Describes a paired-associate learning experiment in which American Sign Language signs of high and low translucency and high and low cheremic similarity were presented to sign-naive subjects. One hypothesis, that translucency would facilitate learning, was confirmed; a second, that cheremic similarity would retard sign learning, was not.…

Results are consistent with the hypothesis that sequential memory is dependent upon the availability of a verbal memory code. (Authors)

The way in which knowledge of a given topic influences the acquisition of topic-related information was studied with the knowledge domain of baseball. A knowledge structure was postulated that included the goal structure as well as the states and actions of the game. (SW)

The way in which previously acquired knowledge affects the processing on new domain-related information was investigated. Text processing was studied in two groups differing in knowledge of the domain of baseball. A knowledge structure for the domain was constructed, and text propositions were classified. (SW)

Reports on experiments examining the semantic organization of concrete nouns and verbs and its development in childhood. Differences in semantic organization are said to be a clue to age-related changes in performance with verbs. (AM)

Evaluated contributions of age, presentation modality, task demand, and content structure to prose recall variation among adults. Tested 60 young and 60 older adults for recall of ideas in 641-word prose passage. Found recall for total number of idea units was significantly lower for older participants and for auditory presentation across both age…

Subjects read sets of active or passive sentences, and an active or passive question was asked about one. Errors were compared. Results suggest that surface form of a single sentence is retained; surface and deep structures are retained for two, and only deep structures of four and eight sentences. (CHK)

Ninety children in third and fourth grade were assessed on a hierarchical class inclusion task. Scores were trichotomized, and children from each level were randomly assigned to one of three cueing conditions (no cues, two superordinate cues, six subordinate cues). Subjects were administered a recall task of categorized words and "new" words…

Two experiments tested what happens to learning performance as serial location of a word list is removed as a consistent source of associations across trials. Serial recall produced a stable level of performance and little learning. Serial recall learning may require certain memory factors in combination. (CHK)

Supported by grant MH-13515-02 from the U. S. Public Health Service.

Four presentations in two recall conditions (immediate and one-week delay) were used to investigate the combined effects of imagery and semantic organizational strategies on the free recall of 80 college undergraduates. Both imaginal and semantic organization were comparably manipulated presenting each response noun simultaneously with an imagery…

The effect of the amount of prior knowledge on the long-term retrieval of information is examined. In two studies, seventh and eighth grade students of average or above average reading ability learned passages to simulate materials from history textbooks (factual), from reading textbooks (narrative), and from science textbooks (conceptual).…

The relationship between the effects of morphological complexity and associative production frequency was investigated in two experiments on sentence verification. The purpose of the study was to investigate how morphologically derived words are represented in memory. (Author/RM)

Four experiments are reported in which relations of semantic distance to response latencies in similarity judgments, to reaction times in a same-different classification task, and to proximity of recall in a free recall task were investigated. (Author/RM)