Children's spatial knowledge of their school campus.

72 4th-, 6th-, and 8th-grade boys were tested with different methodologies for deriving measures of their knowledge of interlandmark distances and directions on their school campus. Results show that age group differences were not large and appeared comparable for most measures. However, other results indicated that measures derived from direction vs distance information were independent. First, the accuracy with which Ss made distance and direction estimates varied across specific combinations of reference sites and targets; this pattern of differential accuracy was quite different for distance vs direction estimates. Second, correlations among the dependent measures indicated that Ss who were accurate at direction estimates were not necessarily accurate for distance estimates. It is emphasized that measures derived from Ss' estimates of direction information were not comparable with measures derived from their estimates of distance information. (19 ref) (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)     

Conscious and unconscious retrieval in picture recognition: A framework for exploring gender differences.

The authors explored gender differences by examining 2 distinct memory processes involved in recognizing pictures that were scenes captured from videotapes. For Study 1, the authors used a process dissociation procedure (L. J. Anooshian & P. S. Seibert, 1995; L. L. Jacoby, 1991) to obtain separate estimates of the contributions of recollection (conscious retrieval) and sense of familiarity (unconscious retrieval) in recognizing scenes along previously viewed routes of travel. Women obtained higher familiarity scores than did men, whereas no gender difference emerged for conscious recollection. In Study 2, the authors tested both preschool children and adults and found results similar to those in Study 1 for a task with pictures captured from children's cartoons, regardless of age. The results from these studies illustrated the need for greater attention to diverse memory processes when investigating individual differences, including gender differences, in diverse task domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of young children's search strategies in a large-scale environment.

26 3–6 yr olds searched for an object after traveling a route along which the object was used and later discovered missing (critical events). Ss then recalled the order of locations along the traveled route (sequence recall) and the locations for critical events (event recall); they also drew a map of the search environment. The correlation between event recall and search scores was significant only for Ss with good sequence recall. Correlations between sequence recall and search scores were higher for Ss who placed locations on the route in drawing maps. It is concluded that the acquisition of route knowledge in the development of spatial representation determined the likelihood that inferences would be made. When inferences were made, the accuracy of memories for sequences and events further determined the accuracy of the inferred critical search area. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)