This study compared factors contributing to Quick Incidental Learning of new vocabulary by 50 5-year olds with specific language impairment (SLI) and 2 comparison groups. Although SLI children exhibited a robust representational mapping ability, performance was modulated by a minimum input constraint and apparent problems with storage into…

Discusses how the storyteller dolls and myths of the Pueblo Indians illustrate the important influence that folktales, legends, and myths can have on children's language development, cultural appreciation, memory, imagination, and values. (MDM)

Normal fluctuations in consciousness and spontaneous trance states may produce inadvertent hypnotic influence in the classroom. Two case studies illustrate how students may be thus influenced by explicit or implicit suggestions, resulting in subsequent self-defeating behaviors. These cases were successfully treated by reconstructing earlier…

A survey of 183 Hawaii students (ages 15-19) and interviews with a subsample of 93 students investigated subjects' memories about elementary school experiences involving peers with severe disabilities. Analysis revealed that earlier social contact resulted in more positive attitudes, higher levels of current reported social contact, and more…

Examined the relation between phonological memory and foreign language learning by analyzing the correlations between pseudoword repetition performance and English test performance among 41 Finnish primary school pupils. Results found significant correlations between pseudoword repetition and foreign language learning. (18 references) (MDM)

This article presents the whole-language approach as an environment that is particularly suitable for students with learning disabilities. This approach can allow students control over their learning, encourages them to experiment and take risks in their learning, promotes self-monitoring strategies, and enhances memory. (SW)

Measures of IQ, verbal short-term memory, speech perception, and phonological awareness were administered to 136 3rd and 4th graders. Structural equation modeling revealed that IQ, speech perception, and verbal short-term memory each contributed unique variance to the phonological awareness construct. Results underscore the importance of speech…

Evaluation of a classroom mnemonic instructional method to teach science content to 19 mildly disabled students (grades 6-8) found mnemonic instruction resulted in improved initial content acquisition, higher delayed-recall scores than traditional instructional procedures, and generalization of mnemonic strategies to novel content. Students…

Describes transactional strategies instruction, an approach to teaching reading comprehension in elementary classes that focuses on student and teacher transactions with text. Contends that the approach differs from traditional strategy instruction. Provides examples of transactional strategies instruction, including dialogs between teachers and…

Decoding, working memory, and domain-specific prior knowledge were studied as predictors of comprehension for 48 university undergraduate students after rewriting notes, rereading notes, or rereading a text. Working memory was most important for comprehension of text-implicit information, whereas knowledge was relatively more important for…

First and second graders studied words by means of a talking computer system that highlighted and pronounced orthographic units in words that were touched with a light pen. Results suggest that presenting words as wholes is at least as helpful for short-term learning as presenting them segmented. (LB)

Measures of vocabulary, phonological memory, nonverbal intelligence, and reading were taken from 80 children at ages 4, 5, 6, and 8 years. Comparisons revealed a significant shift in the causal underpinnings of the relationship between phonological memory and vocabulary development before and after age five. (Author/LB)

Discusses the use of autobiography and personal memoirs as teaching tools in the history classroom. Presents information from Henry Watterson's autobiography that discusses the life of Jane Cazneau. Points out flaws in which incorrect information is presented as true. Includes a complete lesson plan for use with the example. (DK)

In a study of recall in gamelike and lessonlike contexts, 4- and 5-year-old children were asked to remember or to play with a set of 16 pictures or toys in a naturalistic or laboratory setting. The children's behavior and language were measured during two-minute study phases, after which recall was assessed. (BC)

The effects of controlling for individual differences in simple reaction time (RT) on the correlations of choice RT and discrimination RT with intelligence quotient were studied for 213 male college students. Simple RT was controlled by subtraction, partial correlation, and multiple correlation. (SLD)