The authors report 5 serial-recall experiments. In 4 of the 5 experiments, they show that irrelevant sound (IS) has a retroactive effect on material already in memory. In Experiment 1, IS presented during a filled retention interval had a reliable effect on list recall. Four further experiments, 3 of which used retroactive IS, showed that IS…

Retrieving the answer to a general knowledge question has been shown to involve two metacognitive processes--a feeling-of-knowing that initiates the search of long-term memory and a willingness to continue searching until an answer can be confidently stated. To extend this model, college students were asked to retrieve as many members of 2 natural…

A visual short-term memory task was more strongly disrupted by visual than spatial interference, and a spatial memory task was simultaneously more strongly disrupted by spatial than visual interference. This double dissociation supports a fractionation of visuospatial short-term memory into separate visual and spatial components. In 6 experiments,…

In the single-store model of memory, the enhanced recall for the last items in a free-recall task (i.e., the recency effect) is understood to reflect a general property of memory rather than a separate short-term store. This interpretation is supported by the finding of a long-term recency effect under conditions that eliminate the contribution…

The study investigated whether inefficient interhemispheric communication is involved in developmental dyslexia using multiple tasks. A finger localization task, rhyming judgment task, primed lexical decision task, and a visual half-field presentation paradigm were used. Nineteen dyslexic children (mean age = 13.1 years) were compared with 26…

Listening preferences for two pieces, Prelude and Forlane from "Le tombeau de Couperin" by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), were assessed in two experiments conducted with 8-month-old infants, using the Headturn Preference Procedure (HPP). Experiment 1 showed that infants, who have never heard the pieces, could clearly make a distinction between the…

The transcription factor cAMP response-element binding protein (CREB) has a pivotal role in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and hippocampus-dependent long-term memory. We recently demonstrated that the dorsal hippocampal CA3 region is involved in memory consolidation of spatial information tested on a Morris water maze in mice. To test whether…

Memory work has potential usefulness as a method of helping students explore their relationship to science. Students have multiple early experiences with the natural world, but often these experiences are divorced from their school-based learning. It is known, however, that students use their informal experiences of the natural world in their…

This study investigated the possibility that episodes that deviate from a routine event script are retained in memory, tagged by their unique characteristics. Three groups of 9 preschool children experienced one of three deviations in their normal snack routine: (1) a puppet handed out the snack; (2) a puppet taught the children to play a game…

Many studies have examined group pressure and its effect on an individual. A study was undertaken to investigate the influence of a majority upon subjects and its effect upon long term memory. Undergraduate students (N=18) were selected and randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. Each subject watched a 10-minute segment from a…

Infants were tested in three studies of the acquisition and long-term retention of category-specific information. Results document retention of category-specific information after intervals of two weeks. (PCB)

Assessed the effect of the amount of physical detail in pictures on the picture recognition memory of 7- and 9-year-olds, young adults, and adults over 68. For each age group, recognition accuracy was significantly higher for pictures presented in the simple rather than the complex form. (PCB)

Examines changes in participants' memories for natural conversations over a one month period. Reports that after one month, participants recalled less content and reported more descriptive statements, made more inferences, and were less accurate than when they had recalled the conversations immediately. (MM)

This study examined the effects of familiarity of passage concepts and passage cohesion on retrieval of text information. Results showed that recall of propositions from passages with more familiar concepts was greater. Results indicate that familiarity stimulates elaboration of passage material and elaborations provide alternate retrieval…

Describes a study designed to identify the mental operations that contribute to people's ability to answer wh- questions, that is, questions which request information that plays a particular role in relation to some action or event. Wh- questions are signaled by interrogative pronouns and adverbs like who, what, when, and where. (SED)