This study examined the roles of 3 multilevel motivational predictors in proteges' personal learning in teams: an autonomy-supportive team climate, mentors' autonomy support, and proteges' autonomy orientation. The authors followed 305 proteges in 58 teams for 12 weeks and found that all 3 predictors were positively related to the proteges'…

This study explored the ability of 14 individuals with autism to generate a unique series of digits. Individuals with autism were more likely to repeat previous digits than comparison individuals, suggesting they may exhibit a shortfall in response inhibition. Results support the executive dysfunction theory of autism. (Contains references.)…

The study evaluated the semantic system of mentally retarded adults (N=32) to determine whether they encode information in semantic memory on the dimensions of item prototypicality and list organization. Results suggested that interference effects inhibited encoding by organization and typicality. (DB)

This study examined the performance of 23 tinnitus patients on three versions of the Stroop color-word test. Results showed that tinnitus patients performed significantly slower than controls on all test conditions. Results suggest that tinnitus patients have impaired cognitive performance overall, possibly confounded by hearing impairment.…

Among children 7 to 11 years of age, recall of words initially accompanied by self-reference questions was found to be superior to recall of words accompanied by semantic questions at all age levels. The advantage of self-reference did not vary with age. Results were interpreted in terms of a distinction between functional and expressive…

Investigated the effects of caregiving experience on adults' thinking about a child-rearing problem. Study 1 found that, of 192 adults, parents were better than nonparents at diagnosing the cause of a baby's crying. Study 2 extended the first study's findings to 42 mothers and 42 nonmothers. (SKC)

Three experiments examined whether limitations in perceptual ability by 24 individuals with mental retardation extended to learning perceptual categories based on elements of actions. Individuals with mental retardation had difficulty identifying some actions, slower decision times for activity identification, and could not identify the actor's…

The role of equivalence class formation in delayed position recognition span performance was examined with three mentally retarded adults. Matching-to-sample training established equivalence classes. In subsequent span tests, subject-produced numeral names led to dramatic increases in span scores. The equivalences provided precursors of verbal…

Testing of the similar structure hypothesis (which states that when matched for level of cognitive development, mentally retarded and nonretarded individuals do not differ in cognitive processes) with 40 mentally retarded adults and nonretarded mental age peers on Piagetian tasks found the developmental theory favored 4:1 over the difference…

The matching-to-sample performances of three young adults with autism and four children (ages four to nine) without intellectual disabilities were examined in three experiments using complex sample stimuli. Results for all subjects showed that each of two redundant relevant sample elements and their respective comparison stimuli were substitutable…

Orientation to time, place, and person is a central aspect of cognitive functioning. Measures of orientation, as employed in the psychiatric mental status examination, evaluate the accuracy of orientation in present awareness, and are applicable only to severely disturbed psychiatric populations in whom obvious deficits would be expected. The…

This study with 50 adults with mental retardation, found that performance on the Facial Discrimination Task (Emotional and Age Tasks) was significantly correlated to the Cognitive Assessment System total score. Hierarchical regression analyses produced results suggesting that cognitive processes are involved in processing facial stimuli in a…

Twelve adult males who stutter and 12 controls were tested on naming words and symbols and their ability to encode and retrieve memory representations of a combination of a symbol and a word. Findings question the claim that people who stutter have problems in creating abstract motor plans for speech. (Author/DB)

Post-formal operational thought is characterized by both relativism and dialecticism. To examine age differences across adulthood in relativistic and dialectical thought, and to determine whether formal operations are necessary but not sufficient for these forms of thought, 20 young (mean age, 19.6), 20 middle aged (mean age, 46.2), and 20 older…

Research has suggested that memory performance may be related to the extent of stimulus processing during acquisition. To examine processing efficiency and processing deficiency differences between younger and older adults, four studies were conducted. In the first study, young and old adults rated word lists, manipulated for generation specific…