Results of this experiment show a considerable release from proactive inhibition with a shift from words to pictures or pictures to words, thus adding one more change to the considerable number of category changes which produce the release phenomenon. (Author/CB)

The performance of 53 younger adults (mean age 20.7) and 52 older adults (mean age 68.3) was compared in a memory task involving pictures, words, and pictures-plus-words. Results showed (1) significantly higher recall scores for younger adults; (2) equivalent picture superiority effect for both groups; and (3) decline in older adults' performance…

The aim of the present research was to determine whether the effect that phonological similarity has on immediate serial recall is influenced by the consistency and position of phonemes within words. In comparison to phonologically dissimilar lists, when the stimulus lists rhyme there is a facilitative effect on the recall of item information and…

This study measured retention (after 5 and 10 years) of verbal material recited by a parent during infancy at stages of pre- and postsyllable differentiation. (GO)

Children from kindergarten, second, and fifth grade were verbally presented a passage containing an equal number of idea units which were relevant versus irrelevant to the main theme of a story. For all grade levels, relevant idea units were recalled to a greater extent than idea units irrelevant to the main theme. (CS)

The applicability of Piaget's cognitive processes of assimilation and accommodation to the learning of verbal nonsense syllables (ten low association value consonant-vowel-consonant trigrams) was tested experimentally. Twenty-two undergraduates (ten female and 12 male) at the University of Michigan served as subjects. It was hypothesized that…

Free recall of concrete and abstract words, following imaginal, associative, or anagram incidental learning tasks, was tested. Recall was significantly greater for concrete than abstract words, and recall for the imaginal task exceeded that of the associative task, which exceeded that of the anagram task. The interaction between kind of word and…

The study involving 20 retarded and 20 control children (all 10 to 13 years old) was conducted to determine the extent to which short-term memory of three-dimensional stimuli is dependent upon a verbal process for both normal and retarded children. (SBH)

Investigates (1) whether the semantic processing deficit in the aged can be attributed to age differences in attentional capacity usage during encoding and (2) age differences in terms of the interaction between encoding and retrieval operations. Subjects engaged in both primary (semantic, rhyme, arithmetic questions) and secondary…

Results of this experiment show that the lists composed of high-frequency words were more difficult to learn than lists composed of low-frequency words at all stages, but these lists were not differentially forgotten. (Editor)

Study was designed as a further test of the effect of: induced muscle tension (IMT) on the efficiency of acquisition of verbal material; IMT during training on the retention of verbal material; and IMT during recall on the recall of verbal material. (Authors/CB)

Judging plausibility is argued to be a more efficient strategy than direct retrieval (finding a propositional match) to judge a statement's truth. A proposed model contrasts the strategies in terms of verbatim memory and duration. Direct retrieval is faster when verbatim traces are strong, but plausibility judgment is more efficient over time.…

This study investigated the research construct of encoding specificity using an applied research orientation. Encoding specificity considers the effects on memory of the interactive relationship among encoding, the stored memory trace, and external retrieval cues. Subjects were 273 undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Engineering at…

A paired-associate task relational or non-relational visual and linguistic stimuli was presented to kindergarten and fifth-grade students. Results indicated that a relationship in both modes facilitated recall better than a relationship in only one mode, and that a relationship in either mode was better for recall than none at all. (DP)