Development of the ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory: Evidence from strategy-selection tasks.

Four experiments investigated developmental changes in children's knowledge about the types of strategies that are appropriate for achieving the goals of comprehension or memorization. We assessed 1st and 3rd graders' recognition of the differential effectiveness of a memorization strategy (repetition) and a comprehension strategy (pictorial clarification of problematic words) for achieving memorization (verbatim recall of block-building instructions) or comprehension (following instructions for constructing a block building). Only 3rd graders distinguished between comprehension and memorization by consistently selecting the more effective strategy for both memorization and comprehension. Children's ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory in their strategy selections may depend, in part, on whether the context provides clear, concrete, overt, behavioral criteria for defining memorization and comprehension as distinct goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exact and conceptual repetition dissociate conceptual memory tests: Problems for transfer appropriate processing theory.

Tested whether a conceptual implicit memory test exhibited repetition effects similar to those found in free recall. 555 Ss participated in 3 experiments. In Exp 1, Ss rated a series of target words and their associates according to their degree of pleasantness in the implicit word-fragment completion and cued recall, and category cued and free recall tests. In Exp 2, Air Force recruits were tested on the category instance generation (CIG) and 4 additional tests in Exp 1. Exp 3 tested the Ss for CIG or category cued recall using instructions for relational process. Both CIG and category cued recall exhibited conceptual repetition effects. Category cued recall showed important differences between CIG and free recall. Theoretical implications are discussed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of functional working memory in the reading span test.

Two issues were investigated in 2 experiments: (1) the validity of a reading span test that combined a knowledge verification task with a secondary task of word memorization and (2) the hypothesis that word recall reflects the amount of working memory that is functional in reading. In Exp 1, the validity and reliability of the reading span measure were determined. In Exp 2, it was reasoned that if word recall reflected functional working memory in reading, then 2 results should be observed. The 1st predicted result was that prior exposure to sentences used in the reading span test would release working memory resources and improve word recall. The 2nd was that word recall, though correlated with general working memory and verbal knowledge measures, would add to these scores in predicting comprehension. Both sets of results were obtained, supporting the hypothesis that the reading span test measures functional working memory in reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inducing children to generate mnemonic organizational strategies: An examination of long-term retention and materials.

Investigated whether children's strategy transfer is influenced by prior experience in a memory context. Specifically, experience with highly related materials was predicted to facilitate subsequent use of organizational strategies and recall of low-associated items. In Exp 1, 3rd graders induced to use organizational strategies through exposure to categorical materials demonstrated better recall and organization, both immediately and 3–5 days later, than children explicitly trained in strategy use. Exp 2 examined age-related differences in materials that would induce children to generate organizational strategies on their own. Third graders exposed to categorical materials exhibited better recall and organization of low associates, whereas functional materials facilitated 6th graders' performance. In both experiments, metamemory and simulated teaching instructions mirrored memory performance. Without direct instruction, experience with strongly associated materials induces children independently to discover and use organizational strategies with less-related materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental differences in organization and recall: Training in the use of organizational techniques.

Used an alternating sort-recall procedure in 3 experiments to train 204 elementary school children in the use of organizational techniques as memory aids. All Ss sorted a group of words into 2–7 categories, and some Ss were required to learn the sorting patterns generated by adults. In Exp I, the semantic sophistication of a S's sorting style predicted recall performance. Further, the tendency to improve memory performance as a result of being constrained to adult sorting patterns varied with age; constrained 5th graders significantly improved their recall, whereas the recall of 3rd and 7th grade Ss was not affected by this training. However, more detailed organizational training in Exp II facilitated the recall of 3rd graders. In Exp II, it was found that the constraining procedure was not necessary for facilitation to be observed. Rather, instructions to group words on the basis of meaning were sufficient to produce improved recall. Further, improvements in sorting style accompanied all significant changes in recall. Findings are discussed in terms of a discrepancy between the information which a child has in permanent memory and that which he uses spontaneously in the context of a memorization task. The importance of input organization as a mediating factor in memory performance and development is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfert d'une stratégie de mémorisation chez des enfants de 10 ans: étude des différences individuelles.

Studied spontaneous or induced use of an organization strategy on free recall tasks by children differing with regard to perceptual field dependence–field independence (i.e., global vs analytic perceptual style). Human Ss: 72 normal male and female school-age children (mean age 10 yrs). In a 2 by 2 by 2 experimental design, Ss were divided into 8 groups according to gender, perceptual style (global vs analytic), and treatment (control vs experimental). The groups received a brief illustration of a semantic organization strategy designed to promote memorization of verbal material. Ss performed 3 successive and identical recall tasks followed by 2 different tasks requiring either a transfer of maintenance or a transfer of generalization. Intergroup differences in memorization strategies and recall performances were analyzed. Tests used: The Group Embedded Figures Test. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term memory for knowledge learned in school.

Three experiments examined students' long-term retention of knowledge learned in college courses. In Exp 1 retention was measured 4 and 11 mo after the term ended. Students retained a great deal of what they originally learned, and there were no differential forgetting effects as a function of level of original learning. Exp 2 compared retention for recall test items and 3 types of multiple-choice test items: recognition, comprehension, and mental skills. Students performed poorer on recall items, but there were no differences among the multiple-choice items measuring the other types of tasks. Exp 3 analyzed retention for student tutors. Tutors retained more after 4 mo than the students they tutored. This suggests that tutoring, a type of overlearning, has positive effects that are maintained over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Text structure and children's comprehension and memory for expository material.

Investigated the effects of instruction focusing on text structure on 90 5th graders' comprehension and memory for expository material. In 2 experiments, instruction in a hierarchical summarization study strategy focusing on the organization of ideas in text was compared with the more conventional classroom procedure of answering questions after reading. In Exp I, the experimental instruction group had short-answer test scores as high as the conventional instruction group and recall and organization scores that were higher. Similar results were not found in Exp II, an attempt to replicate Exp I. Further analyses revealed that the differences between the studies may have been due to differences in Ss' ability to master the study strategy. It is concluded that even though instruction in a study strategy focusing on text structure can enhance elementary school students' memory for expository material, as is typically found in their content area textbooks, it seems that students must be able to perform the study strategy reasonably well before it will markedly improve their recall. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive response, recall, and persuasion.

Although the mere exposure effect has been researched widely, surprisingly little is known about the attitudinal and cognitive effects of message repetition. It was hypothesized that the sequence of topic-relevant thoughts generated in response to a (repeated) persuasive message would parallel attitude change. To test this prediction, 2 experiments were conducted. In Exp I, 133 undergraduates heard a communication either 0 (control), 1, 3, or 5 times in succession, rated their agreement with the advocated position, and listed the message arguments they could recall. In Exp II, 193 undergraduates heard a communication either 1, 3, or 5 times, rated their agreement, listed their thoughts, and listed the message arguments they could recall. In both experiments, agreement first increased, then decreased as exposure frequency increased (regardless of the position advocated), but agreement was unrelated to the recall of the message arguments. In Exp II, analyses of the listed thoughts revealed that counterargumentation decreased, then increased, whereas topic-irrelevant thinking increased as exposure frequency increased; as expected, only topic-relevant thoughts were related to agreement. Results are interpreted in terms of an attitude-modification model in which repetition and content of a persuasive advocacy affect the type and number of thoughts generated; these thoughts, in turn, affect the attitudinal reaction to the advocacy. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists.

Two experiments (modeled after J. Deese's 1959 study) revealed remarkable levels of false recall and false recognition in a list learning paradigm. In Exp 1, Ss studied lists of 12 words (e.g., bed, rest, awake); each list was composed of associates of 1 nonpresented word (e.g., sleep). On immediate free recall tests, the nonpresented associates were recalled 40% of the time and were later recognized with high confidence. In Exp 2, a false recall rate of 55% was obtained with an expanded set of lists, and on a later recognition test, Ss produced false alarms to these items at a rate comparable to the hit rate. The act of recall enhanced later remembering of both studied and nonstudied material. The results reveal a powerful illusion of memory: People remember events that never happened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processing by prelingual deaf students as a function of language context.

Investigated the influence of language mode (print or sign) and syntax (English or American Sign Language [ASL]) on recall, preference, and comprehension. In Exp I, the effects of reading meaningful print passages in ASL or English were tested for 12 16–29 yr old deaf and 12 16–28 yr old hearing Ss. An effort toward comprehension interpretation was supported for the hearing Ss only. Deaf Ss not trained in ASL exhibited a familiarity with ASL syntax not exhibited by the hearing Ss. In Exp II, meaningful passages were presented to 30 15–19 yr old prelingual deaf Ss in 4 language contexts (signed English, signed ASL, print English, and print ASL) in a free recall task. Results show greater recall from ASL than from English contexts. Findings indicate that the visual orientation of prelingual deaf individuals, regardless of training in ASL, leads to the development of a sign-based encoding system that responds to ASL as a familiar language. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental changes in knowledge about different retrieval problems.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine developmental changes from middle childhood to adolescence in metaretrieval plans offered to solve different retrieval problems. In each experiment, 80 children in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 made judgments about 2 problems that were more or less external or internal . The spontaneous responses from Exp I revealed an age increase in the number of different ideas generated for the internal problem and an age increase in the number of children who recommended the highly general strategy of retracing one's steps for retrieval. The forced-choice judgments in Exp II revealed the perception that the internal problem is more difficult than the external one and some discrepancy between the "best" strategy most often chosen for each retrieval problem (Exp II) and the strategy most frequently mentioned (Exp I). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in the use of selective attention by more successful and less successful tenth-grade readers.

Both more successful and less successful readers appear to use the selective attention strategy (SAS) to learn important text information; however, more successful readers tend to learn and recall considerably more important, as well as unimportant, information. The 2 studies reported here investigated the reason(s) for the more successful readers' learning and recall advantage. In Exp 1, 10th graders were asked to read, learn, and recall information from a text on marine biology. Questions were inserted every 4 pages to manipulate text item importance. The results showed that more successful readers learned and recalled more important information than less successful readers because they were more metacognitively aware of how and when to use the SAS. In Exp 2, perceptual and conceptual attention were measured for both more and less successful readers. More successful readers used significantly more conceptual attention while reading than did less successful readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How good is the evidence for a production deficiency among learning disabled students?

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 77(6) of Journal of Educational Psychology (see record 2008-10974-001). Figures 1 and 2 (p. 557 and 559, respectively) are reversed. The captions are correct, but Figure 1 should be above the caption for Figure 2 and Figure 2 should be above the caption for Figure 1.] Investigated the spontaneous use of mnemonic strategies by learning disabled (LD) and non-LD children and adolescents to examine whether LD Ss can be distinguished from their non-LD peers on the basis of strategy use and recall. In Exp I, 105 LD and 105 non-LD 9–15 yr olds were administered a picture study/recall task, in which the strategies of interest were categorical organization during study and clustering during recall. In Exp II, 140 LD and 140 non-LD 11–17 yr olds were administered a paired-associate recall task, in which the strategy of interest was elaboration. In both studies, LD Ss earned lower mean recall scores than did the non-LD Ss. As a group, LD Ss did not differ from non-LD Ss in the use of categorical organization during study but showed less categorical clustering at recall. Fewer LD Ss used elaboration. Despite these differences, recall and strategy use were not useful predictors of classification as LD or non-LD and were only weak to moderate correlates of academic achievement. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantitative and qualitative effects of repetition on learning from technical text.

Conducted 3 experiments with 147 undergraduate Ss to test predictions related to the effect of repetition, levels, categorization, and processing strategy on retention. Ss listened to a taped lecture on the topic of exposure meters for 35-mm cameras and were tested after 1, 2, or 3 presentations. Combined results indicate the influence of a repetition effect, in which the amount of correctly recalled information increased with repetition; no repetition effect was observed, however, when Ss were given an advance organizer prior to the 1st presentation. Also observed was a levels effect, in which structurally important information was remembered better than unimportant information, an effect that increased with repetition. In addition, a category effect was demonstrated, whereby functionally important information was remembered better than unimportant information, with increased effect following repetition. Primacy and recency were observed to be strong predictors of recall on the 1st presentation, while structural importance was a strong predictor of recall on the 3rd presentation, suggesting that repetition produces both a quantitative increase in amount learned and qualitative change in the reader's processing strategy. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unsolicited interpretation and recall of interpersonal events.

Conducted 4 experiments with a total of 246 undergraduates to examine the variables that influence interpretations and cued recall of interpersonal events. In Exp I, Ss were given a set to empathize with or to be detached from a couple who were shown having an intimate discussion on videotape. The discussion culminated in either a seriously or a moderately negative outcome (SO or MO). A greater amount of attribution (AT) and more accurate recall were found for the empathy set vs the detached set. Greater AT was also found for SO vs MO conditions. In Exp II with a different videotaped event, an SO version and a set to remember the event led to more AT than did an MO version or no set, respectively. Memory-set Ss showed greater recall than no-memory set Ss. In Exp III, Ss given a set to anticipate interaction with 1 of the stimulus persons showed more AT and more accurate recall (R) than did Ss given no such set and an SO led to more AT than did an MO. In Exp IV, Ss given a set about the emotional condition of a stimulus person before observing the event exhibited greater AT and more accurate recall than did Ss given the same set after observing the event or Ss given no set at all. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's early ability to solve perspective-taking problems.

Piaget and B. Inhelder (1967 [1948]) claimed that, until 9 or 10 yrs of age, children had great difficulty with perspective taking. J. Huttenlocher and C. C. Presson (1979) showed, however, that these problems were linked to conflict between actual and imagined frames of reference; asking what object occupied a specified location with respect to a hypothetical observer (item questions) led to much better performance. The present experiments extend these findings to younger children: 5-yr-olds (Exp 1); 4-yr-olds, for near and far locations but not left and right (Exp 2); 4-yr-olds for left–right questions (Exp 3); and 3-yr-olds (Exp 4). In addition, Exp 4 showed that memory was not the basis for answering. These data show clearly that preschool children can indicate locations relative to another position. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of keyword on long-term retention: Help or hindrance?

Three experiments assessed the long-term effectiveness of the keyword mnemonic relative to a nonmnemonic (i.e., semantic-context) learning strategy. Following incidental-learning instructions, cued recall was assessed either immediately or after a 2-day delay. The keyword mnemonic produced superior immediate performance relative to the semantic-context strategy. However, after 2 days, there was a marked reversal in performance, with higher levels of delayed recall associated with semantic-context learning. This pattern of findings was obtained when obscure English words (Exp 1) and 2nd-language vocabulary (Exp 2) were the learning stimuli. When practice frequencies were manipulated (Exp 3), increased opportunities for study were more likely to boost the long-term retention of keyword learners compared with semantic-context learners. The implication is that keyword-based memories are especially fragile over time and will benefit from repeated testing and rehearsal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing cue effectiveness: Recall of 500 and 600 incidentally learned words.

Examined prerequisites on optimal memory performance of large amounts of verbal materials in 3 cued-recall experiments with 28 undergraduates. In Exp I, Ss defined their own retrieval cues by generating 1 or 3 properties of features for each of 504 words. Results indicate that the level of recall was directly related to the amount of retrieval information provided. Results of Exp II show that self-generated cues were much more effective than those generated by someone else. In both experiments, performance decreased over 1-, 2-, and 7-day retention intervals. Findings of Exp III, with 600 words to be remembered, replicated those of Exps I and III. Distinctiveness and compatibility of retrieval cues are proposed as 2 necessary prerequisites to perfect recall performance. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilation and contrast as a function of people's willingness and ability to expend effort in forming an impression.

Set/reset (L. L. Martin; see record 1987-01092-001) hypothesis that contrast demands more cognitive effort than does assimilation was examined. In Exp. 1, the impressions of distracted Ss showed assimilation toward blatantly primed concepts, whereas the impressions of nondistracted Ss showed contrast. In Exp. 2, Ss told that their ratings would be lumped into a group average showed assimilation, whereas Ss told that their ratings would be examined individually showed contrast. In Exp. 3, the impressions of Ss low in need for cognition showed assimilation, whereas the impressions of Ss high in need for cognition showed contrast. Exp. 1 also showed that the results were not due to differences in recall of the target information, and Exp. 3 showed that the results were not due to differences in recall of the priming stimuli. Together, the results suggest that the processes involved in contrast demand more cognitive effort than do the processes involved in assimilation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)