstrates that reactivation of unsatisfied goal information depended on the type of original goal context and whether it was fully reinstated and that reinstatement of goal information from the distant target episode was successful only when the context was fully reinstated. Supports models of comprehension that assume reactivation of relevant…

Tests two views of how relevant global information becomes readily available to readers. Demonstrates that backgrounded information became readily available if it shared features in common with the current contents of working memory. Shows that this occurred independently of whether the information was relevant or thematically related;…

Proposes a model to account for the uses to which the individual puts formulaic language, and specifically, what determines the choice for that person of a holistic or analytic processing strategy at any given moment. Formulaic language is used to describe a phenomenon that encompasses various types of wordstrings that appear to be stored and…

Older diabetic adults should receive memory training to improve their compliance with medication taking. The intervention should include comprehensible medical instructions, assistance with remembering the nutritional values of food, and higher order skills for disease management. (SK)

The role of distinctiveness in the differential memory performance of visual and verbal elaboration strategies was studied with 28 undergraduates who learned information about familiar and unfamiliar animals using visual or verbal elaboration strategies. Imagery-using students organized unfamiliar animal information into intact sets more than…

Responds to a commentary regarding recovered memories of sexual abuse. Claims that the nature of recovered memory makes it extremely difficult to devise meaningful studies that address these concerns. Examines the client base, the personal history of child abuse, the professionalism of the therapist, and the content of client memories. (RJM)

Our memories are not necessarily "bad," but stored in different areas. By understanding the five memory lanes (semantic, episodic, procedural, automatic, and emotional), a high school English teacher discovered why her students could not do fractions (to calculate grades) in English class. Paper-and-pencil tests can be redesigned to assess memory…

The Memory Workout, a CD-ROM program designed to help older adults increase changes in physical and cognitive activity influencing memory, was tested with 24 subjects. Results revealed a significant relationship between exercise time, exercise efficacy, and cognitive function, as well as interest in improving memory and physical activity.…