Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine whether the word-learning challenges associated with developmental language disorder (DLD) result from encoding or retention deficits. Method In Study 1, 59 postsecondary students with DLD and 60 with normal development (ND) took the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition, Adult Version…

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, which requires the free recall of the same list of 15 unrelated words over 5 trials, was administered to 21 high-functioning adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 21 matched typical individuals. The groups showed similar overall levels of free recall, rates of learning over trials and…

The purpose of this study is to determine the latent structure of the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II; Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 2000) at three different age levels, using the standardization sample. Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analyses are performed to test four competing hypothetical models for fit and…

The results of this study indicate that age differences in the recall of high frequency word lists are not related to the total presentation time of the lists but appear to be affected by differences in retrieval processes as a function of age. (JMB)

Attempts to modify or ameliorate the effects of declining cognitive abilities of the elderly have met with limited success. To focus on the effects of age in cognitive processing capacity (CPC), Furukawa's (1977) CPC test was administered individually to 3 age groups (16-30, 31-45, and 45-60) of 15 subjects each. Speed of processing old and new…

This study was designed to analyze developmental differences in the rehearsal strategies of 60 subjects of three age groups. Data revealed significant age differences in recall. Fifth and eighth graders tended to repeat stimulus words immediately after presentation while adults tended to reenter items for additional rehearsal. (LLK)

Analysis of the mean performance of 58 groups of normal adults and children on the free-recall trials of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test shows that the mean auditory-verbal learning of each group is described by the function R1+Sln(t), where R1 is a measure of the mean immediate memory span, S is the slope of the mean logarithmic learning…

This study investigated verbal learning when separate tasks were presented simultaneously, with variations in the number of tasks specified to be learned and in the number of tasks presented. Results indicated that the effect of certain independent variables was similar to the effect found when tasks were learned singly. The spacing effect, for…

Reports on 5 experiments investigating the effect of blocking words according to semantic category on ordered recall in adults and young children. (Author/RM)

A cross-sectional study that investigated memory variables in 100 subjects in 4 age ranges (17-22, 40-50, 60-70, and 75-99) found that the 60-70 year olds were more impaired with respect to retrieval than storage and the major problem with memory among the 75-99 year olds was retrieval from short- or long-term memory. Because the study was…

The effect of verbal labeling in a serial position short term memory task was investigated. Forty female college students were given 16 trials each. Eight trials involved only central items which had to be recalled. The other eight trials involved both central and incidental items. Half of the subjects verbalized the names of the central items as…

Two experiments investigated learners' procedures in acquiring knowledge from maps. The better learners used successful techniques for encoding spatial information, evaluating their progress, focusing attention on unlearned information, and partitioning the map by spatial region or concept. Visual memory ability was also important. (Author/GDC)

The recall effectiveness of semantic and phonemic cues was compared to uncover the pattern of deep and elaborate processing in relation to age and experimental treatment. It was concluded that aging results in poor elaboration, especially in inefficient integration of word events with the context of presentation. (Author/CP)

This report provides a nontechnical summary of a series of studies from a research project with three major foci: memory storage dynamics, memory retrieval dynamics, and coding in semantic memory. A theory of forgetting was developed, involving time and interference factors. Memory traces have two properties: strength and fragility. Consolidation…

When two adults read eleven paragraphs, assigned a meaning to the target word in each paragrah, and answered questions about their strategies for dealing with the difficult/unknown words, they exhibited four strategies, outside of actual definition, that skilled readers use to deal with such words. The most often used strategy is paragraph…