A directed forgetting task was used in an investigation of the conditions under which normal and educable mentally retarded junior high school students would disregard irrelevant information. Results showed that irrelevant information in memory interfered with the performance of only the retarded group, when given a minimal explanation of the…

Experiments tested the predictions that words are perceived more accurately in strongly constraining word contexts than in weakly constraining word contexts, and that a strong perceptual advantage would be present for letters in words vs. letters alone or in unrelated-letter strings. Several alternative theories of word perception are discussed.…

Given the currently numerous applications of word-nonword classification tasks in psychological research, the present study was designed to determine the relative influences of a large number of potentially important variables on response time in tasks of this sort. (Author/NCR)

The probability of recognizing a member of a word pair tested with the pair intact was shown to equal the probability of recognizing a single word plus the probability of recalling an unrecognized word. (Author/NCR)

In three experiments, deaf children, aged 6 years 10 months to 15 years 5 months, were presented with continuous lists of items; for each item, they indicated whether it had appeared before on the list. The findings showed consistently strong semantic effects on word memory of young deaf children. (Author/MV)

A correspondence exists between a simplified data collection method employing results from a post test for graphic skills in kinematics, and a rigourous validation method. Examination of test responses for discrepant instances yielded further information of value. Hierarchical patterns of learning and remembering are identical. (Author/CP)

Three experiments (simple versus choice reaction time, Posner letter identification, and Sternberg memory scanning) attempted to determine whether reliable individual differences in cognitive processing exist in children and, if so, whether these differences are systematically related to age and ability. (Author/JMB)

Discusses three experiments designed to examine the problem of the internal representation of meaning of a verbal stimulus. (Text is in Italian.) (CFM)

It is argued that wheather the course of cognitive development is characterized by growth, stability, or decline is less a matter of the metamodel on which the theories and data are based. Such metamodels are representations of reality that are not empirically testable. (Author)

This article describes a series of experiments concerning the relationship between cognitive processes and learning a second language. Similarities and differences between first language acquisition and second language learning by children and adults are discussed. (CFM)

A metacognitive model was proposed as an explanatory framework for spontaneous strategy use. A study in which hyperactive children transferred newly acquired strategies following self-control training and attributional retraining served as an illustration of how components in the model can be used to better understand "spontaneity." (Author/LMO)

To determine if posttests administered immediately following a continuing pharmacy education (CPE) program are reliable predictors of long-term knowledge retention, a portion of three posttests used in three successive CPE programs was readministered to attendees of those programs 8 to 21 weeks later. Posttests do not reliably assess long-term…

The slower progress of semantic memory research is attributed to the difficulties involved in testing the relevant theories. This paper proposes a model for testing such theories using the Continuous Response (CR) task. The model establishes a link between the rate of recall and the semantic relationships among the category items. (JAZ)