What causes children's failures to detect inconsistencies in text? Representation versus comparison difficulties.

Investigated whether elementary school children's difficulties in detecting inconsistencies in text are related to their failure to represent each of two inconsistent propositions in memory or to their failure to compare the representations of the inconsistent propositions to each other once each has been represented in memory. Three kinds of inconsistencies were considered: falsehoods (a textual proposition conflicts with a potentially known fact), factual contradictions (one textual proposition conflicts with another textual proposition, and one of these propositions is a potentially known fact), and textual contradictions (one textual proposition conflicts with a 2nd textual proposition, and neither is a known fact). In Exp I, 80 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-grade children were asked to detect familiar falsehoods and unfamiliar factual contradictions in narratives. Results show that the familiar falsehoods were easier to detect than the unfamiliar factual contradictions. However, in Exp II with 30 1st graders, when the familiarity variable was controlled, no differences in inconsistency detection were observed among falsehoods, factual contradictions, and textual contradictions. Detection failures were related more to incomplete recall of the inconsistent information than to difficulty in comparing the inconsistent propositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explanatory analogies can help children acquire information from expository text.

In this experiment, we investigated whether children can profit from the use of explanatory analogies to acquire information from expository text. Five-year-old (n?=?24) and seven-year-old (n?=?34) children listened to four texts describing relatively unfamiliar topics with or without explanatory analogies. The children were asked to recall the information described in the texts and to communicate this information to another child. They were also asked a number of inferential questions about the topics. The children in the analogy condition recalled and communicated more of the information contained in the texts and were more likely to remember the content units shared by the analogous concepts than were the children in the no-analogy condition. This effect was stronger for the older children than for the younger children. Although the children made a number of erroneous inferences about the topic, these inferences were not related to the presence of the analogies. These results show that analogies can help children acquire information from expository text, presumably because they make it possible for the children to transfer an explanatory structure from a familiar domain to an unfamiliar one. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing personal information about well-known others and the self: The use of efficient cognitive schemata.

Investigated the efficiency with which personality information about highly familiar others and the self is processed and retained in memory. 18 undergraduates (aged 19–24 yrs) made yes/no personality ratings on 48 personal adjectives (e.g., resourceful, orderly). Half of the adjectives were rated for self-reference, whereas half were rated for applicability to a well-known other target person. Each S selected a highly familiar other to rate, and rating times (RTs) were recorded for all of the personality judgments. After the ratings, Ss were given an unexpected free recall test, in which they were required to write down as many of the personal adjectives as they could remember. Findings indicate that for both the self-referent and well-known other conditions, yes-rated recalled words had significantly shorter RTs than nonrecalled words. This pattern suggests the existence of efficient cognitive schemata for representing and interpreting personal information about these targets. A model of other-referent personal information processing is presented. Central to this model is the proposal that familiarity level is a critical determinant of the cognitive structures and processes implicated in other-referent processing. (French abstract) (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in incidental learning.

Examined the effects of age and of incidental-learning tasks on recall of a categorized word list. Ss were 50 18-30 yr old college students and 50 55-65 yr old teachers. The control groups were instructed to remember the words; incidental-learning groups performed orienting tasks, but were not informed that they would have to recall the words. 2 orienting tasks required that Ss process the meaning of the words; the other 2 orienting tasks did not involve semantic processing. Analysis of the free-recall data indicates that the semantic processing tasks led to much greater recall and organization of recall than the nonsemantic orienting tasks. In recall, there was a significant interaction between age and orienting task, with old Ss only manifesting incidental learning that was inferior to young Ss, whose orienting task involved semantic processing. The findings indicate that the presence or absence of an age-related decrement in incidental learning is predictable from the depth of processing of the incidentally acquired material. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of text-based interest on attention and recall.

Attentional demands and recall for stories that differed in rated interest were examined. More interesting stories required fewer attentional resources for comprehension than did less interesting stories (Experiment 1). Overall recall did not differ across story interest, but story interest did interact with type of encoding in terms of recall levels (Experiment 2). Relational encoding improved recall for low-interest stories but not high-interest stories; the reverse pattern was obtained with a manipulation encouraging extensive processing of the individual propositions. We suggest that interesting stories free up resources for relatively optional organizational processing of the text elements, thereby rendering additional relational processing redundant (for recall). Less interesting stories require more resources to keep attention focused on encoding the individual propositions, thereby rendering additional proposition-specific processing redundant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's reading processes revealed by pronunciation latencies and errors.

Conducted an experiment with 30 8-yr-olds to discover under what circumstances, if any, children use whole words, syllables, letter clusters, or letters as units during reading. Using I. Firth's (1972) list of familiar words and syllables, 3 classes of stimulus words were constructed: familiar words, pseudowords consisting of familiar syllables, and pseudowords consisting of unfamiliar syllables. The number of syllables, letter clusters, and letters in these words was systematically varied. Familiar words were found to be easier to process than pseudowords; pseudowords consisting of familiar syllables were easier to process than those consisting of unfamiliar syllables. Results indicate that syllables and letter clusters are probably not processed as units for any type of word, but there was slight evidence that letters may function as units, particularly for pseudowords. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recall and stem-completion priming have different electrophysiological correlates and are modified differentially by directed forgetting.

The notion that different aspects of memory are assessed by explicit and implicit memory tests was supported by behavioral and electrophysiological results. In a study–test procedure, 24 Ss were instructed to remember some words and to forget other words. Free recall and cued recall were better for words associated with the remember instruction, whereas directed forgetting did not influence stem completion (an implicit memory test). Event-related brain potentials elicited during study differed as a function of subsequent memory performance for free recall and cued recall, but not for stem completion. These results implicate encoding differences in the distinction between the 2 types of memory test. Factors governing whether explicit retrieval affects performance on an implicit memory test, mechanisms that may underlie directed-forgetting effects, and the importance of electrophysiological correlates of memory are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehension of familiar and unfamiliar native accents under adverse listening conditions.

This study aimed to determine the relative processing cost associated with comprehension of an unfamiliar native accent under adverse listening conditions. Two sentence verification experiments were conducted in which listeners heard sentences at various signal-to-noise ratios. In Experiment 1, these sentences were spoken in a familiar or an unfamiliar native accent or in two familiar native accents. In Experiment 2, they were spoken in a familiar or unfamiliar native accent or in a nonnative accent. The results indicated that the differences between the native accents influenced the speed of language processing under adverse listening conditions and that this processing speed was modulated by the relative familiarity of the listener with the native accent. Furthermore, the results showed that the processing cost associated with the nonnative accent was larger than for the unfamiliar native accent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detection of Kanji words in a rapid serial visual presentation task.

In 3 experiments, lists of 12 Kanji words were rapidly presented in the same position, and participants reported a red target word embedded in green distractor words. Two lists were used: same and different category. A tendency toward category priming was found at longer durations. Frequency of target localization indicated that participants familiar with Kanji had a greater tendency to report the word immediately preceding the target. These pretarget intrusion errors dominated the posttarget intrusion errors, when the luminance of red and green stimuli were equated (Experiment 2), and when the response was recall (Experiments 1 and 2) or recognition (Experiment 3). In contrast, participants unfamiliar with Kanji made posttarget intrusion errors as frequently as pretarget intrusion errors (Experiment 3), suggesting that knowledge of Kanji influences the integration of color and form codes in visual information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Audience-induced inhibition of overt practice during learning.

Three experiments with 204 undergraduates examined the hypothesis that an audience can inhibit overt practice and thereby impair learning of unfamiliar words and enhance learning of familiar words. This hypothesis was derived from an analysis of motoric and symbolic mediation during learning. In comparison with learning while alone, the results show that the audience inhibited overt practice of unfamiliar and familiar words and that reduced practice was detrimental to learning unfamiliar words. Inhibition of overt practice with an audience enhanced learning of familiar words in only 1 of the experiments. Instructions to practice overtly reduced the audience-inhibition effect in learning unfamiliar words. The studies are discussed in the context of drive-theory explanations for social facilitation effects in learning. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New evidence for phonological processing during visual word recognition: The case of Arabic.

Lexical decision and naming were examined with words and pseudowords in literary Arabic and with transliterations of words in a Palestinian dialect that has no written form. Although the transliterations were visually unfamiliar, they were not easily rejected in lexical decision, and they were more slowly accepted in phonologically based lexical decision. Naming transliterations of spoken words was slower than naming of literary words and pseudowords. Apparently, phonological computation is mandatory for both lexical decision and naming. A large frequency effect in both lexical decision and naming suggests that addressed phonology is an option for familiar orthographic patterns. The frequency effect on processing transliterations indicated that lexical phonology is involved with prelexical phonological computation even if addressed phonology is not possible. These data support a combination between a cascade-type process, in which partial products of the grapheme-to-phoneme translation activate phonological units in the lexicon, and an interactive model, in which the activated lexical units feed back, shaping the prelexical phonological computation process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does emotion help or hinder immediate memory? Arousal versus priority-binding mechanisms.

People recall taboo words better than neutral words in many experimental contexts. The present rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) experiments demonstrated this taboo-superiority effect for immediate recall of mixed lists containing taboo and neutral words matched for familiarity, length, and category coherence. Under binding theory (MacKay et al., 2004), taboo superiority reflects an interference effect: Because the emotional reaction system prioritizes binding mechanisms for linking the source of an emotion to its context, taboo words capture the mechanisms for encoding list context in mixed lists, impairing the encoding of adjacent neutral words when RSVP rates are sufficiently rapid. However, for pure or unmixed lists, binding theory predicted no better recall of taboo-only than of neutral-only lists at fast or slow rates. Present results supported this prediction, suggesting that taboo superiority in immediate recall reflects context-specific binding processes, rather than context-free arousal effects, or emotion-linked differences in rehearsal, processing time, output interference, time-based decay, or guessing biases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effortful processing is a requirement for nicotine-induced improvements in memory

We report two studies examining the effects of nicotine on memory in minimally deprived smokers. In experiment 1, semantically related words were recalled significantly better than unrelated words following nicotine, even when volunteers were explicitly instructed to target the unrelated word set for recall. Experiment 2 examined the effect of nicotine on two different types of lexical association: association by joint category membership (semantically related items), and association by derived meaning ("encapsulated" word pairs). Nicotine-induced improvements in recall were observed only for category associates and not for encapsulated word pairs. This implies that explicit, effortful processing of material in the presence of nicotine is necessary for improved recall performance to be observed.     

Directed forgetting of emotional stimuli in borderline personality disorder.

On the basis of clinical literature, the authors hypothesized that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would show biased information processing when they were exposed to negative affective stimuli of a particular type. Individuals with BPD and controls were tested using a directed forgetting paradigm. Study participants were exposed to 3 types of words (borderline, neutral, positive) and were cued to either remember or forget each word as it was presented. There were no group differences on a free recall task for words in the remember condition. However, participants with BPD recalled significantly more of the borderline words from the forget condition than did controls. In other words, borderline participants remembered borderline words that they were instructed to forget. These results may be consistent with enhanced encoding of salient words and perhaps related themes in BPD individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instruction by mothers and fathers during problem solving with their young children.

Mothers and fathers of 163 5-year-olds were observed interacting with their children in dyads on 2 separate occasions on a familiar and unfamiliar cognitive activity. Within- and between-family comparisons were conducted. Few differences in the instruction provided by mothers and fathers appeared, and those that did were on the unfamiliar task. On this task, instruction by mothers, within and across families, was more responsive to children's changing skill than was instruction by fathers. Directive and disapproving comments by parents were related to poorer posttest performance by the child. High level of instruction by both parents was related to better posttest performance than was low level of instruction by parents. Contributions of parents to their children's cognitive development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distorting children's reports and interpretations of events through suggestion.

54 children (aged 4–6 yrs old) participated in an experiment examining the effects of leading interviews on their interpretations and factual recall of an interaction with a teaching assistant (TA). Children were either familiar or unfamiliar with the TA and were interviewed in either an incriminating or a neutral manner. In comparison with neutral-interview children, incriminating-interview children made more cued-recall errors and endorsed more biased interpretations of the TA's actions. Familiarity with the TA had limited effects on free recall and interpretations of the TA's actions and had no effect on cued recall. Results indicated that 4- to 6-yr-olds will produce misleading reports about their interactions with either familiar or unfamiliar adults when they are prompted to do so by an opinionated adult interviewer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Note-taking, individual differences, and memory for lecture information.

Investigated the encoding function of note taking and processing differences between successful and less successful students in lecture situations in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 48 undergraduates either took notes or listened during a lecture. Different memory patterns were found for these 2 groups, with note-takers recalling many more high- than low-importance propositions and listeners recalling an equal number of high- and low-importance propositions. Results suggest that note taking enhanced organizational processing of lecture information. In Exp II, the notes and recall of 80 successful and less successful students were compared. Successful Ss recalled more of the most important propositions, but these 2 groups of Ss did not differ in their recall of less important propositions. For both groups of Ss, recall content was closely related to the content of the notes, with successful Ss recording more high-importance propositions in their notes. Also, successful and less successful Ss were similar in their note-taking styles and the degree to which they benefited from reviewing their notes. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generative effects of note-taking during science lectures.

Two experiments investigated the generative hypothesis of how note-taking affects the learner's cognitive processing during encoding. Ss were required to take notes or not take notes while viewing a videotaped lecture on automobile engines and were then administered 4 posttests. In Exp I, 40 11th graders who had no prior experience with the lecture material served as Ss. Results reveal a pattern of interaction in which note-takers performed better than those who did not take notes on far-transfer tasks such as problem solving but worse on near-transfer tasks such as fact retention and verbatim recognition. Findings from Exp II, with 89 undergraduates (60 of whom were unfamiliar and 29 of whom were familiar with the lecture material), indicate that the same pattern occurred for Ss who were moderately familiar with the material but not for Ss who were highly familiar. Other treatments of Exp II such as taking summary notes or answering conceptual questions during breaks in the lecture produced results similar to those of note-taking. Results are consistent with M. C. Wittrock's (1974) idea that note-taking can be a generative activity that encourages students to build connections between what is presented and what they already know. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing imitation of manipulatory actions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

The purpose of the study was to investigate what kind of factors determine the degree of difficulty for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) when they imitate actions. Five adult chimpanzees were instructed to perform 48 arbitrary manipulatory actions consisting of different bodily motor patterns and object directionality. Results showed that actions in which an object is directed toward another external location (another object and one's own body) were easier to perform than those that involved manipulating a single object alone. Actions involving unfamiliar motor patterns were more difficult to perform than those involving familiar motor patterns that were already present in the subject's repertoire. Error responses were characterized as perseverative repetition of previously instructed actions. These findings suggest that chimpanzees find the directionality of manipulated objects a more salient cue than details of the demonstrator's body movements performing the manipulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)