Vividly presented information is thought to be more persuasive and have more impact on judgments. An examination of the proposed processes in vividness effects (memorability, imageability and affective impact) reveals these arguments are themselves problematic. Effects may occur in differential attention conditions, whereas absolute attention is…

Several factors can inhibit retrieval when extralist cues are provided: degree of control in accessing the domain of information specified by the test cue; size of the search set defined by test cue; and strength of the cue, both in relation to its target and to its category name. (Author/PN)

The accuracy of sentence memory and the retrieval speed are jointly measured using a speed-accuracy trade-off paradigm. Results indicate that speed of retrieval from network representations is remarkably invariant over network size and distance, although increased sentence size results in a slight slowing in retrieval-speed parameters. (Author/PN)

A choice reaction time experiment tested the idea that the operations performed on symbols from different notational systems depend, not only on the interpretation of the symbols, but also on the symbol's notational characteristics or the ways in which they map the world. (Author)

Three experiments evaluated performance on a mental multiplication task and the adequacy of several different models of mental addition as extended to multiplication. Results are discussed in terms of a network-retrieval approach to mental arithmetic, the commonalities between addition and multiplication, and rule- versus retrieval-based…

Findings indicate that, when skimming, readers find it difficult to perceptually select from a passage information that is relevant to their goal in skimming. There was a reaction time advantage for verification of gist-relevant information as opposed to details, which tended to increase with reading rate. (Author/PN)

The operation of means-ends analysis (MEA) involves attempts at reducing differences between problem states and the goal state. It was paradoxically found that the more problem solvers knew of the goal state, the less they learned of the problem structure during the solution process. (PN)

Intraperceptual theories of attention allow for the selective modulation of amount of nonconscious, perceptual processing of concurrent stimuli. Previous research is inconclusive because of the lack of an appropriate measure of perceptual processing. This experiment provides such a measure. The data support a broad version of intraperceptual…

The study, involving 115 educable mentally retarded (EMR) children (11 to 16 years old), was designed to analyze the kind of reasoning the children used in the A. Haines and M. Jackson study to motivate their resistance responses. (Author/SW)

Examines and illustrates a teaching method which corrects one-shot thinking and teaches remedial students to think in careful, sequential steps using diagrams and visual aids. Contrasts the method to Skinner's concept of shaping. Reviews study results showing that students exposed to the method demonstrated improvements in reading, achievement…

Sixty first-grade children were trained to categorize pictures of common objects. Results indicated that children who were taught an organizational strategy and who were given verbal instructions attained higher recall scores than children who were shown a specific strategy and who were taught using a question type format that encouraged…

Three experiments were conducted with the Tower of Hanoi task to assess problem-solving ability in 6-, 7-, 8-, and 10-year-old nonretarded children and mentally retarded young adults of varying maturational ages. (Author/MP)

Research studies are briefly reviewed to examine the hypothesis that delinquent adolescents may process information in a different manner than nondelinquents. Studies suggest delinquents: (1) have less control over information they attend to; (2) expose themselves to more stimulation; (3) process more slowly; and (4) selectively attend to…

The development of probability judgment is explained in terms of working memory, composed of four types of storage operations and three types of processing operations. Age changes in probability judgment were related to changes in frequency retrieval, which stem from changes in constraints on work-space capacity. (Author/RD)

To imply that art activities are right hemisphere functions, that reading problems are primarily a function of left hemisphere dominance, and to suggest that education should shift its emphasis from verbal learning to visual learning in order to obtain parity between hemispheres is to draw false conclusions from hemispherality research. (Author)