The spelling for writing list

Four different vocabulary lists based on the study of children's writing were used to generate a basic spelling list for students with learning disabilities and other poor spellers. For each vocabulary list, the smallest number of different words that accounted for 80% of the words children used in their writing were identified. Words that were common to only one or two of the lists or not normally used by children until fourth grade or later were eliminated. Each word was assigned a grade placement based on difficulty, pattern of occurrence in children's writing, and placement on current vocabulary lists and spelling materials. The resulting spelling list of 335 words is provided.     

Phenomenologies as research methodologies for nursing: from philosophy to researching practice

The effects of synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were assessed in 19 healthy male volunteers while they performed a visual continuous word recognition task. The study used a double-blind cross-over design. Specifically, word lists were manipulated to contain an equal number of emotionally neutral, negative, and positive words. Most words were repeated after several intervening items with the subject's task to classify each word as old (previously seen) or new. Behaviorally, a decrease in recognition rate was observed under THC but no influence of the emotional charge of a word on recognition rate was seen. The ERPs showed a typical difference between old and new words taking the form of an enhanced positivity for old words beginning 250 ms poststimulus. The effects of THC were confined to the positive words, for which an enhancement of the positivity to the old words was seen. This effect was interpreted in terms of a congruity of the drug-induced mood state and the material to be recognized. The dissociation between ERPs and behavioral indices suggested that the former primarily reflect implicit memory processes.     

The distinctiveness of the word-length effect.

The authors report 2 experiments that compare the serial recall of pure lists of long words, pure lists of short words, and lists of long or short words containing just a single isolated word of a different length. In both experiments for pure lists, there was a substantial recall advantage for short words; the isolated words were recalled better than other words in the same list, and there was a reverse word-length effect: Isolated long words were recalled better than isolated short words. These results contradict models that seek to explain the word-length effect in terms of list-based accounts of rehearsal speed or in terms of item-based effects (such as difficulty of assembling items). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative strength as a mode of organization in recall and recognition: A comparison of schizophrenics and normals.

In 2 experiments, word pairs of high and low intrapair association were presented to a total of 40 schizophrenic and 40 normal adults. In Exp I, 1 member of each pair in both recall and recognition tasks was also displayed as a cue at the time of response. The number of words correctly recalled and recognized by both schizophrenics and normals was markedly greater for high-association lists. On high-association lists, schizophrenic performance was inferior to that of normals. The same lists were used in Exp II, which required the recognition of both words in each pair. Normal recognition was superior only for high-association lists. Results are interpreted as supporting the view that because schizophrenics did not subjectively organize or encode information when presented, subsequent retrieval was deficient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A mnemonic based on arranging words on visual patterns.

Conducted 3 experiments with 264 undergraduates to demonstrate that arranging word lists on distinctive visual patterns results in better recall performance than does presenting the same word lists on a pattern that is always the same. In Exp I, lists of concrete nouns placed on different visual patterns were recalled better than those lists placed on the same pattern. This was true immediately after learning and 1 wk later. In Exp II, abstract terms taken from an introductory textbook in psychology were arranged on the same or on different drawings. When placed on the different drawings, the words were better learned, and what was learned was better retained in memory for 1 wk. In Exp III, both visual-pattern mnemonic aids and story mnemonic aids were provided to Ss for different lists. The story mnemonic was found to be superior. Possible reasons why the spatial-arrangement mnemonic and story mnemonic are effective are discussed. One important factor seems to be the discriminability among the representations of the word lists in memory. By placing words on distinctive visual patterns, this discriminability can be increased and recall performance can be enhanced. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech audiometry using the American Word Lists for Japanese subjects with normal hearing

The characteristics of listening to English words for Japanese people were studied in ten normal hearing subjects who had taken English classes to the level of college graduates and had opportunities to learn English continuously. Following pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry was performed using the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) W-1 and W-22 word lists for English and the 67-S word lists for Japanese. The speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for the CID W-1 lists were significantly higher than average pure tone threshold (PTT), although the SRTs for the 67-S lists were equal to the average PTT. The difference in average SRT between the CID W-1 lists and the 67-S lists was about 15dB, which is statistically significant. The speech discrimination rate for the CID W-22 lists ranged from 78 to 100 percent with an average of 89.5 percent, while all subjects achieved the discrimination rate of 100 percent for the 67-S lists. Analysis with transient matrices of the perceived words demonstrated that the articulation rates were below 90 percent for the consonants /m/, /n/, /p/ and /delta/ . The observed variation in the speech discrimination score and the pattern of confusion among the subjects was assumed to be much more pronounced in noisy conditions.     

Effects of talker variability on recall of spoken word lists.

Three experiments were conducted to investigate recall of lists of words containing items spoken by either a single talker or by different talkers. In each experiment, recall of early list items was better for lists spoken by a single talker than for lists of the same words spoken by different talkers. The use of a memory preload procedure demonstrated that recall of visually presented preload digits was superior when the words in a subsequent list were spoken by a single talker than by different talkers. In addition, a retroactive interference task demonstrated that the effects of talker variability on the recall of early list items were not due to use of talker-specific acoustic cues in working memory at the time of recall. Taken together, the results suggest that word lists produced by different talkers require more processing resources in working memory than do lists produced by a single talker. The findings are discussed in terms of the role that active rehearsal plays in the transfer of spoken items into long-term memory and the factors that may affect the efficiency of rehearsal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors affecting children's reading of rimes: Reading ability, word frequency, and rime-neighborhood size.

Beginning readers were studied in 2 experiments to examine the influence of reading ability, word frequency, and rime-neighborhood size (the number of single syllable words with the same rime) on word and nonword recognition. Forty 1st and 2nd graders read 53 words and 27 nonwords containing rimes from different-size neighborhoods. Children reading at or below a 2nd-grade level were less affected by rime-neighborhoods than children reading at or above a 3rd-grade level. Rimes from large neighborhoods were read correctly more often in lists and stories than rimes from moderate or small neighborhoods, particularly in low-frequency words. As children learn to read, they become increasingly sensitive to rime-neighborhood size. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spatial-arrangement mnemonic.

The spatial-arrangement or word-arrangement mnemonic suggests that lists of words can be better remembered if they are arranged into distinctive spatial patterns. In the present study, 97 undergraduates studied 6 lists of 12 words each. In one condition each list was spatially arranged in the same pattern, and in the other condition each list was formed into a distinctive pattern. A 2nd factor was also tested. Ss were instructed either in the use of the link mnemonic or were given no special learning instructions. Three learning trials were followed by a 1-wk retention interval. It was found that both the link mnemonic and the distinctive word arrangements enhanced recall during acquisition, but only word arrangement had a significant effect on retention. Ss presented with distinctive word arrangements could recall 63% of the words originally learned, compared to 51% for Ss presented homogeneous patterns of words. It is suggested that the word-arrangement mnemonic may be valuable both as a study procedure and as a factor in the design of educational materials. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of talker variability on word recognition in preschool children.

In a series of experiments, the authors investigated the effects of talker variability on children's word recognition. In Experiment 1, when stimuli were presented in the clear, 3- and 5-year-olds were less accurate at identifying words spoken by multiple talkers than those spoken by a single talker when the multiple-talker list was presented first. In Experiment 2, when words were presented in noise. 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds again performed worse in the multiple-talker condition than in the single-talker condition, this time regardless of order; processing multiple talkers became easier with age. Experiment 3 showed that both children and adults were slower to repeat words from multiple-talker than those from single-talker lists. More important, children (but not adults) matched acoustic properties of the stimuli (specifically, duration). These results provide important new information about the development of talker normalization in speech perception and spoken word recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of study strategy in recall of mixed lists of common and rare words.

Experiment 1 confirmed previous findings that common words are more recallable than are rare words when the 2 kinds of words are presented in separate lists but not when they are presented in the same list. Experiment 2 showed much the same pattern when an orienting task was performed during word presentation. In Experiment 3 common words were found to be more recallable than rare words even for mixed lists when no warning was given of the memory test, although the effect was less pronounced than for pure lists. In Experiment 4 stronger measures were taken to preclude anticipation of the memory test, and the effect of word commonness was found to be just as pronounced with mixed lists as it was with pure lists. It was suggested that lists are studied in a way believed to optimize recall and that mixed lists foster a strategy of favoring the rare words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integration of orthographic, conceptual, and episodic information on implicit and explicit tests.

Examined how a prior encoding episode affected the integration of orthographic and conceptual information during incidental and intentional retrieval. 180 college students studied word lists with either shallow (counting vowels in each word) or deep (rating pleasantness) encoding tasks. Half of the Ss received implicit or explicit test instructions for a word fragment completion test containing orthographic cues (letters) and semantically related words. In the implicit condition, the word fragments had to be completed, while the explicit condition involved a memory test for the words seen earlier. On both the implicit and explicit tests, performance improved with an increase in the number of letters and words. Conceptual information processing had a larger effect in intentional retrieval than in incidental retrieval. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging, hearing acuity, and the attentional costs of effortful listening.

A dual-task interference paradigm was used to investigate the effect of perceptual effort on recall of spoken word lists by young and older adults with good hearing and with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. In addition to poorer recall accuracy, listeners with hearing loss, especially older adults, showed larger secondary task costs while recalling the word lists even though the stimuli were presented at a sound intensity that allowed correct word identification. Findings support the hypothesis that extra effort at the sensory–perceptual level attendant to hearing loss has negative consequences to downstream recall, an effect that may be further magnified with increased age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in dichotic listening with categorized word lists.

Two experiments examined the effects of blocking of word lists (grouped by semantic category membership or randomly ordered) on the dichotic listening performances of 48 2nd and 48 5th graders. For Exp I, shadowing and retention scores were obtained for groups of Ss representing the 4 combinations of blocked and random word lists for targets and distractors. Blocking of distractor lists led to better shadowing scores for 2nd graders. When word pairs were matched by categories in Exp II, 2nd graders who heard blocked lists recognized fewer target words (in retention tests) than did those who heard randomly ordered word lists. Results are interpreted in the context of variables that affect the shadowing performances of younger children and developmental differences in encoding strategies. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of divided attention on memory for items and their context.

Examined differences between item and context memory using divided attention at encoding and retrieval. Ss, in 3 experiments, were presented with word lists and were instructed to learn the items (i.e., words), the intrinsic context (i.e., the color of the cards on which each word was presented), and the extrinsic context (i.e., the temporal order of the words). In Exp 1 24 undergraduates (aged 20–32 yrs) participated in a digit-monitoring and memory tasks. In Exp 2 the authors examined the effect of divided attention at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 18–29 yrs). In Exp 3 the authors examined memory performance when divided attention was employed at encoding on all lists, and attentional load was manipulated at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 19–32 yrs). Among young adults, in comparison to conditions of full attention, divided attention applied at encoding only or retrieval only resulted in equally lower performance on all memory tasks; in contrast, divided attention applied at both encoding and retrieval resulted in lower performance only on memory for temporal order. The findings support the idea that memory for temporal order requires greater attentional resources and strategic processing than memory for items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The G?ttingen audiometric speech test for children. I. Speech audiometry of the young and retarded child by a picture-test (author's transl)

The G?ttingen audiometric speech test was developed for testing 3 to 4-years-old and retarded children. The test presents the following advantages: 1. The child is tested by one-syllable nouns. Thus more information by speech-rhythm is prevented. 2. For each word there are given four different pictures, which present words containing the same vowel, therefore a) the possibility of choice remains constant, b) the child won't be overtaxed by too many pictures, c) the possibility of understanding the test-word by hearing the vowel alone is avoided. The test was applied to 122 3 to 6-years-old children in order to get normal values.     

Hearing status and language fluency as predictors of automatic word and sign recognition

In previous studies, evidence concerning the extent of automatic word recognition in deaf children and the influence of language fluency on word and sign recognition (as indexed by the Stroop task) has been contradictory. This study examined the effects of English and sign language fluency in the automatic word and sign recognition of deaf and hearing adults. Results indicated that responding in sign took longer and created more Stroop interference than responding orally. Two groups of certified interpreters revealed this finding to be independent of hearing status. Most important, deaf subjects showed greater automaticity in recognizing signs than words, whereas hearing subjects showed greater automaticity in recognizing words than signs. This pattern was unaffected by language fluency. The findings clarify the results of previous studies both theoretically and methodologically.     

Learning color words involves learning a system of mappings.

This research examines the difficulty children encounter when acquiring 2 specific sets of adjectives, color and size words, and suggests that children must acquire a system of mapping in learning these words. Children were assessed on 4 types of mappings (word–word maps, property–property maps, word–property maps, and word–word–property maps) by completing 3 color tasks. Children also participated in comparable tasks for size words. In Study 1, 13 two-year-olds were followed longitudinally at 3-week intervals. In Study 2, 56 two-year-olds participated in a cross-sectional replication. The results indicate that children acquire color maps in a characteristic order. Children demonstrated a different pattern of acquisition for size words. The results suggest that learning word associations may promote color word acquisition and that learning color words may promote selective attention to color. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using overt rehearsals to explain word frequency effects in free recall.

Three experiments examined the word frequency effect in free recall using the overt rehearsal methodology. Experiment 1 showed that lists of exclusively high-frequency (HF) words were better recalled, were rehearsed more, and were rehearsed to more recent serial positions than low-frequency (LF) words. A small HF advantage remained even when these 2 variables were equated. Experiment 2 showed that all these effect, were much reduced with mixed lists containing both HF and LF words. Experiment 3 compared pure and mixed lists in a within-subject design and confirmed the findings of Experiments 1 and 2. It is argued that number of rehearsals, recency of rehearsals, and strength of interitem association cause the word frequency effect in free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)