The relation between the amount of free study time needed to prepare for a perfect serial recitation and the number of words in the list was determined for individual subjects. List organization, controlled by experimenter or by subject, failed to affect difficulty. (CHK)

Educable mental retardates and normal grade school students were presented seven classes of materials in both visual and auditory modalities for the determination of immediate memory span thresholds. Major conclusions included auditory presentation produces higher thresholds than visual, and retarded children may employ different processing…

Two studies examined serial recall process of first-grade Canadian children from inner-city and suburban backgrounds. In the first study significant differences were found in the serial position curve of recall. Suburban children recalled a greater number of early-presented, primacy items, while inner-city children who had equivalent span…

This study examined the interrelationships among a number of episodic memory tasks and among various attributes of memory. A sample of 200 college students was tested for ten sessions; 28 different measures of episodic memory were obtained. In addition, five measures of semantic memory were available. Results indicated that episodic and semantic…

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 effects of different levels of rehearsal quality on serial recall, over and above simple labeling, were studied in a sample of 104 kindergartners. Subjects were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions. In one condition the subject and experimenter rehearsed together; in a second condition only the experimenter rehearsed; in the third…

Reported is a test of retention related to a weight, texture, and force experiment performed by a group of 120 first grade students who had been randomly grouped into three treatment strategies. The results of the retention task, accuracy test, an analysis of the strategies used on both posttests and retention tests, and some miscellaneous post…

This paper describes a series of studies which examine the early development of recall. Subjects were children about 2 1/2 and 5 years of age. Recall was tested on nine-item lists which were either composed of three objects from each of three conceptual categories or nine objects from nine different conceptual categories. Age differences were…

Empirical research is reviewed in the area of cognitive psychology pertaining to models of human memory. Research evidence and theoretical considerations are combined to develop guidelines for future theory development related to the human memory. The following theoretical constructs and variables are discussed: (1) storage versus process…

Investigates the effects of acoustic similarity on memory span in 112 children four to 10 years of age. Acoustic similarity had progressively more effect on recall with increasing age. Implications for current theories of short-term memory and its development and for the use of acoustic similarity as an indicator of speech coding are discussed.…

Ratcliff's theory of memory retrieval which posits parallel processing and Sternberg's serial processing explanation of memory scanning are reviewed and contrasted. Discrepancy between the two theories may arise because they focus on different aspects of the data. If scanning without comparisons takes place, the two views may be reconciled.…

A skilled cognitive theorist might help behaviorists resolve inconsistencies found from their experimentation with imaginal mnemonics in paired-associate and serial learning tasks. Iconic cognition which relegates verbal processes to short-term storage and output systems is inadequate to explain the verbal coding and elaboration processes…

Two studies are reported. The first is based on Piaget's assertion that the child's representation of his world is dependent on the level of cognitive development at which he is currently functioning. Forty-eight normals and 48 retardates were given a visual memory task. They were asked to recall a configural presentation in a number of ways,…

The literature on learning research pertaining to the internal processing operations of the learner was reviewed. The current thinking of learning theorists regarding the nature and importance of these processes in learning and retention is described, and their significance for instructional technology is examined. Verbalization, imagery, and…

A series of seven experiments provided information on the relationship between the learning of prose and the structural importance of the linguistic subunits. Five samples of prose, including narrative folktales and two samples of textual prose, were studied to determine whether the patterning of learning corresponded to the structural importance…