The effect on concept learning of requiring the memorization of either examples or nonexamples prior to going through a theoretically effective training program was compared to the performance of groups of seventh and eighth graders who either memorized nothing or memorized subconcepts of the concept definition. Correct classification scores and…

This study tests the hypothesis that labeling facilitates recall in nursery school children if and only if it leads to rehearsal. Subjects were 34 children ranging in age from 47 to 53 months. During pretraining, those children in the Label group named pictures of animals and fruits as they were presented, while those in the No Label group matched…

The study is based on the assumption that certain noncognitive factors influence the learning process, and attempts to tentatively isolate what such variables might be. Subjects were 93 students enrolled in a General Psychology course. Each completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and was then assigned randomly to one of 4 treatment groups: (1)…

Two-year old white boys from Low and High social class (SES) groups were presented with identical learning tasks under nonverbal and verbal conditions. Under the nonverbal condition there were no SES differences, but under the verbal condition the High SES group significantly improved their performance, and were superior to the Low SES group.…

Reported were two studies designed to clarify the effects of verbal elaboration on children's learning. Study I was undertaken to replicate, with controlled training times, an earlier investigation of the effects of three types of extended verbal elaboration (sentences, semantic paragraphs, and syntactic paragraphs). Trials to criterion analyses…

The author examined relationships between message organization, message uncertainty, and verbal learning. Message organization was manipulated by varying the distance between repeated subject-verb-object triples in a sequence of sentences. Message uncertainty was defined as the uncertainty (variability) of word selections for subjects responding…

The study was intended to determine the effect of the mode of verbalization of a discovered generalization on short-term retention of ability to use the generalization. Fifty preservice elementary teachers were assigned to one of the five verbalization methods: speaking, listening, writing, reading, or no verbalization. Each performed on six…

An experiment was conducted to determine if the structure of a stimulus sentence--as evidenced in the recall pattern of the sentence--could be predicted from information contained in the sentence associations it elicited. Sentence associations to 20 simple sentences were collected from a group of subjects. The free recall of the same 20 sentences…

Verifying simple sentences generally involves a process wherein the meanings of individual words are combined to form the meaning of the entire sentence. Three experiments are described in which the combination process was investigated by asking subjects to decide whether S-V-Adj-O sentences were true or false. (Author/RM)

Twenty mentally retarded children (mean age 10 years) and 40 nonretarded children (grades 2 and 5) learned pairs of pictures in a single-function order (terms of each pair were in the same position throughout) or in a double-function order (all items were re-paired). (Author)

Meyer found subjects were faster to determine if a stimulus word was a member of either of two prespecified categories if the categories were close in meaning. A reanalysis of the data favors instead a model emphasizing the role of decision-making processes in categorization and flexibility of task strategies. (CHK)

When subjects are tested on ordered information, performance is better on inferences than on information actually presented during training. Humphreys suggested that superiority on inferences derives from differential frequency. This experiment refutes that position, demonstrating that superiority on inferences is observed even when frequency is…

Three new experiments concerning the depth-of-processing view demonstrate that repetition at the phonemic depth of processing does facilitate memory, regardless of whether the repetitions are massed or distributed and regardless of whether the dependent variable is uncued recall, cued recall or recognition. (Author/RM)

Tests, with five groups, the production of facilitative transfer effects with the use of five abstract passages. It was predicted, based on assumptions about knowledge structures that three of the groups would recall more from the second passage than would the latter two groups. The results confirmed this prediction. (Author/DEP)

Recalls from five passages learned by undergraduates in the course of growing up in America were obtained. Recalls, while partial, were exact with no evidence of constructive memory. Results fit a simple model of associative chaining retrieval of passively stored surface structure units. (CHK)