Two experiments, involving 90 first-grade children, were conducted to test a retrieval-inefficiency explanation for the failure of visual imagery to facilitate young children's prose recall. (Author/MP)

Reports three experiments investigating the relationship of the suffix effect and echoic memory. Shows that echoic memory persists for at least 20 seconds. Illustrates that echoic memory can be used to establish a more effective nonechoic memory. Shows that recency recall is higher to auditory than to visual items. (PMJ)

A schema-based framework for representing knowledge and prose organization was studied. Testing of a script pointer and tag hypothesis confirmed that memory discrimination is better for atypical actions in a passage than for typical script actions and that there is no memory discrimination for very typical actions. (SW)

Investigated was the hypothesis that high arousal increases processing of physical characteristics and reduces processing of semantic characteristics. While introverts and extroverts had equivalent scanning rates for physical features, introverts were significantly slower in searching for semantic features of category membership, indicating…

This review of the concept learning literature indicates that the greater effectiveness of field-independent learners is related to memory efficiency and the ability to conduct combinatorial analysis. Short-term memory and free recall studies suggest factors contributing to the less efficient memory of field-dependent learners. (Editor/SJL)

Discusses the relationship between language impairments and memory. A discovery process that can be used to determine the degree to which children's long-term memories vary across recall content and contexts, and a method for determining which memory facilitation strategies are the most effective are discussed. (CR)

Explains how many of the narratives told by children are mapped onto frameworks carried in long-term memory. Assessment methods that speech-language pathologists can use to determine whether a child can use narrative frameworks and how to explain the assessment results are discussed. (Author/CR)

The influence of feedback on the cognitive task performance of 30 adults with mental retardation having either high or low self-esteem was assessed. All subjects performed two memory tasks (easy, difficult) under one of three feedback conditions (social, computer, and no feedback). Social feedback was most effective in altering the positive…

Two meta-analyses, one with 27,973 subjects in 31 studies and one with 34,262 subjects in 141 studies, found that tests of short-term memory are valid predictors of job and training performance and that racial differences are smaller than is usual on cognitive tests. (SLD)

Examines the effects of Urdu, a phonologically transparent orthography with regular letter-sound correspondences, on the development of reading in English. Finds that children with high levels of vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness in Urdu were more likely to do well with English reading tasks as opposed to visual memory tasks. (CMK)

Two experiments examined effects of a cognitive interview on 4- and 8-year-olds' correct recall and subsequent reporting of misinformation. Found that a cognitive interview elicited more correct details than a control interview. Eight-year-olds' reports were more complete than 4-year-olds', with more correct person, action, object, and location…

Ten junior high students with developmental disabilities were studied using three conditions--different listening, repeated listening, and repeated listening with immediate retells--to observe the retention and fluency of delayed retelling. Results indicated that repeated listenings of an audiotaped instruction with immediate retells correlated…

Investigated whether the pseudoword repetition difference between poor and normal readers in the Netherlands could be explained by differences in memory for verbal materials or in familiarity with the composition of verbal materials. Concludes that the pseudoword repetition of poor readers is already operative in early, perceptual states of…

Studied preschoolers' and first through third graders' judgments about forgetting. Found that children believed central events of a story would be retained better than peripheral details; preschoolers and first graders believed memory was invulnerable to suggestion; and older children believed suggestibility and interference were less likely over…

Examines how twentieth-century Asian women writers have been and continue to be marginalized by gender, by the choice of writing in English, and, when the writer is a member of a minority, by the prevailing majority power structure. The author's recollections of experiences in Malaysia form the basis for discussion. (39 references) (JL)